Birds, Waterfalls & Food

For a long time we had been talking about a trip to Southern Thailand. Now, finally the time had come to realise our plans. The southern part of Thailand, bordering to Malaysia, is relatively unknown. There are many waterfalls in the region, several bird sanctuaries and of course there is the famous Thai food. When you leave KL not too late, you can have lunch just across the Thai border.

Lunch just across the Thai border: Chicken Rice. Afterwards we continued to Hatyai

Just when we were trying to find a parking place, Stephen's car got an engine problem. As you can see from the smiling faces, no reason to worry.

We spent the night in the Lee Gardens Plaza hotel, " the biggest and the most elegant in Southern Thailand". This is the view from the hotel room.

We had a nice dinner in an open-air restaurant in Hatyai. Very tasty curried fish, oyster omelette and of course Tom Yam soup.

The next morning we visited the Phraiwan Fall, one of the many waterfalls in the region. Very good signposting, compared to Malaysia.

On a big rock near the waterfall, a lizard was willingly posing for the photographer.

Visit of the Thale Noi waterbird park

The Thale Noi park is famous for its waterfowl species. You can hire a sampan to make a guided boat trip.

Embarking. The big sunhats are really needed.

Stephen and his waw-waw camera

George, contemplating life, an appropriate activity on one's birthday.

Normally birds are too far away for my camera, but this little cormorant was 'shootable'

A duck sanctuary on our way to Trang. Home of the Lesser Whistling-duck

The duck sanctuary, a big pond, was a very peaceful and romantic place.

We spotted two couples of Whistling-ducks, far way at the other side of the pond.

Last target for the day was the Sai Rung waterfall. Even in this dry season a nice waterfall, it must be very powerful during the monsoon.

Trang
The second night we spent in Trang, a very nice and relaxed town near Thailand's west coast. Also here the luxury of a good hotel. And that for a room price of less than 15 Euro!

A picturesque tree near the waterfall

Nice food again, fish, omelette, of course Tom Yam. And beer, which is much cheaper in Thailand than in Malaysia

Satisfied

The colorful clock tower of Trang

Trang has a very active night market, where you can find all kinds of fruits and food.

This girl prepared sinfully delicious mini-crepes. For 2(!) eurocent apiece.

Colorful fruits

The big, but a bit rundown Trang Plaza Hotel

In the middle of nowhere, a simple food stall with nice food and very friendly Muslim waitresses

Thale Ban near to the border, is a well maintained nature park. We saw treeswifts, ioras and a cuckoo shrike

A beautiful mushroom, with a butterfly and a snail. Photographer's luck!

Our gang with two local staff members

The Perlis State Park is located just south of the border. We had no time for a visit, as it was still a long way home.

Beautiful view of the Perlis State park

Back to 'civilisation'. A bad accident on the N-S highway caused a huge trafic jam....

This short visit of Souther Thailand was so pleasant, that I hope to be back soon