In the last few days of orientation we headed out into the country to the province of Kanchanaburi. The hotel we stayed at was incredibly beautiful… balconies looking out onto groves of palm trees, a Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) fishing in the pond, and a wide lawn meandering down to the River Kwai Yai. The naturalist in me suddenly sprang to full attention, awakened from the relative slumber of being in Bangkok, one of the largest cities in the world.
A Great Mormon butterfly floated past me, its large wings beating intermittently. I think it’s the largest member of the Order Lepidoptera I’ve ever seen!
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| Papilio memnon - a relative of the swallowtail |
Besides my pocket-sized Thai phrasebook, the book I’ve used the most is my Birds of Thailand field guide, given to me as a going-away gift by my boss at the Norman Bird Sanctuary. On the plane I was flipping through it and stopped on a page that caught my eye. There was an illustration of a great black bird with long tendrils extending from the tail, ending in little tufts of feather. It reminded me of that bird in Planet Earth that does the funky mating dance. A Greater Racket-tailed Drongo. I thought to myself “I would love to see that bird!”. Sure enough, my lovely roommate Casey and I were strolling along a raised walkway in Kanchanaburi and I saw it. The black bird with the long, expressive tail. I lost my shit. I ran back to the room, nearly face-planting, to get my camera. Thankfully it chilled in the tree long enough for me to get a few shots.
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| Dicrurus paradiseus |
Our excursion also included a lesson in history when we visited the Bridge Over the River Kwai. World War II history buffs will know the tragic significance of this place. Long expanses of the railroad that runs through Thailand (Siam at the time) to Myanmar (Burma at the time) was built by the forced labor of Allied POW’s. In 1942 the Imperial Japanese Army forced British, Australian, Dutch, and American POW’s along with Asian civilians to work on the railroad in extremely harsh conditions. As a result, about 12,399 POW’s (including 356 Americans) died. It was a somber experience to see not only part of that railroad, but to also see the cemetery in the nearby town where many POW’s were buried. When I saw the cemetery out the bus window, it seemed a strange sight—and I realized I hadn’t seen a single one since I arrived in Thailand. I learned later all Buddhists are cremated, hence no cemeteries. This is in stark contrast to spending the last year of my life in Rhode Island, where there are historical cemeteries everywhere, even behind the parking lot of a strip mall (head behind the Christmas Tree Shop in Middletown and you’ll find it).
Here’s a time-lapse taken while walking over the bridge:
A few more photos from Kanchanaburi:
