Today we went off on a sightseeing tour to Phang Nga Bay with a local tour company. We got picked up at our hotel by Mr Happy our guide for the day. We had a few other guests to pick so got to have a good look around some of the other little towns and hotels of Phuket Island. Along the way Mr Happy told us all about what we were passing. We passed by some mega rich resorts and some sleepy little fishing villages and the landscape was mostly tropical and jungle like.

When we out of the city limits there were many plantations of long straight trees with little black buckets hanging off the side. Not very interesting to take a picture of or to look at but good for Mr Happy to make a joke. He said they were condom trees; he had a little giggle then explained that they are rubber trees. Mr Happy says “you know rubber makes condoms giggle, giggle that’s why I call it condom tree”. He was very happy with his joke he also told us that the locals collect the rubber from the trees every day in the early hours of the morning which apparently is the best time to drain the rubber. I bet he has used his little funny anecdote every single day!

Once all the guests were collected we headed up into Mainland Thailand to board a Long Tail boat bound for Phang Nga Bay national park. We had to cross the bridge that connects Thailand to Phuket Island and a grand bridge it was, it had the biggest check point I have ever seen but we didn’t have to stop which was good news.

It was a very warm day and the sky was very grey which apparently occurs due to the humidity but still beautiful never the less. We were all issued with a life vest before boarding the long tail which was a pain as it was too hot too be wearing one. Most of the people didn’t mind but we hated it, I float like a cork and Robbie is a fish so soon as we got in the boat we ditched them soon as we could. We are such rebels. We travelled along the bay in and out of the limestone formations. Not sure how long we travelled for in the long tail but then Mr Happy got so excited  and was talking with big exclamation marks after all his words “James Bond Island!!!! James Bond Island!!!!!!’ he squealed. This place is so named as the James Bond movie ‘The man with the golden gun’ was filmed there in 1974. You have to admire Thai ingenuity, they are still cashing in on this. Can you guess which actor played James Bond in the movie? Leave a post if you do know and I will reveal the answer later, no cheating, we all know how to use google just use your own grey matter people. 😛

The next bit was little ‘hairy scary’ for me, disembarking from the long tail boat on arrival at James Bond Island jetty.  The tide wasn’t quiet up to the top of the jetty which required making a big high giant sized step up on to the jetty, about a metre. Unfortunately as you all know I have short stubby little legs and aren’t that coordinated but with a big heave ho from Robbie and another man they managed to haul me up and out of the boat. I hate being a round little person with no physical dexterity, seriously Robbie is not only my walking talking GPS he also comes to my rescue whenever I am acting like an umpa lumpa.

Anyway, once off the boat the first thing we encounter is a market selling trinkets, lots of sea pearls and everything else you can think of. Seriously we are in the middle of the ocean, no one lives here but still a market appears. I stopped to have a look and one lady started putting all this jewellery on me, I had to struggle to get away. If something had have taken my eye I would have bought something but most of it was just crappy souvenirs. It is hard to not feel sorry for the women on the stalls but if you buy from one, the others see you as fair game and then shame you into buying from them also.

We walked around past the stalls and then we came out in a beautiful little bay and there is was, James Bond Island. It wasn’t so much an island but a limestone formation, still very pretty though.

So we hung around there taking photos of the island and Mr Happy was chasing us around wanting to get photos of us together. He was calling us Papa and Mamma Godden. He wanted us to make a gun with our hands so he could take a picture and look like James Bond but I couldn’t understand what he was saying, got there in the end with my hands looking like the saddest looking gun ever!

There was also a rock formation called Ping-Kan which is a big high straight wall front, which leans and there were a few caves there too. Robbie went on a little adventure to see what was up in the caves.  I didn’t venture up as I had my lazy shoes on.

Getting back on the long tail was a lot easier, we entered from the beach instead of the jetty, so they had a small two step ladder to get on board I even managed to do this all on my own as Robbie was up exploring the cave. We bid farewell to James Bond Island as the next boat loads of people arrived. Mr Happy did a head count to make sure we were all on board. There was another group sharing our boat that had another guide so he also counted those in his charge. I am sure they had no idea who belonged to who.

Off we zipped again in the long tail boat through more beautiful little bays until we arrived at Koh Tam Talu Island where we pulled up along side two big boats moored together and we all got out of the long tail for a nice cold drink of raspberry cordial. Some of the guests had booked to go canoeing but we hadn’t done that so we stayed on the big boats taking pictures and keeping cool while the ones canoeing set off. The other tour guide on our boat started panicking, seems he had left some people on James Bond Island, not sure what the outcome of that was, the system for checking who should have been where wasn’t too flash.

Back on board the long tail for the short trip to Koh Panyee, a Sea Gypsy fishing village for lunch. This is a sea village that actually sits out in the mangroves without contact with any land mass; all dwellings are on stilts and interconnected by wooden walkways. There are 1,485 people from 315 families who live permanently on Koh Panyee with all of them being descendants, directly or indirectly, of Toh Baboo and his family and friends, who were the first people to settle on Koh Panyee some 200 years ago. What would have inspired them to set up camp in the middle of the ocean is anyone’s guess but they are still here. These Sea Gypsy’s live here their entire lives and most have never set foot on land.

This is a Muslim community and no alcohol is permitted. Also all meat served is Halal which means it is slaughtered in a particular way which observes the Muslim traditions. I was a little concerned about that as I didn’t know what to expect but no need to worry, it just tastes like normal. We were all welcome to the restaurant and seated at big round tables. We were then served up a 5 course Thai meal and they kept the coke, juice and water coming. We were sharing our table with two older gentlemen and a youngish Thai woman who was with one of the men. This woman hoed into the food like she hadn’t eaten for a month, the man she was accompanying told her to slow down and let everyone else eat as she was going for gold. She wasn’t too happy about that and gave a childlike scowl. It was an impressive meal all freshly cooked and yummy as.

After lunch we were offered the opportunity to explore the village. Hmmmmm, well village is a stretch, yes it was but you had to navigate through labyrinth of stalls set up by each family outside their homes and all wanting us to buy, buy, buy, even the kids got in on the act, anything for us to part with our money.
Robbie got two ugly looking monkeys plonked around his neck by an equally ugly lady boy, no chance to avoid it and of course that cost us a couple hundred baht. I took a couple of pictures but they were crappy as I was scared of the monkeys.

We managed to run the gauntlet and actually got to the outer perimeters of the village and found the school which came complete with a soccer field which was on stilts in the middle of the ocean like the rest of the village. The tide was out so the dwellings were basically sitting high and dry in the mud flats and they were pretty grotty from this view point. The buildings were very dilapidated also and even out here in the middle of the ocean there were dogs, cats and children in abundance.

Next stop and the main reason we did this particular tour, as it was the only one that offered a visit to Wat Tham Suwan Khuha Temple (Monkey Cave). We had waited all day for this and we were not disappointed. 

This place just oozed Buddhism it wasn’t flash and tacky, just an unassuming Temple inside a cave with many beautiful Buddha statues and Buddhist monks immortalized in stone. There was a ‘live’ monk also in residence who sat along side the reclining Buddha for offerings and donations.

It was amazing this was a real place of worship. In a strange way I felt bad taking photos but our guide Mr Happy encouraged it. Both Robbie and I got some amazing shots too given it was dark cave with only limited artificial light and that which flooded in from the cave entrance. Taking a photo without a flash was a bit of a challenge but we both pulled off some great shots. We wandered around in there for about an hour soaking up the atmosphere and marvelling at all the Buddha’s.

Up a large stairway away from the Buddha chamber sat a monk all draped in white up on a rock. I was thinking OMG he must be doing some sort of silent mediation. I was looking at him and though no way I am taking a picture of him and noticed some kids started to climb all over him. What a goose I am, it was a statue. Hehehehehe maybe I need to wear my glasses more often.Once outside the cave we found the reason it was named the monkey cave, there were many monkeys waiting to greet us. A lot of the other tourists purchased some bananas to feed them which is what they were counting on. I wasn’t going up that track, nice safe distance from the monkeys for me. We were instructed not to try and withhold the food from the monkeys and if they reach for it to let it go as they could jump you if you don’t give it up. Even though I wasn’t feeding them I did get some pictures. They were really well fed and it seems odd that none of them were inside the cave, maybe it’s some spiritual thing and they were very well behaved, not like the vicious little buggars we saw on out last trip to Bali, lol which is why I am scared of them.

We set off again for the  bus trip home and for a 1/2 day trip it was a long day, probably about 7 hours and seriously, the amount of money that it cost us was really cheaper than what we would pay for a couple of dishes in our local Thai restaurant. Good value for money.

After our big Thai feast on the Sea Gypsy village I was in the mood for some western food so we stopped at a local restaurant for a snitzel and chips and then we headed up to Bangla Road for a bit of a drink. We were pretty thirsty after a day at sea so loaded up on Thai Whiskey, Rum and Mai Thais’s (love them Mai Thais). We found a bar with front row seats to watch all the action on Bangla Road, no matter how many times you go there it is a real eye opener with some other crazy thing to see. It’s a “what goes on tour stays on tour” sort of place. It’s like Carnival every single night. There is never a shortage of things to watch, laugh at or buy as you sit there sipping on your drink and of course the girls keep the drinks coming.

After a few hours of drinking we were very happy and walking with a little wobble in our step and decided to go for a wander down one of arcade type bar complexes to see what we could see. The further you got in away from Bangla Road the cheaper the drinks got. We got right to the end and found a place offering 6 tequila shots for 100 baht (about $3) a bargain in anyone’s language so of course we had to order some. Seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, until I threw  back the first shot OMG this was like rocket fuel, I am not convinced it was tequila and I came close to throwing up LOL. I made a made dash to the toilet but had to run back out as it was a pay toilet so by the time I got some money off Robbie and ran back again, I was ok.

We offered the rest of my shots to the bar girls and they didn’t even want them, I think they may have known something we didn’t. One girl ended up having one shot, only because we were persistent and poor Robbie had the remainder to drink. Not long after that we decide to call it a night which was probably a good idea. My memory is a bit hazy after that but I think we ended up at Burger King on the way home for a late night snack and like all fast food; it was the same crap as we get in Australia.