Baan Maka Nature Lodge

To start off the location is amazing and definitely somewhere to go if you want to spot birds, insects, reptiles, etc in their natural habitat. I really enjoyed being out there and will definitely revisit the region again one day. I knew I was going to a natural accommodation, so I was prepared - I’m no stranger to mosquitos. For whatever reason the staff left the door to my chalet/house wide open twice while I was away (presumably cleaning) while my things were out on the table. I felt like this allowed a lot of time for mosquitos to enter. Also the internet worked off of a power line from indoors - which ran through a creaked open window - that you can’t close unless you want to shut that off. The kayaking is not available and hasn’t been for awhile as the lake has been drained. The owner Ian was nice when I asked about it, but I wish I had known that beforehand. The night walk was really great, and I enjoyed it. Getting to see all the wildlife at night from that perspective was quite interesting. Definitely an awesome feature of the stay. I have mixed reviews about my actual tour I booked. I woke up at 5:30am for an expected 10 hour tour day that I had prebooked. The tour guide picked my friend and I up, drove us 10 minutes or so, and then we started talking about our day. He essentially told us that he didn’t think we’d see much today other than the birds we had already seen that morning at breakfast. It wasn’t yet the right season/month for a productive all day tour he said. We understood and came to an agreement of 500 baht for his time. Overall we did take up about 2 hours of his time but I feel like the whole thing shouldn’t have happened in the first place/been scheduled. I appreciated him stopping it short, as the full day would’ve been nearly 4000 baht - but it should’ve been communicated beforehand. If you’re a birder or naturalist you’ll definitely fit in here. Give it a shot :)