Butler Family Travels

It was strange for me to be driving down the Jordan Valley last week in my mom’s car… on the Jordan side looking back across at Israel! From our house in Poriyya, I grew up looking out across the valley at Jordan, but it was forbidden for us to go there – until recently. My mom (who now regularly flies from Amman, Jordan to Africa) treated us to 5 days in Jordan. And what a treat it was! We stayed with her good friends (and their 3 kids who are the ages of Rebekah and Levi) in Amman the first and last nights. In between, we all traveled south together on the Desert Highway to Al Karak and Wadi Rum. Then (without our hosts who returned home to Amman) we headed to Petra for 2 days and nights. Al Karak, one of the largest, mostly-intact Crusader Castles in the Middle East was actually built by Payen the Butler (we’re pretty sure an ancestor of ours…). Lots of tunnels and passageways to explore! Wadi Rum in Southern Jordan was definitely a highlight, and, just in case you were wondering, it is for good reason that Petra is one of the Seven Wonders of the World! I must add that a large part of our experience in Jordan had to do with the crazy driving. Besides the fact that lanes and their lines don’t mean anything and everyone drives like crazy people, we survived driving in every weather condition imaginable. I really mean it when I say we survived. Rain storm, hail storm, snow storm, wind storm, sand storm, flooding, and dense fog. Each one came with such incredible force. Large shipping containers were flying off their trucks and sliding down the highway. Little trucks and cars were flipping. Plastic bags and garbage were flying through the sky like flocks of birds. We even saw a full rainbow at one point. Jeb also did a fabulous job of slowing down in time for the intermittent speed bumps that appear suddenly on the highway and are especially hard to see at night. We were happy to make it back across the border and back to Granny’s house.

I am pleased to introduce you to long-time friends of my mom’s, The Stockers! We finally got to meet them. You know you are going to get along great with someone if during one of your first conversations the husband quotes a line from one of your favorite movies – “Forrrr freeeeeeee?” – and then the wife offers to take you after dinner to her favorite place – a large outdoor market where everything from Goodwill and European clearance racks ends up and it all costs from 1-5 JD. Sweeeeet! Thomas, Frederica, Andreas, Lucas, and Miriam. They are Swiss-German, but have lived and worked all over the world. Awesome family! To give you an idea about them – They are the European version of the Butlers. Ha! Did I just say we were awesome?! So, as you can imagine, we talked business, life, money, children, faith, movies… Thanks, Stockers, for letting us join your family. It was FUN!

Shabat (Sabbath) preparations start  on Friday, early in the afternoon.  All stores close at 2, so if you forgot something, you are just out of luck. Some smart/frugal (or super poor) shoppers hit the shuk (open market) right at 1:30. The men practically give you the fruits and vegetables for free so they can go home.  Shabat starts at sundown, at which time you light the candles, and share a meal together. At Granny’s house we had a very relaxing afternoon and delicious dinner with Rebekah’s home-made hallah bread. And in other news: It is green here since they have had rain and the temperature is in the 60-70s depending on where you stand. We took a walk just as the Shabat was coming to a close right along with an amazing sunset. Shabat Shalom!  

By the last few days in Thailand we had done almost everything we all wanted to do EXCEPT ride an elephant. Soooooo, what was the last thing we did there? We went to ride elephants, of course. We headed up north on a bus, hoping to rent 2 motorcycles for a day, ride out to a place to ride elephants, drive through the Khao Yai National Park (since hiking without a guide in the jungle is not allowed), and then return back to Bangkok that evening. Traffic was bad leaving Bangkok so by the time we arrived it was dark and the rental place was closed. What to do? We walked around town until we saw a hip café that looked like someone MUST speak English in there. The owner didn’t speak English at all, but it just so happened that there was a table full of Park guides that spoke English. They invited us to sit with them. We ended up have a super fun evening hanging out with a bunch of locals. One couple took us in their truck to their Uncles’ hotel (where we stayed for a really good deal), then they picked us up in the morning and took us on a day’s adventure that was well worth the money we shelled out. No regrets and it was handed to us on a platter… a great way to end our trip in Thailand, the Land of Smiles. Two pages of pictures again. Sometimes it is so hard to decide which ones to post. That’s it for Thailand, folks.

We made a point to be back in Bangkok on the King’s Birthday, Dec 5^th.  The Thai love their king, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, also known as Rama IX. He is the world’s longest-serving current head of state and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history. He has ruled fairly and with integrity for 66 years.  He is now old, but was able to make an appearance, which evoked a lot of emotion from almost everyone.  The celebration downtown near the Royal Palace was pretty incredible. Yellow is the King’s color so as you can imagine yellow was EVERYWHERE. Even Rebekah and Levi wore yellow shirts in his honor. Besides all the street vendors hawking their wares, the unending line of food vendors selling the most delicious Thai fare, and all of the lanterns, lights, music and shows, our favorite part of the evening was the crazy tuk-tuk ride back to the sky-train from the Palace. When in Bangkok, do as the Thai do.

12 years ago a boy named Kevin Harkins lived with us at Alpine Boys Ranch. When his parents (who work at the International Community School in Bangkok) and siblings came to visit way back then they said, “If you ever end up in Thailand, look us up.” So we did. What a HUGE blessing they were to our family. They picked us up at the airport, gave us a room of our own to use the entire time (We left our winter clothes there and a few valuables for the 5 weeks we traveled around), fed us, and made us feel completely at home. We are so glad that we had the opportunity to get to know them and their own community a bit. THANK YOU, Philip, Sheila, and Isaac! It’s your turn next to come visit us again in Plain!!!  

Uncle Jeb is the hero tonight. Shalev, my adorable 17 mo. old nephew, is sleeping peacefully and it all went down without a hitch thanks to  tiny paragliding videos on an iPhone in a dark room. Noam, Rinah, and Asjer are also all in bed now and the house is quiet and clean. We are getting to babysit! My brother and his wife are out on a hot date (literally) at Hammat Gader, an ancient hot springs and spa in the Golan. We arrived safely in Israel a week ago.  We hit the ground running with 5 days of Hanukkah left to celebrate, projects to help with, out-of-town family to see, jet lag to fight, and Hebrew to remember. We’ve been busy! The kids and Jeb are happy to be settled somewhere for the next little while. I’m happy to be “home”. Good excuses for our lack of blogging, don’t you think? We will do our best to blog at least weekly for our time here in Israel. Maybe just check on the weekends for the next little bit?! We do have a few posts left from our time in Thailand that we would really like to share. I will do my best to post those tomorrow. For now, I’m going to bed, R and L are watching Leverage, and Jeb is doing I’m not sure what. Good night!

Here are a few last pictures from our stay in Tonsai…  As many of  you know, we carried a slack line with us all the way to Thailand. We have been able to use it in some places and we are glad we (Jeb!) carried it. We had no idea we would show up in Toansai and that this place could be called Slack Line Capital of the World. I think the only thing I failed to capture in all our pictures was the number of slack lines present.  Watching Maxxy do the speed wobble was ridiculous. Loads of fun was had by all!

Toby was Jeb and Levi’s diving instructor for 3 days. He is originally from England, but now has a tapas restaurant in Edmonton, Alberta. It turns out he has great business partners who let him leave for the winter each year to travel the world teaching diving. Last year he was in New Zealand. He is a great guy who we would love to have come play in our neck of the woods someday.

Getting off the island of Kho Tao was easy enough and we knew a little better what to expect this time. In Thailand, it is common for tourists/backpackers to use local agencies to book one’s travels from one place to another since there can be so many awkward connections. If you aren’t aware of a needed transfer and fail to arrange it ahead of time, you can end up paying as much for a little 5 kilometer taxi ride as it cost to ride a ferry and a bus for 8 hours. This particular leg of our trip involved an 8 hour night ferry to Surat Thani, a 20 min. minivan taxi, a 2 hour bus ride to Krabi, and a 15 min. long-tail boat. Agencies are not always the least expensive way to get it done, but in this case it was both convenient and inexpensive, so I was glad to be able to use a travel service. They give you a sticker for each leg of the trip that you wear on your shirt. As you can imagine, these little bright stickers adorn many walls and bathroom stalls. We arrived in Railay (Tonsai, to be precise) before lunch. It is nice getting to a new place during day light hours. It allows you to get your bearing and find a place to settle. Tonsai and the surrounding area is basically nirvana for climbers. It was fun to see Rebekah looking around in awe of her surroundings! “Krabi’s fairy-tale limestone crags come to a dramatic climax at Railay, the ultimate jungle gym for rock- climbing fanatics. The atmosphere here is nothing short of laid-back Rasta-Thai haven.”-Lonely Planet guide book.