By the time we got back to the camp, the night diving team has also got back from their first round. They have taken some nice shots of the Tetraodon cutcutia, Bangana cf. devdevi and the best of all Batasio dayi. They also found a little Leaf turtle (Cyclemys dentata) which we keep in our bucket to take photograph in the morning.After the second round failed to yield any interesting species, we all got back to the camp fire and had some late supper of stir fried salted chicken and wild herbs rice soup that our local guides has cooked. This afternoon, on our way to the river, I saw our guide picked up many leafs of various species along the way but I was too tired to ask what they were for. The answer, I have found, was in the tasty soup.
I didn’t notice that Ton wasn’t joining the meal, until I saw him walked back from the river. In his left hand was a little dipping net and in his right a plastic bottle. He was grinning and I knew he has something in that bottle. When he finally arrived, he showed us two large loaches that he has caught from a shallow detritus covered sand beach at the other side of the river. I was able to recognize them right away that they were Acanthocobitis rubidipinnis, another fish on my “To-Find” list. This species too, was a new record for Thailand.
After a while we were out again, this time into the jungle along the river searching for some reptile. This, too, has failed us for we found only a little snake that escaped into the thick jungle before we get a good look at it.By 11 pm., we were back at the camp fire finishing off the soup. After a while, most have disappeared into their tents. They were not that tired but rather knocked out by the local alcohol drink made of rice. I, too, was about to get into mine when Ton asked if I want to go out fish watching again, which I agreed. Gui heard us and decided to join the quest. This time we walked up further and were greeted by various species of fishes but there was another species, my favorite I might add, that was on my To-Find list but so far failed to turn up. Akysis vespa, this cute little catfish was first imported to Thailand from Myanmar as a little undescribed Akysis. As a small fish nutz, I was very excited and instantly fail in love with them. Later, it was described in 2004 as Akysis vespa. They were reported from Ataran river –or Kasa river in Thai- which so far we found to have the same fish species as Suriya, so it was reasonable to expect them here too.
Gui and Ton wondered across to the other side of the river, while I was searching at a shallow rapid where they were a lot of large rocks for the Akysis to perch on top. They do this very often, at night, in captivity and I expected them to do the same in the wild. I searched and searched and was finally found a small yellow fish, no bigger than 2 cm. perching on one of the large rock. I quickly took a closer look through the ripple surface, so close my hair drop into the water and my nose felt the coldness of the river.“Vespaaaaaaaaaaaa!” I yelled. Gui! Ton! Vespa! I was so excited, that I forgot, I did not supposed to yell like that in the jungle. The two came running and finally the 3 of us was standing there enjoyed the sight of our country new record species! If there was anything to regret, none of us has a camera in our hand for we have to wade into the river many times and we didn’t want to risk our digital garget with the water. It was just too late and too far to walk back to get it at the camp. Lesson learnt “Don’t leave camp with out your camera”
Satisfied and too tired to continue, we decided to call it a night and I was just laid down before I was, once again, interrupt by Ton who had to yell every times he got excited. “Nonn! Gui! Hang Muan (Rolled tail)” He yelled. “What?” I got out of my tent, a little annoyed, and hope that whatever it was it better worth the annoy. Ton was at a little tree stump in the middle of our camp and pointing at a little gecko, a brown little gecko, which turned to be one of the highlight of the trip. It was a young Cyrtodactylus interdigitalis, one of the more unusual species of Gecko in our forest. This species, unlike many other Geckoes, rolled theirs tails in circle when rest hence its Thai nick-name Hang Muan. In my travels, I have seen this species only once and this was the second time.
That night I had a good sleep but it got very cold around 3-4 AM., so I woke up to put 2 more t-shirts and went back to sleep. By 7.30 AM., there were some noises outside the tent already, so I decided to start my day. Upon, peeped out of the tent, I saw my sleeping bag put neatly right next to my tent. Obviously, one of the guides has carried this from the car but didn’t tell me about it.After a good cup of coco from a hand-made bamboo cup, I grabbed my camera and fishing gear then walked up stream to a small water fall to take some pictures and if any luck catch some large fish. Above the waterfall, I found that the Cryptocoryne crispatula var. balansae and Downoi population were very healthy. The green of the Downoi and the red of the Cryp., besides it, gave a very nicely contrast image. I tried to fish in a deep pool after the water fall for a while but there were only 3 young Hampala which came out of a large driftwood to chase my bait but didn’t grab it. After a while, I gave up and decided to take a short cut back to the camp. This proved to be a stupid idea, for I soon lost my way and later found myself walking along the clearing next to the barbed wire fence of the BPP’s camp. In the movies I have watched, this is where they normally plant the land-mine. I walked very slowly trying to detect the abnormality of the soil surface and finally make it back to the river.
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