May 2023 – Gardens Botswana

This is a bit of a rambling memoir to myself about this first amazing visit to Thailand, and not exclusively about the plants I saw there. Although I only saw a small southern corner of it, I was immediately enamoured. Jungle-clad mountains, and flowers virtually everywhere. Almost every residence I saw had an array of pots filled with tropical plants and bright flowers growing on their doorstep, with hanging orchid baskets and lotus pots. If you only want to hear about the plants, skip to the end where I visit the Phuket Botanical Garden.

I arrived after a long flight into Phuket on Qatar airways, and jetlag plus the incredibly windy roads heading south from the airport had me feeling a little green. But the scenery was lovely, we passed rubber plantations, oil and date palm plantations, a few inland dams surrounded by cashew nut trees, and the national tree Cassia fistula (golden shower tree) was dotted along the road, full of bright yellow flowers. I was staying on the western side of Phuket at Karon beach, and a few glimpses of the sea, plus the smell of lunch soon had me forgetting the jetlag.

My plan for the first day, was to visit a few of the islands and so I joined a tour going to James Bond Island, and a couple of other islands too. Our first stop was Panak island which has a bat cave. We had to wade through this cave in knee high water in the dark for about 50m and then it opens up to a mangrove surrounded by mountains. The mountains are covered in varied vegetation with ferns, Euphorbia species, and what I think were some cycads too.

Next island was Hong island for some canoeing – there were lots of people, almost like playing bumper-canoe,

Then came Khao Phing Kan in Ao Phang Nga National Park, popularly called James Bond Island, named after the movie. Here there were lots of ferns (Drynaria quercifolia I think), pandanus (leaves are an ingredient in thai food), and of course the much-admired 250 million-year-old limestone formation.

Next came lunch at the Ko Panyi and then some swimming at Naka island.

Day 2: Was a beach, market and restaurant day, and by the end I was truly stuffed full of Thai food. My favourite restaurants were Sabaijai cafe where I ate twice, red crab curry and then a green veg curry – so incredibly yum. Then Kiri restaurant I ate at twice too, the chicken with cashew nut and pork belly dishes were divine. If only I could eat them every day. But the best and cheapest restaurant in Phuket was Mee Ton Poe. All of their dishes were scrumptious and really cheap compared to the more tourist oriented restaurants.

Day 3: Similan Islands in the Andaman sea – This was a really special trip, although most of what I saw was under the sea. The diversity and quantity of fish was really lovely to see: Sealface pufferfish, Srgt major, Powderblue surgeonfish, Moorish idols, Cleaner wrasse, Rainbow parrotfish, Coral grouper, Oriental sweetlips, Cowries, Crown of thorns, Batfish, Titan triggerfish, Barracuda, Staghorn, Table and Whip coral, two Turtles, Snapper, Angelfish, Goldies, Blenny, Trevally, and so many more. On land I saw what looked like a miniature komodo dragon – a monitor lizard I think, but he looked like something out of Jurassic Park, so I decided not to be curious. The trip was slightly shocking in one aspect, the numbers of people. I had assumed being a rather remote island that there would only be a few people there, especially as it is uninhabited and they limit the numbers of people that can visit per day. Wow was I wrong! There were over twenty or thirty boats, and the stopover for lunch, felt like I was back in a very very large school, where you have to queue for your lunch, the toilets etc.

I saw my first Fishtail Palm in its native habitat – Caryota mitis, Ficus and Pandanus too.

Day 4: Koh Phi Phi island and Koh lanta – this was a really enjoyable 2hr speedboat trip on Bhundaya from Phuket to Koh Lanta via Phi Phi (made even more famous by the movie, the Beach). Koh/Ko is the word for island in Thai.

Koh Lanta was just what I was looking for, and I was lucky enough to find it. It was quiet, peaceful, laid back, so different from the Phuket crowds. I’d actually only decided to stay here so that I could more easily dive the Hin Muang and Hin Daeng sites that are about another 2 hr speedboat drive south. I’d read about these dive sites online, and they were really incredible. Hin Muang was called Purple rock for all the soft purple corals that cover the underwater rock, and has several underwater pinnacles. The drop-offs around Hin Muang are very rich in marine life and covered in soft corals, gorgonian sea fans and black corals. Hin Daeng is known as red rock, and covered with red soft corals, which makes the rock appear red. Only three small pinnacles are visible from the surface, but once underwater, Hin Daeng stretches to 45 metres down before reaching the sandy bottom. Both were incredible dives with lots of macro life including nudibranchs, and then huge morays one that swam out right in front of me. There were so many schools of fish swimming around you, that to actually see further than a metre was quite hard, although the visibility was excellent. Featherstars and christmas worms, plus lionfish and all the other amazing tropical fish were all really lovely to see, but it was the rock walls covered in life that were really extraordinary, every centimetre was just different and hard to take everything in. The currents were also quite strong, but that meant little effort was needed to move along, it only became a struggle if you wanted to wait a while to get a closer look. Overall probably the best dive experience, there was only nine of us, and we were divided into groups of three along with a dive master/instructor from Lanta diver. So not only was it professionally organized, but the sites were so beautiful too.

It was my last day in Koh Lanta, so after I arrived back from the dive, I rented a scooter and headed for Old Lanta town and the mangroves on the eastern side. This was a really wonderful idea, and although my first few tries at riding the scooter were a bit hair-raising I finally found my balance and set off for Thung Yee Pheng Mangrove Forest. Here you can rent a kayak for about P100 for a few hours. I love mangrove forests, you get to see some extraordinary wildlife usually. There were plenty of crabs, monkeys and birds.

Last day in Phuket was spent at the amazing botanical garden, and a bit of old Phuket too. There were only a few orchid species flowering, but the set up is really lovely, and they have all the unusual fruit trees of Thailand too, including the white noni fruit – Morinda citrifolia; Garcinia mangostana, Mangosteen – different to our indigenous mangosteen (G. livingstonei) – a bit larger too; Anacardium occidentale, (exotic) Cashew nut; foxtail palm; Schleichera oleosa, kusum tree, Ceylon oak, lac tree, gum lac tree; Bouea macrophylla, marian plum – this is so delicious like a miniature very sweet mango; Artocarpus lacucha, also known as monkey jack or monkey fruit; Artocarpus heterophyllus, the well known jackfruit; Elaeis guineensis, african oil palm (native to equatorial africa); Xantolis siamensis bears little known fruits; Careya sphaerica (the shoots are eaten raw with chili sauce, nam phrik, the flowers are also served raw with nam phrik or with vermicelli and fish curry, the fruit is eaten fresh); Alangium salviifolium, a medicinal plant used traditionally in India; Elaeocarpus hygrophilus a small shrub that is also used in thai food; Terminalia chebula, commonly known as black or chebulic myrobalan (the nut-like fruits are picked when still green and then pickled, boiled with a little added sugar and used in preserves; Suregada multiflora, false lime tree another little known species that is used in traditional medicine; Syzygium polyanthum known as Indonesian bay leaf – the leaves of the plant are traditionally used as a food flavouring and Syzgium aqueum known as Rose apple.

I’ve gone a bit overboard on the pictures below:

It’s also bromeliad heaven walking around the garden, and the variety of palm trees is amazing, with some unusual aroids too.

Dypsis lastelliana – red neck palm; Pandanus amaryllifolius – fragrant pandan leaves used in cooking; exotic palms like Copernicia prunifera or the carnaúba palm is a species of palm tree native to northeastern Brazil. Known by many as ‘tree of life’ because of its many uses; Salacca zalacca a thorny palm tree which yields a salak fruit and is often found in local markets; Ravenala madagascariensis, the traveller’s palm (exotic from Madagascar) which is so beautiful; Pritchardia pacifica, the Fiji fan palm, is native to Tonga.