Visa Run and a Hornbill

It's that time again... and I'm so tired of it!

Last week I had to run to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to apply for a new visa. I stayed from Monday to Friday, and fortunately, it doesn't seem like I'll have to leave Thailand again for some time.

It's not that I don't love travel. In fact, I really enjoy visiting Cambodia. I'm just tired of always having to go to the same city once or twice a year for a new visa. I'd love to explore more parts of the beautiful neighboring kingdom... but alas.

Anyway... after dropping off my passport and paperwork at the Royal Thai embassy, I didn't really have anything much to do. Phnom Penh isn't a very big city, and I've visited nearly all of the attractions once or twice already. Still, I made the most of my time by enjoying some delicious coffee. Phnom Penh has a really great cafe culture!

Last year when I visited Cambodia, the Royal Palace was still closed due to COVID. It's open again now, and since I hadn't been there in a while, I decided to buy a ticket and pay a visit.

The Blog of Michael Desrosiers: The Cambodian Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda

The Royal Palace is smaller than Bangkok's Grand Palace, but the architecture and design are very similar. It really goes to show the long history and connection between the two countries, at least culturally.

The Cambodian monarchs have occupied it since it was built in the 1860s, though it was abandoned during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. With the restoration of the Cambodian monarchy in 1993, the king returned to the palace.

The Royal Palace complex is also home to the Silver Pagoda, the most important and holiest temple in Cambodian Buddhism.

Other days, I just went on long walks through the city, or passed the time reading, working, and just chilling in my tiny hotel room.

I did go to the mall one day, which was nice. When we think of Cambodia, I think we often think of the ancient ruins and old palaces, but it's good to be reminded that it is a rapidly developing and modernizing country as well. Nowhere can remind you more of that than AEON Mall!

However, there was one moment (besides getting my visa, of course) that made the entire trip totally worth it! On my last full day in Phnom Penh, I was startled by something big and black swooping above my head to land in a huge tree. I jogged across the street to get a better look, and imagine my shock and amazement to spot one of my bucket list birds, the Great Hornbill! I tried to get some photos, but they aren't very good. I only had my phone with me, and the contrast between the bright sun and the dark tree made it nearly impossible to take a good picture.

But it was an amazing experience! I just couldn't believe that I was seeing such a beautiful and rare bird right there in the middle of the capital city!

It turns out that some 10 or so pairs of hornbills came to Phnom Penh during COVID. (Great Hornbills spotted in Phnom Penh may be a good sign – Khmer Post Asia). It was such an exciting moment! I always imagined that I would have to go on a trek deep into the Thai jungle to spot one of these magnificent birds.

The DART, Love Field, and Taiwan

It was quite an adventure flying home to the US through Dubai, and my journey home was adventurous as well in its own way.

My wife was flying back to Bangkok on the same day, but while her ticket took her out of DFW airport, mine took me through Love Field, Dallas' older and smaller airport. My dad dropped us off at DFW, I saw my wife off, then had to find my way to Love Field.

I suppose I could have taken an Uber, but I was in the mood for an adventure and willing to try something new. First, I had to take the shuttle bus from DFW Terminal D to Terminal A.

From there, I walked down a nice garden path to the DFW Airport DART station. I've only taken the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) a few times in my life, so this was something new and exciting for me to try.

I bought the $2 ticket from a kiosk and boarded the bright yellow train. It took about half an hour to go from DFW to Love Field, including a stop near the end where I had to take another shuttle bus into the airport itself, but it was a fun journey, and gave me the chance to see a new side of Dallas.

I ended up having to spend several hours just waiting at Love Field, but finally I boarded my flight to San Francisco, arriving late at night. My transpacific flight was bound to depart just a few hours later, and before I knew it, I was landing in Taipei, Taiwan bright and early the next morning.

At first I had really wanted to get out of the airport and explore somewhere new, but in the end I decided that I didn't have quite enough time. Instead, I ordered a Taiwanese combo meal and a Taiwan beer and sat to watch the planes take off and land.

Mother Neff State Park

One sunny day near the end of my visit to Texas, my buddy James drove down to Waco to hang out with my wife and me. It was a beautiful day, and on a whim, we decided to drive 30 or so minutes to Moody, Texas to visit Mother Neff State Park.

Mother Neff State Park is named for Isabella Eleanor Neff, mother of Governor Pat Morris Neff (who also served as the president of Baylor University from 1932-1947), who donated the first six acres of the park to the state in 1916. In 1921, Governor Neff made the park into the very first state park in Texas. Additional surrounding land was donated to the state and today it is 330 acres.

Despite having lived in Waco for several years, I had never made my way out to Mother Neff. It's one of - if not THE - smallest state parks in Texas, but I was very impressed by the upkeep and facilities. The park headquarters is very nice, there are bird blinds for birdwatching, the campsites seem well-maintained, and there are some 3 or 4 miles of hiking trails throughout the park.

We explored nearly all of the trails which took us through a few different landscapes - a prairie, a forest, and a river trail near the Leon River.

One interesting feature is known as "The Cave". Technically, it's a rock shelter. This cliff overhang was used as a shelter by native people for hundreds of years.

James and I make a podcast together called "Attempt Adventure". Since we live in different countries and rarely get the chance to meet up in person, we wanted to take some promotional photos for our show.

You can listen to the Attempt Adventure Podcast wherever you get your podcasts! We are on pretty much every podcast app.

We had fun messing around and taking some pictures at an old rock table that was used by the Civilian Conservation Corps when they were doing some work on the park in the 1930s.

One of the park's most iconic features is an old stone lookout/water tower, also built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The tower was built in 1935. You can climb up for a view all across the park.

It's a very small state park, and you can see pretty much all of it in a matter of hours. It was so fun to explore somewhere new, and next time that I'm in the US, I'd love to spend a night or two camping out at Mother Neff.

Birding in Texas

I am an avid birder, and I was thrilled to add several birds to my life list while I was visiting Texas this spring:

Black-throated Sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata), Terlingua, TX

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), Waco, TX

Scott's Oriole (Icterus parisorum), Big Bend National Park, Texas

Mexican Jay (Aphelocoma wollweberi), Big Bend National Park, Texas

Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus), Waco, TX

In total, I added to my birding life list:

American Goldfinch

Red-winged Blackbuird

Dark-eyed Junco

Cedar Waxwing

Greater Roadrunner

American Robin

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Cactus Wren

European Starling

Lincoln's Sparrow

Scott's Oriole

Canyon Towhee

Mexican Jay

Zone-tailed Hawk

Black-throated Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Hooded Oriole

Orchard Oriole

Canyon Wren

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Vermillion Flycatcher

Scaled Quail

Wild Turkey

I'm currently up to a grand total of 119 birds!

Downtown Days

The several weeks that I spent at home in Waco, Texas were wonderful. I was very happy to be back in Texas and was even more delighted when my wife was able to join me a few weeks later.

During my time at home, I was able to enjoy some wonderful local beer, including a new local favorite: Act of Faith, a strong but delicious IPA from a local Waco-based brewery.

On Palm Sunday, my parent's church hosted a community event with several local food trucks. I would like to especially should out Li's Kitchen, a wonderful Vietnamese food truck that I have enjoyed a few times in the past.

This time, I ordered Li's famous Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwich). It was wonderful!

On one rainy afternoon, my wife and I decided to spend the day at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. Despite the poor weather, we really enjoyed walking around and seeing all of the animals. 

On another cold and rainy day, we decided to pay a visit to the Art Center Waco, a free art museum located downtown.

The museum was currently exhibiting a series of watercolors featuring lighthouses. The paintings were lovely, and were very timely to the recent podcast interview I had just finished recording.

The weather was still terrible, so my wife and I decided to make it a "museum day". We stopped in at the Martin Museum of Art on the Baylor University Campus to see the paintings and art on display by Baylor students, then drove across the street to the Mayborn Museum, Baylor University's on-campus museum of science and history.

One Saturday morning, my family headed out to the Waco Farmer's Market, which has grown a lot in scope and scale since I lived in Waco. Now, it uses a huge parking lot near the McLennan County Courthouse!

My wife and I enjoyed a delicious coffee and spent some time wandering around the farmer's market. I was in the mood for some delicious Tex-Mex, so I headed over to a stall selling breakfast tacos.

This was perhaps the best breakfast I had during my visit to the US! The breakfast tacos - barbacoa, green sauce, tomato, onion, and more - were wrapped up in a freshly-made corn tortilla (which was fried directly on the grill). 

It was incredible, and I am already dreaming of visiting Waco again to order another wonderful breakfast taco. 

Hot Springs Historic District

After trekking down into the canyon along the Rio Grande, we drove to the Rio Grande Village visitor's center to collect a national park passport stamp and ask for advice.

The ranger on duty advised us to drive down the historic Hot Springs Trail, but she warned us that it was going to be something of a bumpy ride.

It was my turn to drive our rented car, much to the chagrin of my dad who didn't like the idea of a guy who only drives for one or two weeks a year taking us over the steep, narrow, and pebbly path to the historic district.

Nevertheless, we made it in one piece. I parked the car after a harrowing white-knuckle drive along some of the sketchiest roads I've ever seen, and we stepped out into the dusty vista of the Hot Springs Historic District in Big Bend National Park.

We started off on our hike along the river, unsure exactly of what to expect. The trail took us along a beautiful, verdant stretch of the Rio Grande River, which was in stunning bloom in the early spring.

A sign informed us that we should be on the lookout for a nearby collection of some ancient rock art on the cliff walls up ahead.

On this trail, there were both pictographs:

as well as petroglyphs:

To be honest, I didn't know the difference, but the informative signs at the national park explained that petroglyphs and pictographs are both forms of rock art, but they differ in how they are made. A petroglyph is an image carved, incised, or scratched into the stone, while a pictograph is painted on the stone using natural pigments.

We followed the trail to the eponymous hot spring.

The hot springs have a long history of human occupation, dating back to thousands of years ago when Native Americans left rock art on the limestone cliffs. Later, settlers and pioneers came to the area and built a resort and a post office, hoping to benefit from the healing powers of the mineral-rich water. Today, you can still see the ruins of the historic buildings and soak in the warm water that emerges from the natural spring at 105°F.

The hot springs at Big Bend National Park are a great way to experience the natural beauty and history of this region. Whether you want to relax your muscles, soothe your soul, or explore the cultural heritage, you will find something to enjoy at these thermal features.

Even though we didn't have any swimsuits, we decided to take a quick dip in the hot springs. Typically, visitors who come prepared will alternate their baths in the hot springs with a cooling plunge in the cold waters of the rapidly flowing Rio Grande River.

The surrounding landscape was stunning. While we couldn't spend too much time in the hot springs, we really enjoyed our visit to this historic district. It gave us a chance to relax after a long day of hiking and enjoy the beauty of the river.

Next time I visit Big Bend National Park, I will be sure to bring a bathing suit with me. I'd love to go on one of the park's famous river rafting tours and would also love to spend some time soaking in the historic hot springs along the Mexican border.