Mangroves

We left Bangkok today and headed southwest along the coastline to Samut Songkram, where there is a mangrove conservation area.  In our fall class, the students learned about mangrove ecology and conservation; today we wanted the students to experience mangroves.  We had two activities by which I think they now have an indelible concept about this important ecosystem.

Here's the before picture of our students heading out to the mangroves at the Samut Songkram Conservation Area around 2 hours SW of Bangkok.

Sydney and Rachael kayaking to the mangroves.

Most of the students in their kayaks paddling into the mangroves.

Lu (Alexa) and Zoe.

Out in the mangroves, our students experienced this ecosystem up close.  They saw monitor lizards, mudskippers, mangrove snakes, and ...

...long-tailed macaques.  At first they're cute, but then you realize they're more like aggressive rats with prehensile tails and long canines.

After kayaking through mangroves, we went out to an open-ocean platform for lunch.

Our lunch was phenomenal.  We had tom ka, gai phad met mamuang heemapahn, egg noodles, phad thai, bird wings, guava, and som tom. 

We had two tables for 17 people.  And still there was food leftover... specifically the tom ka.  I can't believe the students at this table didn't like the tom ka :-(

After lunch, we went to a mud-flat area at low tide to plant mangrove saplings.

Sydney and Alyssa trying to navigate out to the area where we will be planting the mangrove saplings.

Taylor is looking for a place to plant her mangrove tree.

Alexa is soooo happy about working in the mud.