Nothing says hotel breakfast better than continental; but I always added a surprise ingredient...

8:02 AM: Sadly, but happily, but still sadly, we had to pack up and do check out to start the trip towards our next destination. We left Krabi La Playa with a hopeless promise to return one day...

8:07 AM: Members board the bus ready for another day of adventure and palmaholism.

A farewell from a Krabi La Playa staff member.

Link included

The Souvenir T-shirts were already replacing the muddy clothes in some member's attires. Ramón scored himself a nice one that I didn't see anywhere else.

Ron talks about the Krabi and Phuket areas that were next in our agenda.

Nothing says hotel breakfast better than continental; but I always added a surprise ingredient...

Double yoker Frank, you were on a winner there !

Thank you Frank, i am almost able to say i made the pre-tour too

You're welcome rafael! Wal, I had to make up for the absence of bacon some way; allright, I always ordered two eggs or an omelet, bacon or not!

continuing

8:18 AM: We leave in a hurry going westward. I tried to take a good pic of the Andaman sea and the islands but there were many high speed trees in the near field which made focusing very difficult.

A resort on wheels!

The town has an 80% muslim population.

Tall mogotes appeared closer than ever. It was sometimes hard to see their tops.

Mogotes are made of limestone, marble or dolomite and are tall, very steep and are surrounded by plains. Their faces are weathered by rain or by sea level. In Puerto Rico you can see horizontal weathering patterns that suggest that the sea level uncovered them gradually. In Thailand I couldn't see that feature, only these vertical patterns made by rain.

Near the bottom you can see many cave formations offering very cool exploring possibilities.

We found another habitat palm, an Arenga species growing at the base of the mogotes.

8:44 AM: We found another habitat palm growing near the road and it was easy to stop this time around.

Orania sylvicola

Members were eager to step outside and walk around.

Gorgeous palm, should be grown more.

The seeds!

I love the way pic #1 in post #166 came out.

Frank,

I'm just loving the whole trip! Boy, for all of us that couldn't make it, we really, really missed out! Your pictures are very good, the culture, food and of course the plant life. Thanks so much and hope there's more.

Jeff

I almost forgot, in post #151, those small lanterns/lights are beautiful. I say this because Andrea and I found them for sale in a small store and bought 10 of them to bring home and sell. Their very well made, but more interesting was that we thought they were for inside the house, and then I see their being used outside, so they must take the weather. Hmmm, I must find a spot in the yard to use a couple.

Thank you Tropico! Wonderfully well executed Biennial coverage. I'm loving all the fantastic photos. Can't wait to see more.

Susan

Errata #003: Palm mislabeled alert! (not the only one I am sure) Palm crownshafted in beautiful yellow mislabeled Nenga pumila in posts 62, 77, 80, 128, 129, 133, and 142 are positively id as Pinanga adangensis.

Recapping, the official pre-PRA bus waits for us to finish our sight seeing of Orania sylvicola.

I spotted some other natives like Calamus scipionum and Salacca wallichiana.

Learn Thai: Stop

Orania sylvicola

Seedling

Loot. Made it safely to Atlanta

I tried to keep track of the ids on my itinerary but it did not help much, as you have seen. Others came better prepared.

Anders was one of our id experts, and when he also needed help, the Palms of Southern Asia book was the ultimate resource.

Arenga westerhoutii, commonly seen among limestone rocks.

I'm not sure if they were selling food or were having a family picnic, because I went there myself and asked in plain English what they were selling. They did not understand a word and much less I understood them, so I could not figure it out myself.

Perhaps Dan Ashley (KONADANTOM) had better luck, I thought, but he was probably more interested in photographing a palm there.

9:30 AM: We took to the roads again.

International Palm Society

Biennial Pre-Tour

The Royal Family bids thee welcome

This odd picture has a purpose, for real. Look at the exact center, then a little to the right next to the building, at the mogote in the back. There is a see-through cave! Looks more impressive in person.

Ah, fresh durian! By itself worth the trip!

9:49 AM: We stopped for refueling. We immediately made it to the 7-11.

This was just outside.

Then inside,

Grabbed some goodies.

I was thirsty, but this made it worse!

Enjoying this Frank, will you be posting the main part of the biennial as well ?

Paul took care of that Wal.

10:52 AM: We got deeper immersed into the topography, now mogotes surrounded us closer than ever on all sides.

11:14 AM: Location: Khao Sok National Park, Surat Thani, Thailand.

Happy Thai meditation music

We arrived to the biggest area in Southern Thailand of virgin rainforest (739 km²).

The buzz-saw sound heard in the above video is the love song of the male Cicada.

Khao Sok National Park consists of thick native rainforest, waterfalls, majestic limestone cliffs and an island stubbed lake.

The Biennial Pre-Tour doesn't wait for photo sessions in the parking lot. Everyone is ready to go hiking and see some palms!

But I couldn't pass up this nice Cyrtostachys renda specimen. Is not everyday one can come this close...

Restroom palms. ID please!?

"Now which arrow do we follow?"

Kerriodoxa elegans

11:30 AM: We took to the trails. The walk was somewhat challenging due to mud and vampires (yes, you know what I mean).

We started seeing massive Arenga westerhoutii deep in the woods.

Very nice rattan trunk, of a nearby Calamus species.

Juvenile Arenga westerhoutii, recognizable by the broad terminal leaflet.

Something caught the attention of part of the group, which by now was subdivided into clusters of people who were either walking fast or taking more time to try to spot first the elusive species of Licuala or Pinanga native to this area.

A guide for birdwatchers.

Colorful fungus.

Muddiest hike of the tour.

This is a very large Calamus species, what I'm naming Calamus scipionum. (Disclaimer: I'm naming most of this species using my best guess to make the tour more interesting, feel free to debate. The species in this park are really hard to ID).

We saw our first Borassodendron machadonis seedling.

More of them.

Arenga westerhoutii

It was not raining but the ground was very saturated.

When one sees a Pinanga after a long hike, there is a feeling of accomplishment, of having found a gem in the wilderness.

Pinanga fractiflexa

This one may be a seedling of nearby Calamus scipionum, but is too young to properly ID.

At this point I was in the subgroup that was probably last as we were taking more time discovering and photographing different palm species. Member David Tanswell was busy photographing Pinangas.

Pinanga fractiflexa

I spot, besides the Pinanga, two species of Calamus. Can you identify them?

A large Calamus and a mystery Pinanga (?) with black stems. Please, someone ID!

Here is a better view of the Pinanga, sorry, that was the best I could do.

Bamboo fortress of solitude

Black stems in more detail. Has anyone seen a Pinanga like this? (or if not, what's the genus?)

wonderful presentation,frank!

Photo # 3 in post # 194 is truly spectacular.

The massive, vicious Calamus longisetus

The exquisite, rare, and evil Calamus leucotes

You can touch but don't hug

Whitish pinnae below