Chiangmai Trip (6-12 October 2019) - (Part 1)

A detailed write up on the Chiang Mai Trip by Sifu Khew

Butterflycircle (Chiangmai 2019)

More of my butterflies photos in Chiangmai

Butterflies of Thailand

There were three of us, Mei Yee, Jonathan and I who joined Sifu Khew in this Chiangmai trip.  The flight journey was approximately 3 hours, and we arrived Chiangmai in the late evening of 6 October 2019. Took this beautiful view of Chiangmai mountains from the plane when it was about to land at the airport.

We were greeted by Antonio, who had waited for us patiently at the airport.  The journey to our hotel, Dome Residences should have been only about 15 minutes, but due to the traffic conditions, it took us more than half and hour to reach the hotel.  We checked in comfortably in our own rooms and had dinner at a nearby food court.

The next day we were all ready to go to the long awaited Chiang Dao Wildlife Sanctuary.  We had a good breakfast in the hotel and set off at about 8am.  The weather was kind to us and the one hour drive was pleasant with beautiful clear sky and view of the countryside.

It was all excitement for us when we arrived Chiang Dao Wildlife Sanctuary checkpoint.  The entrance fee was 200 Baht per person and was valid for us to shoot for 3 days.

Without wasting any time, we quickly put on our shooting gears and were off to shoot the butterflies that were found all over the car park and nearby streams.    It was truly amazing to see so many varieties of butterflies in one place.  Many were puddling on the grounds that got us all very busy clicking away.

There were particularly lots of Pierrot and I just loved them.  They were congregating everywhere and there were times when it was quite hard to shoot them individually.

Towards the mid afternoon, Antonio took us to a higher elevation of the hill along the winding road of the car park where we saw a species of the Satyrinae.

But my most favourite species shot in this trip was the Green-streaked Awlet (Burara amara).  It was so lovely to have seen this little cutie and indeed good to end the day with these lovely shots.

It was about 4.30pm when we headed back to Chiangmai.  We had dinner at a sifu's usual Japanese restaurant whenever he is in Chiangmai.

Back in the hotel, we had desserts made by Kai,  Antonio's wife who went for cooking class in Chiangmai while Antonio was out with us in the field.  We were so fortunate to have different varieties of cakes and biscuits made by her every night from her cooking classes.