On my first trip to Thailand, I spent a month on an island in the South of the country. I flew to Bangkok and took a bus to the Sounth on the same night, as I didn’t want to stay in this big crazy city. When I arrived on the island I was amazed by the totally new for me sounds of animals and birds, that could be heard in the daytime or in the night. On the first evening I was shocked by the sight of a big gecko on the ceiling in my bath. I quickly moved to get my camera, but when I came back, it was gone. Later I heard a strange sound, that turned out to be the same kind of tokay gecko. It is still one of the most adorable sounds for me. You can hear it in this video of nighttime frog, chickets and gecko sounds that I recorded: https://youtu.be/9xyUEVeJPO8
I couldn’t wait to start exploring the jungle there and to see all these exotic types of plants and trees and hear all the sounds of these tropical forests. Unfortunately it rained, and rained, and rained… It rained most of the time for nearly two weeks, even though it wasn’t supposed to be the rainy season. In the end I decided to try to film and record the rain. After many successful and less successful tries, I managed to collect enough footage and sound, to make this video: https://youtu.be/c9pQYOGIWM8
When the sky finally cleared, I started exploring and filming the island’s and jungles and beaches. I also went on a two-day boat trip to the nearby marine national park – an amazingly beautiful and wild place on it’s own. I made a video of one of it’s many wild beaches: https://youtu.be/xGRjCa49C6U
The jungles in the area were lush and rich with vegetation and wildlife and there were some very big old trees and exotic plants. One sound that I didn’t particularly like and I was trying to avoid in my recordings was the sound of what I later found out to be a type of cicada. It sounds like a very high pitched constant noise and I didn’t imagine that the people watching the video would find it relaxing. This is the result of my few hikes in the local jungles: https://youtu.be/MCuFfW3X324
On my way back to the airport, I spent a whole day in Bangkok and started to appreciate how relaxed, peaceful and friendly it’s atmosphere was, despite the constant traffic, crowds and noise. Overall I loved Thailand and will certainly be coming back there.
Here’s a video collection of some of the most beautiful and peaceful beaches, that I managed to film: https://youtu.be/BZYMzs0Jt94
And here is a short film with music with different scenes and aerial shots of the tropical beauty that I saw in Thailand: https://youtu.be/c8vN7Llnyqo