Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society Events & Activities

Chiang Mai is in the northern part of Thailand. It is the second largest city of Thailand and is about 700 kilometers from Bangkok. It is situated in the Mae Ping River basin some 310 meters above sea level and dotted with forested mountain. We went there from the 21^st to the 25^th of November. The season was quite dry and obviously we went at the wrong time for there were very few butterflies to be seen.

Day 1
We arrived our hotel, the Suan Bua Resort Hotel, late because of the delay in transit and the hotel was quite far away from the airport. The weather was good and sunny at about 29 degree. James and Lillian got a spa treatment and I opt for a Thai massage. When we finished and came out, the temperature shocked us, it had dropped at least 10 to 15 degree and we were all chilled to dead. We then had our dinner in the hotel and retired early to bed.

Papilio memnon (Linnaeus, 1758)

Day 2
We rented a car with chauffeur and drove to Sankampaeng road, the famous shopping street of Chiang Mai where the handicraft stores were located. As usual, this was meant for tourists and nothing was worth seeing. Then we went to Mae Rim where we visited an orchid and butterfly garden and had our lunch inside the garden. As we were not keen of seeing butterflies in captivity, we left very soon and went straight to the famous Mae Sa Waterfall in the Doi Suthep-pui National Park. It is a combination of 8 waterfalls separated by distances of 100-500 meters of the same stream. We only managed a very short distance because of lack of time. We took only a few shots because the place was dark in the afternoon. We did not see as much as anticipated though we still managed to take a few good shots. We went back to our hotel and took the shuttle bus to the night bazaar in downtown Chiang Mai, did some shopping and had dinner. Then we went back to the hotel which was quite far away.

Lexias pardalis (Moore, 1878) male - left & female - right

Charaxes bernardus ( Fabricius, 1793)	Poritia hewitsoni (Moore, 1866)	Iambrix salsala (Moore, 1866)

Day 3
We hired a car again and drove straight to the Doi Inthanon National Park. The 1000 sq. kilometers park covers Thailand's highest mountain, 2565 meters. There are several waterfalls, but they are far apart. We only went to the Mae Klang Waterfall at the foot and entrance of the park. 

Mae Klang Waterfalls at Doi Inthanon National Park

We took some good photos though we only hiked a very short part of the stream. The sun was setting quicker and we had to call the day off. The rest of the day was again night market shopping and dinning.

Lebadea martha (Fabricius, 1778)	Phalanta Phalantha (Drury, 1773)	Moduza procris (Cramer, 1777)
Pantoporia hordonia (Stoll, 1790)	Elymnias hypermnestra (Linnaeus, 1763) - female	Athyma nefte (Cramer, 1776) - female
Catopsilia pomona (Fabricius, 1775) -female	Dophla evelina (Stoll, 1790) - female	Danaus genutia (Cramer, 1779)
Hypolycaena erylus (Godart, 1824) - female (right)		Anthene emolus (Godart, 1824)
Amblypodia anita (Hewitson, 1862)		Loxura atymnus (Stoll, 1780)
Chilades pandava (Horfield, 1829)	Amblypodia narada (Horsfield, 1828)	Jamides spp.
Arhopala pseudocentaurus (Doubleday, 1847)		Tajuria spp.

Day 4
From the map of our hotel, there was a waterfall about twenty minutes walking distance, so we decided to go there. It was the Thard-yoy Waterfall. It was a very small one with a very a mild drop, not much to be seen. We did nothing in the afternoon and went to the night bazaar again for dinner.

Delias hyparete (Linnaeus, 1758)	Ypthima baldus (Fabricius, 1775)	Rapala suffusa (Moore, 1879)
Celaenorrhinus munda (Moore, 1884)	Matapa cresta (Evans, 1949)	Halpe porus (Mabille, 1877)

Day 5
We checked out early and returned home.  we promised to return in the wet season.