We were picked up from our hotel by our tour van in the morning. Then the van went around picking up other guests and made our way uphill.
We drove past many of Phuket’s smaller beachesThese are Phuket’s other popular beaches
We got stuck in traffic on the road leading to the airport; but the journey still took near two hours!Once we finally got to the docks in Phang Nga, we were given life jacketsOur tour group was in a fairly big boat
It was already past noon by the time our tour began.
We were going out in to Phang Nga bayThere are large stretches of mangroves in Phang Nga bayOther tour boats left alongside ours
We were going to check out a few lagoons firstWe stopped by this floating restaurantWe were then split in to pairs and put in a canoe with a ‘paddler/guide’This was ours. I sat in between him and Ramesh.Time to duckWe would go inside these hills to find lagoonsI don’t remember if this was Panak Island, but this was the lagoon inside.
We just took a round and went back out again. Our guide/paddler spoke mostly in Thai and broken English. And when I say spoke, I mean mumbled.Time to duck, againWe went under this massive tunnel to get to the next two caves
In case you felt like having an ice cream while canoeing, that service is available in Phang Nga bay as wellThe canoe ride was smooth and quite relaxingThen came the part of the tour when the guide would point to formations on the karst limestone rocks and say that it resembles some animal or figure. I didn’t get most of it.This was another lagoon we enteredThis was the entry to a mangrove
Inside *another* sea caveI don’t think you are allowed to go deep inside the mangroves. Phang Nga bay is protected reserve.Going back out again
The open seaGoing back underTaken by Ramesh
On the way back, Ramesh and I took turns to paddle the canoeI had paddled before in Philippines and felt it was so easy. But today was different. Maybe it was the weight of all three of us in the canoe, but we barely moved no matter how hard I paddled! 😛
Once back on the floating restaurant, we were served cold drinks before getting back on our respective tour boats. Here’s a video I took while on the canoe:
We left for our next destinationThere were rain storms far awayNext up, James Bond island! Real name: Khao Phing Kan. This was where the final showdown in The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed. James Bond put this island on the tourist map.Our boats dropped off tourists hereThe image most commonly associated with James Bond island is not even on the islandTo see the iconic rock of James Bond island, you have to climb these stepsAnd there it is, Ko TapuWe asked a fellow tourist to take our photo. He should have asked me to move a bit to the right.And that’s it. We went down to the beach.You have a few shops here selling souvenirs and drinksYou can swim around it, but you are not allowed near the rock — let along try to climb it (I blurred the background for effect)The island also had this rock which looks as though the hill tumbled sideways and is leaning on a similar rockA caveCats doing what they do best, no matter where they areWe had 45 minutes on the islandWe regrouped and got on our boatIt was time now for lunchI was finally going to visit Koh Panyee ‘floating’ villageI had seen the village from high up in the air when I flew from Phuket to Bangkok in 2009I made sure that a visit this ‘floating village was part of the tourIt’s amazing such a village exists in the middle of the bay and only surrounded by limestone rocks and waterUsually the lunches on these tours suck, but I quite liked this menu. Tempura prawns, chicken, hot soup and fruits.After lunch, I decided to explore the villageMost of the shops catered to tourists, selling souvenirs and items you can find on the mainland as wellBesides that, not much in terms of commercial activity (as you would expect)Houses are on stiltsIt’s funny to think, “where do these people go… for anything?”Surely they make a visit to Phang Nga town to stock or get supplies shipped to the villageAs per Wikipedia, more than 1500 people live on Koh Panyi, most of whom are of Malay-Indonesian descentMany of whom are still fishermenPretty much everyone is a MuslimThis was still a nice place to walk aroundWas that the mother cat I saw above at James Bond island? 🙂Wait, how is electricity generated on this island?It must get awfully boring here for someBut the main reason I wanted to explore the village was because of an adI wanted to see this floating football pitch made famous by one of my favourite ad campaigns
A couple of years ago, one of Thailand’s biggest banks – TMB, released a short film based on the inspirational story of Koh Panyi’s football club. It was beautiful, funny and out-right inspirational. Just watch it, you’ll see what I mean.
Cable tv?So many cats. I guess enough fish around to feed them, ha ha!
I rushed back to the boat as Ramesh called to tell me it was about to leave.
We were supposed to go to another island for some beach bumming and swimming, but our guide told us the weather was bad thereOnce back on land, our tour van took us to Wat Suwan KuhaIt’s a cave templeIt’s got a lying Buddha as well
There are multiple caves under this limestone hillThat’s not a real monkI went cave exploringClearly people follow instructions -_-This was a section of the cave that went up high
StalactitesI love this photo. You can’t make out if I’m looking up or looking down 🙂I climbed slowly but eventually made it to the top of the caveThis is a panorama of the large stretch of stalactites inside the caveI carefully climbed back downIt was time to leaveIt was an hour-long ride back to our hotelIt was a long, slow-moving trail of traffic on the hill before Patong. Alss, I learned there’s an Indian restaurant called Poppadam in Patong 🙂
It was a good tour in the end, even though many hours were wasted in traffic and we didn’t get to go to one spot. I still felt I got my ฿850 (Rs. 1650/$27/€20 ) worth of sight-seeing.
In the evening, Ramesh and I had some Guinness along with some of the fattest onion rings we had ever seen! This was at an Irish pub on Walking Street; they had a decent live band playing.
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2 Comments
Ana
09/10/2014
Hi,
So you took this trip from Patong, where you were located and included james bond island and the a tour of caves in phang nga bay in a canoe, koh panyie (the fishermen willage) and the cave temple with the reclining budha.
I will go in February 2015 in Phuket and stay in patong area and this is exactly what I would like to see in the north! just that I did not find a travel agency that combines all the above in the same tour. can you tell me the name of agency? where you bought your tickets from?
Congrats for the article, it was very detailed and helpful 🙂
I don’t remember the name of the agency. Honestly, you can approach any one as they all offer the same tour package. No need to even book in advance. Just land in Patong and ask around.
Ana
09/10/2014Hi,
So you took this trip from Patong, where you were located and included james bond island and the a tour of caves in phang nga bay in a canoe, koh panyie (the fishermen willage) and the cave temple with the reclining budha.
I will go in February 2015 in Phuket and stay in patong area and this is exactly what I would like to see in the north! just that I did not find a travel agency that combines all the above in the same tour. can you tell me the name of agency? where you bought your tickets from?
Congrats for the article, it was very detailed and helpful 🙂
Mithun Divakaran Reply:
October 10th, 2014 at 2:46 AM
I don’t remember the name of the agency. Honestly, you can approach any one as they all offer the same tour package. No need to even book in advance. Just land in Patong and ask around.