Journal

Khao Yai National Park – Day 1

on
10 March 2012

[ Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 ]
We were considering many places for our next macro trip, from various parks in Borneo to Thailand, and even Australia. Eventually, we settled on Thailand and even paid our friend Ruangyot a visit. 🙂 5D4N of macro madness… what will we find?

Behind the scenes shots from Melvyn’s Sony TX5, Nicky’s Galaxy SII, David’s LX5.

  1. Not enough sleep.. got up early to catch the morning flight to Bangkok!

  2. David and Melvyn on the plane. Where’s Ben?

  3. Arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Sawadee krup!

  4. Waiting for our taxi outside the airport

  5. Inside the taxi. The driver was Mr Cherm, skinny with a full head of white hair!

  6. A simple Thai meal for lunch

  7. Somehow this bag of potato chips looked like it was labelled “tuna”

  8. Our target – Lantern Bugs! This was displayed at the national park’s canteen.

  9. Wasted no time on arrival to shoot the lantern bugs

  10. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3763
  11. One of our biggest goals (as always) was to find the local lantern bugs. Lady luck was on our side. 🙂

  12. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria)
  13. This beautiful lantern bug (Pyrops candelarius?) has a red/orange snout and is extremely long!

  14. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3781
  15. Turned around to face me, first time shooting from the front!

  16. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3807
  17. Started to move away!

  18. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3818
  19. Ben started shooting this pretty pair standing beside each other

  20. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3734
  21. I just took record shots 😛

  22. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3702b
  23. And then there were more!

  24. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3681
  25. On your mark, get set… chiong ah!!!!

  26. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3712
  27. A bigger groupie on another tree

  28. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3714
  29. Tried to take a shot from the bottom but it was a pain with a cropped 180mm (too far away)

  30. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3740
  31. Must be a delicious tree

  32. Lantern Bug (Pyrops candelaria) - DSC_3773
  33. Final shot before saying good bye to the beauties

  34. Group photo with Ruangyot who checked out the lantern bugs for us before arrival

  35. Having a drink before we proceed with our macro-marathon!

  36. Arrived at our cabin, as Mr Cherm went back to his mini-bus

  37. At the cabin, the bedsheets had the park’s insignia

  38. Panoramic view of one of our rooms, taken by Melvyn

  39. Canteen food stalls where we had our dinner and breakfast. No time for lunch!

  40. At the canteen. Ben had to buy a leather hat for reasons unknown to us!

  41. We requested for a kettle to boil water and got a nice electric kettle from the park ranger!

  42. Asking for directions, and got warned of leeches, just to see a leech wiggle past us!

  43. Spent some time at the balcony where it was buzzing with bugs and monkeys. We had some interesting visitors on this first night alone!

  44. Our cabin had no indoor common room, just a balcony where we set up a flimsy light trap to attract some visitors

  45. Found this ultra bizarre bug behind the light trap!!!

  46. Moth - DSC_3829
  47. Moth with bright orange stripes

  48. Moth - DSC_3840
  49. Close up headshot

  50. Mayfly (Ephemeroptera) - DSC_3843
  51. Another view

  52. Moth - DSC_3847
  53. Top view record shot

  54. DSC_3838
  55. Odd looking bug on our table

  56. Dung Beetle (Scarabaeidae) - DSC_3855
  57. A dung beetle that looked like a Mini Rhino Beetle, very cute horn!

  58. Moth - DSC_3861
  59. We had our curtain set up, and had many moths and bugs landing on it. This odd-looking moth had an abdomen perched upright

  60. DSC_3864
  61. More unidentified bugs

  62. Mayfly (Ephemeroptera) - DSC_3867
  63. Mayfly?

  64. Moth - DSC_3874
  65. Another pretty looking moth

  66. Mayfly (Ephemeroptera) - DSC_3880
  67. Funny looking Mayfly with “cupcakes” on it’s head

  68. Mayfly (Ephemeroptera) - DSC_3886
  69. Side view of the “cupcake” Mayfly on the table

  70. DSC_3888
  71. Soldierfly?

  72. Leafhopper (Cicadellidae) - DSC_3895
  73. Red-nosed planthopper, we called it the Rudolf!

  74. Leafhopper (Cicadellidae) - DSC_3900
  75. Rudolf has a beautiful face

  76. Leafhopper (Cicadellidae) - DSC_3926
  77. Full side profile of Rudolf

  78. DSC_3902
  79. Beetle’s closeup. Had the Raynox on and lazy to remove again

  80. DSC_3904
  81. Another view of the beetle

  82. Moth - DSC_3910
  83. One of the many big moths

  84. Moth - DSC_3911
  85. Would be interesting to see the antenna spread open

  86. Finally got our butts moving, and did our first night walk from behind our cabin. Within a few meters, we spotted leeches crawling up David’s legs. After a brief moment of frenzy-flicking, we armed ourselves with DEET and marched on.

    Huntsman Spider (Sparassidae) - DSC_3931
  87. Yellow-green Huntsman Spider

  88. Freshly moulted cockroach - DSC_3936
  89. Cockroach, freshly molted?

  90. Stick Insect (Phasmatodea) - DSC_3948
  91. A very shy stick insect

  92. Assassin Bug (Reduviidae) - DSC_3986
  93. A pair of mating assassin bugs

  94. Lynx Spider (Oxyopidae) - DSC_4002
  95. Lynx Spider. The thing about Thailand is.. we found so many variants of the Lynx spider! More in the days to come…

  96. Lynx Spider (Oxyopidae) - DSC_4003
  97. Full front view of the Lynx Spider

  98. Lynx Spider (Oxyopidae) - DSC_4010
  99. View from above reveals light brown with a hint of blue

  100. Mayfly (Ephemeroptera) - DSC_4024
  101. It was a short walk, and we ended back at the balcony again. Here’s another Mayfly

  102. Moth - DSC_4039
  103. Found this funky looking moth under the table

  104. Moth - DSC_4041
  105. Front view

  106. Assassin Bug (Reduviidae) - DSC_4045
  107. Assassin bug lighted from behind
We had spent most of the day travelling and decided to rest early in preparation for a full day of trekking ahead!

[ Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 ]

The complete album can be viewed here.
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NICKY BAY
Singapore

Hi my name is Nicky Bay. I am a macro photographer, instructor and book author, travelling the world to document the vast micro biodiversity that nature has to offer. Follow my updates and discover with me the incredible beauty and science behind our planet's micro creatures!

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