August, northern Thailand. Report

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Bad Den, 03.09.2009 16:25

So, northern Thailand, August 02-19, 2009.
Upon arrival from Bangkok to Chang Mai (round trip ticket 3,100 baht), we immediately started trying to contact the local Chang Mai resident, who was supposed to provide us with a generator and other useful information. However, on the phone, the electric taika spoke, something similar in meaning to " subscriber is not a subscriber." Well, there's nothing to do, we had to settle the situation ourselves. We checked into the guesthouse "Chiangmai Inn" (350 baht / day for a room with air conditioning), on the advice of the airport taxi driver (delivery from the airport/to the airport 120 baht). To adapt, acclimatize, rent a scooter ("motorbike" in local English; at first we haggled for 160 baht/day Honda Airblade (125 cm3, automatic transmission), but it required too frequent refueling runs (91 petrol, an average of 35 baht/liter), so later it was removed replaced with a similar performance, but less voracious Yamaha Nuovo user posted image for the same 160 baht / day) and other culinary joys, it took a whole day, so the next day, renting a generator (3900 baht, Chinese no name for 950 Chinese watts), we went on a test trip to the surrounding area. A suitable place was found in the area of Samoeng'a.
We set up a tent and started fishing. Among the beetles, the first prey was the weevil Cyrtotrachelus sp., user posted image mustache Aristobia approximator and under the cow cakes, they picked up several types of dung beetles-scarab. The main hopes were placed on night fishing. Alas, the miracle of Chinese generator construction turned out to be incompatible with the products of the domestic lighting industry, and could not produce the 220 V and 250 W required by the lamp "on the mountain". The lamp was lit in the mode of 1 minute running-2.5 resting. In the end, the generator safely expired. After returning, and exchanging the generator for a product of the Hyno brand (+500 baht, partially made in Japan, honest 650 watts). It should be noted that this generator did not let us down even once, ensuring an uninterrupted supply of electricity to the light bulb, and insects to us.
After completing all the preparations for a short trip, we rented a second scooter and headed north towards Chiang Rai, as usual looking for a parking spot along the way. The highway passes through Khun Chae National Park. At the 68th kilometer, a suitable place, as it seemed to us, was found (in the form of a kind of camping site). Judging by the map, we should have already left the national park, so without much excitement, we set up a camp, installed a screen and began to remove representatives of the local entomofauna from the nature. The employees of the national park who were in the campsite (as it turned out later) did not show any interest in us. In the morning, we continued fishing, and the same employees began to assist us-pointing fingers at flying insects, in particular at the golden beetle Sternocera cf.aequisignata. user posted image
A separate word must be said about the cicadas. I've only read before that their songs sound 1 to 1 like various man-made noises, but somehow I didn't really believe it. However, after hearing the sound of a circular saw in the middle of the forest, and then seeing the "sawmill" itself (Tocena sp.), user posted image I believed it. Cicadas also flew into the light, hitting the screen with a bang (especially giant Pomponia sp.) and began to squeal frantically when they were picked up.
However, all good things come to an end sooner or later – the authorities of the rangers from the campsite arrived and, using the phone with an English-speaking volunteer Peter, they explained to us that we were located on the territory of a national park, we did not have permits for catching insects, and therefore this very fishing was illegal. So that no one would have any problems, we were ordered to hand over what we had caught in the national park to representatives of the administration, which we partially did, and then quickly got out.
We moved back towards Chang Mai. Since the time was already late and it started raining badly (who rode a motorcycle in the rain? It was not very convenient to set up tents, so we decided to check into a village hotel. According to the law of meanness, there were no hotels in the way. However, after a while, we were lucky – the hotel "Pang Faen Resort" user posted image she was ready to provide us with shelter for a nominal fee of 800 baht / day per room, food/beer/juices / water separately. After coping with an attack of amphibiogenic asphyxia, we agreed. We checked in, urgently deployed a screen on the terrace and began to catch. This time, a stab DRL lamp played a fatal role-the taler burned our eyes and we had to stay for 2 days in this hotel. Nevertheless, the catch (on my site) was not bad – a small male rhino Xylotrupes gideon user posted image , barbel Cyriopalus wallacei , a pair of bronzes from the Cremastochelini tribe, interesting pipe turns , racehorses Sophiodela aurulenta and Neocollyris sp.
Further towards Chang Mai, the next parking spot was designated as Huai Kaeo Village. A special nuisance there was delivered to me by small semi-wandering ants (I forgot the species). These scoundrels apparently decided that heaven had sent them a huge piece of meat in my person that would ensure the growth of GDP and economic prosperity of their colony, and through this they made furious and not unsuccessful attempts to get into my tent and drag me piece by piece to their place of compact residence. A wake-up call at around 6 a.m. from being chewed by a lot of little mandibles, a call to their ant mother, a feverish shake – off-yyyyy, the morning has begun! Night treatments of the tent perimeter with Gardex, which burned the grass, had little effect on ants user posted image . They also attacked the screen, busily selecting and taking the most nutritious insects to their bins. However, to compensate for the inconvenience, Krsna has provided us with a fairly good experience at this point.
We returned to Chang Mai for 2 days, with a keen desire to eat, wash and so on. We didn't manage to check in to our favorite "Chiangmai Inn" – "mesto nema", we had to check in to "Lek House & Vegetarian Restaurant" (200 baht/day for a room with a fan, 400 – with air conditioning).
The next, final departure was planned in a southerly direction from Chang Mai, towards Doi Inthanon Park. This national park is the most serious, there are security cordons at the entrance, entry is paid, 100 baht for a motorbike and 20 baht per person. We didn't bother with the park itself – we spared the money and spent a couple of days wandering around the area, including fishing at the hot springs of Thep Panom (we stayed in a bungalow and shared it with a freaky-sized gecko) user posted image .

Comments

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Likes: 15

03.09.2009 16:26, Bad Den

There we were first covered by a tropical downpour and there was also the most abundant summer (taler will write on butterflies

From the beetles came a pair of Eupatorus gracilicornis (a male with magnificent horns), several females of other rhinoceros species, several Lepidiota stigma crunches, a gorgeous Lymexylonidae, and several ground beetles?Catascopus sp., barbel Hoplocerambyx spinicornis, Apriona germari, 2 or 3 other species. I attach a photo of the screen

Well, where is it without ants? The same view, the same food program, but this time they simply chewed through the wall of my tent, and they didn't forget about the screen. Taler had to use weapons of mass destruction (here it is ,the "asymmetric response of the Israeli military"

)
Actually, this was the end of our fishing trip, then there was a problematic return to Chang Mai (my scooter's CVT died and it refused to go uphill, I had to catch a pickup truck both with gestures and in Russian – the Thai didn't understand English anyway – to explain that we should get to the highway by loading the motorbike into the body; the Thai understood and agreed), shock from the fact that the insects did not dry out partially moldy (urgently dry in the gentle and hot Thai sun), flight back (passed through customs without problems), well, then you know

More photos, including selected mattresses

will be mastered for the weekend.

This post was edited by Bad Den - 09/04/2009 10: 14

Likes: 35

04.09.2009 17:16, taler

Yes, a photo of the screen after an hour of fishing.Very weak with insects.By 2 a.m., all sides of the screen are covered with small scoops (such as gamma) like mussels on a rock.Again, it all depends on the fishing point.The 2nd points found were very plentiful.There was everything-scoops, cossids (incredibly large, which did not fly,but stubbornly crawled), saturnias, dippers, cocoonworms and, of course, hawkmoth.There were up to 30 species per night,for a total of under a hundred.
The hardest part is finding a place.For my screen, I need a "bombardment" of at least 50-70 meters.There are not many such places in the north.Any clearing is used by locals for rice and other agricultural purposes.

This post was edited by taler-09/04/2009 17: 22

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Likes: 20

07.09.2009 0:10, taler

Bad Den, Taler, congratulations on a successful trip!!! I dream of driving to Chiang Mai myself. Who did you rent the generator from? Or is it a common business in that place and there is no problem? Please tell us a little more.

With the generator as luck would have it.We can say that we were lucky twice with a break.First, we asked the manager of our "dorm" where you can get it, and a miracle-he said that his friend keeps just such a store(there is a separate conversation about Thai shops, there is everything,electrical goods, musical goods, food, etc., etc.
The generator that we took turned out to be, to put it mildly, a shitty one, apparently with software, it worked for 1 minute and rested for 5, i.e. furchal, but it did not give the necessary relics.By midnight, his program loudly said "EK!!!" and he didn't grumble any more.This is a break in luck.But then we got a more capable one, although he also had to blow out the corburetor in field conditions and clean the candle.
In short, you can find it,and then for luck and luck.Check on the spot by connecting electrical appliances of the required power.We connected a 550W disk in the store.It worked fine,and this was the second luck.

Likes: 1

07.09.2009 10:07, Solarway

With the generator as luck would have it.We can say that we were lucky twice with a break.First, we asked the manager of our "dorm" where you can get it, and a miracle-he said that his friend keeps just such a store(there is a separate conversation about Thai shops, there is everything,electrical goods, musical goods, food, etc., etc.
The generator that we took turned out to be, to put it mildly, a shitty one, apparently with software, it worked for 1 minute and rested for 5, i.e. furchal, but it did not give the necessary relics.By midnight, his program loudly said "EK!!!" and he didn't grumble any more.This is a break in luck.But then we got a more capable one, although he also had to blow out the corburetor in field conditions and clean the candle.
In short, you can find it,and then for luck and luck.Check on the spot by connecting electrical appliances of the required power.We connected a 550W disk in the store.It worked fine,and this was the second luck.

Thank you for the information!

By the way, anyone who wants to listen to the" singing " of cicadas, here is a link(judging by the video, this is one of the Japanese species): The Cicada Listen from the 40th second.

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