Just Bangkok Things

 

After our trip through Northern Luzon, Nikki and I returned home to Sorsogon for the rest of December, where I did almost no birding at all. This was partly because of a bit of burnout after a long birding trip and the need to focus on other hobbies (and uh, work also), but mostly it was because of weather. The amihan (northeastern monsoon) gets into full swing in mid-December, and it kept us inside most of every day thanks to rain and blowing winds. I actually have very little to report from the rest of December in the Philippines, which is maybe a good thing considering how chronologically delayed this blog is already. 

That did not mean, however, that birding in 2022 was finished; instead, Nikki and I had a trip to Thailand planned for the end of December and early January. It wasn't entirely a honeymoon (since we hope that if we do an actual honeymoon it'll be a little longer...), but it was a nice excuse to spend some time together in a new country without too many work-related distractions. On that note, it wasn't exactly a birding trip either; it was more about exploring a place we hadn't been to, eating good food, and seeing some interesting temples and other things. Nonetheless, and I expect this isn't surprising, I did still mange to get out and see a couple of birds along the way. 

We flew to Bangkok by way of Manila on Christmas Day, as that happened to be the day with the cheapest tickets (and Filipinos celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve anyway so we didn't have to be grinches and skip the festivities). This was my first international trip in over a year that wasn't work-related, so I had to submit myself to the indignities of budget airline travel- worth it for the money saved, even if flying out of NAIA is even more torturous when you have to take the cheapest airlines. Thankfully the Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok was pretty quiet, and it was relatively easy to get SIM cards, exchange some money, and get a Grab to our hotel.

It was after 9PM when we finally got to our hotel in the Sukhumvit neighborhood of Bangkok, and the only thing we wanted to do that night was head out to a 7-Eleven to get some water. That proved to be more of an adventure than we bargained for; unbeknownst to us, our hotel was located in one of the biggest party districts in the city. What was supposed to be a quick walk to the convenience store turned out to be our first introduction to downtown Bangkok: Buddhist shrines located next to clubs with thumping bass, bars full of scantily-dressed Thai women and extremely creepy-looking white men, families with children sharing the sidewalk with drunken tourists and suit-clad businessmen, and street vendors selling everything from shawarma to weed to sex toys. It was fascinating and also a sensory overload we weren't entirely prepared for. 

Our first full day in Bangkok we decided to visit the Phra Nakhon district, the central part of Bangkok and home to the Royal Palace and some of the best-known temples in the city. The best way to get there was via subway, and conveniently we would need to walk through Lumphini Park, one of Bangkok's many city parks, in order to get there. We got breakfast along the way and got to the park a little after 10 AM, which meant it was starting to get hot. Thankfully there were lots of shaded walkways, and wintertime in Thailand is dry enough that we didn't even get particularly sweaty. The park itself was gorgeous: wide, easy-to-navigate sidewalks, a series of nice ponds and fountains, family friendly features with playgrounds and lots of grassy areas fit for picnics, and very clean and well-maintained. It was a night and day difference from Manila, where any green area is guaranteed to either be cemented over to be turned into a new mall or closed off to the public to become a golf course or polo club because only rich people should have access.

The Bangkok skyline from Lumphini Park

Even though it was late morning, there were still some birds around: many Common Mynas and Great Mynas, spectacularly-patterned Black-collared Starlings, Olive-backed Sunbirds, Streak-eared Bulbuls, Oriental Magpie-robins, and an inordinate number of Large-billed Crows. To my surprise we also happened across an immature Asian Openbill hanging out by one of the ponds, always a nice bird to see! In a little wooded area we saw a Black-naped Monarch and a migratory Asian Brown Flycatcher, the most common migrant flycatcher in mainland Southeast Asia. The ponds were absolutely full of enormous Common Water Monitors, as well as Malayan Snail-eating Turtles and introduced Red-eared Sliders. 

Asian Openbill

Black-collared Starling

Large-billed Crow, one of over 100 in the park!

Female Oriental Magpie-Robin

Male Oriental Magpie-Robin

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Common Water Monitor

Malayan Snail-eating Turtle

The metro was on the other side of Lumphini Park and it proved to be very impressive- clean, easy to navigate, and affordable to boot. It's the sort of public transportation system the Philippines deserves, and could absolutely have if not for quite possibly the world's most disastrous urban planning. Unfortunately the prevailing political climate at the moment is "Filipinos don't deserve nice things and if you complain about anything you're a communist", so I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

We spent midday walking around Phra Nakhon, enjoying its many temples and palaces. We decided to enter the royal palace, which despite officially being the residence of the Thai royal family is also open to the public (presumably the royal family actually lives in a separate section, or have a secret palace somewhere else that's not full of gawping tourists). I can't put my actual opinions of the King or of monarchies in general in this blog since I want to be allowed back into Thailand when I decide to return, but what I will say is that they certainly know how to make cool palaces. The royal residence includes a very large and elaborately-decorated temple, as well as museums and some very cool architecture showing the various cultural influences in Bangkok: Thai, Chinese, Indian, and even some Western-inspired buildings designed by one of the anglophile kings in the 19th century. This isn't really a blog about temples and I forgot to use my wide-angle lens while I was there, but I did greatly enjoy seeing the unique architecture and religious imagery, despite being shamefully ignorant of the meaning of much of it. 

After the temple we had a late lunch in a nearby market, and promptly realized we were too zonked after lots of travel and walking around in the hot sun to do anything but go home and rest. That night I was introduced to the wonders of Pad Kra Pao (Thai minced pork with basil), which has to be one of my absolute favorite new dishes anywhere in the world. On December 27, we rented a car and headed down to the salt pans of Pak Thaler for a certain spoon-shaped target bird, but that will have to be saved for another blog entry. 

December 28 was mostly another relaxed day, recuperating from a long day squinting at shorebirds through a spotting scope, and I didn't really get out until the late afternoon, when I decided to explore Benchakitti Park, another city park near our hotel. It proved to be much better than I had expected: an extensive park full of small ponds and restored wetlands made using recycled sewage water, all with an elevated walkway that made it easy to go walking, jogging, or of course birding. In fact, it gave me a nice eye-level view of many birds like Coppersmith Barbets, and a birds-eye view of some wetland birds including White-breasted Waterhen, Plain Prinia, Greater Coucal, White-breasted Waterhen, Scaly-breasted Munia, and even another Asian Openbill. The biggest surprise of the afternoon was a beautiful (but distant) Asian Emerald Cuckoo, an uncommon migrant to Bangkok and a lifer for me- one of the only ones I got in Bangkok proper.

Scaly-breasted Munia

Great Myna

Plain Prinia

White-breasted Waterhen

Asian Openbill

Coppersmith Barbet- the most common barbet in Asia but a real gem of a bird

Greater Coucal

Asian Emerald Cuckoo

Benchakiti Park

The next morning Nikki and I visited Benchakitti Park again for a sunrise walk before getting breakfast. There were lots of birds there once again, including the same birds from the previous day and some new birds for my Thailand list like Black-winged Cuckooshrike, Plain-backed Sparrow, and Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker. I was once again impressed with how easy birds were to photograph in Thailand- a mark of well-maintained city parks, and crucially a lack of people running around with slingshots... but I digress. I tried to do a little swiftlet photography with the Germain's Swiftlets and Asian Palm Swifts circling around the park, but as usual it was only a partial success- despite my nice new lens the autofocus of my camera was still lagging behind. Thankfully I've now since upgraded!

Plain Prinia

Streak-eared Bulbul

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker

Plaintive Cuckoo

Oriental Magpie Robin

Plain-backed Sparrow

Germain's Swiftlet

Asian Palm Swift

White-collared Starling

Black-winged Cuckooshrike

Common Myna

Common Water Monitor

The Bangkok skyline from Benchakiti

That afternoon, we headed back to downtown Bangkok to check out Wat Pho, one of the best-known temples in Thailand. This time we learned from our mistakes and actually hired a guide, who was able to tell us the symbolism and religious significance of the various temples, murals and sculptures, making us feel just a little bit less ignorant. The long history of Thailand and its status as the only country in Southeast Asia never to have been colonized is actually incredibly fascinating, and it's something I plan to read up on quite a bit more before I return. 

The famous reclining Buddha of Wat Pho

That evening we took a ferry down the Chao Phraya River, enjoying Bangkok's impressive (and surprisingly unique for a major city) skyline. We had street food for dinner at the famous night market of Chinatown, including some tasty dumplings and a papaya salad so spicy it had me practically hallucinating. The joys of Thailand!

Temples on the Chao Phraya River

The Rama IX Bridge over the Chao Phraya

The Chinatown night market

December 30 was our last full day in Bangkok, and I decided to spend the morning in Queen Sirikit Park, one of the largest of Bangkok's parks and perhaps the one best known to birders. Recently it had played host to a vagrant Malayan Night Heron and a long-staying Blue-winged Pitta, neither of which were lifers for me but were definitely the sort of bird I'm always happy to see again. It was also known for hosting other migrant birds, including the odd vagrant from time to time. 

It proved to be a very good park indeed for birding- at least once I found the right spot, as it's actually two parks right next to each other, only one of which is good for birding. I found a nice wooded corner that had a couple of Ashy Drongos, some whooping Asian Koels, and a nice little mixed flock of small birds, including Yellow-browed Warblers, Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers, and a single Verditer Flycatcher. More open areas held Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, White-breasted Waterhens, Oriental Magpie-Robins, Malaysian Pied Fantails, Taiga Flycatchers, and some beautiful Indochinese Rollers. I spotted a couple of photographers taking pictures of something above them, which proved to be a very sleepy Spotted Owlet. It was even decent for mammals- lots of Finlayson's Squirrels and (to my surprise) Northern Tree Shrews were running around the trees, and I even saw a tiny Himalayan Striped Squirrel, Asia's answer to North American chipmunks. In the ponds I saw a Yellow-headed Temple Turtle, a herp lifer and somehow my third species of turtle in Bangkok (I've never seen any in the Philippines!). 

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Asian Pied Starling

Male Asian Koel

Ashy Drongo

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

Yellow-browed Warbler

White-breasted Waterhen

Malaysian Pied Fantail

Oriental Magpie Robin

Indochinese Roller

Spotted Owlet

Taiga Flycatcher

Finlayson's Squirrel- an introduced invasive in the Philippines, but I believe Thailand is their native range.

Northern Treeshrew- incredibly weird to see treeshrews running around city sidewalks!

Yellow-headed Temple Turtle

I spent longer than I should have wandering around the park trying to find the stakeout for the Malayan Night Heron and Blue-winged Pitta, which I knew would be full of photographers. I finally found it just as I was ready to give up, in an unassuming corner between a small canal and some trash cans. There were indeed several photographers there with a blind and mealworms- the usual Asia bird photography setup, but no night heron or pitta, both of which had apparently disappeared just a couple of days ago. All I aw for my efforts there was a single Eyebrowed Thrush coming in to eat mealworms.

Eyebrowed Thrush

I ended up liking Bangkok quite a bit more than I thought I would- it's a total sensory overload and a truly global city, but the food, culture, and history are very hard to beat. Add to that a good public transportation system, cheap cost of living, and some excellent parks and other public areas and I can see why many people choose to live there. Still, we were happy to be moving on to quieter parts in the next part of our trip, in Chiang Mai.