TripTracker.net - Asia Main Course Summer 2011, Thale Noi

The Full Bangkok So good we've seen it twice Corners of Bangkok The most amazing thing I've ever seen...?Siem Reap, Cambodia The most amazing thing ... oh I've done that already!Kampong Phluk and Tonle Sap Lake Battambang, Cambodia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Pulong Pinang Songkhla, Thailand Thale Noi Nakhon Si Thammarat Khanom Koh Samui,

elgar

Asia Main Course Summer 2011

Thale Noi

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Aug 16 2011, 04:37 PM

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Traveler

elgar
Brighton, United Kingdom

Journal

Location

Ban Thale Noi, Thailand

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Part of the plan was to take in some bird watching as we were in a new neck of the woods. I have to say I've been disappointed so far, especially since the guy in Cambodia told us we won't find much outside of nature reserves as people eat the birds! Such are the practicalities of life in poor countries, people don't have the luxury of looking at stuff, they need food. However, we are now in the vicinity of a very large lake which has two bird reserves in the area so we are heading for one of them.

Leaving Songkhla, we had ordered a Budget rent-a-car to arrive 9.00, arrived at 9.15 took credit card details and confirmed them by rubbing a piece of carbon paper over the card, he phoned in the numbers but it would not work without a pin. We had to go to Hat Yai to pay the deposit, therefore wasted an hour and a half on the road by 11.45. We were en route and Gary was driving pretty fast; at this rate we would be in Bangkok before the end of the day!

We stopped at a few points for scenery and an underwhelming waterfall. Then could not find the lake village we were aiming for. There were more vanishing roads before finally we found Thale Noi. We drove into a one-horse (or attraction) town and found a guesthouse. A small restaurant down the road – fried fish, BBQ crayfish, mmm. The proprietor negotiated a boat trip on the lake for Bird watching. Early to bed for early start.

Up at the crack of dawn, we were woken by a few short crows but then through a Tannoy system came screeching a monotonous male voice booming out over the resort. I assume he was telling every one of the delights that lay ahead of them this glorious day in Thale Noi, but I was convinced he was going to frighten away any bird life that was around for us to see. This continued for an hour and although I picked out the odd word like Phattalung and I think Battambang, 99.9% was unintelligible to me.

Once we were up and packed we settled up and left the hotel. The landlady was not to be seen but a gentleman accepted our 800 Bhat and tried to set us up with his mate’s boat, however we had already promised our trade to the lady at the restaurant. So we pulled out of the drive and set off back along the road, Which was full of people going about their business and it was only 6.45 am.

We met with our lady from the night before who gave us coffee and small doughnuts to take into the boat with us. Here we were equipped with lifejackets and leather cowboy hats and had a fantastic 4 hours on the lake spotting birds.

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