Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

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buksida
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Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

Post by buksida »

Following a summer in the UK I was itching to get back on the road in Asia and sniff out some of those undiscovered spots in Thailand once again. This was to be a family trip, however, with a group of eight in total with differing agendas, so I had to go with the flow.

The first stop was the family home in Khanom, Nakhon Si Thammarat province. I’d been there many times before but this time was quite amusing showing our now teenage kids where mum and dad got married all those years ago!

We decided to stay at a hotel we had previously used. However, this turned out to be a bad idea as highlighted in this thread. Accommodation woes aside, the group wanted to take the boat trip to see the famed pink dolphins that live off the coast here. I had done this trip before a couple of years ago so didn’t take many pictures. The boat charter was the same, a thousand baht for all of us, and the dolphins are still there.

Leaving Khanom we drove south to NST city where a few wanted to get off at the main temple in town to ‘tum bhun’ – as it happens the entire province turned up on the same day to make merit also. From there it was south again to a quirky country market place type setup called ‘dtai note’ (ตลาดนัดใต้โหนด) where all kinds of bizarre food I’d never come across was for sale.

From there it was on to our spot for the evening, Thale Noi (‘small sea’) in Phattalung province. This province was a first for me; I’ve been to nearly all of the others in the south. Thale Noi is the smaller ‘lake’ north of the huge inland sea that splits Phattalung and Songkhla. It is a very Thai place and I hadn’t seen another farang for several days now, our residence for the next two nights was Lan Bua, a small Thai run bungalow outfit right on the lake.

The ‘lake’, or wetlands, is famed for its pink lotus flowers which cover a large portion of it at certain times of year, additionally the area has been designated a bird wildlife reserve. An elevated bridge dissects the two bodies of water so we headed out to that for sunset so I could get some shots and test out the new Nikon.

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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

Post by caller »

Great! It looks like the clock has been turned back! Look forward to the next instalment.
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

Post by lomuamart »

Your hotel wasn't in the paddock, was it?
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

Post by lindosfan1 »

Superb photography as usual.
Woke up this morning breathing that's a good start to the day.
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buksida
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

Post by buksida »

lomuamart wrote: Sat Oct 13, 2018 11:43 pm Your hotel wasn't in the paddock, was it?
Would have been quieter than that place in Khanom! Here we stayed at a nice family run place, all good. This place was as far flung from the shiny tourist towns as you can get!
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

Post by buksida »

Anything for a selfie ...
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The bridge was actually a serene spot to take in the sunset. You just had to keep an eye out for the pickup driving lunatics that wanted to use it as a race track.
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

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To appreciate this place at its best you need to take a sunrise tour which we had booked for the following day. The charter was 800 baht for six of us in a small wooden boat around the wetlands for a couple of hours. A 05.30 start ensured that we were at the right spot for the sunrise. Our craft glided across what appeared to be solid land but was in fact a sea of floating foliage. The scenery was simply stunning so I’ll let the camera do the talking …

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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

Post by caller »

Some really stunning pictures there!
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

Post by lindosfan1 »

Superb pictures
Woke up this morning breathing that's a good start to the day.
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

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Our guide took us from the main inland sea back under the elevated bridge into Thale Noi once again to take in the endless pink lotus blooms that stretched as far as the eye could see. The bird life was especially active this time of morning also, unfortunately it was not easy getting shots of them with a telephoto from a moving boat!

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Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

Post by huahinjim »

Great photos. Looking forward to the rest.
Thank you
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

Post by Trevtherev »

Buksida, as stated above some stunning photo's and thanks for sharing these with the forum users. I have been a keen armature photographer since my school days having transitioned from 120, to 110, to 35mm negative and Agfa/Fuji transparencies film, getting to grips with colour development in a cold loft of my first UK house to the current mind boggling world of digital, drones, photoshop and even the odd mobile selfie. In my view your Digital Picture Files (DPF) ref 245, 254 and 268 (fishing structures) are worthy of entry into any competition, and your DPF ref 158, 227, 250, 253 and 258 are equally stunning. Your early start on the boat trip looks to have been well worth the effort. There is no doubt, the dawn, early morning, late afternoon, to the sunset combined with some interesting cloud formations, patience and a steady hand (not too much juice the night before) do create good conditions for producing some cracking shots. Look forward to seeing more.
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

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Thanks for the comments Trev, good to have another photographer on board, feel free to let us know what you're shooting with in the camera and photography thread.

Yes, it does pay off to make that extra effort to chase the light!
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

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Here are a few more of the general area and the bird reserve, the light had faded by this time though ...

Some real fancy government offices there.

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To follow: Trang
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Re: Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

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We left Phattalung behind and motored west into Trang province stopping at a roadside restaurant about half way. Our accommodation for the next couple of days was called Rimnatee, a Thai style place with a pool that we called and got for 800 baht a night (will post links to all accommodations at the end).

Being low season most off the islands of the Trang provincial coast were closed or empty so we sought adventure inland. Around 45 minutes north of Trang town was a cave complex called ‘Tum Le Khao Gop’ (ถ้ำเลเขากอบ) where for 400 baht you can get a boat trip, four to a boat, through the cave. This was another primarily Thai attraction hence the sensible price (it would have been 400 baht per person if in a farang spot). I’d been in many caves before but nothing like this; essentially you are lying prone in the boat as the guide pushes it through the cave, the ceiling of which is less than an inch away from your nose. Definitely not one for the claustrophobic!

I managed a few snaps on the phone but nothing of quality (phones are terrible in low light).

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Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
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