Participants:

Guides:

References:  

Itinerary:

Background:

SE ASIA is always of great interest because of the diversity of species from it's proximity to the Equator and it's species movement from sources including India to the West, China to the North, Mekong Delta to the East and from Java and Sumatra to the South. The area is well studied from the time of Alfred Russell Wallace but new discoveries continue.

This was our third trip to the region in an attempt to fill in the big holes in our list. We planned April because the big holes might be calling. The Spoonbill Sandpiper reliable for the past few years at Kok Karm were another factor. We had expectations. But one of the great joys of birding and nature is the unexpected event that interrupts the flow of expectation and awakens us from our numbing assumptions, much like the Buddha's teaching.

DAY ONE

Unexpected: SARS panic is at the zenith. I've got bronchitis and 100 degree fever just 6 hours before boarding my Cathay Pacific flight stopping in Hong Kong. Bangkok airport is checking temperatures of arriving passengers. I decide to bring Tylenol, thermometer and codeine cough syrup in hopes that a 20 hour rest on the flight will reduce my symptoms. Mostly I sleep in the luxurious four seats in the empty aircraft as I pass over Pacific Ocean. Or I read about birds.

DAY TWO

I'm crossing the International Date Line asleep courtesy of codeine.

DAY THREE

I take my temperature and a slug of codeine secretly before landing and touch my good luck charm. It's the crucial moment I've worried about and I try not to think of the birds I'd miss while in 10 days of quarantine, nor about the SARS I might actually get there. Joyfully, the thermometer reads 98.7. The Tylenol works! Relieved, I pull on my surgical mask for landing at Bangkok. We are greeted by a team of doctors and nurses before immigration who plaster strips on our foreheads. Mine is sweating. They wave me through.

Unexpected: Spoonbill Sandpipers have left the salt pans of Kok Karm early this year. After conferring with Uthai via taxi driver's cell phone (birding communications have certainly changed in ten years) we reverse direction and head for Khao Yai NP for an extra day even though we'll go there later. We arrive at dusk and rush up stairs of abandoned monastery across the road from our hotel Juldis Khao Yai for a try for unexpected Limestone Wren Babbler Uthai has seen there. No luck but plenty of mosquitoes.

We fall into bed at Juldis Khao Yai exhausted and expectant.

http://www.khaoyai.com for information on the park and the hotel.

DAY FOUR - KHAO YAI NP, THAILAND

Early morning finds us back at the abandoned monastery with the same results - no Limestone Wren Babbler. Joseph adds Linneated Barbet to his list. We enter Khao Yai National Park and look for Golden-crested Mynas and Heart-Spotted Woodpeckers at the pullout with a view inside the park but no luck. We do hear Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoo and decide to go off road and try to see it. One and a half hours later only Uthai and I have managed to get a glimpse of a piece of a Cuckoo skulking through the undergrowth. We decide to go further downhill where we find a stream and a small hill on which to stand and play tape. Before the tape is played Joseph discovers a large hole in the vegetation fifty feet away where three Cuckoos are visible in a circle facing each other. I climb to his vantage point and we are astounded as they start yipping like dogs and raising their heads. Two birds turn and run uphill and one downhill leaving us breathless. Was it breeding or territorial display?

Thrills return after lunch when we view a waterfall and find a Brown Hornbill (Austen's) and a White-throated Rock-Thrush near the guest cabins. We drive back to Bangkok in the afternoon to meet friends from the States.

DAY FIVE - SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

We fly to Siem Reap in Cambodia and run the gauntlet of immigration officials and fees. Tourism has increased explosively in the last few years. There's a new airport and we counted six new huge hotels in construction on the way into town. Our guide gives an excited speech about ten centuries of Cambodian kings but we look out the windows.

We check in at our fancy hotel and note that the "Celebrity Bar" has three photos: Jacqueline Kennedy, Charlie Chaplin and Somerset Maugham. That's as select a group as I ever seen on a wall of a bar.

Afternoon in temples. The only birds are carved in stone.

http://www.raffles.com click Hotel Directory, Siem Reap Grand Hotel D'Angkor

http://angkorwat.org/

DAY SIX - PREK TOAL SANCTUARY, CAMBODIA

Unexpected: three weeks before departure from LAX we read a trip report on BIRDCHAT by Genie Silver about Prek Toal, a bird sanctuary on Tonle Sap, the biggest lake in SE ASIA. Coincidentally, there is an appeal for used spotting scopes for rangers of Prek Toal in the current Oriental Bird Club bulletin. www.orientalbirdclub.org I contact the email address for Wildlife Conservation Society http://wcs.org/  (formerly New York Zoological Society) and am referred to ecotourism company OSMOSE in Siem Reap to schedule a visit. A short competition ensues between our Thailand travel agent (whom I've already paid for the day), their Cambodian ground agent and OSMOSE about the day's car, boat and visit. I insist on a guide that knows the birds well. This is the turning point. The Cambodian ground agent finally surrenders but keeps most of the money for the day. Later he asks me "why do you want to go there? It's hot and smelly and takes long time". Arrangements are made for Conservation Project Director Frederic Goes wcssrp@birpond.com.kh to guide us, and arrangements for payment is made through OSMOSE osmose@bigpond.com.kh run by Frederic's wife Nathalie. Natahalie sends us details of OSMOSE's mission and explanation of flow of funds to the local fishing community in Prek Toal. Fishermen and former bird poachers are paid in tourism dollars to conserve the birds rather than eat them. We happily pay.

Frederic picks us up at 5:30 am and we drive 1.5 hours through Siem Reap to the muddy boat landing across the road from a lotus pond, then cross brown Tonle Sap lake for 2 hours. In the heat we pass floating fishing villages that reek of dead fish or sewage, and long lines of poles that hold nets stuck in the brown water. 70% of the freshwater fish eaten in SE Asia comes from Tonle Sap. The favorite species is Snakehead which we find later on our fancy hotel menu as "Serpent fish" presumably so as not to scare the tourists. It's delicious. Perched on the poles and flying past the boat are Whiskered Terns in breeding plumage, a rare treat for us N. Americans. We spot land and stand on the front of the boat to see rare Lesser Adjutants roosting on huge nests on the tops of trees. We find a swampy area and identify Little Ringed Plover and Common Greenshank. We enter the fishing village of Prek Toal via a river off of the lake, register at the headquarters, visit with Sanctuary officials and rangers, buy wooden stork mobiles before changing boats and heading for the Sanctuary.

Unexpected: the river to the nest viewing platforms has been dammed in the last few days by fishermen. Outside the dam is a lot of activity and we swivel in our seats to see a pair of rare Gray-headed Fish-Eagles fly over. A pair of Black-headed Ibis fly over the mangroves to the right. A few flocks of Spot-billed Pelicans land in the river for study. Beyond the dam we have to walk in sinking mud to peek through mangrove bushes at the hundreds of storks flying in a huge kettle, legs outstretched and noses down for clumsy landings one after another to feed in the shallows and mud. We comb through the kettle to find two huge endangered Greater Adjutants, four or five Lesser Adjutants and hundreds of Asian Openbill and Painted Storks. It's 11 a.m. and we've seen six of the most threatened and endangered species of birds in SE Asia. We comb through the Painteds for a Milky without the black breast band, but no luck. They are nesting near the viewing platforms but they are too long by foot. It's scary hot now, we're blinded by sun and in our excitement we forgot to bring water. We trudge back in the goop to the boat for the long journey back to Siem Reap.

In Siem Reap we visit Frederic and Nathalie's house and are inspired by their water gardens in pots in their courtyard, especially when we find a pair of frogs that have taken up residence in one. We meet the Cambodian orphan they've just adopted, and we swap tales of tropical diseases and close calls. Our malaria stories tie but Frederic trumps me with Dengue Fever. My recent fer-de-lance encounter in Costa Rica pales next to his Hooded Cobra bite in the bathroom on a Saturday night. We listen inspired to Frederic's recounting of an expedition to see Giant Ibis, once inaccessible because of land mines, and Bengal Florican two weeks earlier with BirdQuest guide Pete Morris. They proudly show us the nesting Baya Weavers in their back yard saving us a half a day drive in Thailand. We visit the new Wildlife Conservation Society building nearby, pick up some literature and donate a spotting scope and tripod from Los Angeles Audubon Society before heading back to our fancy hotel now abuzz with new arrivals from the States. In Tevas and silks they stare at us in our wet, muddy, sweaty, smelly clothes and hats as we carry our equipment across the fancy lobby, wondering if they are going to meet the same fate viewing the temples. The dichotomy of a day in broiling poverty in Prek Toal and air-conditioned luxury hotel in Siem Reap is not lost on us.

DAY SEVEN - ANGOR WAT, CAMBODIA

We tour more temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Tom. The Buddhas are amputated, limbs and heads chopped off by collectors and theives, faces cut out of the wall carvings. The nuns in the temples are amputated as well, feet and hands blown off by land mines. I buy incense from them and offer it to the Buddha. I'm drawn to the musicians playing outside the temples and find artificial legs standing beside them, faces disfigured, fingers missing. One of them plays a leaf, beautifully. Tired of the stones and the war stories I run to any sign of life - Red-breasted Parakeets in the trees, Cotton Pygmy Geese in the moats. Like good tourists we climb a hill opposite the temples at sunset to see the amazing view but I'm transfixed by a flock of giant 500 Brown-backed Needletail swifts feeding at eye level.

We fly back to Bangkok in the evening and are relieved to find the medical gauntlet abandoned. I guess no SARS cases have been reported from Cambodia.

DAYS 8, 9, 10, 11 DOI INTHANON NP, THAILAND

Unexpected: It's Song Khrai, the Thai New Year celebrated by throwing water on any moving object that might contain people. It's restrained in the domestic terminal in Bangkok where flight attendants sprinkle droplets from water bottles but in full force as we drive to Doi Inthanon after landing in Chiang Mai. We are dosed every two blocks by a bucket of water from the roadside or back of a pickup truck full of Thai celebrants. This continues for three days, our only shield the forest of Doi Inthanon.

Located in Chiang Mai Province, Doi Inthanon National Park encompasses the highest mountain In Thailand as well as several lesser summits. The doi (mountain) is largely a granite batholith intruding a southerly extension of the Shan Hills range and forming the divide between the Nam Mae Ping river to the east and the Nam Mae Chaem river to the west. Lower elevations in the most easterly pant of the park are limestone formations and contain a number of caves.

Formerly known as Doi Angka, the mountain now bears (since 1899) a shortened version of the name of Chiang Mai's last sovereign, King Inthawichayanon. During his reign, he had, with great foresight, expressed his concern for the forests of the northern hill country as the watershed for all of central Thailand. The modern study of rain forest hydrology has borne out his early convictions and given substance to Thai folklore which describes this hill region as the home of the Phiphannam, the 'spirit who shares water'. Before the King died near the turn of this century, he commanded that his remains be placed at the top of this mountain: his ashes at the summit stupa are visited by thousands of people each year.

The dry lowlands fascinate and after much anticipation we happily see Black-headed Woodpecker, Collared Falconet, Black Baza and a Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch. The Nuthatch goes in and out of a nest hole carrying insects while we watch in the scope. Expected White-rumped Falcon eludes. Night walks in rocky scrub lowlands give quick flyaway noisy Oriental Scops-owl and fantastic views of flying and calling Indian and Savannah Nightjars. Pre-dawn gives a calling Chinese Francolin first perched then walking towards us seen by Uthai and Joe only. The area around Inthanon Highland Resort where we stay gives us close views of Spotted Owlets at dusk as we follow them around a residential area, we find our only Rufous Treepie and Garry and Joe find an unusual Bush-warbler eight feet up in a dead scrub tree feeding in a ball of leaves like a vireo. Completely white underneath from vent to throat, warm gray on top, yellow lower mandible, long white eyebrow, and graduated long, wide tail and pink legs. Researching non-calling bush-warblers is difficult as the illustrations and descriptions vary greatly in the field guides. After going back and forth between two rare winter visitors to Thailand - Paddyfield Warbler and Chinese Bush-warbler - we settle on the latter from:  1) worn winter plumage description and illustration and 2) distinctive graduated long, wide diagnostic Bradypterus tail and 3) all white underparts.

Unexpected: New Year's celebrants in the Park ride inner tubes down the river so no Black-backed Forktail. Unexpected: We flush a lingering migrant Chestnut-winged Cuckoo for fantastic views as we hike through the rocks.

On more than one day we bird the higher altitude Jeep Trail looking for one of the fruiting trees that delighted so many birders in trip reports just weeks ago with Purple and Green Cochoas and Siberian Thrush. Unexpected: no fruiting trees, no Cochoas, no Thrush. Unexpected: winter migrants are still here and White-tailed Robin and Phylloscopus warblers surprise. Resident Lilliputian Slaty-bellied Tesia fascinates all. Our last visit to the trail produces a calling Rusty-naped Pitta but an hour's tiptoe up a hill in noisy dry leaves leaves our binoculars empty and we surrender. Unexpected: we identify Indochinese Cuckoo-shrike but Uthai explains that Indochinese is difficult to ID in the field since more common Black-wing has tail and wing feather variations that can be mistaken. It's better identified in the hand. We tick Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike and we never got a positive ID on an Indochinese on the entire trip.

The Summit at Doi Inthanon, the highest in Thailand at 2,565 metres is active, weather is good and we think we've ascended into heaven. A flock of perched Speckled Wood-Pigeons and male Green tailed Sunbird give scope views before we go on the boardwalk. Two Dark-sided Thrushes with big honking beaks confide and feed in the wet parts with an unexpected Eurasian Woodcock. Male white-browed Shortwings are everywhere one day and nowhere the next. White-browed Flycatcher, the first of four Ficedula flycatchers in this location, sits on the boardwalk an arm's distance away. Flocks of Chestnut-tailed and Blue-winged Minlas, Gray-cheeked Fulvettas and others come through. Pygmy Wren-Babbler delights in close up. Joseph spots a Yellow-browed Tit in a feeding flock and swears he announced it although the two of us who missed the bird have a different story. Rufous-throated Patridge proves difficult and we spend too much time on them. Unsuccessfully we pursue a calling pair into the forest behind the boardwalk past the shrine to the helicopter pilot created around the piece of engine that crashed there. I get a male Slaty-backed Flycatcher and a fly though Ashy Wood-pigeon as a consolation prize but I'm not the one that needs the pigeon. A foray into the dry forest area behind the headquarters gives Uthai and Joseph decent looks at the partridge with some Chestnut-headed Laughingthrushes feeding on the ground. Joe and I spend another two hours trying to sneak around in dry leaves and are rewarded with poor views of the top half of two partridges running away from us.

http://welcome-to.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/int-park.htm

DAY 12 - DOI INTHANON TO DOI ANG KHANG WITH STOPS

We leave Inthanon Highland Resort early to arrive dawn at Huai Hongkrai Royal Project established in 1982 by King Poommipol the Great as a watershed and protected forest. Scopes up we comb the lake for Green Peafowl roosting in the trees. Excitement spreads when we hear one calling nearby but it's coming from the cages where peafowl are captive. There are a lot of captive birds here. We walk through the "zoo" enjoying a hybrid Lady Amherst's Pheasant and taping a calling Gray Peacock-Pheasant for use later at Kaeng Krachan. We finally find a male wild Green Peafowl walking the fence between the "zoo" and the more open forest of the reserve. It's not a captive bird in that it's not in a cage, but in a sense the entire preserve is a cage like most islands of habitat. Still, we're grateful to see a "wild" male.

We stop at paddyfields near Doi Saket hoping for Red-throated Pipit. They must have already started back North although we find plenty of other pipits, bushlarks, snipe and one scared buttonquail. Nearby scrub gives expected prinias, cisticola and munias. We are rewarded with an unexpected life Dusky Warbler. Ironic that we didn't bother to go see the vagrant Red-throated Pipit or Dusky Warbler that were in Southern California a few years ago. 

We make one more stop at a military training center just off the highway to look for migrant Citrine Wagtail. It's already moved on as well perhaps because the pond is dry. We catch up with a few lowland specialties like Rufous-winged Buzzard and Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker as we look around the lake and nearby scrub forest. Joseph gets on a Siberian Rubythroat but I miss it.

Our last stop for the day is Wat (Thai for "Temple") Thum Psaplong in Doi Chiang Dao to see the Crested Treeswifts that are usually there. Unexpected: they aren't. But it's just before a storm and Indochinese swiftlets (split from Himalayan) fly above the temple. How could we identify a rare migrant Himalayan if it were in there? We walk the road to the wat and talk about a sighting of Deignan's Babbler reported here some years earlier. Odd that Thailand's only two endemic species - Deignan's Babbler and White-eyed River Martin - are so mythic and exist only in specimens. Uthai tells us that the Asian Brown-Flycatcher we see is the resident ssp. siamensis. Unexpected: a calling Rusty-naped Pitta. We climb up the trail and play tape. Joe and I are looking down the hill when the Pitta flys across. Sadly, Joseph is looking up. We climb the stairs of the wat and find a pair of Brown-cheeked Fulvettas at eye level just beyond the carved stone nagas, snakes that protect the temple. Streaked Wren-Babbler pops in and out of the limestone. Off to the right near the top is a stream bed trail and another Rusty-naped Pitta tortures us from deep inside the thick foliage. Joseph tries to be philosophical about this bird as two misses elevate it's importance. 

The storm hits hard and we drive up the mountain to Doi Ang Khang in driving rain and wind. No chance for a jungle nightjar when we arrive Ang Khang Nature Resort.

DAYS 13,14,15,16 - DOI ANG KHANG

Doi Ang Khang in Northern Thailand near the province of Doi Chiang Dao is in the mountains that border the Shan (mountain) states of Myanmar, formerly Burma. There is a concentration of Thai and Myanmar military along this border and the Myanmar side is known for it's cultivation of poppies for narcotic mostly heroin processing and distribution. Nomadic hill tribes from Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Southern China use the Thai side for agricultural cultivation. Unprotected, some mountain forest remains that historically has contained interesting species that might be in less accessible political areas further North of Thailand, and winter migrants.

The sky is clear and the storm has passed at 5:30 am as we depart the Resort for the road towards Myanmar. Uthai has a surprise for us. We stop at kilometer 34 on the old road and pull over and park. "Look" he says calmly and points to the windshield. Ahead of us on the road is a male Hume's Pheasant slowly prancing the way male pheasants sometimes do when they think no one's watching. He's crossing the road, four or five foot white tail with slate stripes carving the air behind him. He doesn't look anything like the field guides, the greens more blue, more luminescent and vivid. Field guide illustrations are flat aren't they? Like the finger pointing to the moon. Not the moon. Here's the moon and we gasp. I want video and after we've all had a good look I ask if anyone minds if I try to get some? I try to lean out slowly but the bird responds by putting head and tail down and running off the road. I pull back in and as we are all talking excitedly, here he comes again. The Mrs. has refused to come across the road and he's going back to get her. He does this three times to our delight and then disappears up the hill. This is a hell of a way to begin birding in a destination! Up the highway to the border patrol we spend the morning admiring the view of the clouds below and find three Giant Nuthatches with broad black eye lines for great views in the scope and Pale Blue Flycatcher. Uthai hears a surprise and we go off the highway and after some time find a male Green Cochoa that pops out of the mist to perch on a branch nearby just above eye level giving us stunning views.

Over three and a half days we bird the traditional sites of Doi Ang Khang including "Paradise Valley" where we find expected Crested Finchbills, Red-faced Liocichla, Maroon Oriole, a fruiting tree with Wedge-tailed Pigeon and pine trees with female Common Rosefinch and Phylloscpus warblers. We don't know whether to look up or down as trees are full of birds. Mountain Bamboo-Partridges call in the scrub and we try unsuccessfully to see them a few times, finally getting a glimpse of one scurrying through the bamboo. This unsatisfying view is corrected when we find two feeding beside and crossing the road on our departure. We find Aberrant Bush-warbler here and puzzle over it's call until it finally pops up and gives us a view. Up at the firebreak we find a small flock of Yellow-breasted Bunting that have stayed longer than usual in winter migration. We hike the trail from the pines described in Moira and Graeme Wallace's trip report on http://www.birdtours.co.uk to look for Cutia in a feeding flock but see the same flock with look-alike Rufous-backed Sibia in it instead.

At night near an entrance to "Magic Valley" a Hodgon's Frogmouth obliges. During the day near the same site a pair of Eye-browed Wren-babblers chatter and hop inside a large bush while we peer inside with our binoculars.

Down inside "Magic Valley" we hike beside the stream bed looking for the prized Black-browed Parrotbill in all of the bamboo. No luck.  Unexpected: We stumble upon two flycatchers in a display - hunkered down with some slight wing shaking. The visible tear drop behind the eye is interesting and reminds us of our empidomax flys back home. We get as much detail and video as possible. We show the video to Phil Round who arrives that evening, and he reckons it's a rare (in Thailand) Brown-breasted Flycatcher. He goes the next day and sees the same two birds in the same area and confirms the ID by the moustachial stripe. If they were breeding, it might be the first breeding record in Thailand. Unexpected: tiny Chestnut-headed Tesia runs away from the stream as we pass, and Pygmy Wren-Babbler shows again. Hill tribe people are collecting medicinal herbs in the forest and making a racket. We are uneasy as we remember hearing that someone was murdered while camping here. Uthai shows us the exact site. When home, I research the story and find a newspaper report that Kevin Bourke, 23, and Sheri MacFarlane, 25 from Australia decided to camp right by the river in the valley rather than with the rest of their group higher up in the campsite. During the night they were robbed. MacFarlane was hit with a rifle butt and Bourke killed by two 18 year old Chinese Haw assailants who recently confessed to the crime. The newspaper reported that Chiang Dao district's Nong Ook village is a Chinese Haw village known as a drug transit point.

"Bird Watching Trail" yields yet another calling Rusty-naped Pitta just beside the trail but it flushes as we tiptoe closer to peek into the underbrush. Will we ever see this bird?

DAY 17 - DRIVE TO CHIANG MAI

We reluctantly leave Doi Ang Khang and drive to Chiang Mai for flight back to Bangkok. We stop on the way again at Wat Thum Psaplong to see expected Crested Treeswift but again no luck. Joe and I take the right and left side of the van and scan every dead tree on the drive to the airport. We are rewarded two hours later stopping for gas when a Crested Treeswift flys in a circle above us and disappears. Joe's screams in the gas station to get our attention makes patrons nervous.

We fly to Bangkok and drive to Khao Yai National Park.

DAYS 18,19,20 - KHAO YAI NP

This time the abandoned monastery pays off and yields a pair of Limetone Wren-Babblers, different from the Viet Nam population in call and morphology. And more. A pair of calling Blue-winged Pittas. Where were they two weeks ago? We stir them up a little with tape and one flies in a tree above us. Not visible. That's that. We're compensated two days later with good views of a calling Hooded Pitta perched high in a tree and with fantastic views of male Blue Pitta calling and preening in the forest just off Radar road.

We enter the park welcomed by the theramin calls of two species of gibbons. We spot the gorgeous apes now and again far off in the distance, feeding on fruiting trees, swinging from perch to perch.

Radar Road gives up our first Siamese Fireback as I spot a male drumming in the forest through the van window. It's taken three trips over four years to see this bird, and I take the time to really enjoy it. Later we see the male resting by the side of the road in the sun, and practically walk up to it. On the other side of the road a Blue Pitta calls and we head into the forest slowly and quietly. Joseph nabs a glance and the pressure is on me. I sneak ahead of the voice, hide behind a tree, and have a look to my right. There in the open is Blue Pitta on a small branch alternately calling and preening.

Off road in the park we pursue a pair of Scaly-throated Partridges down the side of the hill into a gully where they cower at the base of a rattan below us. I sneak around in front of them a get a glimpse at them huddled, then running. We notice gashes in the trees. Uthai explains that poachers are harvesting aloeswood for insence. They gash the trees and a fragrant fungus develops as an immune response. The fungus is then harvesting, leaving a dying tree. This is currently one of the biggest threats to the park.    

We drop Joe Thompson at the garbage dump at the campsite so he can watch for the Ground-Cuckoo. The pressure is on for him as he wasn't with us on Day 1. We hang around the campground and visit with a European who has retired, bought a house outside the park, runs a business renting camping equipment and spends most of his time exploring the park. He fascinates us with his stories of watching a pair of tigers bring down a baby elephant, thirty-five elephants bathing in a river, Clouded Leopard hunting in the grass."What time is it?" he asks suddenly, and takes us to a fruiting tree on the river behind the campsite to watch a pair of White-handed Gibbons feed.

Two hours later as we are birding on Radar Road we hear the Ground-Cuckoos. Uthai sends the van back to rescue Joe from his perch at the dump and they go in for the Cuckoo and a Blue Pitta while we enjoy walking the road in search of Silver Pheasant. Unexpected: we never find one. Joe leaves for Bangkok and home and we set out with Uthai in the afternoon to find Chestnut-capped Babbler - the one bird Uthai has guaranteed on the trip with a money back guarantee. Unexpected: it's not in the grass along the road to the hide at the top of Park where it's always been seen. We start counting the money as we walk to the hide beside the water hole, Oriental Pied-Hornbills in the distance.

A storm is brewing and we can smell as well as see the clouds build up in the open sky as we walk. Swifts circle above the water hole, and we find all three species of Needletail - White-throated, Silver-backed and Brown-backed - almost at eye level in a frenzy of feeding. Is the low pressure weighing on the insect wings and bringing them low over the pond? The storm cracks with thunder and lighting forcing us behind the hide for shelter. It's temporary. The storm is fierce and water runs at our feet and deepens. We run inside the hide up the stairs to the viewing area. The corrugated tin roof is not only leaking, it's blowing and banging in the wind like a handkerchief, and I'm hoping it doesn't fly off. The wind howls, lighting sizzles, thunder claps and now hail. Rain and hail pour in sideways forcing us bit by bit into the only dry corner of the room where we huddle and protect our faces with our hats. In an instant it's over. The storm clouds pass as we wait for the trail to transform from a river to a muddy road. The light, the smell, the sound, the feelings saturate our senses. Thank God there's no sappy soundtrack or swelling of strings to manipulate our experience! Still no Babbler. Unexpected: Uthai owes us money!

Our last morning in the park three Asian elephants eat ginger by the side of the road. I hope it isn't too spicy for them.

DAYS 21,22,23 - KAENG KRACHAN NP

Uthai breaks up the drive from Khao Yai to Kaeng Krachan by stopping at Wat Chong Lom in Samut Sakhon. The revered Buddhist monk Laung Pu Kieo lies entombed in an altar in the wat surrounded by thousands of Germane's Swiftlets (formerly ssp. of Edible-nest Swiftlet). They fly in and out of the wat and cling to the nests on the walls with tiny feet like hummingbirds, their taxonomic neighbor. Monks go about their business in a rain of feathers and droppings unaware of the health hazards. The swiftlets are said to be Laung pu Kieo's followers reincarnated to follow him. The nests are so valuable for soup that the doors are closed and locked every night to prevent poachers. Swifts outside must remain outside. We buy a medallion to commemorate the bird monk. Samut Sakhon is on a rivermouth, now filthy but still populated by Whiskered Terns and shorebirds and occasional rarities. Historically there were River Terns and Great Thick-Knees here but now gone.

We stop for breakfast and lunch provisions at a supermarket and reach Kaeng Krachan Country Club (http://www.hotelthailand.com/phetchaburi/kaengkrachan/) outside the National Park at dark.

The 2,915 square kilometers of mountain and lowland forest above a reservoir created by a large dam on the Petchaburi River in Southwest Thailand became Kaeng Krachan National Park in 1984. It is the largest national park in Thailand and popular for waterfalls and rivers. It's location at the head of a peninsula here called Tenerassim and in the South becoming Malaysia is interesting for species on the Eastern end of their range in Myanmar the Northern end of their range from Malaysia and Java and as a funnel for migrants. There is only one main road in the park keeping human interference at a minimum and the wildlife exceptional. New species are added to the list every year.

In the higher elevations of the park we hear a Gray Peacock-Pheasant. Kaeng Krachan is one of the few locations in SE Asia to see this bird. We scan the dense forest behind the ridge twenty feet above us and can only glimpse part of a tail of a bird perched about six feet up in a tree in dense forest. Is it preening? Perhaps the tape of the captive bird from Huay Hongkrai will lure him out. No recognition. I'm wondering if the captive bird didn't learn some other pheasant's call from another cage. Our target flies from his perch and that is that. That is until we see him closer, now out on the rim of the ridge just above us walking slowly from left to right. He ambles through twenty feet right on the edge in the sunlight, stopping now again to preen, while we watch enchanted. Four or five minutes later he is finished with us, flies down on the road twenty feet from us and walks slowly into the forest on the other side of the road.

Unexpected: as we drive back down the road we spot a male Rusty-naped Pitta feeding in the road in full view. God doing for us what we can't do for ourselves! Rare Rusty-cheeked Hornbill is a bonus and our second Brown Hornbill of the trip.

We walk the road past the second stream at night. A large owl flies from a perch in a dead tree beside the river but only our driver sees the shadow. Uthai tests his spotlight. Unexpected: his beam accidentally lands on a rare White-fronted Scops Owl perched on a limb with one wing outstretched. Is it lame or being seductive? After long looks and video of the bird we call in smaller Collared for comparison. Then another White-fronted Scops calls nearby and we spotlight that one. Two for the night!

Unexpected: one morning in the lowlands along the highway we find a pair of Blue-winged Pittas in plain sight

We take Olive Bulbul off our list. Our last guide in this location pointed us to what he said was an Olive Bulbul in the highlands. Uthai says they are impossible without a three day hike from here. We were doubtful then and off it goes, another lesson about guides giving birds. You really have to check everything yourself. As the Buddha said: "Don't take anyone's word. Find out for yourself if it's true."

DAY 24 - BANGKOK

It's departure day for Malaysia and we head back to Bangkok to find some species on the way to the airport. We go to the campus of Kasetarts about one hour south of Bangkok hoping for a sighting of Rain Quail that is seen there, but the lawns have just been mown and they've flown somewhere else. The ponds and reeds are active and we find a Pallas' Warbler calling and moving around in the reeds. We laugh when we add Little Grebe to the trip list. It's taxonomically the number one bird.

At Royal Gems Golf Resort we find a colony of Asian Golden Weavers between holes still managing to survive and breed in a patch smaller than my house.

AROUND BANGKOK

We catch our evening flight to Kuala Lumpur and check into the airport hotel where Malaysian bird expert Dennis Yong will pick us up at 6:00 a.m. We haven't seen him in ten years.

DAY 25 - KUALA SELANGOR, MALAYSIA

The drive from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Selangor is short but we can see the change in Malaysia. What once was lowland forest is now acres and acres of oil palms in a ten year agricultural boom. Low cost palm oil fills fryers in fast food chains and fills processed foods (read your labels) despite it's health hazards and environmental damage. Barn Owl might be the only species to profit from the enormous increase in this introduced plant species. We pass plantation after plantation, mostly oil and few rubber. Malaysia is a Muslim country with a secular government that has resisted extremist religious leaders partly because the strong middle class is invested in the growth of the economy and investment from foreign governments, and oil palms partly fuel that boom.

It's hot and humid in this town on the mouth of the Selangor River on the west coast of Malaysia. We've returned here for a few species we missed on our last visit to Taman Alam (Nature Park) - 800 acres of mudflats, mangroves and mosquitos. We enter the park just after dawn greeted by a troup of Silvered Leaf Monkeys. As we cross the small stream we peak through the viewing holes in the hides in hopes that occasional Masked Finfoot might be there for us. The resident race of Ruddy Kingfisher is one of our targets but it's not to be. A Mangrove Whistler slowly appears from the back of the mangroves after a great deal of nagging from us, and a Golden-bellied Gerygone entertains us with a little bit of color, always welcome in this overwhelmingly brown palette. We recall the Smooth Otters we watched at play here ten years ago, and see a White-bellied Sea-Eagle nest on the radio tower exactly as then. By eleven o'clock it's broiling and we head to town for Chinese food, avoiding the big seafood restaurant on the river that throws it's garbage right out the back into the river.

In the afternoon we drive narrow roads through rice paddies to a peat swamp forest on the Sungai (river) Karang. Dennis re-discovered Dusky Eagle-owl here as soon as he considered it extirpated in Malaysia, but hasn't seen it in a few years since humans moved back into the small hut at the entrance. We walk through the small section of undergrowth above the tannin-colored water that floods this forest and delight when we hear a Black Hornbill followed by the sight of a female with black beak perched in a dead tree.

At dusk, we stand near the hut looking over the rice paddies as flocks of Long-tailed Parakeets and House Swifts fly in the open sky. We turn to face the forest when we hear the call of Malaysian Nightjar as it flies above the forest briefly then back in.

DAY 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 - FRASIER'S HILL

It's a relief to leave the heat and humidity of Kuala Selangor and head on the Karak Highway into the cool Central mountains of Malaysia even though the drive is all oil palms until we're too high for them. We stop on the way at Hull Yam, a traditional site for White-headed Munia to find it has become a housing development. At last we find two White-headed Munia in flocks of Nutmeg Mannikins in a patch of weeds between houses.

The sounds of Siamang apes and the sight of the trees bending on the ridge of the mountain get our attention. We are on Frasier's Hill, 104 km from Kuala Lumpur and one of Malaysia's top birding destinations. We reach the gate at the Gap where we wait for one way traffic to go our direction up the forested private property to the top of the hill. As we go through the gate we drive up the windy road looking into the forest on both sides. Our first sighting is a birder, identified by microfiber cargo pants, wide brimmed soft hat, wet hiking boots, plant material on shoulders and back but mostly by the accessories: cassette player, field guide, binoculars around neck and telescope on shoulder. But not only do we recognize the species, we recognize the individual! It's Tony Morris with whom we toured Madagascar three years ago! And he's here with his son Rob who kindly lent us his trip report and contacts for a successful trip to Taiwan. Warm greetings are interrupted by the call of a Bamboo Woodpecker they've been tracking. We have to hurry up the road before the traffic turns.

Unexpected: Rob has been told of a Cutia nest which we find in a dead bromeliad just next to a condominium project at a communications tower at the top of the mountain. We gather with scopes on the steep road in hope that what is now a tail will soon become a full bird. Reunions being what they are we aren't looking in the split section when the female and male switch at the nest. The thought of missing the bird dims our conversation until the male turns in the nest and we can make out a head with large curved bill, barred underparts, rufous back for a look at this enigmatic Himalayan species stuck taxonomomically between mesias and shrike-babblers.

The next three mornings in the cool mists on High Pine and Bishop's Trail were sheer pleasures in birding. A flock of Long-billed Partridge teased twice with their raucous calls before we got serious and spent three hours making our way slowly through the rattan trying to get below or across from them. Finally, one of us got a look at a female leaving the last calling location in what was a small payback for the effort. White-crowned Hornbills called in the mist but we could never see them. We carefully searched the trail at least once a day for rare Mountain Peacock-Pheasant but only thought we may have heard one once.

Walks along the road to the Gap led us to a pair of Marbled Wren-Babbler calling from a wet gully beside the road. We followed them carefully through spiny rattan up and over the mountain for almost two hours until we finally got a look down at them in the gully on the other side. Gold-whiskered Barbet appeared fairly close to the delight of all. Rufous Piculet hammered away in the bamboo while a flock of Black Laughingthrushes noisily crossed the road. A migrant male Mugimaki Flycatcher showed briefly. This is great road birding.

Unexpected: One morning a Short-tailed Gymnure (in the hedgehog family) wanders out of the forest and across the lawn much to our amusement.

DAY 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 - TAMAN NEGARA

We drive from Frasier's Hill down the east slope to Kuala Tembling where we board the boat for the two hour drive to our favorite lowland forest in Asia, the magnificent Taman Negara. Covering 1,677 sq mi (4,343 sq km) of virgin jungle it's one of the oldest forests in the world and one of the great destinations for tropical birding. http://www.tamannegararesort.com/

Taman Negara has changed a lot in ten years. Access is not only by boat now but also by vehicle as the road on other side of the river from the boat landing is completed. New hostels, resorts, restaurants, shops have sprung up along the road and on the river. Unexpected: every four hours now amplified muzzim intone the call to prayer every four hours, the earliest at 4:30 a.m. drowning out the dawn chorus! Rock music fills the night! The mammals have moved away from the chalets and crowds of hikers from the other side of the river come over daily. What hasn't changed is the oppressive heat and humidity that builds up during the day with huge cumulus white clouds, the afternoon showers, the heavy rains all night (we only lost one morning), the hypnotic drone of the cicadas and the leeches and mosquitos. Unexpected: Usually immune, I get at least two leech bites every day everywhere from my neck to my ankles while Joseph gets none.

Unexpected: Species we struggled so hard to see in the past present themselves for killer views now that we don't need them. A pair of Malaysian Rail-Babblers scurry across the trail in front of us. A Banded Pitta hops just off trail in no hurry. Great Argus displays on a branch ten feet away, then flys down and slowly walks into the bush, six foot tail trailing behind. Unexpected: Scarlet-rumped Trogon, seen on a previous trip, calls daily near our chalet sounding exactly like Slaty Antshrike from South America.

Targets cooperate. We finally see the holy grail Masked Finfoot flee into the mangroves, then come out into the river in the sun to feed on our second boat ride, our fourth total if you count the boat rides ten years ago. Our first boat ride yields a pair of Lesser Fish-Eagles in the morning mist, a few Blue-banded Kingfishers flying along the river banks and a Red Broadbill building a nest over the river. Every time we venture onto mosquito ridden Swamp Trail we can hear but can't see Malayan Peacock-Pheasant. Finally, just before lunch we tiptoe along the trail and ten feet in front of us a male prances through the only spot of sunlight stopping to preen in full view on the way. On an earlier try we find a small pool of water with bathing birds in the afternoon including Gray-chested Jungle-Flycatcher and Short-tailed Babbler. Male Maroon-breasted Philentoma looks and sounds like a vanga from Madagascar as it sits on a liana and blasts away. We eventually see all of the woodpeckers in Malaysia, and all the lowland Wren-babblers at Taman Negara giving us a clean sweep of all the Wren-babblers on the trip. Unexpected: Giant Pitta calls on the River Trail responding to tape but only comes so far. We have to move to see it. It flushes and we see only the dreaded shaking branch. Sad story. No wonder the muzzim sounds so mournful.

At night we tiptoe for an hour through the Swamp Trail but can't locate a calling Gould's Frogmouth in the dense thicket. But the mosquitos locate us. Another night, we strike out again on the River Trail. The third night is the charm as in short order the forest gives up an Oriental Bay-owl perched sideways and a female Gould's Frogmouth in the spotlight defending her territory with her unique call.

One morning we head out the River Trail and the campground is covered in a mist. A termite swarm has started at dawn and there are six or seven Needletails of three species swooping through the clearing as low as six feet so we can see their tails, and a male Green Broadbill darts in and out enjoying the feast. So do we.

Asian birding does not get much better than Taman Negara.

TOTAL SPECIES FOR THE TRIP: 493

Full trip list: Birds   &   Mammals