CHOOSE CITIZEN SCIENCE
As the travel industry prepares to dust itself off and face a new year, Nick Rice looks into the relatively new sector of Citizen Science. Put simply: Ask not what your Planet can do for you. Ask what you can do for your Planet. “Mee moh da moo moo.” “Ah, yes, mee moh da moo moo,” I shout back through the hand-built wooden home to my lovely host, before surrendering to the music of the night. The slumbersome grunts of the water buffalo, the nocturnal comfort shuffles of the piglets, the myriad insects chirping, and – keeping constant time beneath the whole twilight orchestra – the faint tinkling of the nearby river. The next morning, after having the sweet dreams she’d wished me, I see my host again. Despite the early hour, I’m ready to try and communicate. “Da Blue,” I say smiling, and she replies, “Da Blue.” She hands me some water for my hike and I say, “Da Blue” gratefully. Boots on and rucksack ready, I head off and wave back with another, “Da Blue.” I wish I could pick up other languages this quickly, but it’s simply that in the Pakinyaw language, “Da Blue” means “hello”, “thank you” and “goodbye.” The morning mist still shrouds Naklang, the remote Karen Hill Tribe village in the north of Thailand, a 5-hour drive from Chiang Mai, where I’m having my first experience