This one, Doi Angkhang where we would spend two and a half days.
For two countries with so much in common they seem surprisingly distrustful of each other …
It is otherwise a very pleasant mountain resort as well as a home for four different hill tribes. One of the King’s Projects is situated here and is a splendid botanical garden, both a wonderful tourist destination and a research facility trialing exotic crops that will thrive at altitude and offer something other than opium and illegal logging as sources of income for the local people.
The very first night there we were led on a quest for the Mountain Scops Owl by the indomitable Uthai. Clinging to a cliff side in the depths of the jungle in pitch darkness and guided only by its call Uthai, against all odds, was able to bring a spotlight to bear on this elusive and desirable creature. I would have brought you a photograph but I was clinging to a tree with one hand and fending off the snakes with the other.
But the following morning I had a much easier time taking photographs of more confiding birds …
bobmcgee 