“Be serious: Long Day. Be happy: Short Day.” - Khun Wichian

It rained for a substantial amount of time last night, but it wasn’t until I rolled out of bed at 4:20AM that I felt the change. I could feel the humidity in the air as a soft moist thick blanket surrounding me. Today was the first day in over two months that I did not wear my fleece in the morning on the motorbike. I was reminded what it is like to search for langurs when the forest feels tropical, wet. Immediately, I was soaked with a combination of sweat and wetness from brushing up against foliage. My glasses fogged over. Yet, it turned into a day for napping – a breeze rustling the leaves, patches of sunlight, blue sky. Trees cracking, creaking in the wind. Ticks crawling up my back, in my hair, resting in a fine powdery dirt of the salt lick, the smell of elephant. Today we had a “short” day.

It hit me today how far we have come, what we have accomplished – from sitting 50m away from a flash of a langur group, a sole tail visible for hours, to observing infant langurs coming to the ground 20m away! I had a beautiful afternoon shift with Lek and PS toady. Gibbon calls and the hollow clang of large bamboo rattling in the background. My last day with my favorite focal group. They went to the TW/TX salt lick. I have never had the chance to see them there before. It was pure chance that they went today. I got lucky. For three hours they climbed down to eat dirt and I counted the entire group, all nine, resting in the same low tree above the salt lick. It was beautiful seeing the faces, which I now know as individuals, so close, unafraid, accepting. It was a moment where you say to yourself: wow, this is what make all our work, all the long boring tick and leech filled days, worth it. The perfect send off.