Butler Family Travels

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 […]

One of Rebekah’s climbing instructors deserves some recognition.  Sammy is a super outgoing, friendly Thai from way down in the southeast of the country.  He and some of his family (Sammy’s cousin Zack was also Rebekah’s instructor) came to Tonsai for the seasonal work of guiding climbing tourists.  They got hooked on the climbing and never […]

On a recent leg of our trip we used a remarkable mode of transportation, the bus.  Well, a bus is not remarkable necessarily, but one aspect of this particular ride was.  The ride was about 2 ½ hours and cost 150 baht ($5).  We took our seats, the stewardess brought us cookies, then coke on […]

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 […]

Look! We sent off the promised prizes for the last two erfings.

As you can see below on the map, we were indeed in the World Heritage City of George Town, Malaysia. Nobody has guessed yet why we had to go there. The precise reason for the detour into Malaysia would fall into the Logistics category. A little research will reveal it. 30 days into the adventure […]

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 […]

About 20 years ago three friends and avid climbers came to Thailand to climb its limestone cliffs. They went to a tiny town called Railay and later started also climbing in nearby Tonsai. The bolts they used to set the 500 or more routes were steel bolts like what the rest of the world was […]

Before Rebekah took her rock climbing class to learn to lead a climb, we all went for a day of deep water solo.  Solo climbing means no ropes and gear for protection, so as the name implies we climbed cliffs directly out of the ocean and then jumped, or fell, back into the water.  It […]

Highlight #1 Rock climbing in Ton Sai. Highlight #2 Christmas party at the Harkins.