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March 2010 Update
I have just returned from my sixth visit to Thale Noi and a lot has been happening since my last visit almost a year ago.
On the positive side, the environment is looking good. It's now back to how I remember it was on my first visit. The lotus flowers look healthy and there seem to be more birds compared to my last few visits.
On the negative side (in my opinion), commercialism has started to rear its ugly head. The new visitor centre is still being worked on, and it still looks as if there is a lot to do. I get the impression that when it is ready, the Thais will really go to work promoting Thale Noi to tourists.
A new massage shop has opened and someone has started renting two and three-seater bicycles. When I returned from my boat trip this time there was a woman waiting to sell me framed souvenir photos - the kind that you see at many tourist attractions. This has never happened before.
A little way out of town they are building a viewpoint on the hill that looks out across Thale Noi. I went up, even though it is only half built. How long now before the first Go-Go bars and bar girls arrive?
Since I first visited Thailand in 1987 I have seen many beautiful places completely destroyed by Thai greed and tourism. I wouldn't be surprised if Thale Noi looks completely different 10 years from now. I hope I'm wrong. Time will tell.
April 2009 Update
I am pleased to report that Thale Noi is now looking a lot better than it has done for the last three years. At one point I was getting very concerned.
My first visit was in February 2005 and I was extremely impressed. It was a wonderful experience and I suspect that Thale Noi then was the same as it had been for many years. The environment was stable and the bird and plant life was thriving.
On my second visit in April 2006 there was quite a lot of construction work in evidence, notably the road going straight through the wetlands area. There weren't as many birds or plants and overall it was disappointing.
I went back again in January 2007 and was horrified. Work had begun on the new visitor centre but it was ugly. Everywhere I went, all I saw was the natural environment being ripped up and replaced with concrete. As Joni Mitchell said, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
Huge swathes of lotus flowers had been removed and the unsettled environment had obviously upset the birds because there weren't many at all.
I tried to find out what was happening, and who was behind all this development, but the locals either didn't know, or weren't saying. Everyone told me that January was the wrong time to visit and that I should come back later.
I did.
I went back again in April 2007 bit it still looked like an ecological disaster zone. Around the old visitor centre the water used to be carpeted with lotus flowers but in April 2007 you could only see them in the specially built enclosures.
Work had apparently stopped on the new visitor centre and it was just a mass of unfinished, grey ugly concrete. What a mess. Maybe they had run out of money? The concrete posts were all there and the basic buildings were in place but it was a long way from being finished.
One of my ex-students studied Thale Noi formally (and it is a popular subject with many of the students at the Prince of Songkla University) so I asked her what was going on. She had heard something about the management of the area being transferred from the government to the local people. If this was true, then the local people weren't doing a very good job or didn't have sufficient knowledge and experience.
It was at this point that I started to get really worried and I wrote here that I could no longer recommend Thale Noi to visitors.
In 2008 I didn't bother going back. From what I had seen the previous year it didn't seem worthwhile, and also it was quite upsetting to see what was happening to the area.
On my most recent visit in April 2009 (my fifth) it was such a relief to see Thale Noi starting to resemble its former beautiful self. The new visitor centre isn't finished yet. The walkways still do not have safety rails erected and some of the buildings are being completed, but others are finished and the visitor centre is open for business.
It has started to look good and the natural environment has started to settle as well. I saw the most lotus flowers I had seen since I first visited over four years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't see a very good variety of birds but this has a lot to do with luck.
Some more private guest houses have also appeared since my last visit and they are welcome additions (I have added details below). I am now happy to recommend visiting Thale Noi again.
Thale Noi Introduction
Thale Noi (Little Sea) is an inland sea located in the three provinces of Songkhla, Phattalung and Nakhon Sri Thammarat. It is an area of outstanding natural beauty and an important wetlands ecosystem containing several varieties of plant, animal and bird life. The area was surveyed in 1974 and the Thale Noi non-hunting area has been a protected environment since 18 February 1975.
It is not in the direct vicinity of Hat Yai so maybe its inclusion here is surprising but it is close enough to Hat Yai to make a day trip or, better, a short trip involving an overnight stay.
This page contains photos, information and observations from my visits to the Thale Noi Waterbird Sanctuary since February 2005. Opinions and photos are mine; the facts and figures come from a brochure I collected at the Thale Noi visitor centre on my first visit. I am not an expert on Thai flora and fauna so please excuse my use of generic terms such as bird and flower when I don't actually know what species of bird of flower it is.
Thale Noi won't suit everyone because different people want different things from their visits to Thailand. It isn't Phuket or Pattaya.
If you want to see a piece of Thailand at its beautiful best and you enjoy spending time in tranquil, natural environments with wonderful displays of plant and bird life then it might just be worth a visit.
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Thale Noi is located in Phattalung province near the main town of Phattalung. The actual location is Phanangtoong village in the district of Khuan Khanoon. From Phattalung town it is about a 33km sawng-thaew ride north on highway 4048. The journey takes approximately 45 minutes and costs a paltry Bt30 (it used to be Bt20). The sawng-thaews go right to the water's edge where you can find the visitor centre and hire a boat for a tour.
Everyone in Phattalung main town knows where the sawng-thaews to Thale Noi depart from and 'Thale Noi' is even written in English. From Hat Yai you can get to Phattalung town (about 90kms away) by bus, minivan or train. It's an easy and cheap journey from Hat Yai to Thale Noi.
By minivan it takes about 90 minutes. Big buses take a couple of hours but are more comfortable. The train is a lot slower but the journey is interesting and the train passes through some beautiful countryside. Both stations are on the main railway route that goes through the Isthmus of Kra. I have only taken the train once and it cost just Bt18.
Before I arrived I wasn't sure how easy or difficult it would be to find my way around once I got there but it turned out to be very easy. Most visitors are Thai but all visitors are well catered for.
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Thale Noi is best visited early in the morning when the birds are active and it isn't too hot. Significantly, the lotus flowers open in the morning but close later as the temperature rises. By 9am it starts to get very hot and a little uncomfortable. The light at sunset isn't that good for photos but the 'magic light' appears some time around 7:30am to 8:00am.
The Thale Noi sanctuary area covers about 285,625 rai (457 square kilometres). The water area is about 17,500 rai (28 square kilometres). If you fall in, the average depth is about 1.25 metres. Try to avoid doing that though, because there are lots of large leeches and other nasty organisms in the water.
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A day trip from Hat Yai is quite possible but because of what I said above about making an early start it is probably best to stay the night before. There are official lodgings (large houses on stilts above the water) that you will need to book through the visitor centre. There are also some private guest houses - details below.
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On my first visit, I stayed in Phattalung main town the night before but on all subsequent visits I stayed in Thale Noi. There are only three hotels in Phattalung town apparently and none of them are too swish but they serve their purpose and aren't expensive. The Thai Hotel where I stayed charges Bt250 for rooms with fan and Bt400 for air-conditioned rooms. Phattalung doesn't get many tourists so hotel rooms should be easily available.
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There are lots of local boat owners who make a living by taking tourists out on boat tours. The going rate as of April 2009 seems to be Bt400 (it used to be Bt300) but Thais will always try to get more money when a farang shows up. Unfortunately, this is no different in Thale Noi to anywhere else even though there are very few farang tourists.
There are far more boat owners than tourists so just walk away if they try to increase the charge. They will then come running after you. I dislike money-grubbing intensely, and also the fact that some Thais believe all foreigners are incredibly rich but you can't change the way Thais think or behave.
When Thais are greedy I walk away, so they end up getting nothing. When Thais aren't greedy I will often give a tip so they end with more. Perhaps they will learn ... but I doubt it.
Make sure the boat driver understands what kind of tour you want. I have never seen a Thai tourist with an interest in photography. They just want to speed around the wetlands as fast as possible. In any motorised vehicle - whether it is a car, motorbike or boat - a Thai will only want to go as fast as possible.
I always make sure the boat driver knows what I want before we set off. I tell him there is no need to hurry, and that I want to go very slowly. I want him to stop frequently and switch off the engine while we wait for birds to take photos of.
The diesel engines in the long-tail boats are really loud and when they are running you can't hear anything else. When they are switched off you can actually hear birds calling and it sounds great but I guess that isn't what Thais want.
Most drivers will follow these instructions but I did have one trip where the guy ignored everything I had told him. I even had Iss with me and she kept telling him in Thai what to do but he had his own agenda.
He wanted to race around - not wait with the engine switched off - and although he had paying customers he just did what he wanted to do.
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Farang tourists are rare at Thale Noi so I was quite surprised to see a large group of Dutch holidaymakers. They had been staying at Cha-am and were doing a nine-day sightseeing tour of 'Unseen Thailand'.
By the sound of it they were using a tour company specialising in less well-known areas of Thailand which is highly commendable. It is interesting to note that older tourists are now blazing new trails in Thailand whereas the young backpackers continue to go to the same old boring places year after year showing absolutely no imagination. Kudos to grey power.
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Although foreign tourists do manage to get here, most tourism is domestic. This photo shows a group of Muslim girls just setting off on a boat tour.
These girls in their traditional dress are well prepared for the boat tour. If you visit in the hot season it is scorching hot from as early as 9am. The boat owners provide wide-brimmed hats to wear but the suns rays are also reflected from the water.
Sunglasses, hats and sun screen are essential. Cover up as much as possible. This advice will be unnecessary to most Thai girls whose worst nightmare in life is to get darker skin.
Iss was wearing so many clothes to protect herself from the sun she looked better equipped for the arctic than the tropics but I am now used to her antics.
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Locals fish for their own needs and the reeds are harvested to produce floor mats and handicrafts. This guy had several very small fish in a bucket along with some huge water snails - the biggest snails I think I have ever seen.
There is a delicate balance maintained between the locals and their environment. Poles that fisherman have stuck in the mud become perches for the birds. The birds' dropping are a rich source of nutrients which fertilise the plants. The plants provide shelter for fish and insects which then provide food for the fish. The birds and the locals eat the fish.
It works well and has done so for a long time but this is Thailand where rapid change in the name of 'advancement' is the order of the day.
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One of the first things that struck me venturing out on to the water was the carpet of beautiful pink water lilies.
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The flowers are mostly pink but there are white and purple ones also. I'm sure that even people who don't have any major interest in birds or flowers will be impressed by a visit here.
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The wetlands is an important conservation environment for 186 species of water birds (both resident and migratory), 26 kinds of reptiles and 13 kinds of mammals. And of course, there is a diverse variety of insects like this dragonfly.
The diversity of the bird population is quite amazing for a relatively small area, and migratory birds come from thousands of miles away to winter here.
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The flora is diverse too, ranging from large trees to microscopic algae. There are about 260 species of plants and naturally some bees buzzing around to help pollinate them. This bee was making quite a noise.
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I am not a bird photographer and I found photography particularly difficult at Thale Noi. Apart from long lenses, wild bird photography needs incredible patience, skill and quite a bit of luck.
The plain truth is that birds don't like humans. As soon as you start to get close enough to get a decent photo the bird will invariably fly off. The only way really is to conceal your presence in a hide and wait, but that is impossible on the Thale Noi wetlands because the facilities just don't exist.
Trying to hand-hold a camera on a constantly bobbling boat while, at the same time, trying to get close to skittish birds were only two of the problems.
Because of the distances involved the birds were very small in my viewfinder. Trying to get the right exposure settings against a very bright sky was difficult. Many shots turned into silhouettes because of the bright background.
On my visits to Thale Noi I have taken hundreds of photographs but I'm not proud of any of them.
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Focusing was also difficult. With so much going on in the frame my autofocus was going bananas on the automatic mode and not focusing on what I wanted it to. After about ten minutes I set it to focus on the centre focusing point and used that point for my subject.
This fish eagle was in the centre of the original image but the image you see here is a partial crop.
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Correct exposure was a big problem. More often than not birds were perched on the highest bush or pole they could find and I had to shoot against a clear sky. Not only was there intense direct light but a lot of reflected light from the water.
The very narrow exposure latitude of digital camera sensors doesn't help either.
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I think that good wild bird photography needs lenses of at least 600mm focal length unless you are in a hide and can get very close. The best shots I have seen show very clear detail of feathers and around the eyes.
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Ecotourism is now a big part of the world tourist industry but there is a delicate balance between promoting tourism and protecting the environment.
I'm wondering what plans there are for the new visitor centre at Thale Noi. There has been quite a lot of investment and the facilities have been built to Western standards. Does this mean there will be a push to attract lots of Western tourists?
The good thing is that Western tourists attracted to places such as Thale Noi are normally the type of people who are very sensitive about protecting the environment.
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There are even some tourist police on hand but I shouldn't think they are called upon too often. Iss hid the flower our boat driver had picked and given her.
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Near the visitor centre are some OTOP (One Tambon One Product) stalls with local people selling their handiwork. They have some very attractive, well-made souvenirs to take home and not the usual tacky rubbish found around tourist traps.
In addition there are restaurants and drink stalls for food and refreshments before or after your boat tour. Western food is non-existent at Thale Noi. The tourist infrastructure caters to Thais, not foreigners.
With the opening of the new visitor centre this might be changing. People working there could speak a little English and signs were in English. However, outside there is very little spoken or written English. It helps if you can speak and read Thai.
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This lady was spinning thread for her friends to weave on their looms. I had previously made a special visit to Ko Yo to see the Thai weaving cottage industry and saw very little. At Thale Noi I went for the birds and the scenery but as an added bonus got to see a good demonstration of Thai weaving.
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If watching beautiful scenery from a boat while someone else does all the work proves to be too stressful you can get an authentic Thai massage to relax your aching body as soon as you are back on terra firma. The rates here are a lot less than on the beach at Phuket or Krabi.
For further reading about Thale Noi, here is a good article: Thailand's Wetland Wonderland.
Here is another site for technical and scientific information.
For photos of the types of bird to be found at Thale Noi, the Oriental Bird Images web site is a good resource.
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In April 2006 I returned to Thale Noi for another visit and was looking forward to getting some better bird photos, having recently purchased a longer (300mm) lens with Image Stabilisation. Again, it was an enjoyable trip but with a few differences.
One of the disappointments was seeing a lot fewer birds than before. My first visit was in February which, along with March, are the two best months of the year according to the locals. I have also read from other sources that the quantity of migrating birds worldwide has fallen in general terms as a result of habitat destruction and other human messing around with the environment.
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On my second trip I decided to actually stay at Thale Noi rather than in nearby Phattalung town. The official visitor centre appears to have 'free' accommodation but there was none available when I went. The accommodation consists of traditional wooden houses raised above the water on stilts. The location is great and you will see lots of birds without having to make a special effort.
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The deal seems to be that there is an entrance charge which is the standard National Park fee. It is Bt20 for Thais and ten times that for foreigners. However, once in, you can then use the bungalows for no charge. There are a few catches though.
Firstly, the Thais book a long way in advance so if you just turn up you will probably be out of luck. Secondly, these are very basic places and you need to bring your own towels and sleeping bags, etc. In fact, you will have to bring everything you need. The phone number is +66 (0)74 685230 and office hours are between 08:00 and 16:30.
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Private Accommodation
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There are private guest houses along the road in front of the water.
The first place you come to is Baan Taweesook. It opened in 2008 and is a really nice place. The accommodation isn't at all like a guest house, but more like a very comfortable house. When I looked, everything was brand new and the Bt600 rate seemed a real bargain. There are four rooms upstairs and one downstairs.
Upstairs at the front of the house is a large verandah overlooking the water. Next time I go, this is where I will want to stay. The phone numbers for Baan Taweesook are +66 (0)87 466 4842 and +66 (0)74 685492. I can't guarantee you will get a reply but the e-mail address I was given is: pure_do_191_123@hotmail.com
Next along is Baan Soy Daaw. It's not as plush as Baan Taweesook but cheaper, with rooms for Bt500. The phone numbers are +66 (0)89 974 7498 and +66 (0)81 273 5767.
Further along is Baan Laan Buweh (บ้านล้านบัว). In my humble opinion, this used to be the best private guest house option in Thale Noi but it has now been overtaken by Baan Taweesook.
At Baan Laan Buweh, they have rooms for Bt500, Bt600 and Bt700. The number to call is +66 (0)81 368 3081 and the proprietor is a teacher who goes by the name of Ajarn Wootipong.
The next place is called Promngern House run by a Mr. Chern Promngern. It's not as pleasant as some of the other places but cheaper with rooms for Bt400. The telephone numbers are +66 (0)74 685225 or +66 (0)81 748 8064. There is even an e-mail address on their business cards but I have no idea if it is still valid. You can try your luck by sending an e-mail to s3945204@yahoo.com
Right at the end of the road is Baan Puk Taaworn Porntip (บ้านพัก ถาวร พรทิพย์). It's a decent place: very quiet and peaceful, and clean. There was no hot water in the bathroom when I stayed. Rooms with A/C are Bt500 and with fan are Bt350. It's a bit of a hike to the area where visitor centre and restaurants are but you can get a motorbike taxi for Bt10.
If you call any of these places don't expect them to speak much (if any) English. Two out of the three business cards I picked up were in Thai only and the information above has been transliterated.
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Thais and Westerners have very different ideas about protecting the environment. Thai tourists wrench out bunches of lotus flowers on their visits to Thale Noi; either to eat or to take home as souvenirs.
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For a while there was a lot of construction taking place at Thale Noi that really upset the environment. Lotus flowers were replaced with concrete and a lot of the birds disappeared.
By April 2009 a lot of the work seemed to have finished and Thale Noi was starting to get more settled again.
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Whereas the highlight of my first visit to Thale Noi was seeing the birds and the beautiful natural surroundings, the highlight of my second trip was meeting the local people. This was a lot easier to do while staying locally and there is an amazing community of people there.
Apart from electricity and motor vehicles, I guess that the basic way of life has remained the same for hundreds of years. I found it quite refreshing to get away from the rat-race of modern society for a couple of days.
The main industry is fishing (which is to be expected). The men go out in the early hours of the morning and the women prepare the catch when they get back. The local people also harvest reeds from the water which they dry, dye and weave into mats and bags.
I wandered around - as I like to do - chatting with anyone who would talk to me and most were happy to do so. They don't see many farang tourists and even fewer of those they do see can speak any Thai so even if you know only a little Thai you are a bit of a novelty.
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