Bangkok Tourist Attraction Review: Birdwatching in Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan Park/ Bang Krachao, the Green lung of Bangkok

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E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.

Thursday 31 ^st of December 2015 and my alarm went off at 8 o'clock as all the other days. My plan is to get on my way to the Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan Park as early as possible for some Bangkok birdwatching. I have been trying to get away to Chiang Mai and Hua Hin. Or any other place for that matter, but the New Year's holiday and no Guides or hotel room available.

Yet again, I found use of Nick Upton's excellent webpage www.thaibirding.com for HOT birdwatching tip for the Bangkok area on his web page. Read his review by clicking HERE

I was surprised, there were quite a few good birdwatching sites in Bangkok and I decided to start with the Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan Park. We should have been there yesterday, but, well, she said she would be here early morning but it was past 1 when she arrived. So I decided to skip the birdwatching in the Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan Park. And anyway, you are better off walking alone trying to be as quiet as possible.

And well, we ended up at a restaurant instead. Not what I and my diet had in plan. But it was a nice restaurant and not Tony Roma's. I was kind of disappointed last time.

Anyway, I brought my new A Photographic Guide to Birds of Thailand by Michael Webster andChew Yen that fitted perfect in my back pocket. I took my Canon with the 28 to 300m lens and I went to look for a taxi.

I also brought my phone to use as map. There is a small ferry going from Klong Toey across the Chao Phraya River. But as I didn't knew where the ferry stop was or how to find the park I decided to take a taxi. And coming out on the street it was like the Red Shirt protests back in May 2010.Not a car around and it took some time to find a taxi.

We were soon on Rama III road and when we came to the Industrial Ring Road we left Rama III and we were soon on Bhumibol 1 Bridge crossing the Chao Phraya River and we left the Industrial Ring Road before the Bhumibol 2 Bridge crossing the Chao Phraya River again.

Chao Phraya River makes a loop so Bhumibol 2 Bridge cross the river just south of the 800m wide tongue of land that the river goes around.

The Bhumibol Bridges looks quite nice and it is the first time I have passed the bride so this was a wee bit of morning excitements. Well, by now it was about 10 o'clock so it was not so very early anymore. I was a wee bit slow to get out of bed and to get on my way.

Bhumibol 1 Bridge

Bhumibol 1 Bridge

Bhumibol 1 Bridge

We were soon across the bridge and my driver told me that he knew the Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan Park. But we were soon stopping to ask for directions. I told him to continue straight, but hedidn't want to listen to me. And that is even though there were signs for the Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan Park every 500 meter. And well...

As I said the guy we asked told us to continue straight and so we did.

2 minutes later the guy came with his girlfriend on a motorcycle. They told us to follow them, yeah, they are really going the extra mile to make sure we find the park. And that is exactly the spirit were looking for. I could get out of the taxi 5 minutes later or so and I entered the Sri Nakorn Kuen KhanPark. I could hear a lot of birds already before entering so this was promising.

The first thing I discovered was something looking like a landfill between the trees. Yeah, what to expect, they throw garbage everywhere!

Meanwhile, the Cigarette Police are busy scamming tourists on Sukhumvit Road. NO SHAME!!

Looking around the park and there were plastic bottles and garbage just thrown on the ground and in the water. Bang Krachao บางกระเจ้า, the Green lung of Bangkok and no one seems to care about the place. Anyway, Iwalked around and I could hear plenty birds in and around the park. But it was not easy to see any birds.

First time for me birding or birdwatching so I need practice. And to take pictures, well, to take pictures of birds are not easy so this will require plenty practice.

To spot the birds, same as my safari in Africa, the first days I could see nothing unless the Driver/ Guide pointed out the animals for me. But after a few days I spotted the animals, sometimes even before my Guide. So practice itis. And what a beautiful surroundings to practice in. I really liked it here. Well, of course,all the f***ing garbage drove me crazy, otherwise it was a beautiful park to walk in.

I meet 2 guys and a girl from Chiang Mai. They were from a birding club in Chiang Mai called Lan Na, Millions of rice fields. And I had a chat with them.

They were here for birding and I told them that I did this park today and tomorrow I would go to Suan Rot Fai/ Queen Sirikit Park tomorrow. Turned out that they were going to visit the Suan Rot Fai/ Queen Sirikit Park. But they would do it in the afternoon. I have never been in the Suan Rot Fai/ Queen Sirikit Park before. But I thought that it was an“ambiscious” program and I doubted that they would manage.

They were on bicycles they had rented and the second time I ran in to them they told me that it was a stupid idea with the bicycles. They were going to park their bicycles and start towalk around the park “Aladdin” style.

Of course, if you're looking for birds you cannot hiss around on a bicycle. Walking slowly lookingup the trees listening for twitter from the birds.

I passed a small bridge and there were a small walk path built like a wooden bridge.

Bicycling not allowed and I walked to the end of the bridge. Ended up on a small platform in a small pond. While approaching the platform there was a Small Egret lifting landing in the tree. I tried to sneakout on the platform to get some pictures of the Little Egret. Yeah, fat chance, suddenly there was a Thai family of 9 coming out on the bridge.

They were wearing bicycle helmets so they had parked their pushbikes as it was not allowed to use them on the bridge. It was screaming and selfies non foocking stop and whatever hope I had to see anything was down the drain. I asked them if it was impossible to shut up while taking all the stupid selfies. One of the girls asked me where I came from.
- I don't have time for you, I'm watching birds
- I don't see any birds
- Yeah, and you don't understand why?

They left and I had the platform and platform for myself. I was watching the Little Egret fishing on the other side and I got a few pictures .

At the pond

At the pond

Bird watching tower

View from the Bird watching tower

Some TWAT have had the kindness to foock up the place for us by disposing his plastic bottle

A raft is provided for us if we want to cross the water

Walking along the Eastern border to the park on my way back

Walking along the Eastern border to the park on my way back

It is a beautiful park

I continued and I passed a pond, but I never saw anything interesting. Well, I didn't see anything at all in the pond and I continued my birdwatching. I was soon reaching the bird watching tower,and again, I saw nothing.

Even though I didn't saw any birds it was a nice area to walk in. This is of course my first time ever bird watching so maybe that is the reason for me not spotting any birds.

I was back at the gate after 4 hours, and as I had suspected when I came here. No taxi! I asked for the way to the boat pier.

4 hours and 4 different birds, well, I had seen some more birds but the pictures was not good enough to use for any identification. Well, the Crow was easy to identify. I saw plenty monitor lizards in the ponds around the Sri Nakorn KuenKhan Park/ Bang Krachao - บางกระเจ้า

4 hours in the heat and I was thirsty, no place to buy water in the park. So I bought a bottle of water outside the gate.

There is one kiosk and on the other side of the road there is someone selling food, normal street food so I never tried this. They are there the whole day. No sign of any bathroom and where to they wash their hands.

Some of the birds I spotted at Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan Park/
Bang Krachao - บางกระเจ้า - The Green lung of Bangkok

Olive-backed Sunbird

Common Myna - นกเอี้ยงสาริกา

Little Egret - นกยางเปีย

Ashy Drongo / นกแซงแซวสีเทา

Of course, all bird pictures available on my Thailand
bird checklist of bird I have seen by clicking HERE

No sign of any taxi so I started to walk towards Chao Phraya River and the boat pier. I checked the time when I left the park to see how long time it would take to walk down to the boat pier. Iwas walking slowly looking for birds stopped for a chat with the locals along the way.

Even though I heard plenty birds walking to the boat pier I could not see any of them. 5 minutes or so and I reached a small intersection. I asked a guy on a motorcycle and I should continue straight ahead to reach the boat pier and the boat back to Klong Toey and Bangkok City

Even though we had left the park we were in a green area. But there were houses around under the trees and it looked to be a nice area. And then, as I was pondering during the birding in the park. How to make noises to scare away the snakes but not the birds? That is a hard on to solve.And for sure, there are snakes around and that's one of the reasons I don't like to walk around in the long grass.

I shat myself earlier in the park. I was almost stepping on one of the monitor lizards. Yeah, I was looking for birds up the trees. Imagine if it would have been a snake. But the monitor lizard was more scared than me and he jumped in to thedirty water with a big splash.

The last few hundred meters I had company by an old guy from Japan and we talked about the park. He had enjoyed his stay as well. There was a restaurant on the pier, same as with the street side stalls. I don't eat at places like this. There was a kiosk and you could rent pushbikes there. I asked where to buy the ticket to the boat. But you had to pay the ticket when you got of the boat on the Bangkok “city” side.

Port of Bangkok from the Bang Krachao side

Bangkok from the Bang Krachao side

Bangkok from the Bang Krachao side

Passengers getting off the boat

New passengers boarding the boat

On the boat back to Bangkok

On the boat back to Bangkok

Arriving to Klong Toey

The boat made one more stop on the Bang Krachao side of the Chao Phraya River before we crossed the river to Klong Toey. Of course, I forgot to check the time when I reached the boat pier. But I checked when I was sitting in the taxi in Klong Toey on my way to the hospital. 30 minutes since I left the park so it was not bad. I can really recommend a visit to the park

How to kill a day in Bangkok #20
Review: Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan Park/ Bang Krachao บางกระเจ้า the Green lung of Bangkok

Fee:Free
Web page:No web page, but search the internet for Sri Nakorn Kuen Khan Park/ Bang Krachao, the Green lung of Bangkok
Address:Bang Krachao Island
Tel:N/A
Mobile:N/A
Opening Hours:Every Day 07:00 - 17:00 Not sure about this

There were paved bicycle/ walking paths around the park. But it didn't get exciting until you left the paths. I was there during a holiday so the park was full of people and bicycling and throwing garbage seems to be the thing people are coming here for.

I was here for bird watching and I could hear many different birds. I saw s few birds but I only got pictures to identify the below birds:
Olive-backed Sunbird - นกกินปลีอกเหลือง
Little Egret - นกยางเปีย
Common Myna - นกเอี้ยงสาริกา
Ashy Drongo / นกแซงแซวสีเทา
See my birding page by clicking HERE for the latest sightings

There is a birdwatching tower. There were quite a few dust paths to discover the forest. Mangrove marsh and there was even a raft so you could cross the water. A pond with frogs, birds and fishes. And I spotted several Monitor Lizards and fishes while walking around the park. So there was plenty wild life.

There were also many informative signs and information in the park.

Rated:

Yes, definitely a very good experience and could very easilyhave been rated if it wasn't for all the garbage they throw around.

I spent 4 hours walking around the park and I can really recommend a visit to the park. A hot tip is to buy water in the “kiosk” outside the park as there is nothing for sale in the park. BUT REMEMBER TO THROW THE GARBAGE IN THE BINS!!!!! Then you have done what you can. If they empty the bins in the park, well, what to do?

ENJOY!
Review Man

How to get there:
Get the MRT to Klong Toey subway station and from there you can take a taxi to the Klong Toey pier. Just 50 meters before reaching the gate to the Port of Bangkok there is a gateway on your right hand side, the entrance into the Wat Klong Toey complex. Walk along this narrow road and after about 200m you will see the river and a small pier.

IT IS NOT A CRUISING TERMINAL!! IT IS A HOLE IN THE WALL STYLED “TERMINAL”

It cost 5 Baht to cross the river. There are two stops across the river but you should get off at the first pier. Just a few minutes across the river and you are almost in the jungle

Rent a bicycle at the boat station, walk or take a motorcycle taxi. How long it is to walk? I don't know. I walked from the park, slowly looking at birds talking to the locals. 30 minutes after I left the park I was sitting in a taxi in Klong Toey. So it is not very long!

Of course, you can do as I did and take a taxi all the way here. But to get back the boat seems to be the only option as I could not see any taxis outside the park. But this came as no surprise.

Anyway, when leaving the park you just board the boat and you pay the fare on the boat pier in Klong Toey! 5 Baht December 2015

I have a nast wound on my left leg since I was in the Philippines and I decided to go to Camillian Hospital on Thong Lor. After my latest bill from Bumrungrad I decided never to go there again.You should not feel like you have been scammed when you leave a hospital.

Anyway, I'm off for my Indian safari on Tuesday and I want my wound to be good by then. And there issome pain in the leg so I'm better off checking it out.

As usually at Camillian, not long waiting time and I was soon in theEmergency room. I laid down on one of the beds and they had a look at my leg. They told me that it looked badand a real cleaning was necessary. Antibiotic and a tetanus shot.

I'm having tetanus to last me until 2023 but better save than sorry.

Seemed like the whole staff came to have a look at my leg and I was there like “please hurry up” But they took their time but it felt very nice when they were ready and I had a gauze around my leg. Earlier today in the park there were some disgustingthings running down the leg from the wound.

I went out to pay my bill and then I was back in to get my tetanus shot and a bag of things to wrap my leg with.

They wanted me to come back every day to redo the cleaning and wrapping of the leg.
- WOAH WOAH!! Hold your horses! I can do this by myself!

We agreed that I would be back on Saturday for a recheck of the leg. I took my bag with my new stuff and I returned Paracetamol and I got 60 Baht back. I was soon in a taxi on my way back homewith a new BRILLIANT plan that will never back fire.

New Year's Eve or not, I will be in bed early and I will be quite early at the Suan Rot Fai Park tomorrow to check out the birds. The whole of Bangkok will be home suffering ahangover from the New Year's Eve festivities and I have the park all by lonesome.

BOOM SCHACKA FOOCKING LACKA! That sounds like the greatest plan ever. And you, you can relax with your hangover and when you're ready you just need to click HERE to find out if I got to see any birds. This will for sure be more fun than a hangover!

Merry New Year!!

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