South East Asia Family Expedition
Hi Claudia - Really an amazing trip. Cambodia - guide was excellent. He made a huge effort to take us into some of the real neighborhoods to see real people working. It was interesting and I think so important for my boys to not just see the beautiful temples but to also see how real people live. The guide, again, was just great. Really smart guy. He made an effort to schedule a blessing with a monk on our last morning, I know that took effort and it was such a special experience for us. Our boys learned so much. We were very poorly educated about Buddhism. We just don't learn much growing up about this. I am not sure how this gets planned, but our lunches were at local houses and picnic areas with local people preparing the food - and that is just so neat. We loved those lunches. We have travelled all over - the angkor wat area and those temples are absolutely world class. They are possibly more impressive than Machu Picchu, at least in the same league. So cool. Our day at angkor wat is one of our top 3 travel days ever. And I already mentioned Jaya House - what a place...one of nicest places we have ever stayed. I would recommend this guide and property to any group going to Cambodia. Phuket - the Slate was really nice. Beautiful property. Nice selection of restaurants and beautiful pools and site. We did end up going to the elephant sanctuary, that was neat. I think worth doing for sure. The only single experience that wasn't perfect, was the shared charter to Phi Phi - the boat had 38 people and very little room to sit, pretty uncomfortable for a long boat ride. But the islands were beautiful. We were looking forward to snorkeling and there was only a brief stop and really crowded (but not much to do about that.) We ended up booking a private charter to Similan islands the day after, and that worked well. We don't mind sharing a charter, but that one was pretty crowded. I think our max for charters if not private, would be 10-15 people. Private charters while more expensive, seem to give us a lot more opportunity and flexibility to snorkel more. Bangkok - very interesting city. We had a FANTASTIC guide. Very kind lady and super knowledgeable. She made every single effort to educate and make sure we were having a great day. She took a whole bunch of pictures of the 4 of us together, and then shared them. This was so appreciated because we don't always end up with pictures including all 4 of us. She was SO nice and one of our favorite all time guides. The hotel in Bangkok was really neat, they had an infinity pool on the 10th floor which was cool. We learned so much in just one day in Bangkok. If I had family/friends going to spend a day in Bangkok I would ensure they had this same guide. She went above and beyond. The properties you selected are just so excellent. And our guides were world class. We have had such great guides through SA and these were no different. I can't stress enough how beautiful the properties were. Awesome trip Claudia. Thank you so much. We continue to be impressed with you and SA. It is really disappointing to be home!
*Photographed in Angkor Wat Temple
