Merry Christmas from Cambodia...things I never thought I'd say.
The last few weeks of travel have been really hectic between getting my final visa, gift shopping, working, studying for online courses and setting up the Go Fund Me for our charities (there's still time to donate so if you forgot click here now!). I was also off of a beach for approximately 3 weeks and living in a place that makes NYC look tame, SO we decided to head down to Koh Rong Samloem for a little R&R.
For those of you Survivor fans this is where season 31 and 32 was filmed. For those of you who, like me, were shocked to hear the show was still on, this is just a beautiful quiet island in the southern part of Cambodia. We didn't realize how remote it was until we had to take a ferry to an aluminum boat to a hike through the jungle to arrive on a completely empty beach with only 10 bungalows. In true Remote Year form, we took up 8 of the bungalows and owned the place.
We only had power for 5 hours a day where we frantically charged our lap tops and thanked CBS for installing the only wifi on the island a few years prior for the show. We spent the days lounging around, working, kayaking and just enjoying some peace and quiet. The nights were spent dodging locusts that fly at your face, getting pooped on by massive geckos, and sleeping inside of bug nets. Very rustic.
After drinking our lovely host Gary, out of all of his beer and wine by night 3 he decided to distract us with some of the games from Survivor which proved to be one of the funniest nights we've had all year.
We headed back to Phonm Penh just in time for Christmas Eve - which included Mexican food and a trip to the Speakeasy. Christmas day was spent at a local resort with pools and a silk farm down the road where I gifted myself a new beach wrap. It was a fun day spent with over 100 remotes and a few families who decided Christmas in Cambodia had a nice ring. Mostly, it didn't really feel like Christmas and just another fun day on Remote Year. It made me promise myself that I will no longer complain about snow, cold, or my brother not being able to find where he parked his car ever to get us home for Christmas. I'm trading in my flip flops for snow boots next year, one Christmas away was enough.
The last few weeks of travel have been really hectic between getting my final visa, gift shopping, working, studying for online courses and setting up the Go Fund Me for our charities (there's still time to donate so if you forgot click here now!). I was also off of a beach for approximately 3 weeks and living in a place that makes NYC look tame, SO we decided to head down to Koh Rong Samloem for a little R&R.
For those of you Survivor fans this is where season 31 and 32 was filmed. For those of you who, like me, were shocked to hear the show was still on, this is just a beautiful quiet island in the southern part of Cambodia. We didn't realize how remote it was until we had to take a ferry to an aluminum boat to a hike through the jungle to arrive on a completely empty beach with only 10 bungalows. In true Remote Year form, we took up 8 of the bungalows and owned the place.
We only had power for 5 hours a day where we frantically charged our lap tops and thanked CBS for installing the only wifi on the island a few years prior for the show. We spent the days lounging around, working, kayaking and just enjoying some peace and quiet. The nights were spent dodging locusts that fly at your face, getting pooped on by massive geckos, and sleeping inside of bug nets. Very rustic.
After drinking our lovely host Gary, out of all of his beer and wine by night 3 he decided to distract us with some of the games from Survivor which proved to be one of the funniest nights we've had all year.
We headed back to Phonm Penh just in time for Christmas Eve - which included Mexican food and a trip to the Speakeasy. Christmas day was spent at a local resort with pools and a silk farm down the road where I gifted myself a new beach wrap. It was a fun day spent with over 100 remotes and a few families who decided Christmas in Cambodia had a nice ring. Mostly, it didn't really feel like Christmas and just another fun day on Remote Year. It made me promise myself that I will no longer complain about snow, cold, or my brother not being able to find where he parked his car ever to get us home for Christmas. I'm trading in my flip flops for snow boots next year, one Christmas away was enough.
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| This was us boarding the aluminum boat to our jungle hike. Step 1: to getting to a remote island. Only concerns at this point were keeping our lap tops dry. |
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| In addition to my new beach wrap, I also gifted myself a new dress. Thank God I did because it matched the sky perfectly. I have stopped questioning how my luggage mysteriously is over weight every single flight. Also everything is super cheap here so I'm OK paying the luggage overage. |
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| And this was our beautiful deserted beach. Somehow, our boat couldn't dock here and we had to hike through the jungle but our supply boat showed up daily no problem. Supplies = wine. Wine = sleep in a bug net. No complaints here. |
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| We also had big swings. In case the hammocks, bean bags, and lounge chairs didn't provide enough comfort. |
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| It's a little hard to see because there were trees in front of the bungalows (which made this place look even more remote) but off to the left is the restaurant/lounge we spent our days in. |
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| One of the Survivor games we played in the rainstorm. This one required you to be blindfolded and have a team mate instruct you on putting it back together. It's not as easy as it looks and I fully expect one of the sides of my family to have a similar game at our next holiday event. |
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| With the Survivor flag - it's almost nightfall in this photo so we were just about to start our "Surviving" half of the day. |
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| At the silk farm watching some of the local women weave scarves. They work for 10-12 hours a day and the designs are insanely intricate. |
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| And finally, sunset on Christmas. Phnom Penh isn't the most striking skyline but it sure is beautiful from afar. |
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