Long-ass Road : Doi Ang Khang to Chang Mai to Bangkok

Doi Ang Khang National Park straddles the Thailand border with Burma and to me anyway offered up the best birding of the whole trip. This area is popular with birders so the park rangers have had to establish some rules about good etiquette while birding.

This sign translates as No Complaining about Lunch to the Field Guide, No 1st Generation iPods Allowed and Do Not Feed Gummy Worms to the Birds

They prefer these instead

Himalayan Cutia

Ashy Drongo

Siberian Ruby Throat

White-browed Laughingthrush

White-bellied Redstart

White-gorgeted Flycatcher

Rufous-bellied Niltava

Slaty-backed Flycatcher

Spot-breasted Parrotbill

All this birding is exhausting, let's have a snack:

Pomelos are delicious

And, if the birding is slow, they provide entertainment

But enough of this tomfoolery, it's time for more birding:

Ultramarine Flycatcher

Vertider Flycatcher

Hume's Warbler

Bamboo Partridge

Rusty-cheeked Simitar Babbler

Daurian Redstart

Hodgson's Frogmouth

Crossing into no-man's land on the border with Burma, no passport or messy red tape but we did give the border guard our Pringles and Coke

I've included this blurry iPhone snap because as we were walking along this quiet road in Burma this group of prisoners appeared walking ahead of a guard with a machete. Interestingly, although the prisoners were shackled with wrist and leg chains, they were also carrying machetes. Never quite got the story straight on what they had done but in true Thai fashion as they passed us each one gave a little bow and was all smiles.

Most people come to Doi Ang Khang to visit the Royal Agricultural Station which has some perfectly lovely gardens, but since we aren't most people we spent a minimal amount of time there searching for birds.

They used to grow opium here but now the local economy runs on strawberries, I'm guessing the profit margin is somewhat less

Streaked Wren-Babbler

Black-throated Laughingthrush

Puff-throated Bulbul

We had long birding days in the National Park and I was happy to retire in the evening to our comfortable bungalow and some evening refreshment.

Beer or elephant pee, hard to say for sure, the Thais have a keen sense of humor

After an overnight in Chang Mai, we had some early morning birding in the nearby rice paddies and then stopped at a Buddhist temple complex before our flight back to Bangkok

That white bag on the end of the pole is for collecting ant larvae

As far as larval food groups go these are considered quite tasty

Please can I see just one more lifer

Apparently Walt Disney was also a Buddhist

Fat Buddha, Skinny Buddha, Fat Elvis, Skinny Elvis which one you prefer to offer your fried banana fritters to probably says a lot about you

It can be a bit God-y

In one of the temples I found this painting of cardinals which, of course, are not found here so I don't know your guess is as good as mine.

Well campers, that concludes the birding portion of our adventures to Thailand. After our visit to the temples we caught our quick flight back to Bangkok and endured an evening of touristy dancing at a themed restaurant before calling it an early evening so we could catch a little shut eye before getting up at 4:00 a.m. for our flight home.

Here are a few photos that I've included for no other reason than I liked them: