Dao up in a small village in the hills of Nan, but at eighteen she moved to Chiang Mai to study tourism. Last month she from university, and three days ago she home on the night bus. Right now she on the wooden steps of her family’s house, watching the mist rise over the rice fields. At the moment, her mother breakfast in the kitchen, and the smell of sticky rice the air. Dao this view every day since she left.

Her grandfather, Kham, lives next door, and he over for coffee every morning at seven. He is seventy-six. He in the forest as a ranger for almost forty years before he retired, and he still for a long walk every day. At breakfast yesterday, he her a question that Dao for weeks: what are you going to do now? Dao took a deep breath. She about this moment on the bus home.

Most of her classmates jobs in Bangkok hotels since graduation, and her mother that Dao will do the same. But Dao a different dream since she was a child. She wants to become a mountain guide. Grandpa Kham smiled. ‘A guide in Nan more than a map,’ he said. ‘You must know the forest the way you know your own family.’ Next week, Dao a six-month training course for local guides. The course by the provincial tourism office, and by the end of it, she every trail around Doi Phu Kha.