Tony's Trip to Thailand

I have been very busy recently with my friend Tony visiting us from Scotland. Tony and I go back almost 30 years. I am amazed by the longevity of this friendship. I, for one, am not very good at relationships! The Edinburgh Cyrenians brought us together in the late 1970s.

Like many others we both owe a considerable debt of gratitude to a Catholic priest, the late Anthony Ross, a member of the Order of Preachers, the Dominicans. Among other things he was founder of the Edinburgh Cyrenians, which provided supported housing to young homeless men. He was also a university chaplain and I was referred to him when my young adult life started to disintegrate. Anthony might perhaps best be described as a modern day Simon of Cyrene, seemingly able to help carry the burdens of so many desperate people. A truly remarkable man, may God bless his soul.

I owe a further debt to Tony as he helped me to recover confidence in my reading and writing skills. No doubt this is a factor in my ability to produce this blog. Tony’s life story would make particularily good reading. I am glad that he, like me, appears to be enjoying a much greater sense of peace and happiness in his life.

Tony’s visit served to underline what a great place Thailand really is. He had never been here before and now that he is back in Scotland I think it is safe to say he had a great time and that he will back. I would like to think I gave Tony an experience of Thailand, a vignette of how people live their lives here. This was not an exercise in ticking off sites visited.

The highlight was probably our visit to Kaeng Krachan National Park for three days accompanied by Luna and by my friend Montana and her daughter Meena. Kaeng Krachan is birding central with just under 300 species recorded there. We saw just under 100 species over two days of birding thanks to the services of Khun Peeyat, spotter/driver extraordinaire. Highlights? As we entered the park at about 0630 on Monday morning we almost bumped into a crested serpent eagle parked on a branch and the birds just continued to roll as we climbed up to the higher ground….asian barred owlet, greater & common flameback, great hornbill, emerald dove, rufous woodpecker, orange breasted trogon, orange bellied leafbird, sultan tit, coppersmith barbet, blue eared barbet, dollar bird, flavescent bulbul, scarlet backed flower pecker, white browed scimitar babbler, collared owlet, silver breasted treepie…… and on and on and on! Wonderful plus lots of other animals like gibbons, a king cobra, giant black squirrel, and on and on the list could go. Tigers, elephants and leopards are also seen on a regular basis.

Definitely recommended and I would strongly recommend you stay in Ban Maka. They can organise a driver/guide such as Khun Peeyat who appears to know the park like the back of his hand and was absolutely wonderful at finding birds as well as being really gentle and good natured. Ban Maka has its own resident pied hornbill rescued from captivity. We called him Billy and we learned he loves omelette as he swooped down brushing my forehead....what a fright! Billy also appears to have foot fetish as he had a peck at Luna’s toes! The grounds are reputed to contain approximately 110 species. It is a really great place, I cannot praise it enough, really comfortable accommodation, great food including packed lunches.

The cross billed sandpiper still eludes me notwithstanding Tony’s telescope. I may not get to see it now until later in the year when it returns as I expect it is going to be heading back to China/Siberia imminently. There have been recent sightings but I am not sure I am going to be able to get back to those areas before my own trip back to the UK.

During Tony’s trip we also went to other birding sites: Ban Laem, Laem Pak Bia, The Kings Project, Pak Thale (210 Asian curlews), the Deserted Building, the Mahai Research Station, Khok Kam, Ban Bu, & Phuttamonthon Park, ( west of Bangkok). Locally in Ratchaburi there was also some excellent birding. A black-shouldered kite was hovering behind Tesco on Thursday, above waste ground adjacent to Daruna School. It was brilliant to watch the bird hovering in the thermals. In the same area we also got the binoculars on the diminutive white rumped munia. There are reputed to be coppersmith barbets in the trees at Ratchaburi hospital! We saw painted stork above us in the sky on a couple of days plus our usual friends in the trees opposite our house.

In between the birding we made trips to some local temples, notably Wat Norng Hoi on the same day that HRH Princess Srirasmi, wife of the Crown Prince, visited. I really enjoyed this temple with its strong Chinese influence and a huge sitting Buddha which can be seen for miles around. We also ate some great food, mainly sea food, and Tony reckons I should create the Thailand good food guide! Add in some trips to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market( yuk, but just what you would expect!), Wat Pleng, Hua Hin and Cha am ..... a fairly hectic schedule without any time in Bangkok! In addition we had our house blessed during Tony's visit together with a mass by Fr Siripong followed by a party afterwards. Our thanks to Serge, one of Luna's filipino colleagues who organised the catering and took us on an unforgettable tour of Ratchaburi market where we had a great time buying prawns, crab, fruit etc. I learned how to sex crabs!

I am heading to the UK for a couple of weeks next week to visit family and friends. It will be interesting to see how I fare back there for the first time.It will be nice to see people but you know, Thailand, Ratchaburi,in particular is now my home and I will be sad to leave my wife.