Thailand - Haadson resort - part 2

In the middle of the day, when it was hot, we returned to our villa. And I took my position on the shady terrace again. Again I met some new birds, like this Black-naped oriole (Oriolus chinensis), that looks very bright yellow in flight.

The Water monitor came by again, maybe not the same one as the day before. None of the ones that we saw here were really big, maybe a good meter long.

And then I got really excited again - there was a Greater racquet-tailed drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus) on a tree across the pond. What a sight! Look at those long feathers in the tail, it looks like a bird of paradise!

This package made of leaves was constructed by ants, I guess there is a nest inside it. It is sealed really well from all sides, it is a great way to keep the nest dry in the rain.

In the evening we tried another restaurant and the food was really good, so it became our favourite restaurant here. Tomaz started the dinner off with fresh young coconut of course. 

Since we were on the West coast, there was a beautiful sunset over the sea every evening.

Next day there was a new opportunity to do some bird watching. And we saw the Greater racquet-tailed drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus) again, this time even a bit closer. 

Two Common tailorbirds (Orthotomus sutorius) came to browse through the small bushes around our terrace. They were really fast and I could either photograph their behind with the funny raised tail...

...or their face when they were checking me out and assessing if I am a threat. They are seriously cute.

We also saw the White-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) again.

With all the pretty birds and animals I almost forgot to take photos of plants, that were no less pretty - this is the Beach morning glory (Ipomoea pes-caprae).

I had to make a photo of these two Lineated barbets (Psilopogon lineatus) having a snack on the palm tree across the pond. It looks like they were looking back at me.

And this was surely the highlight of the day - while I was sitting very still and quiet on our terrace, the Northern treeshrew (Tupaia belangeri) came running by, as if it didn't even notice me. My first thought was - I've seen this animal before! In Surin islands, one evening we saw it as we were approaching our bungalow, but it ran away very quickly.

I was in dilemma wether this is a Common treeshrew (Tupaia glis) or Northern treeshrew, they are very similar, but the distribution of Northern one is more in the North Thailand, and Common one in the South Thailand and Malesia. But the Northern treeshrew has more prominent white eye ring, so I am tipping on this one.

Here is our beach again, with the chairs and umbrellas where we sat often, usually in the morning, when there was still shade there, and sometimes in the evening, when we came for an evening swim after the dinner.

On the sand I found a Lemon Migrant (Catopsilia pomona).

And we met this guy several times, with its unusual fishing net.

From the morning swim in the sea we usually went to the pool, there was a great shade there and not a lot of people, but plenty of birds. This Black-naped oriole (Oriolus chinensis) was eating the red berries...

...but every now and again checked me out.

This is probably one of the White-eyes, it might be a Hume's White-eye (Zosterops auriventer), I am not sure.

And this is the male Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus) with its red eyes. These guys are really loud and I read somewhere that they are the most annoying Asian birds. I don't think so, to me all the sounds were very new and interesting.

Then we returned to our villa and from our terrace I saw the Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) walking by.

Also the Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops) flew to the nearby tree, unfortunately it was partially hidden by the branch.

While I was focused so much on the birds, I almost missed the fish in the pond - besides these, that I unfortunately couldn't identify, there were even bigger, darker and more elongated ones, that came to the surface very rarely for only a short moment.

On our last day we visited our favourite restaurant once more, this is our nice waitress on the photo with us. 

On the beach we found a skeleton of a coral, that looks like a bouquet of flowers.

Next morning we finished packing and went for a breakfast. Even from our table I could see and hear plenty of birds, and I had to take a photo of the Olive-backed sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis)...

...and the Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier).

At 9 in the morning we were picked up by our private cab that took us to the Phuket airport. This was the last pretty sight before our flight home - the orchids around the airport smoking area.

The flight was long and the space very limited, but after 15 hours we finally landed in Slovenija. And after another hour and a half we were home.

It was a really a great holiday, that provided me with tons of material for many posts. We were really lucky with the resorts that we booked, Baan Krating was beautiful, with great views and surroundings and all the complimentary drinks and fruits. The three days on Surin islands were spectacular, with all the fishes, corals, and also monkeys and flying lemurs. And even the accommodation and food were pretty good there. And the Haadson resort was such a nice surprise - we were planing to mostly chill and be lazy on the beach and at the pool for the last couple of the days of our holiday, and never did I expect that there were so many birds and animals in the resort's tropical garden and that it would be such a joy to observe and photograph them.

 

All the underwater photos were taken with my trusty 7-year old Olympus TG6. Almost all the above-water photos were taken with my phone, new iPhone 17 pro. I am very happy with it, with my old one I would probably be able to make only a few photos of birds, only when birds were very close. Of course a phone can't compare to a good DSLR camera with a tele lens, but if you take a look at the second post about Similan islands, there is a photo of two Pacific reef egrets there and on the previous photo the egrets are also already there on the rock and you might see them as two small black dots and if you compare both photos, the phone really did a great job. And there is another big plus - after taking a photo with the phone, it suggests the name of the animal or plant on the photo, if it is distinct enough. As you can imagine, this made the identification of especially birds, for which I don't have so many books, much easier. Finally a really good use of AI.

We might have not been so very lucky with the food this time, but we still had some great meals. But still it seems that two years ago in Koh Lanta and Koh Lipe the food was better, I remember a great seafood curry served in a young coconut in our Koh Lanta  Coco Cape Lanta resort, or best ever pad thai from the street vendor "Pad Thai on Fire" in Ban Sala Dan village. Or the best green curry in restaurant in Serendipity resort in Koh Lipe, where the waiter, when I asked him how spicy the green curry was, said, as spicy as it is supposed to be and if I don't like spicy, can I please choose another dish. We went there twice. But it is only fair that I mention some of the really good food we had this time - the delicious shrimps in fried red curry paste in Bang Niang market, or red curry in Golden Elephant in Nang Thong village, which was Thai-spicy and great (we also tried Thai-spicy green papaya salad and it was quite brutal, the waiter came by couple of times to ask us if we were ok!). Also the first dinner in Surin islands was fantastic, the fried fish, vegetables, prawn fritters etc. And we also had couple of really good dishes in Bangsak kitchen near Haadson resort. For next time we visit Thailand we just need to remember to ask for Thai- spicy food, so they put enough curry paste in the dish, less curry paste doesn't just mean less spicy but also less flavour. But we might want to order the green papaya salad medium-spicy, which only means couple of chillies less and will not hurt the flavour.