Day 131. Kyle & Leanne joint blog.

Sometimes you say goodbye to a loved one and say a little prayer for their safe return. This morning was one of those farewells. Despite a torrential rainstorm with flooding last night, Corey, Justin and Kyle head out for rock climbing this morning with an experienced local guide.  It’s the first time rock-climbing on a real cliff (as opposed to an indoor rock wall gym) for Kyle and second time for Justin and Corey.  Kyle is not making Leanne feel any better as he jokes not worry, when he slips off the rock and plunges down the rock face, it will make great pictures for the blog. 

They go to the rock climbing place, get outfitted in their equipment and head to the cliffs with their local guide.  As we get set up, the guide decides Justin will be the one to be his partner while he climbs up and put the line up the cliff.  He goes over all the commands he will shout and what Justin should do with the rope and harness.  After about 15 minutes, the guide says to Justin “Okay, my life is in your hands when I’m up there, are you sure you know everything you need to do?” To which Justin shrugs his shoulders and says “yeah, I guess so.” 

At this point, I’m hoping the liability release we signed extends to relieve us of any liability should the guide perish hat Justin’s hands. Turns out there is no need to worry as Justin performs flawlessly and the guide zips up to the designated ring and zips down.  Now it’s our turn for the first run which the guide says is an easy, warm-up run.  Justin goes first and has no problem scaling up to the top.  Corey follows with the same ease.  Kyle’s turn.  When he is 2/3 of the way up, sweat is pouring from his forehead as he is trying to figure out where to put his hands on what seems to him like a sheer flat wall.  Somehow Kyle makes it to the top and returns.  He is bright red, sucking air and mopping sweat off him as he mutters, “easy, warm-up run my a**!”

Our guide takes us to our second run which where the rock face rises into a cave high up above.  We keep the same order so Justin goes first.  Getting up the lower part of the rockface proves challenging as Justin takes his first spill and has to re-position to get up from another part of the rockface.  Once past, he scales up to the upper cave. Corey goes next and mightily battles up the challenging lower cliff and also makes it to the upper cave.  Upon he return, he says, “man, that was tough!” Given how easy they made the “warm-up” run seem, Kyle already knows he is likely toast on this one but he has to give it his best shot.  Turns out his best shot results in his plunging down the rock face, bouncing against the rock cliff like a ping pong ball and slicing his leg up. The guide who is all 60 pounds soaking wet bounces up off the ground 6 feet when Kyle falls but he manages to keep Kyle from plunging to his death. Bonus tip for the guide.

Kyle had texted Leanne earlier that they were rock climbing right next to the resort if she wanted to come watched them.  Kyle now texts her the pictures of his free fall plunge and bloodied leg telling her he might be in the hospital by the time she comes if she waits any longer.

Meanwhile, Leanne has been managing online studies with the others before their scheduled Thai cooking class at Railay Cooking School.  “Cooking class? Really?  I didn’t ask for you to sign me up for that,” Screeches one teen. 

“We’re going and you are going to like it,” says Leanne in her best authoritative tone. “In fact, I predict you are going to LOVE it” with a bit of hope in her Uber-positive voice. Sheepishly, the 3 teens follow Leanne first to ensure the other three are safely rock climbing and to get over to the walking street where the class is held. 

“NOW you come,” Kyle laments as he’s hit a wall on the limestone cliff. “I was doing much better earlier...yeah, yeah, you should have seen me earlier on the easy warm-up run!”.  From her vantage point, Leanne thought she was married to an Olympian rock climber as Kyle hurled himself 50 feet up on the side of a scenic limestone cliff. Just thrilled to snap a few photos of him high above, Leanne was relieved to find them with only minor scrapes and one bloody leg. Leanne, Ashley, Ashlynn and John head off for the cooking class while Kyle, Justin & Corey stay to finish the rock climbing.

As soon as they start the Thai cooking class, the rest of the teens come alive chopping, crushing, cooking and stir-frying.  Apparently Leanne’s wish came true and the teens are absolutely loving it!  We use lemongrass, onions, mushrooms, garlic, local root vegetables, chicken and herbs that create wildly  authentic Thai aromas. We make Tung Tung, spring rolls, yellow curry chicken, chicken with cashews, yellow curry chicken, pad Thai and sticky rice and mango.  Halfway through the class, our exhausted and hungry rock climbers show up.

Justin and Corey were rock stars on the rock-face! Kyle sat out the last couple of climbs while the boys traversed to the some of the highest points on the gigantic cliffs.  At one point, they were so high that Kyle had a hard time getting a picture with both the ground and the boys in it.

Everyone settles in to test the cooking group’s creations and we have all seven us hovered over a table indulging on Thai cuisine and culture immersed in these deep inviting aromas that could probably clear a wild elephants sinuses.  The cooking group has a few more dishes to make while the rock climbers take photos.  For a stir fry dish, the cooking teacher gives Ashlynn a big bowl full of vegetables and oil that she is to throw into the bigger pot that is on the first-stove.  As she does, the pot erupts into a mountain of flames bursting in every direction.  She jumps back as the flames rush at her.  Luckily, she is not burned but her eyebrows might need to re-grow some hair.

Of course the tattooed scuba instructor finds us enjoying our day as the Thai cooking place is right across from the dive center. Danae is still thrilled with the tip Kyle gave her the other day and is already angling for the next tip as we’ll be going out scuba diving again with her tomorrow.

“Oh Kyle,” Danae says. “I forgot to get all the sizes for tomorrow.  I was going to stop by your hotel room later to get them but I can get them now and we’ll be all set.”  Kyle is not sure Leanne heard anything after the “I was going to stop by your hotel room later” as she has turned into stink-eyed dad in India as she waives her chopping knife behind the cooking counter.  Kyle has a feeling Danae didn’t do her tip any favors with that comment as Leanne will likely implement a mandatory tip reduction protocol after tomorrow’s trip to reign in Danae’s excess friendliness towards Ky.   

“And yes I won’t forget the bottled water you requested tomorrow either” she shares as she walks away smiling. 

Kyle his specifically requested bottled water as a few of us were queasy from the reusable cups and ice getup on the long tail boat the other day.  However this dive company tries hard at the ecotourism effort as does all of Railay Beach. We are all about sustainability as long as we don’t end up on the toilet five times in an hour being sustainable. As that’s not humanly sustainable. 

Now it’s time for PE class as a few of us get over to the pool toying with the incoming lightening rainstorm that threatens to ruin our frisbee fun.  There are dozens of monkeys jumping the surrounding trees in a kinetic pre-storm frenzy.  Looking for his spot to await the storm, a four foot long iguana slowly walks up onto a nearby lawn chair.  Leanne nearly swallows her own tongue.  We have been warned about the Iguana as big as a moped but it still does not prepare one to see it climbing towards you with its tongue flicking out around dinner time. 

Later, we rally the clan for a beachfront dinner getting by with this meal costing less than $15 each which is a huge price differential from a similar vantage point from the Grotto.  

Kyle and Leanne fall asleep to CNN and BBC hearing more arguably pro-Russia, China-friendly and anti-American news stories.  There are stories about the bumbling impeachment inquiries, the released Russian national Maria Butina and American failures in Syria. Boy the world seems to have lost its admiration of the US once enjoyed.  But then again maybe so has some of our nation.  How deep, eh?  Definitely time to sleep then.