Bird baby

One of our dogs caught a baby mynah bird learning to fly. The kids brought it home and our next door neighbor gave us a small cage, which we used the first night. My wife's mother and grandmother, true-life jungle people, were here, and my mother-in-law stuck food down the little thing (about 2 inches wide and three long - was longer but the tail feathers fell out) with a toothpick. It was allowed outside, wandered about in the grass some. I brought it in - it really can't travel well! But due to it objecting to me (it didn't yesterday; too hungry and scared I guess) I was able to get food into its open mouth. One pellet didn't go down (mixed with banana made too big a lump I guess) so I tried the heimlick maneuver, then resorted to pouring a capfull of water down. Seems to have worked. The poor guy sure quieted down. Tired, I think...
We put it in a basket with one of the remarkable fancy nests one sometimes finds about here – see second photo … but due to very cool rain, it’s now back inside, sleeping with head tucked under wing.
A Facebook friend from Australia sez: “The common Mynah is a very serious threat to the survival of many parrots. It is illegal to release one into the wild… Mynahs… deprive the other birds form nesting sites… love humans and their food scraps… have been called feathered cane toads by many biologists.” Another FB friend: hummingbirds “can fly 500 miles without stopping. Black birds eat them… The black bird she pointed to could be a raven. They sometimes fly with their mouths wide open.”

When i first came here, 1988, the area was still largely forest, the population was small, few roads were even paved and most houses were wood. Now there are "metaled" roads everywhere, lots of cement shop-houses built 20+ years ago and never ever used, and ubiquitous wi-fi. We do have lots of national park, more than any other province, which I am glad of, but the forestry department competes well as most graft-filled (police, state railway and a few others run about neck and neck) and schools are mostly for nationalistic indoctrination. Our world's a mess; I think Chiang Rai is one of the finest places in it. But I will eventually release the crow or myna. If it chooses to stick around, that's OK too.

sorry about the picture quality. cameras having become obsolete, one uses hand-phones, but I don't. With much exasperation (!) I took those shots with an old lap-top...

When I was a kid, both in Decatur GA and Ft Wayne IN, local hardware store had a mynah on a post and it could say a few words. Light chain around a foot, though

A friend adopted a baby bird, raising it until it could go off on its own. She ran an outdoor bar, where I'd sometimes sit. The little bird would fly down to visit... she'd feed it sunflower seeds from her mouth.

Activities for ChiangRai visitors

Activities for ChiangRai visitors:

There was a time, decades ago, when the thing to do was trek to hill-tribe villages, take photos and smoke opium. Now, for good reason, that’s not done so much. The villages aren’t remote, some frown on strangers stealing their image, the government is hardly as indulgent about opium, and marching into people’s homes for the curiosity value of it is sometimes even recognized for the rudely-mannered arrogance it is. You can still go to human zoos to see "long-neck” people, but that, at least, is generally recognized for what it is (if not beforehand, then maybe subsequently).
But there’s lots to do that isn’t intrusive:
On Sundays, the Thanon Khon Muan weekly street fair on SanKhongLuang Road fills a wide area with goods-for-sale, small stages with plastic chairs for audiences provide interesting entertainment, there’s an area for participatory dancing, food, food and food, and the ever-popular people-watching.
Mondays in BanDu a few kilometers up Hwy 1 from the bridge over the Kok, opposite the highway from Gate #1 to Rajapat Univ, is a “Walking Street” with mostly clothes for sale but also food and drink, packed with Rajapat students enjoying themselves.
Tuesdays, also in BanDu, in an open area on the highway just south of there, right north of Wat BanDu, is a Talat Nat open market featuring low prices and often a blow-up fun house for kids, plus a safely-enclosed trampoline.
Every night in the middle of town the “Night Bazaar” provides lavish entertainment on several large stages, beer, food, hill-tribe vendors and a remarkable array of delights.
Saturdays there’s the Thanon Tanalai (Tanalai Road) Walking Street, so popular that walking can be difficult. Kids do stunts on bikes and boards, and again, there’s participatory dancing.
Every night TokTaeng Restaurant towards the south end of town has local ethnic cuisine and local music by musicians in traditional local garb, and a quick walk further south, towards the KhunGon intersection that marks the end of town, also on the west side of Pahonyothin Road (the main thoroughfare) is ToopYaDong herbal-whiskey stand with interspersed comedy ad local music (all in local lingo only, and with some very friendly katoey lady-boys).
East of Hwy 1 on the south side of the Kok River a row of good restaurants provide sea-food, local fish, Chinese food, stage shows and riverside ambience.
“Pattaya Noi” (ChiangRai Beach) is a great place to relax of an evening, with a long row of open-sided pavilions to choose from for drinking and enjoying bar-b-q chicken and fish.
And then there’s JetYod Road, with tourist-oriented bars, massage shops and restaurants with Western food. Oh, and coffee-shops too (but they’re everywhere, anymore!).

Days, there’s the Elephant Camp on the Kok west of town, several hot-springs, waterfalls, museums, and the Central (Main) Market, at the northeast corner of which hill-tribe folk in tribal attire sell vegetables daily.
Day trips to outlying areas can work out, but often overnight is better, especially if you want to see the sunrise from PuChiFah overlook on the Mekong, or the birds at ChiangSaen Reservoir. To see Santikiri/DoiMaeSalong, ThoedThai/BanHinTaek, DoiTung and the Amphoe MaeFahLuang borderlands requires a couple days (at least), and good accommodations are generally available (except during the Chinese NewYear period).
Then there are the many National Parks, reservoirs, fishing parks, the Ostrich farm, artists to find out about, arboretums, caves, temples, interesting businesses (Lanna Souvenir, Orn’s Used Books, DoiDinDaeng Pottery), NGOs (AFECT, Mirror Art Group), and long-tail boat rides on the Kok River.

Huai Mak Liam Hot Spring and Forest Park is 4 km past Ban Ruam Mit on the other (south) side of the river, past the turn to Akha Hill Guest House. Sometimes at the height of the rainy season the area gets flooded, but it’s usually quite pleasant enough. Just by an almost boiling lake is another, cool, normal one. There’s a mixed water lake for free public bathing, and snack shops. A few kilometers closer to town a newly constructed natural hot-water pool has recently opened, also offering free public bathing.
Ban Poang Phrabaht Hot Spring (Ban Du) is west from Hwy 1 by Ban Kuk (just north of the airport road at k835). Private rooms with showers B20 plus B10 per person, a little more for newer rooms back behind the guyser, which looks a bit like a public shower. The half-hour time limit can be stretched a bit for showering off. There are towels for rent, and herbal ointments for sale. Clean enough (at least by Carribbean standards). The water’s so hot it must be mixed with cold.
Pong Nam Rawn (Baw Nam Ron) by Mae Suai, at the tourist trap on Hwy 118 – very sulfurous. 3 cement and stone well-like structures, 2-4 meters wide, with shallow, very hot water. Across the road one can rent small rooms with stone tubs and cold showers, B20.


also, just south of Mae Chan, turn west towards Mae Ai and Fang and go about 5 kilometers, maybe 6k, and on the south side is 'Silver Springs' hot-springs.

This list is hardly complete or comprehensive, but perhaps some things should be left to discover on one’s own. There are guides, bicycles, motorcycles and cars to hire, and a few Tourist Authority offices, if you can find them!