Stephen and I decided to take a tour of Phang Nga Bay and James Bond Island for our last day in Phuket. Well, actually, I had to talk Stephen into it because he wasn't so keen after our last 4 Island tour experience. I was hoping the weather would be okay after I finally convinced him to go. Luckily it was for the most part....
Our guide spoke English much better than many of the guides we have had. He studies tourism at the university on weekends and watches 5 movies in a row in English whenever he has a day off in order to practice. We started our tour at the 'monkey temple'. I will have to look up the Thai name for it. As we arrived it began to pour. Stephen gave me a glaring 'I told you so' look as we dashed for cover in the sacred caves next to the temple.
The first large cavern featured a huge reclining Buddha statue. There were also monkeys everywhere at the temple. The locals have chopped down the trees so they no longer have any natural food to eat. They have become dependent on tourists feeding them bananas and peanuts. I find this quite sad because many of them die during the low season. So - I hope everyone takes the 'Do not feed the animals' signs in National Parks seriously. I know I certainly will from now on....
I prefer to see the monkeys in their natural habitat, but I was able to get some excellent shots of a mother and baby monkey because they were so unafraid of humans. Whenever anyone bought bananas they all went crazy and practically attacked the person holding the food. It was pretty scary. When Stephen and I wandered further into the back of another dark cave, we were startled to see several monkeys hidden in the shadows of the ledges above us. They almost seemed sinister looking down on us. I felt like I was in the middle of a scene from an 'Indiana Jones' movie.
Next, we took a longtail boat through the mangrove forests of Phang Nga Bay. There are 120 karst islands in the area. The scenery is spectacular. First, we headed out to James Bond Island. This is really a rather small piece of rock sticking up out of the sea surrounded by a larger, more attractive island. It is famous because it featured in the James Bond movie, 'The Man with the Golden Gun', which I have yet to see. We were lucky because it wasn't very crowded as we visited during the low season. Apparently, it is heaving with people during the high season. We did have to brave some rather large waves and fierce winds as our longtail boat battled its way out to the island.
The next activity of the day was my favorite. We headed back into the protection of the bay and used kayaks to explore the secret hongs (rooms) in the rock. A young boy from the nearby Muslim sea village on stilts rowed us around the islands in a kayak. As we approached the first small cave in the rocks he told us to duck. We had to lie flat to avoid scraping our noses on the roof of the cave. When we emerged on the other side we were amazed to find ourselves in a large, cavernous room with moss-covered rock walls and an open ceiling so we could look up at the sky. It was a pretty special site. We went on to weave our way in and out of the islands to explore several more of the hongs. It was a fantastic experience. Stephen was a little worried about me dropping the new camera in the water as I tried to videotape us passing below the caves whilst lying flat on my back. Fortunately, the camera survived and it didn't even rain while we were out in the kayaks!!!!
Lastly, we went to the nearby Muslim village built on wooden stilts out over the water. It was an interesting place, but when you headed away from the dock you soon found yourself in a large, covered market. It was impossible to get out of the maze of covered streets. We tried to avoid the women with monkeys trying to get us to pay to take pictures with them. Our guide warned us that the monkeys sometimes bite. We finally found our way out of the market, but ended up looking into inhabitants homes as they were cooking dinner. So - went back undercover and tried once more to locate the beautiful mosque we had seen from the boat. When we finally found it, it was time to head back.
Overall, I really enjoyed the tour. The hongs and mangrove bay of Phang Nga are really spectacular. I would highly recommend them to anyone traveling to the area.
