SE Asia Days 6 & 7: Friends' First Fab-neec Foray

Day 6 was a full travel day to get from Railay Beach, Thailand, to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Altogether, we went: tuk-tuk, boat, tuk-tuk, van, plane, plane, van, tuk-tuk. Phew! 

We rolled in to our gorgeous boutique hotel around 5:30pm and united with our friends who we'll be spending the rest of our trip with. Cue our theme song (yet to be determined)! After much deliberation, we have landed on our joint name being Fab-neec (pronounced like Fab in fabulous and Neec in Unique). Those of you who know all of us can figure out the name. ;)

We took a slow start to Day 7 by making the most of our accommodation's stunning natural setting by having a morning swim.

Adventure Girl in the pool

Next, we ventured in to town for the first time as a sevensome, split between two tuk-tuks, to do a little market shopping and get lunch. We found several fruits we can't find back home, like rose apples, custard apples, rambutan, longans, and purple dragonfruit (as in, the flesh is purple instead of white). We discovered a new form of transportation for the ride home: a remork. It's like a tuk-tuk, but is bigger, more like a motorcycle pulling a covered carriage. 

Rambutan, similar to lychee
but with more and sweeter flavour 

The heat and humidity in Siem Reap is pretty intense so we were happy with our decision to find a place with a pool! We headed back for an afternoon swim before the real star of the day: going to Angkor Wat for sunset!

It was absolutely magical to walk the ruins in the evening glow. We'll let the pictures speak for themselves here...

Thailand Days 1-5: Rail-YAY Beach

This trip started in an unusual way, with our family splitting up. Craig and Adventure Girl went on ahead a week early, adding on a side trip to Japan before flying to Bangkok. Erin travelled solo to Thailand on a 28 hour journey, which ended with her staying up for 48 hours straight. We found each other in the Bangkok Airport without incident and flew together to Krabi. It was a long trip for all of us but we landed ourselves in paradise at Railay Beach West. 

Railay is on a peninsula that's only accessible by boat. Although the longboat traffic is quite noisy and crowded during the day, the mornings are quiet and it's nice not to have any cars around. We spent our five days here lounging around our gorgeous accommodation wildlife watching, swimming in the turquoise waters, eating delicious Thai food, and recovering from the journey. Here are some highlights:

Sunset drinks

Spotting two Black Giant Squirrels
chasing each other. They were HUGE!

Making our way to our own private island
...  and seeing two trumpet fish on the way!

Our own private island!

Sunset swings in the hammock

Watching the troop of langurs
around our house. This picture was
snapped from our outdoor shower!

Things that made us smile in Thailand:

• How the food was often heart shaped, like fried eggs, cooked carrots, and rice plates 
• The shy smile people would give when we tried to say thank you correctly
• Watching the langurs for hours and how Adventure Girl named them all
• When Adventure Girl got hit on the head in the shower by a half eaten piece of fruit a monkey dropped!
• Getting a spa treatment in the sand by Adventure Girl
• Our ritual of crowding into the outdoor shower each night at 6:40pm to watch the flying fox bats fill the skies

Best Quote from the Country:

From Adventure Girl, "Ummm...I think there's monkey poop on the floor in the shower." 

And yes, yes there was.