Levi's Silly Blog - Thailand

Thailand Photos

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:09:33 -0700

Hey all-
I have finally posted photos from my trip to Thailand.
Check them out at:
http://levikilcher.com/photos/2007/thailand/

So far these are only the photos from cambodia. The thailand (climbing mostly) photos will be along soon.

later,
Levi

A Final Fatal Image

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 17:41:36 -0700

Well I'm back in Oregon now... sitting in my office. Kinda crazy. It is nice to be back, but man is it cold outside (34 F or so).

Though Layton and I had a couple final adventures in Bangkok, the trip home started in earnest when I said goodbye to my brother at the bus station in Krabi (he was headed south back to Koh Lipeh). That was nearly 4 days ago. The 14 hour bus ride north to Bangkok was not terrible. I met a school teacher from Saskatchewan who was travelling around Asia with his family (wife and 6ish-daughter) for a year. They got off after 4 hours; I slept for most of the rest of the ride. I arrived in Bangkok at 5am (15th), and managed to get one of the Tuk-Tuk drivers to tell me which bus went to "Miami Hotel" without taking me there.
Layton showed up shortly and we headed out to find some trouble to get into on our last day in Thailand. I decided to get a suit and ended up having a really sick pinstripe cashmere one made; then we went and watched "Blood Diamond" while waiting for the suit to be made.

The next morning we woke at 4:30 and the traffic to the airport seemed worse than I'd expected considering how early it was. Layton was making a comment about how interesting it was that none of the cars were getting out of the way for the ambulance that was coming up behind us; when we realized that the accident it was trying to get to was just ahead of us. We pulled to the right to pass and a man with blood-filled hair was lying face down on the pavement. He was trying to look up, but it appeared that he could not see due to the swelling that had already begun on his face and his shirt was half torn off. A woman who looked as though she had just run over was reaching down trying to help the man. As we drove on, the magnitude of the wreck came into view. The carnage seemed to go on for 300 yards, two cars and at least two motorscooters were involved. One man walking down the street was holding a cloth over his face as pedestrians gathered around him. The accident had probably happened 5 minutes before we passed. It was a poignant final image.

There is so much more to say about my trip. I learned so many things about myself and the world. To try to write it down here, so long after the fact would not do it justice. Thanks to my brother for making the whole thing possible.

Tonsai Climbing Finale

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0700

Yesterday, we woke late and Eivin wasn't feeling well so we ended up laying on the beach looking at girls and playing King's Corner. We also got massages... my first Thai Massage. It was excellent.

Last night I woke up feeling really sick to my stomach. After purging ;| for probably 15 minutes, I layed in bed for at least an hour trying not to make too much noise groaning while Eivin was trying to sleep. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. So now we hadn't climbed the day before because Eivin had felt crappy, but I wasn't going to let my lack of sleep ruin my final day of climbing in Thailand. Once I started climbing I felt pretty good.

Today was amazing... again. We talked Alex and Victor into climbing Humanility with us so that we wouldn't have to haul a second rope - for the rappel - ourselves. Humanility is sorta the quintessential multi-pitch climb here on Tonsai. I had wanted to climb it since I got here, but hadn't gotten around to it until today:
Access Pitch:
More difficult than I was expecting for an access pitch.
Levi: Lead.
Eivin: Follow.
Pitch 1 6a
Fun, straight forward pitch out of cave.
Eivin: Lead.
Levi: Follow.
Pitch 2 6b
Very strenuous, slightly overhung, tricky feet, but with large holds. In my opinion, the most difficult pitch of the climb.
Levi: Lead.
Eivin: Follow.
Pitch 3 6b+
Oh my god, this pitch is unbelievable. You must stem out onto a stalagtite behind you, then transfer fully onto the stalagtite, climb up 2 meters, then transfer back onto wall. Clips are sorta below you, so as you're stemming between the wall and stalagtite and clipping down, you see nothing but air below you for 150'! Wow!
Eivin: Lead.
Levi: Follow.
Pitch 4 6b
Another nice slightly overhung, pumpy pitch with big holds.
Levi: takes a couple falls in a place that should have been easy, but I didn't use the finger slots that I thought were too small for my fat fingers. After a couple falls, I realize I can fit my fingers in there, and the climb is no problem. Argh! So close to on-siting the whole climb, and I blow it on the easier, last pitch! Damn.
Eivin: follow.

There is a fifth pitch, but it looks dirty, and the book says few people climb it. We elect not to because we need to rappel from the top of pitch 4 anyway. Once at the top, we wait for 40 minutes or so for Alex and Victor to get up. We take a few photos, then rappel uneventfully.

On the second - final - rappel, you get dropped right next to "Freedom Bar". As I'm the first to come down, I buy 4 beers and put a bar stool in place for my comrades to land on. Eivin comes first, but tries standing on the stool, "you're supposed to take a seat" I tell him, then he drops suddenly, nearly breaking the stool. Alex and Victor come down afterward, and Eivin takes some pretty sweet shots of me handing them beers just as their sitting on the stool. It doesn't take long for my upset stomach to reemerge. We all grab some food (I have salad), and are all pretty much way too tired to climb anything else. It was a really perfect finale to my time climbing in Tonsai.

Tonsai Climbing 3

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0700

Oh man, what an unbelievable day.
Eivin and I were still a bit tired this morning from all of yesterdays climbing so we got a bit of a late start. We'd told a couple guys that we'd meet them out by Escher wall to go through a cave system to Thaiwand wall. These two - Alex and Victor - needed us because niether of them had headlights. Anyway, we didn't want to take a long-tail boat to Escher because we are feeling poor and so we decide to hike to Thaiwand and go through the caves to get them, and then go back through with the two of them.
Anyway, we got to Thaiwand wall, climbed up into the cave and started exploring... and exploring... and exploring. After a while we found a totally sweet little cave that had a couple candles in the corner. We decided to have a quick safety meeting - just to make sure we didn't get lost or anything ;). As we were sitting there, a couple other guys came through. Eivin started making spooky noises, but the guys didn't seem to notice, and we both sorta figured they'd seen us, so Eivin said:
"Hello"
"Shit! You scared the crap out of me!"
Eivin and I chuckle.
"Hey guys, sorry." Eivin says.
"It's cool."
They continued on. After a while Eivin set his stereo up in there and we both put our climbing shoes on. We bounced all around this cave that was probably two or three times the size of a large house, exploring every nook and cranny for probably two hours. After a while we finally sut off the music and moved to the next cave. This one was probably 3 times as big as the previous, and was open to the light in a couple spots. We talked for a while how awesome it would be to make a house out of this place. The master bedroom was chiseled into the side of a column in the middle of the whole cave. There were all sorts of crazy rooms and cool views.
Finally, we found a totally cool looking little ledge to the outside, but it was behind a hole, about the size of a football, and we couldn't fit through. Fortunately, we found another passage to the cliff exactly below this ledge. At first we were like "no, we probably shouldn't", but then we sat and thought and said to ourselves "why they hell shouldn't we? It probably isn't that hard."
However, we needed more than just our one rope to pull it off, so we headed off to find Alex and Victor... who fortunately had actually just gotten to Escher Wall because they had tried climbing somewhere else for a while (while Eivin and I were exploring the caves). After about 10 minutes of trying to explain to these guys what we wanted to do, and them sorta looking at us like "are these guys crazy, or is this going to be really"... or both perhaps, we talked them into coming to check it out. It didn't take them long to realize how cool the idea was and we started setting it up.
We had thought about trying to lead it, but didn't see many places that we could protect on and the rock looked really dirty and shitty. So we all agreed that setting a toprope through the football-sized windows was the best idea. It took us a while to get the rope down, but we finally got it, and it hung right out in front of our lower ledge where I snagged it with a bamboo pole that Eivin rigged up. Though Eivin had found the ledge originally, he let me climb first (awesome bro). The rock was shitty and even though I was on top-rope I didn't want to fall because it would be difficult to get back on the wall because it was pretty over-hung. I got most of the way up but then pulled a rock about the size of a watermelon off. It plunged into the water below. After this I was pretty freaked about all the rock and ended up tiring myself out looking for a better hold. I fell and swung across the overhang-section and caught myself on the other side where I climbed up. I then belayed Eivin up, followed by Victor and finally Alex. We had made it! It was great. We all speculated whether this climb had ever been done before, and we all agreed that this was probably the first ascent. Eivin left a small plastic aligator he'd found earlier that day on the ledge so that people who looked through the window would be able to see that someone had made it onto the ledge.
We'd set up our ropes so that we could rappel down into the water and recover the rope by hiking back into the cave. The rappel was GREAT! Probably 40 meters right into the water. I was the last to come down and Eiving and Victor swung me around a bit. The we all took turns jumping from a nearby boulder while attached to the rope and swinging out across the water, then dropping in. It was so much fun. I can't even describe.
After a while we went back into the cave and recovered our gear, then hiked back through the cave to Thaiwand wall and back home.
It was a really great day.

Tonsai Climbing 2

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0700

Today was Great!
Eivin's tended to his scrapes last night and says they don't bother him too bad (nasty rope-burn on hand and gash in big toe).
We headed out to Cobra-Wall where there were lots of nice 6's.
Baby Snake 6c+
Difficult start, nice climb otherwise
Levi: Attempts start. Fails.
Eivin: On-site?
Levi: Follows.
Old Snake 6b
Nice climb.
Levi: Leads... probably hang-doggin... can't recall.
Eivin: re-lead. On-site?
Cobra Venom 6c+
Eivin: Leads... hang-dogs a bit.
Levi: Follows.

After this we headed over to Melting Wall:
Cockroach Beach 6c
Eivin: Tries leading, but doesn't have enough draws to finish. It looks like the anchor at the top of the first pitch is missing. He then downclimbs. :(
The Smoking Room 6b+
Really great, strenuous, fun climb.
Levi: Leads, hang-doggin.
Eivin: Follows clean.

Great day of climbing. By the time we get home, we are both totally pooped. ;)

Tonsai Climbing 1

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Never fear, we got Layton his bus ticket. Afterward, Eivin and I rented motor scooters and cruised into Krabi. It was pretty much my first time on a Bike on the road, so it took me a little bit to get used to, but Eivin is a good teacher... and he went slow for me. In Krabi, we got Eivin some new glasses and had some descent Burgers (good hamburgers are rare - as in hard to find - over here). The girls at the sunglass shop were flirting pretty heavily, but when we told them we were brothers and gestured to our faces and said "same same", they said "no, not same." They didn't think we looked alike! Which is kinda hard to believe considering how many times on this trip we've been asked if we were twins. Anyway, for some reason the girls at the glasses shop didn't think we looked like brothers. Perhaps they need to get their prescriptions checked.

Ok, so we finally climbed today! It was awesome.
We started by heading out to "Firewall" area:
The Groove Tube 6a
Super fun climb inside of a half-tube.
Levi: On-Site.
Eivin: follow.
Polish-Czech 6b
Second pitch of Groove Tube... not as cool, but fun none-the-less.
Eivin: On-Site.
Levi: Follow.
Fire Show 6c+
Fun climb!
Levi: Tries, can't get start.
Eivin: On-site.
Levi: Follow.
White Hot Hernias 6b+
Really fun, strenuos, difficult for a 6b+ I think.
Eivin: Puts up route.
Levi: Tries to lead. Takes 45' fall, stopping 6' from deck! Shit! Levi is fine, Eivin gets banged up in process of catching me. I get back on and finish the route... with much grunting and teeth clenching.
After this, we're both pretty tired, and Eivin is scraped up, so we decide to call it a day.

We were sitting grabbing a bite to eat when we realized that people were crowding the beach looking up at the cliff. Two guys were getting ready to base jump! It took the first guy a few minutes to work up the nerve, but finally he did it! I hadn't ever seen this in real life before. As I was standing there waiting for the guy to go I was getting totally pumped up! He landed safely. What a rush though! The second guy was obviously more experienced. He just stepped up, jumped, did a front flip, and pulled his shoot. Anyway, it was quite a thing to see.

Tonsai 3

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Hello all-
Well nothing quite as exciting as the previous two entries has occured in the last couple days. Eivin did arrive on saturday evening, which was awesome. We were going to climb yesterday, but we only got a couple climbs in before it started raining. We spent most of the rest of the day playing King's Corner (Eivin's favortie card game, and one it is very difficult to beat him at).
Layton left today for the North, but he forgot his bus ticket. I think Eivin and I are going to try to go catch him. Ok, I better get going.
--
Levi

Tonsai Boxing Champion

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 11:58:00 -0700

Yesterday was amazing. I had tripped and banged my toe pretty bad the night before, so when I woke at 8:00 to go climbing I wasn't sure if I should because of the pain in my toe. I decided to give it a try anyway, and ended up having a blast. I climbed with 4 other people who were near my level, and we just tooled around all morning and afternoon. I led the first climb up this massive stalagtite, then followed most of the rest of the day. The climbing is so great here, it really wears you out.
Afterward, we ate dinner together then I took a refreshing shower and Layton and I headed to the beach. I met 3 british girls and one of the guys I climbed with, Raphael, hung out with us as well. There had been a "thai water boxing" match advertised on the beach so we went to check that out. They had erected a balance beam of sorts when the tide was low and now that the tide was high, the log sat about 2 feet above the water in 3 feet of water. So two little Thai guys go out there with boxing gloves on and straddled the log and tried to knock each other off, best of 5. Anyway, it was a close match, but afterwards they were calling for people from the audience. Well, needless to say, it didn't take much coaxing to get me up there. I thought I was going to fight the little Thai guy, but instead they got this stalky guy from behind the bar. Then I'm thinking to myself 'Oh Shit, what have I gotten myself into'. I wade out to the log and as we're inching our way closer to one another I ask, "You've done this before haven't you."
"I haven't done this." As if to say, 'well, I haven't boxed on a pole above the water, but I have boxed.'
Now I'm really thinking I'm screwed. So, we bump gloves and I go at him but slip under the log, but grabbed him on my down. Fortunately I was able to hang on, and he fell in, so I won the first round. After that, I pummeled him for two rounds to clinch the victory. Then they made us finish out the last two rounds for entertainment sake. I won the fourth round handily again. In the fifth round, we got tangled up and slide under the log. As we were battling trying to shove the other off, I noticed a vicious look in the guys eye. He NEEDED to win this round. I didn't give up, but mentally sorta conceded the round at that point. He managed to wrap his legs around me and pull me off probably 5 seconds later. The walk back to the beach was rad, the whole crowd cheering for me. I'm pretty sure when I got out there, everyone picked me as the underdog (Layton said he thought I was going to get my ass kicked), but there's no accounting for Kilcher resiliancy.
Ok, so just as the ref hoists my hand into the air to declare me the victor, I look up and our freaking bar is ON FIRE!
The bar we had been hanging out at for the last few days - "No Name Bar" - was up in flames. Layton disappeared instantly, and I ran over. Everyone was shuttling buckets of salt water from the ocean to the bar. I grabbed an extra bucket from a guy and started running back and forth. I only made about three trips until someone else got ahold of my bucket. Fortunately, the fire was starting to subside by this time, and I relaxed and stayed out of the way. I found Layton 10 minutes later standing in the middle of the wreckage, drenched, staring up at the hole in the cieling and smoking a cigarette. Apparently he was a major orchestrator of the rescue from within the bar. Telling people to get valuable stuff (speakers, money etc.) out, while simultaneously barking orders to put the fire out. He's pretty much my hero. ;)
Afterward, I sauntered back over to Chill Out Bar and reconnected with the British girls. As it turned out, it was Lora's (one of the british girls) birthday - at midnight. Her friends whispered to me a plan to get her a cake, and asked if I'd "take care of her" (really, they said that) while they were gone. Well, being the gentlemen that I am, I felt it only proper to give her a few birthday kisses. What a beautiful girl. ;) After a while her friends came back and gave her a makeshift cake of a twinkie-like centerpiece surrounded by oreo cookies. We sang Happy Birthday, and there may have been a few more kisses. Eventually (probably 2am), she ran off with her friends. They left early this morning. I never even got to say goodbye. :( It was all so inoccently romantic.
Wow. What an action packed night.

Ravaging Scavenging Mango-Crazed Monkeys

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 21:34:00 -0700

Ok, so this is a true tale that Layton wrote, but I HAD to put it up here.
------------------------
Yesterday at just about 11:30 a.m. here in Tonsai, Thailand, my little jungle bungalow village was just existing there in the recesses of vacation space and quiet humidity.
Things started to pick up as the hour approached noon, as that was check-out time for anyone leaving. But for those who were staying, it would soon turn into a savage attack of ravaging monkeys. And they were monkey-fucking-crazy for mangos.
There I was on the porch playing dominos when the monkeys started to storm the village. It started with just a score or two of the grey and black collie-sized primates, then turned into a full-on pillaging by hundreds and hundreds of these mad fiends.
Sure, it was funny at first, even cute. My Czech neighbor and I watched as a young buck scored a tube of pringles from a trash-bin on the trail. "Once you pop, you can't stop," he said as the monkey tore off into the jungle with a blood-thirsty giddiness on his evil little face.
We laughed about it a while, and i realized my bunglalow was unsecured, as the little fuckers could get inside----the roof does not connect with the walls so there can be air circulation. This is, afterall, the tropics.
So I started stuffing everything shiny into my bags. Coins, shave kit, aluminum cans, scissors, sunglasses and the lot. Then I looked up. You know the feeling: as if you're being watched. Well, i was being straight stalked.
He'd come in just under the roof, about 22 pounds of fierce savagery looking straight into my eyes. Between him and me on a line in a bag hung my last mango. He wanted it badly. But so did I.
He made his move and i growled at him and gnashed my teeth. He stopped short, pulled back a half-cock of a step, then screached back at me. I have to admit, that freaked me out enough to clinch my cheecks.
I grabbed for the mango. He grabbed for my hand and looked as if he were going for blood.
Then i grabbed the only weapon i had: my didjeridoo. It's about four feet of badass bamboo.
So I whacked him on the side of his head and he was dazed. I poked him with it, trying to knock him off the wall, but he grabbed the end and started making his way toward me. I dropped the weapon on the bed and backed off. Then he tore into the bag with his shakey little hands and snatched the mango and he was gone. He never looked back.
That afternoon I moved to a more secure bungalow nearer to the mountains. Hopefully my fruit and I will be safe there.

Tonsai 1

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 19:46:00 -0700

Hello everyone,
I've finally made it Tonsai beach. It is beautiful here. The rock climbing looks amazing. I can't wait to start climbing, but will need to find a partner first. I think Layton likes the vibe too, so that's good, he'll probably leave in a few days and then Eivin is going to show up.
I hope everyone is doing well.
I'm considering getting a tattoo while I'm here. thoughts? suggestions?
----
Levi

I suppose I'll find out if anyone is actually reading this blog vis-a-vis the tattoo comment.

Fried Chicken for Pop Stars

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 08:48:00 -0700

So last night, Layton and went back to the concert location where he'd rocked with the Thai folks in hopes of me having the opportunity to experience similar madness. Unfortunately, the artists of the evening were Thai pop-stars instead of Thai rock-stars. Just before going in, Layton bought a small bag of crickets. I wasn't going to have any, but he seemed to think they tasted ok, so I ate two. He ate half the bag. Anyway, as we were entering, there was a guy promoting the show who kept saying "#1 single in Thailand", which we eventually figured out meant that the performer inside had the #1 song in Thailand. Layton approached him and tried to give him the rest of his bag of crickets. This guy kept saying "no, no... Go see show".
ANYWAY, this is all sorta peripheral to the main story.
Once inside, we watched a beautiful Thai girl sing songs we didn't understand in front of equally beautiful Thai back-up-dancers. As we were sitting there, people were rushing up to the stage, snapping photos and giving flowers. Layton and I joked about how funny it would be if we went up there with an offering.
"How much will you give me?" he asked.
"1000 baht [$30] if you give her a piece of fried chicken."
After sitting there for a while, pondering the cultural inapproprateness of such an act, Layton finally said "screw it" and jumped up to get a drumstick from the market outside. A few minutes later, here he comes. At this point, she was between sets talking about I-dont-know-what, with a master-of-ceremonies type character. Then here comes big curly haired Layton Ehmke and she kneels down to recieve his gift. The look on his face was of utter confusion, as she announced to the audience (probably 500 people) that it was a piece of chicken. No one laughed. Layton bowed politely, and was about to run off, when the MC guy asked where he was from.
"Alaska"
"Oh... Alaska, USA. Ok, ok."
The singer and MC man chatted a while longer about the strange gift, until she finally gave it to him and started her next song. We stayed for another 20 minutes or so, the took off. Unfortunately, I think our absurdist gesture was lost on the culture. Hopefully we didn't commit some kind of massive offense... though I think it was ok, considering the apparent indifference of the people around us. Oh gosh, stupid american boys in foreign lands.

Krabi

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 09:56:00 -0700

Hi everybody,
So if you've heard about the bombs in Bangkok, Eivin, Layton and I are all fine. Layton and I are in Krabi where we attended the "green-spirit festival" last night. It was mostly just an overpriced ($50!!!) dance party, but we had quite a bit of fun dancing until 3am. Their was no countdown, so I don't know exactly what I was doing when we moved into 2007, but I'm certain I was dancing my ass off ;). I haven't actually heard from Eivin since I left Lipeh, but he is still there - far from Bangkok - and I'm certain he's fine.
Krabi is pretty fun. We found a really cool bar called "Fu Bar II", owned by a way rad Thai Rasta guy. It's like a massive bungalow/small temple with Bob Marley posters all over the place. It's a great place to chill. The first night we were in Krabi I went to bed early only to be woken at 4am by Layton who explained to me the unbelievably awesome night he'd had at a Thai Rock concert where he was the only person over 5' 9". Apparently all the gay Thai guys were hitting on him until he made a Kung-Fu stance and glared at them. So I was sorta bummed I missed all of that, but oh well.
Otherwise we've just been hanging out during the day, eating and sleeping.
Oh, and I edited the "Koh Lipe" entry about the post-cards... I'd forgotten to mention that the family whose restaurant we were eating at had been so fascinated with the post-cards. So check that out if you like.

Krabi (Arrival)

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 04:46:54 -0700

Layton and I traveled from Lipeh (yes, the spelling keeps changing, but I've been told that this is the best one). After breakfast and goodbyes with Eivin and Micah, we jumped in a long-tail that took us out to the speedboat we rode away on. I sat out on the nose of the boat as we flew across the water at probably 50mph. There was a cute Indian-Thai girl who happened to be sitting right next to me we chatted a bit and shared stories. It was fun.
The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful. Arriving in Krabi was highlighted by the many annoying cab drivers who stood over my shoulder while I rummaged through my pack looking for the address of our hotel.
The place we've got is nice... and central. Tomorrow we're going to go to the "green festival" somewhere nearby to ring in the New Year.
Cheers,
Levi

Koh Lipe 3

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 06:17:58 -0700

So I've finally started to settle into Island life, just to prepare to leave. Layton and I are going to Krabi for New Years where there is some sort of festival we are going to check out. After that, if Layton leaves before Eivin comes up, I'll probably go to Tonsai (where Eivin and I have been planning to spend the end of our trip climbing) and wait for Eivin there.

But that's all in the future, and who knows what will happen along the way. The past - of course - is behind us and is therefore much clearer to me at this point.
Yesterday we spent the entire day hanging out near the slack-line. I improved marginally and Eivin began honing the finer points of the art. Layton and I have eaten almost nothing but Thai Pancakes and fruit shakes for the last couple days. Though we did go to dinner with the Karma bar crew last night where I got a bit testy - due to hunger - and made some snippy comments that I felt bad about later (I apologized... it's fine).
Today was a bit more adventure filled. After an early morning trip to a neighboring (more popular) beach for a dip, I made a concerted effort at finishing On the Road (Kerouac). All of the excitement and hunger for life of Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassidy) put me in a mood to finally circumnavigate the Island on foot. I had intended to finish the book before doing this, but ultimately I just had to "letsgo!" It was a truly beautiful 4-hour hop-walk-climb over rocks, past lizards and across small hidden beaches at the edge of the Indian Ocean. The peak of the adventure occured when I finally reached the western-most point on the island and just sat there staring out into the Andaman sea. I felt the need to throw something, but lacking anything all that symbolic, I ended up giving 15-baht the old heave ho then set out to finish the trip. It was all a ton of fun, and something I may never get to do again, so I'm really glad that I did it.
Upon returning, I polished off the last 30 pages of the book and decided that it was a good thing I had left when I did (right in the climax of all the excitement), because the pensive last 4 pages may have dampened my enthusiasm... nevermind that it probably would have been too late to go due to dwindling daylight.
Well, that's about all I can think of for now.
Two days ago we found out about the earthquake that rocked Taiwan and killed a bunch of internet in SE Asia. Anyway, hopefully I'll find internet in Krabi, but if you don't hear from me for a while, don't panic, it's just the global communications network collapsing around me. ;)
I love and miss you all.
Thanks so much for all your letters.
Levi

Koh Lipe 2

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:11:25 -0700

Hi all-
Well we made it back to internet this evening.
Today was a load of fun. I woke up and went for a nice swim out to a sandbar about 500 yards offshore. It's not connected to land, just a lonely sand-bar/island. I was on it near low tide, when the water was only 6 inches deep or so. I took a seat and just chilled out there for a while. Waves beating into me from all directions. It was pretty amazing. Really cool experience for a Phys. Oc.
After that I went back to shore and practiced my slack-line skills. Eivin, of course, still rules the line but I feel like I'm improving.
Afterward Micah, Eivin and I grabbed our snorkel gear and hopped on a long-tail (boat) out around the corner of Adang (neighboring Island). The boatman dropped us in the water and we floated along over amazing coral for over an hour. It was way cool. We used Eivin's new Digital Camera that is waterproof to 1.5 meters, so we'll have some pretty sweet underwater photos to share eventually.
When we returned, we caught up with Layton and headed to the other side of the island for some Thai Pancakes (excellent... they rival French Crepes). Now I'm here interneting briefly with you all.
Until next time.
cheers,
Levi