We finally got around to checking out Dokmai Garden, a privately-run botanic garden near Chiang Mai, and have to say we wished we'd been earlier. It was a great afternoon out and can't recommend it enough! Now it's not a park -- Mae Fah Luang it does not try to be -- and don't expect nicely laid-out beds of brightly coloured flowers. Dokmai Garden is a highly eclectic and personal collection of plants, flowers, trees, fruit, vegetables and herbs grown by genial host and panama-hat clad, Swedish botanical professor Eric.

NatGeo take note: this guy should have his own TV show.

It goes without saying that Eric is extremely knowledgeable but is also very passionate about his subject, and if you think you're not really interested in botany or horticulture, we reckon 10 minutes into Eric's guided tour of the gardens will have you converted. Now you do need Eric to talk you through it as wandering around on your own will have you thinking, 'Ah yes, brown twig. Green leaves! So what?'. Once you've had the plants' properties or life cycle explained, felt a leaf's texture, smelt a flower's crushed petals, tasted some berries and learned that that particular species is now extinct in the wild, the whole place comes to life.

Reckon Eric knows every leaf in the garden.

As we said, it's nothing if not eclectic and you'll find South American and African plant varieties at Dokmai too plus even a fragrant Mediterranean herb garden to amuse the local visitors. There are also plenty of orchids and areas laid out with traditional Thai garden plants and modern Thai garden favourites, as well as wild Thai plants from all corners of the kingdom, several of which are very rare.

Spectacular and unusual!

The garden's (or gardener's) motivations are multi-fold: some rare species are cultivated with eventual hopes to re-introduce them into the wild, there are scientific/research elements (Eric is in regular touch with places like Kew Gardens), there's the pedagogic aspect of teaching visitors about some of this weird and wonderful flora and last but not least, the gardens provide a fun and entertaining visit. Eric's not your typical stuffy and serious botany professor and after our lengthy, though absorbing, guided tour he declared, "Right guys, time for a cold beer now eh!?"

Some fun garden decor.

Indeed this botanical garden comes with a cocktail bar and there are conveniently placed tables at strategic points around the garden to place your glass of crisp white wine on. (That's our kind of garden!) Interestingly cocktails use frozen teak wood chunks instead of ice cubes, which is nothing if not original, and there's also a restaurant on site (in fact Eric's wife Ketsanee offers Thai cookery lessons). So if you do get botanical burn out, go and sit in the charming cafe with an ice cold beer or cocktail and watch the butterflies flit by.

Admire the garden from the bar!

Find all details, further info and facilities offered at their site here or contact them via Facebook. Detailed directions are also included but roughly speaking it's around a 20-30 minute drive from downtown and located past Hang Dong on the side road to Ob Khan National Park. It's well signposted and easy to find if you're travelling under your own steam or we paid a 500 baht round trip including waiting time for a songthaew. Strongly recommend calling in advance to check timing and they will willingly arrange cheap transport for you themselves.

Kids entrance is free, and there's even some fruit mocktails.

No chemical fertilisers or insecticides are used and there's plenty of bird and butterfly life around too. (Below are some baby 'fertilisers').

Some of the garden's natural fertilisers.

This is a great half-day out or include the nearby Ob Khan National park or Ban Tawai handicraft market and make a day of it? We'll leave you with a few more flora pics. Looking forward to our next visit!

Can't remember what this is -- ask Eric!

Ditto...

Ah -- pink and white coral vines!

Tags: flowers, gardens, Hang Dong, Kew Gardens, Mae Fah Luang, Ob Khan

We'll begin with a warning -- not about snakes, as the majority of those are pretty harmless, but about our identification abilities. Not being a qualified herpetologist (we ahem looked that up on Google), it's often very difficult to identify our wriggly friends who tend to vary considerably in colour and markings from region to region, time of year, age, sex, no other reason than to confuse amateur snake spotters and so on and on.

As we mentioned in an earlier bird post, Chiang Mai being a leafy kind of town and surrounded by farmland and forest there's quite a bit of wildlife to be found and that includes snakes. There's reckoned to be around a couple of dozen or so species common to the city (and there's at least as many in central Bangkok), so here's a quick run through.

We'll kick off with the most dangerous, and notorious: the king cobra.

Scary snake!

This was a big one -- around two metres -- but to be honest it was firmly in the 'burbs at Sankamphaeng that we saw it. They'll go after chickens, rats and so on and while unlikely to take up residence in the city, may certainly make forays from time to time.

Same goes for the water-loving, giant reticulated python, which you're unlikely to run into in the night bazaar but are occasionally seen in the Ping River.

Probably the most dangerous common variety in downtown would be one of the pit-viper family. These are usually not very big, and green coloured with black markings, but many variations exist and they are difficult to tell apart, though all are potentially dangerous. Below is a relatively easily identified green tree viper, followed by a pit viper which wasn't actually shot in Chiang Mai, but we liked the photo.

Very green snake.

Posh snake.

Now pit vipers can be nasty and are even potentially fatal, but the good news is they're nocturnal and generally pretty unobtrusive. They love sleeping and when they sleep, they sleep so you'd really have to go some to annoy one. They like height so are often found in, for example, straw roofs or overhanging vines. They are well camouflaged and not necessarily very large snakes so though there's enough about, you're still very unlikely to run into one say at your hotel.

Other common though harmless species found in town are the tree racers and tree snakes, which also come in several varieties and being diurnal, are relatively regularly spotted. As the names suggest, they are found in trees but the former is known for its ability to move very quickly, while the latter is also called a flying snake, since it glides through the air from tree to tree.

Sporty snake.

I intended to add a picture of a green tree racer at this point, but on closer examination the above seems to be a far more dangerous white-lipped pit viper. Anyway: another common Chiang Mai one is the aptly named common house, or wolf, snake. It's a medium sized mottled grey snake, which once got into our 2nd floor bathroom at home via a carrier-bag of Tesco's toiletries. The 1.50m certainly freaked out the cleaner but is perfectly harmless, and no, she didn't get a photo of it.

I've also had some too small to identify baby snakes appear up the bathroom drains, so yes, downtown Chiang Mai has plenty of snakes around, but as is the case of snakes anywhere, they know you're coming long before you see them and most are far more scared of you than you are of them. A sighting is really a lucky event.

However, if you are as bad at identifying them as we are, it's best to consider all of them dangerous and to be treated with respect.

Tags: sankamphaeng, snakes, tesco

Surprising how many people can stay several days in Chiang Mai and remain oblivious of the -- by city standards -- plentiful and varied bird life. Being a leafy town and with forested mountains not far away in any direction, you don't need to go hiking in the national park to see some pretty exotic species.

How much gel does he need in the morning?

One of the most common sightings, on wires and poles throughout the city, is the very cute red-whiskered bulbul, seen above. In Bangkok and south Thailand these poor little chaps are caged and sold for their singing abilities, but up here they're as common as sparrows.

Thailand actually lays claim to some 36 varieties of bulbuls but others commonly seen in Chiang Mai include the sooty-headed (kind of like the above but without the gel), and the stripe-throated seen below in a star gooseberry tree.

The seriously sour star-gooseberries are enough to ruffle anyone's feathers.

The ubiquitous starling-type bird that gathers in huge colonies in the larger trees around the moat are in fact myna birds (which sounds a lot more exotic than starlings) and again there are two varieties: the common myna, which is brown with a black head and yellow eyes, and the white-vented myna, which is mostly black with a crest. The black-collared starling can also be seen in parks and open ground. Another frequently overlooked but pretty bird is the spotted dove, seen in our next pic; just because it's predominantly grey doesn't mean it's a pigeon!

Not a pigeon with a make-over.

City birds that you'll certainly hear a lot include the koel, which makes that very loud sort of koooo-el, kooo-el sound and the lower oo-oo-oo sound of the greater coucal, which is often mistaken for a monkey noise. It's a large brown and black bird related to a cuckoo.

If you hear a high-pitched clicking sound it's not a new kind of cicada -- scan the nearest tree as it's probably a beautiful bird called a scarlet-backed flower-pecker. This awesome, tiny brown bird has a bright red streak down its back and isfound in flowering trees often with the equally attractive and miniature olive-backed sun-bird, both of whom are way to small to take pictures of! Pretty ones commonly seen in city parks and gardens we do have photgraphic evidence of however are the bright yellow common iora and the flashy white throated fantail.

A common iora, which is not really that common.

Spectacular white-throated fantail.

Even more spectacular species can be seen once you get up around the university/zoo area where forest birds such as the white-crested laughing thrush and the greater racket tailed drongo head into town for the easy pickings.

You having a laugh?

A greater drongo -- say no more!

For night owls into some nocturnal twitching, the Asian barred owlet is surprisingly common so keep an eye on the telephone cables as you're staggering home, though this one had obviously found something tasty at street level.

Who is looking at me?

Numerous other species are commonly found in town and once you get into the suburbs numbers multiply enormously, so check out the trees as you're sipping your iced mocha and if you hear an odd chirping in your Chiang Mai guesthouse garden do look to see where it's coming from.

If you are interested in the birds of Thailand we recommend Birds of Thailand checklist or Birds of Thailand by Philip D. Round. Happy twitching!

Tags: birds, birdwatching, Chiang Mai university, Chiang Mai zoo, Doi Suthep, twitching