Three month birding Odyssey Asia and Australia (1 Viewer)

[Vectis Birder]

As everyone else has said you'll have a great time once you get out of the polluted chaos!

If your heron-type thing looked like a Yellow Bittern then thats what it was - not hard to find!

Enjoy the north!

Thanks. Yellow Bittern takes the lifer total up to 205 now. I forget the actual total, I have it written down upstairs.

Glad to hear your doing well Vectis great trip report. A smalll and simple tip you probably already know but i'm throwing it out there anyways. Keep your infected hand above your head so it looks like you are raising your hand like in school. I'm talking as much as possible at night or whenever you can. Gravity will assist in your healing and it might take a day off the whole injury healing time. Good luck and thanks for the interesting read.

Thanks for the advice. I've been a bit worried about the possibility of blood poisoning, but so far, touch wood, it seems to be improving and the finger now looks as normal as it's oppo on my right hand apart from the abscess itself. Taking a risk with buying penicillin from a back street chemist seems to be paying off (touch wood again).
I am glad you're enjoying the thread. I daresay I'll read back on it when I get home and probably cringe at some of what I've written!

 

[Vectis Birder]

After another Bangkok foray, I am actually beginning to enjoy the place, strange as it may seem. I had a good look round a nice wat this afternoon and the golden Buddhas everywhere are really spectacular. What strikes me about this place also are the elephant images everywhere. I wonder if I'll get to see the real thing at Khao Yai (planning to go up there on 8th to 10th after my excursion to the Chiang Mai area).

 

[Jacana]

Hi Fay, hope you get to enjoy the countryside more than the city!

Your Weaver will be an escapee by the way. And I've seen several yellow bitterns on the Chao Phraya.

Laos is devoid of birds!

 

[Vectis Birder]

I am waiting for flight up north to CM. I have had problems with hotel I booked on my return - the booking agent accuses me of credit card not being mine and wants to cancel my booking, still take money AND another 300 B! This is because my card has my title (Miss) initials and surname and I put my full name in the booking form. I've boked stuff dozens of times online this trip, and this is the first time I have had a problem (apart from the bank stopping my card a couple of weeks ago, despite me telling them I was away - soon sorted, as I hope this will be). I hate problems of this sort, it's a bit scary!.

I phoned hotel and pointed out problem. They weren't much help, the guy's English was ok but his accent and the line made understanding him difficult and my Thai is non existent apart from the odd couple of phrases here and there. Guess I'll have to phone the booking agent when they open tomorrow.

I'm worried because I don't want to be accused of anything untoward!

Anyway, had lazy few days I promised myself, so it's back to the birding again. Hope my experiences up north are better than the horrors of BK...

Jacana - damn, have I got to cross off a lifer? :-C

 

[The Bosun]

Thanks, from Oz

G'day VB B

Just caught up with your trip. Bad timing on my part - found your pre-trip thread & thought you were still coming. Great to see the number of birds you captured down under. Sorry about the weather, but it appears you still had a great time.

Once I have a second read of your reports, I think I will be challenged to match your sightings. Interesting what the visitor sees that the local can overlook, hey.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your journey.

 

[Vectis Birder]

Thank you Bosun!

I'm now Oop North (as they don't say in these parts) and am staying at Marie's place in Chiang Mai, it is very kind of her to put up with me! Hoping to get to Doi Inthanon plus maybe Doi Chiang Dao as well, but I'm playing things by ear. Been struck down by nasty cold (a souvenir of Australia!) but abscess on hand a lot better thanks to penicillin and me being brave enough to lance the disgusting thing with my Swiss Army knife (suitably sterilised beforehand) - gross beyond belief, but effective!

I have managed to sort out and upload some more photos onto my Flickr page. Click here to see them. http://www.flickr.com/photos/v_birder/sets/72157618953326085/

 

[Jos Stratford]

I feel really depressed (started to feel like this in Australia last week) and just want to get on a jet and go home.

Don't do it - you'll regret it later, stick it out and you'll forget the bad bits, remember the good bits. Anyhow, what is there to go back to - crap weather on the Isle of Wight?

Someone once told me, way back in the dawn of my travel days 'If you're feeling down and want to go home, promise yourself another ten days, then re-evaluate'. Good advice, there are a hundred reasons to be down - tired, unfamiliar grounds, bad weather, hassle with everyday tasks, vanishing money, noisy hotels, illness, etc, etc ...all pass and suddenly you wonder why you ever wanted to return home.

If worse comes to worse, find an easy-going birding place with nice accommodation that is also cheap, then bird it to pieces over a full week or so, hopefully recharging your batteries.

 

[Pete58]

If your doing Doi Inthanon watch out for the leeches (i think the spelling is correct) they are common here in May as I found out. Been there many times with no problems but May is not the best of times. However I do remember Pale-footed Bush Warbler been very vocal in May. Last time I was there was 1993, where have all the years gone. Good luck.

 

[chowchilla]

Hope you're settling in Fay. It'll be interesting to see what stuff you get thereabouts.

And as others have said: don't give up! :t:

 

[halftwo]

Hi Fay,

I think that now you're up north, and amongst friends, and with your finger setling down (well done on the lancing - very brave) things are going to be fine.
You're in a great place for birding too - so I hope that goes well and we hear about stuff that'll make us green.
Don't come home yet - it's far too hot here!!

H

 

[Vectis Birder]

Don't do it - you'll regret it later, stick it out and you'll forget the bad bits, remember the good bits. Anyhow, what is there to go back to - crap weather on the Isle of Wight?

Someone once told me, way back in the dawn of my travel days 'If you're feeling down and want to go home, promise yourself another ten days, then re-evaluate'. Good advice, there are a hundred reasons to be down - tired, unfamiliar grounds, bad weather, hassle with everyday tasks, vanishing money, noisy hotels, illness, etc, etc ...all pass and suddenly you wonder why you ever wanted to return home.

If worse comes to worse, find an easy-going birding place with nice accommodation that is also cheap, then bird it to pieces over a full week or so, hopefully recharging your batteries.

Thanks for the encouraging words Jos and others, but I feel a lot better. I have a reason for the depressed feeling, I came down with a heavy cold two days ago and I've been in bed most of the day today with flu-like symptoms and a fever, although it's not actual flu. If I feel depressed without being actually depressed in the clinical sense, then it's usually because something is 'cooking'. Thanks to Marie's kindness I feel miles better now although I felt very embarrassed visiting people and promptly getting sick!!

I am planning to bird the immediate area tomorrow, illness permitting, although I feel much better and then head up to Doi Inthanon on Wednesday, before having to return on Saturday before my flight back to Bangkok on Sunday. Plans are then to head to Khao Yai for a couple of days.

I don't want to go home, although I have had to trim ten days or so off the trip because my finances are sorely depleted. However, I am planning to return next year.

The weather's pretty good here, apart from the occasional heavy thundery shower.

Birds so far: not many due to above mentioned sickness, but Common Tailorbird (think I already saw those in Singapore), Streak-eared Bulbul and Red-whiskered Bulbul have joined the seen list with heard Lineated Barbet, Asian Barred Owlet, Greater Coucal and Coppersmith Barbet (hoping to see those before I leave). Other animals include a Tokay lizard (which has a rather rude call, it's call sounds exactly as if it's telling everyone to 'f*** off'!), House Geckos, fireflies and some unidentified frogs.

 

[Jos Stratford]

Thanks for the encouraging words Jos...

No worries, now go out and enjoy the birding

PS if you haven't aready changed your ticket, I'd also forget trimming the ten days off - if you're not actually zooming about, Thailand can be very cheap, when you're down in the south, settle in a single area and that extra ten days will fly by without costing much at all.

Best wishes Fay, you're travelling the real way - ain't always so easy, but I'll quote another traveller I was met during a nightmare episode on the Pakistani-Afghan border many years ago. We'd just been on the single worse bus journey of my life, an overnight affair where we'd been thrown around virtually non-stop, actually hitting the roof twice. Dist-covered, inside and out, half dead from the bus, suffering mild illness related to dysentry, he came out with the words I remember to this day 'I'm knackered, I'm dirty, I feel terrible, ah it's good to be travelling'. There was no sarcasm intended, the sentiments I near live by.

 

[Vectis Birder]

PS if you haven't aready changed your ticket, I'd also forget trimming the ten days off - if you're not actually zooming about, Thailand can be very cheap, when you're down in the south, settle in a single area and that extra ten days will fly by without costing much at all.

Already changed it, because I literally have almost no spare money left (I even sold my spare zoom lens in Australia to raise extra funds!), but plans already in place to return next year.

I love travelling, despite the crap bits, and I know that it won't be long before the itchy feet will return - before summer's over, no doubt.

Need to change that thread title if I could...

 

[Jacana]

sorry about the illness and loss of a lifer (streaked weaver) you will love Inthanon, it's amazing!

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Laos is devoid of birds!

Not quite sure of that Jacana. It sorted us out with Mekong Wagtail and Jerdon's Bushchat for a start, and we didn't really get into the great unexplored bits that probably have who knows what to find still. Devoid of birders though more like. Well almost.

Keep at it Fay.

 

[Jacana]

Not quite sure of that Jacana. It sorted us out with Mekong Wagtail and Jerdon's Bushchat for a start, and we didn't really get into the great unexplored bits that probably have who knows what to find still. Devoid of birders though more like. Well almost.

Keep at it Fay.

I'm sure it is in certain areas, and although I wasn't on a birding trip (just Vang Vieng), the distinct lack of birds in the farmland/towns was noticable compared to Thailand. Even my non-birding friends noticed it!

 

[Vectis Birder]

Well, I have just returned from a brilliant visit to Doi Inthanon. Ok, there weren't vast numbers of birds about due to the fact the wet season is getting underway although my three days there were largely decent, apart from yesterday when I got a soaking while birding from the back of a motorbike - I will not tell my mother about riding on the back of a motorbike down a mountain at 30mph with no crash helmet...she'll kill me if she found out, luckily she does not read Bird Forum! Think I got about 50 lifers on DI, 62 so far in Thailand altogether, so I am pretty satisfied with that although I hope to get to Khao Yai next week for a couple of nights for some lowland forest species. Got to work out about getting from Pak Chong to the park and back though - I guess taxis or songthaews would be pretty abundant? Or I could hitch, maybe?

Oh, and guess what? Far from hating Thailand, I now love it and am now hoping that I can make it back here in the dry season either early next year or in early 2011! :t: Fell into the classic trap of judging a country on it's capital city, I think. :-O

I have managed to process some more pics, and these ones I have got to a size which fits here on BF. They're pretty poor, but enjoy them anyway:

 

[tjbirdofprey]

wow!! what lovely birds,what are they?

 

[TwoDipsfromAmsterdam]

Well, I have just returned from a brilliant visit to Doi Inthanon. Ok, there weren't vast numbers of birds about due to the fact the wet season is getting underway although my three days there were largely decent, apart from yesterday when I got a soaking while birding from the back of a motorbike - I will not tell my mother about riding on the back of a motorbike down a mountain at 30mph with no crash helmet...she'll kill me if she found out, luckily she does not read Bird Forum! Think I got about 50 lifers on DI, 62 so far in Thailand altogether, so I am pretty satisfied with that although I hope to get to Khao Yai next week for a couple of nights for some lowland forest species. Got to work out about getting from Pak Chong to the park and back though - I guess taxis or songthaews would be pretty abundant? Or I could hitch, maybe?

Oh, and guess what? Far from hating Thailand, I now love it and am now hoping that I can make it back here in the dry season either early next year or in early 2011! :t: Fell into the classic trap of judging a country on it's capital city, I think. :-O

I have managed to process some more pics, and these ones I have got to a size which fits here on BF. They're pretty poor, but enjoy them anyway:

Great news that you're feeling happier and more relaxed now. And the birds are coming too! Enjoy the rest of your stay.

DiP

 

[halftwo]

wow!! what lovely birds,what are they?

They are:

Black-throated sunbird
Collared falconet
Green-tailed sunbird

Three I still need Fay! Things ARE looking up. Wish I was there.