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We travlled with public transport. There are plenty of buses and trains and more so than in Latin America they leave and arrive on time. The public transport is very cheap as well: what to think of a 3,5 hour train ride from Bangkok to Pak Chong (to visit Khao Yai) for 0,85 € each! This train leaves right in front of the airport in Bangkok. From Pak Chong you can take a songthaew to the entrance of the National Park. Hitch to the headquarters. Hitch hiking is very easy, especially in Khao Yai. Make sure you get a pick-up truck, so you can sit in the back.

Finding accommodation is straightforward and cheap. Prices given are for two people. At the parks we stayed at the following places:

While travelling we only carried a copy of Craig Robson's "Birds of Southeast Asia". It is a good book, which often made identifying the birds straightforward. There are, however, some disadvantages: some painters make the birds look very dull (check the pitta's for instance), some birds are painted completely wrong (Large Wren Babbler), there are no distribution maps (in the Thailand version there are) and after three weeks I was still not used to the new taxonomical order that is used. The new order often makes it hard to quickly find the bird you are looking at that very moment. Fortunately the Morakot Resort had a copy of Phillip Round's book "Birds of Thailand" (in which the Large Wren Babbler is painted properly), which I decided to leave home myself.

For the mammals I used "Photographic guide to mammals of South-east Asia" by Charles M. Francis. Very incomplete, but as far as I know nothing else is available.

Reports and tips from Marc Guyt, Arnold Meijer, Paul Bamford, Dion Hobcroft, Aidan G Kelly and John Hornbuckle were used. Albert van den Ende gave me some additional logistic information. The travel guide we used was an old Rough Guide to Thailand, which was still good enough for the few times we actually used it.

Khao Yai / Garden Home Resort (2 - 5 March): From Pak Chong take a songthaew (from 7 AM onwards) to the park entrance. From here you can easily hitch to the headquarters. Try to avoid Khao Yai in the weekends, as many (Thai) people will visit the park. I heard stories of hundreds of people walking around. The first two nights we managed to arrange a very good bungalow next to the famous trail nr. 6. PAY ATTENTION HERE : on the maps you can buy at the HQ (don't use the ones that you can get for free; a good map is included in the booklet "Mammals of Khao Yai", 150 B / 3 € for sale at one of the small shops in the restaurant area) trail nr. 6 - mentioned in all trip reports - is called trail nr. 5. The sign next to the trail, however, still says trail nr. 6 (at the time being). This might be confusing! In this report I will constantly refer to trail 5 (formerly 6). You can also go to one of the lodges. Thanarat Lodge is at the beginning of another famous part of the park: the Radar Road. After two nights we had to leave the bungalow and we moved to the relatively expensive Garden Home Resort, 2 km outside the park. From two Danish birders we heard it was good birding there. The area has a large pond, with Buffy Fish Owl (we heard 2). Plain-backed Sparrow (we saw a pair) can be found here and we saw several other nice birds we didn't get to see elsewhere: Lineated (2) and Coppersmith Barbet, Spangled Drongo, Golden-fronted Leafbird (2), Pied Bushchat (male), Brown (1) and Grey-breasted Prinia (5) and Chestnut-capped Babbler (3) and un unidentified bush warbler sp. (possibly Spotted Bushwarbler). This is also the spot to see dazzling numbers of Free-tailed Wrinkle-lipped Bats flying out of a cave at dusk, definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Make sure you're there around 4.30 PM. There is no big hot spot here, just walk around and see what you will encounter.

I will give a description of all the spots we visited in the park.

Trail 5 (formerly 6): I seperate this trail into three parts:
* The first part starts south of the headquarters until the junction with trail nr. 7 (see map)
* The ridge is the part on the hill after the junction (when you turn right at the junction; for trail 7 turn left)
* The last part is a few kilometres north of the headquarters and is an open field just next (south) to the elephant salt lick. Close the forest there is an observation tower with a small lake.

The first part:
This was indeed one of the best trails I've been on this trip: it lived up its reputation. We birded here three times (twice in the morning, once in the afternoon). Start early, as later on there will be more people on the trail. I was surprised by the amount of birds. It is hard to indicate exact spots in a forest, but I will give it a shot in some cases. Best birds on this trail: Great Hornbill, Collared Owlet (perched in dead tree half way), Red-headed Trogon (at the junction), Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoo 2 (very early in the morning, passing a small gully on a trunk; after walking some 25% of the trail), Long-tailed Broadbill (2 half way, just before a very steep part of the trail and 1 near the Coral-billed's spot), Common Green Magpie (2), Swinhoes Minivet (a group of 5 at the first wet gully; this spot is said to be good for Blue Pitta as well), White-crowned Forktail (at least 2, look for them at the wet gullies in the first half of the trail). Near the steep part mentioned before Danish birders saw 2 Siamese Firebacks and a Blue Whistling Thrush. The trail is also said to be good for Silver Pheasant (sometimes), Silver-breasted Broadbill and Eared Pitta (if you are lucky). The best mammals here: White-handed Gibbon (the beautiful hooting calls heard on a daily basis and we saw a group of four once: two light and two dark morphs), Black Giant Squirrel (2).

The ridge:
We've only been here late in the morning and early afternoon and it was not very spectacular. Best birds: 5 Bar-backed Partridges, a male Red Junglefowl, 3 Greater Flamebacks and a small group of White-browed Scimitar Babblers. Best mammal: a Black Giant Squirrel.

The last part:
Visited twice. This area is artificially kept open for mammals. The last part of trail 5 ends at the main road, ca. 3km north of the headquarters. About 200 meters (600 feet) to the north along the main road is an elephant salt lick. If you follow the trail from the main road (to the west) you will pass an open field. Here we saw our only Oriental Turtle Dove and Bright-headed Cisticola. Just before the forest starts again, there is an observation tower, next to a small lake. This was a good spot with eg. several calling Red Junglefowls, a Stork-billed Kingfisher, a Blue-eared Kingfisher, a Great-eared Nightjar (1 at dusk), 5 Silver-rumped Needletails, plenty of House Swifts, Black-winged Kite, a Changeable Hawk Eagle, a soaring Black Stork (the second record ever for the park), our only Asian House Martin and Rufescent Prinia (5). From the lake you can see another elephant salt lick. Even though we waited until dusk, we didn't get to see one here. This used to be a hot spot for Tiger as well.

Krabi (6-7, 10-11 & 17 March): Krabi is easily reached: it's touristy and it has all facilities one needs. By longboat you can go into the mangroves for several specialties: Mangrove Pitta (near threatened; commonly heard), Mangrove Whistler (I only saw 1), Ruddy Kingfisher, Brown-winged Kingfisher (near threatened; common), Chinese Egret (vulnerable; missed by us) and Streak-breasted Woodpecker (endemic to the region; I saw 1). Unfortunately Masked Finfoot does not occur here anymore (no sightings for over 2 years now). Also see information about Mr. Dai in the guides chapter. Tell him exactly what you want to see, as he knows the best spots. Especially in the mangroves hiring a cheaper boatsman is false economy, as other people don't know the good spots. For the waders out at sea it's different: go out at high tide and check the fishermen's poles: the waders rest there when the mud flats are under water. You can find Nordmann's Greenshank and good numbers of Great Knots yourself. Other birds here include Lesser (common) and Great Crested Tern (a few), Terek Sandpiper and Lesser and Greater Sandplover. I did the mangroves four times as I kept trying to see instead of hear Ruddy Kingfisher and Mangrove Pitta. I only succeeded in seeing the kingfisher on the fourth trip and eventually I didn't see the pitta at all. Bonus birds on the extra trips however, were Slaty-breasted Rail (seen twice, several heard), Oriental Hobby (nest at the eastern big rock, found by Simon Buckell; I saw the male twice), Chestnut-bellied Malkoha (near threatened), Rusty-breasted Cuckoo and our only Dusky Craig Martin of the trip.

We also took a longboat to the island next to Krabi (on the other side of the river) and did some afternoon birding in an agricultural area there. Not spectacular, but we eg. saw 4 Brown Shrikes, Buff-vented Bulbul (near threatened), 10 Plain-backed Sparrows and the only Scaly-breasted Munia's (15) and Oriental Reed Warbler of the trip.

Best mammals seen: Long-tailed Macaque (common in mangroves) and a family group of 5 Smooth Otters (seen on two occasions).

Khao Sok (11-15 March): I could not find much information about Khao Sok on the Internet. In dozens of reports it was only mentioned three times: two birders only spent a couple of hours here and another birder just began with his hobby. This surprised me, as the park is large, has very suitable habitat for birds (incl. primary forest), is large (739 km2), is connected to two other national parks and two wildlife sanctuaries, forming the largest ecological zone of the country (some 4.000 km2!), is easily reached from both Krabi (taxi or minibus, 3 hours) and Surut Thani (bus, 2 hours) and there's plenty of accommodation. According to the travel guide Asian Elephants, Tigers (fewer than 10), Leopards and Malayan Tapirs still occur here, so a place with those mammals should be good for birds as well. Therefore we decided to check it out.

The big disadvantage of the park is that there are only two trails. They both don't go round, so you have to walk back once you reach the end. No good maps of the park are available. Another disadvantage is that it can get rather crowded later on the day, especially at the beginning of the trails. Despite these disadvantages the birds and mammals turned out to be good. It gives you the opportunity to see some species that are difficult to find elsewhere in the surroundings of Krabi - where you'll probably end up anyway - such as hornbills and Bamboo Woodpecker. There is a very large lake where Grey-headed Fish-eagle (near threatened) is possible.