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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Leaving Malaysia behind, Adam returned home to Hong Kong, while Dan, Kevin and I flew to Bangkok, where we met up with ten (ten!) of our herping friends. It took two vans to haul our collective asses around, and we engaged the services of TonTan Travel for logistics and guide services. Tony and Tan are fine, knowledgeable people and fun to be around – I had engaged them on my first trip to Thailand in 2016. We had a day in Bangkok while everyone assembled, and a subset of us headed over to Lumphini Park to check out the free-range water monitors and turtles that make the urban park home. Bill said “I think there’s a snake on that branch…
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“When you go, check out the city parks – those are the best places to see water monitors.” I’ve heard this advice from several sources, and since we had a number of days scheduled in Bangkok, it seemed like a no-brainer. One of the reasons I picked a hotel out in the suburbs north of the airport was the large park it bordered, and that turned out to be a good decision. Our first morning there, eating breakfast on the verandah overlooking the park, Jeff said “there’s one!” and we watched a medium-sized Varanus salvator swimming across the lake. There was no mistaking that large lizard head in profile. Breakfast On The Verandah Life Lister Number One. Still a bit…
