After our daytime photo session with the tree-loving Tropidolaemus, we spent the day making a long drive south to the Krabi area. As we got closer to the border with Malaysia, we began to see more Muslim influences among the people there, and in the food choices available to us. Travel means rolling with the changes and embracing new things, and for my part, banana roti for breakfast was easily embraceable. That night we engaged in some city herping, visiting an old temple that was once out in the countryside, but was now surrounded on all sides by a rapidly expanding urban area. We parked on a nearby street and immediately upon entering the property we encountered our first serpent,…
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After a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast, we were ready to get back at it. From here on out, our days had a repeatable pattern – drive a bit, herp in appropriate habitat, drive some more, and then herp again after dark. We would be up in the hills and down on the coast, bouncing back and forth as we made our way south. The food was good, the people were friendly, and the countryside had no end of things to look at as we went along. The karst limestone escarpments were spectacular, and I was looking forward to seeing more of them in the light of day. This morning we stopped at several temples up in the…
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While in Peru back in January of 2023, I was having a conversation with Pete Mooney about possible herp trip collaborations. Pete and I have herped together in a number of places, including Peru, and a delightful trip to Cuba a few years earlier. “I’m so jealous of your southern Thailand trip,” I said, speaking of an adventure Pete had the previous year. At the time I had been to Thailand twice, but had not visited the southern peninsula region. As it turned out, Pete was open for a second visit, and so we set the wheels in motion for a June expedition. As with previous visits, we made our arrangements through TonTan Travel. Our friends Tony and Tan specialize…
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It was the second day of March back in 2008, and a warm front was roaring up out of the south, bringing scudding clouds and rain. Up to that point, spring had not put in much of an appearance, with temperatures sometimes twenty degrees colder than normal. With this dramatic change in the weather, here at last was a window of opportunity to go look for a little frog that spends much of its life tucked out of sight. The winds were strong enough that I burned almost an extra quarter tank of gas while driving down to the bottom of Illinois. Close to sunset, I met up with Scott Albert and Mike Steffen at a local gas station. Scott…
