Description

Recording jungle sound effects at Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, Thailand

At 9 pm I left my comfortable apartment in Chiang Mai to go on a little night time adventure to Doi Suthep National Park. Spoiler alert… it was an intense experience!

I thought this would be an easy recording session with driving across the park and stopping to record along the way. Everything started great. I drove up to Doi Suthep, passed the famous Wat Phrathat Temple, and then the Phu Phing Palace.

When it came to the Hmong village I could go either left or to the right. I decided to take a right on the clearly bumpy and smaller road. The real adventure began once I reached the Doi Pui Campground when the official road stopped there. My 125cc Honda was up for the challenge to explore the dark small road. After a little drive, I stopped and recorded several incredible sounds there!

With my headphones, I could hear the cracking in the woods and concert of night cicadas and other creatures! I also did several binaural recordings and in one of them, you can hear a piece of a tree falls to the ground. So cool!

I continued but I was stuck in between two roads and I wanted to reach the other side. There was no way I could go back on this scooter because at one point it was too steep and there wasn’t enough power to make it up.

It’s scary when its the middle of the night with no cell reception and you decided to go another direction! Luckily, I had enough gas in the tank and finally, after 3 hours I reached Huay Tueng Thao lake where I recorded the wetland night sounds with frogs and cicadas!

Before I reached the end of the forest I came across a flowing creek crossing the road. It sounded so nice that I placed the Zoom H6 next to it and recorded it for a few minutes. It was incredibly relaxing! After that, I drove home worrying about the clouds above my head! It wasn’t until 3 am that I was back safely to the apartment!

Bonus Tracks

I’ve included a few extra tracks that I recorded on a hike with Libby on the Monk Trail to Doi Suthep. I hope you like all the nature sounds I recorded in Thailand!