After an amazing stay in Chiang Mai our loony crew was on the tarmac ready to fly south to Railei Beach (yes, still Thailand) and our first ever visit to the Indian Ocean.

One plane, one van and one long-tail boat later, we arrived at our destination. The pic below isn’t our house (this was a 2-person beachfront option…and yes there are still 4 of us), but is one of around 30 properties in the Railei Beach Club residence where we stayed for the week. The jungle setting backed up directly to a huge rock face (limestone karsts) and opened right on to Railei Beach.

After a few minutes of hanging out on our porch we met our first neighbor, a local Dusky Leaf monkey!

Over the course of the week we continued to meet more and more new neighbors including what appeared to be the world’s smallest gecko and a slightly-bigger-than-we-were-comfortable-with monitor lizard.

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Every morning Caden & Keira were up at the crack of dawn to either head out to the beach or off to the market for one of Railei’s incredible Thai pancakes & fruit shakes.

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Did I mention all the amazing monkeys?!? 🐒 Check out the video below showing one of the little guys having some fun chasing a squirrel. 🐿

After a few days of lounging around the beach we decided it was time to try burning off one or two of the daily fruit shakes. So we decided to head out on some sea kayaks to get a close-up look at the huge karsts.

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The water wasn’t all that bad either (according to Tara anyway) coming in at a balmy 86 degrees. Yup, bathwater. 🛁

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In addition to the monkey troops, the toucans and the lizards, we also became the favorite stop for a jungle cat trio…who we all but adopted by the end of the week.

We also had a chance to visit Phra Nang Nai cave, with it’s impressive stalactites, stalagmites and a central cavern filled with bats. 🦇

Look who’s learned how to include emojis! 🎉

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While Railei’s mesmerizing Dusky Leaf monkeys are only interested in flying through the trees, peering at their awkward human neighbors and snacking on jungle canopy leaves…they are not the only monkeys in Railei.

Railei is also home to a fairly large troop of Macaque monkeys, and these guys not only like to cause some trouble but they’ve also developed a liking for human food.

We’d been told that Thailand is a very safe place to visit (which it absolutely is), but we had been advised on a few occasions to watch for pickpocketers. Unfortunately with one day left to go on our visit to Thailand, while the kids were out picking up some peanut butter crackers the warnings came true and Keira was mugged…by a Macaque! 🐵

Keira’s still working through the trauma, not from the mugging though… from the fact that after the scoundrel lifted the snack he didn’t even run away but instead just sat there and munched away. That said, I can say with 100% certainty that none of the monkeys pictured below were the perpetrator, but as you can see in the video they do like trouble!

Whether it was the beautiful beaches, the singing Gibbon monkeys or the exceptional local Thai cuisine, Railei Beach did not disappoint. We’re sad to leave our adopted cat trio, but feel so lucky to have found such an exceptional place.

On to Cambodia!