What I’ll remember longest from staying three days at a wildlife conservation center down south are the swatting, flirting, pajama-clad Thai middle schoolers. Pre-adolescents seem to play in a primal way, no matter what country they come from. This group of 20 or so had come for a weekend camp of the get-to-know-nature variety.
My friends and I had flown to Nakhon Si Thammarat from
Dinner for overnight guests at the center was served at long picnic tables under a shelter. The kids switched places throughout the meal, as if sitting next to a new person somehow provided them with purer, healthier oxygen. Their banter wafted over to us.
Suddenly they leapt up as one, called by some unseen force. Later we saw that the counselors had harnessed their creaturely natures and were leading them in songs and games about the importance of preserving wilderness.
We joined in on the tail end of their gymnastics, then retired to our quiet bungalows for some adult conversation. Electricity flows to this remote spot, but not television or mobile phone signals, so talking to each other was our only entertainment option. A nice change from
The next morning a local fisherman toured us along the coast in search of the monkeys and dolphins. We spotted both, about five minutes apart, just at the time we were tempted to turn back because the scenery was beginning to get monotonous. Our excitement, to an outside observer, probably looked like we were back in middle school.
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