Early this summer I am going on a short (2 week) backpacking holiday with two friends. Apart from visiting the usual tourist trap backpackers destinations and beaches I also intend to visit as many LFS and natural bodies of water as possible along the way. I’m not 100% sure of where or how I am getting to any places but so far we have compiled a small list of places we will probably visit:
Bangkok
Pattaya
Kanchanaburi
Phuket
Ko Pha Ngan
Ko Phi Phi islands
Ko Samui
Ko Tao
Whilst I am there I intend of doing a lot of snorkelling, fishing with my travel rod, bit of netting in the streams and smaller ditches and rivers and hopefully looking out of any nice plants. I also want to have a look at as many LFS as possible basically to get an idea of how things are run over there compared to back here and hopefully pick up a few bits and pieces or plants that aren’t available here.
I don’t know if many people have much experience with Thailand but mostly what I want to know is what I should look out for, any shops or fish markets worth checking out in any of those places or anywhere else for that matter! Is it possible/legal to post plants back to myself, I know I cant take them on the plane with me (or can I?) I have brought plants from Asia before via snail mail and as far as I can remember they weren’t checked my customs or DEFRA, is this actually legal or is paperwork required? Again, Is it legal to collect small numbers of any plant from the wild?
Another thing I am having difficulty with is finding a decent resource for listing native species of plants and fish found in Thailand that I should be looking out for on my travels as I tend to naturally gravitate towards any small or large body of water I see wherever I go!
Bangkok
Pattaya
Kanchanaburi
Phuket
Ko Pha Ngan
Ko Phi Phi islands
Ko Samui
Ko Tao
Whilst I am there I intend of doing a lot of snorkelling, fishing with my travel rod, bit of netting in the streams and smaller ditches and rivers and hopefully looking out of any nice plants. I also want to have a look at as many LFS as possible basically to get an idea of how things are run over there compared to back here and hopefully pick up a few bits and pieces or plants that aren’t available here.
I don’t know if many people have much experience with Thailand but mostly what I want to know is what I should look out for, any shops or fish markets worth checking out in any of those places or anywhere else for that matter! Is it possible/legal to post plants back to myself, I know I cant take them on the plane with me (or can I?) I have brought plants from Asia before via snail mail and as far as I can remember they weren’t checked my customs or DEFRA, is this actually legal or is paperwork required? Again, Is it legal to collect small numbers of any plant from the wild?
Another thing I am having difficulty with is finding a decent resource for listing native species of plants and fish found in Thailand that I should be looking out for on my travels as I tend to naturally gravitate towards any small or large body of water I see wherever I go!