Thamarong Somsak had a job in a printing business but he always felt the pull of the outdoors. He’d grown up around the forests of his native province southeast of Bangkok and the lure of the wild never went away. One day, unhappy in his factory work, he visited the Thap Lan National Park close to the Cambodian border. He asked for a job as a ranger there, even though it meant halving his $500 monthly salary. “Nature has always been a part of me since I was a little boy,” says Thamarong, a 35-year-old who wears a Buddhist amulet and is nicknamed Chate. “I have always dreamed that one day I would be here.”
探瑪隆•頌薩(Thamarong Somsak)以前在一間印刷廠工作，但他一直嚮往戶外工作。探瑪隆的家鄉位於曼谷東南省份，那裏森林茂密，他自小在森林的懷抱中長大，大自然始終吸引著他。終於有一日，厭倦了印刷廠工作的他來到靠近泰國與柬埔寨邊境的Thap Lan國家森林公園。他在那兒找了一份護林員的工作，哪怕薪水只有原來的一半——他原來的月薪是500美元。35歲的鑾探隆身上佩戴著佛教護身符，綽號切特(Chate)。他說：「從我還是個小男孩起，大自然就一直是我生命的一部分。我一直夢想著有一天我會來這兒。」