Thale Noi, in Phattalung Province, is one of the biggest lakes in Thailand. The name Thale Noi means "small sea". This huge lake is the size of Penang Island. What makes Thale Noi special is that the entire lake is covered with water plants, including waterlilies and lotus of various species.
To explore Thale Noi, you need to hire a motorized sampans, which can be obtained at the village by the banks. The journey around Thale Noi will take you about two hours. Within Thale Noi you will come across different kinds of vegetation including purple waterlilies next to the white ones. There are floating gardens of lotuses. You can see lake weeds growing abundantly in the clear water of Thale Noi.
Thale Noi resembles a marshland, with many outcrops of marshy islands where birds come to roost. Bird enthusiasts are encouraged to bring along their binoculars or telephoto lens. A hat and sun glasses are also recommended, since the sun tend to be fierce, especially in the late morning. There are around 150 different species of birds that stop at Thale Noi on their annual migrations between Siberia or China to the north and Sumatra or Australia to the south.
The best time to watch for birds in Thale Noi is when it is winter in the northern hemisphere, that's around January to April. That's when as many as 100,000 birds converge on Thale Noi. The low season is June to September, which is the nesting period.
The bird species you would expect to see in Thale Noi include the following. Within the heron and stork families are the yellow bittern, great egret, painted stork and red stork. Duck species found in Thale Noi include the whistling duck, cotton pygmy goose and garganey. And then there are the cormorants, such as the great cormorant and little cormorant, Other speicies of birds found here are the grebe, white-browed crake, waterhen, common moor hen, Eurasian coot, pheasant-tailed jacana and bronze-winged jacana, black-winged stilt, Brahminy kite, red-wattled lapwing, whiskered tern, common kingfisher and barn swallow.
Directions to Thale Noi
Thale Noi Waterfowl Sanctuary can be reached from Highway 4048 from Amphoe Muang to Amphoe Khanun, and then to Thale Noi, a distance of 32 kilometers. The reserve covers 450 square kilometres, of which 28 square kilometers is water, or Thale Noi.
Thale Noi Photo Gallery
Fisherman at Thale Noi, one of the biggest expanse of wetlands in Thailand.
This is where we hire our long-tail sampans for the cruise around the lake
Close up of the water lilies at Thale Noi
Swamp hen stepping through a world of water lilies at Thale Noi
It's a sea of waterlilies for as far as the eye can see.
A cormorant sunning itself. You can see them in their peculiar poses all over the lake.
Birds in the bush.
A lone eagle guards over the lake of tiny white flowers.
A congregation of fish traps.
Getting up close with a lotus.
A moment to reflect.
It's all in a day's work for this fisherman.
Our Thale Noi boatman.
And finally, a shot of myself with the lotus of Thale Noi.
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