James Bond Island

Trip Start Sep 17, 2007
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Trip End Oct 08, 2008


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Thursday, April 17, 2008

We were pretty lazy in Phuket. To be fair, so was everyone else. Most shops and restaurants were closed the entire week of Songkran. We opted to stay in Phuket Town instead of staying at the beach. Erin then made it known she was too lazy to take a day-trip to the beach. So we relaxed in town for a couple days.

We did, however, manage to rouse ourselves to take a day trip up to Phang-Nga Bay, site of the famed James Bond Island.

We ended up on a mostly Thai tour (we were the only foreigners). It was quite a change after the rest of SE Asia. Before we did the boat tour, we made a stop at the Monkey Temple. There seems to be a Monkey Beach or Cave or Temple involved in every day tour. It usually involves people selling expensive bananas to tourist who in turn give them to the monkeys. This, of course, breeds contempt, aggressiveness, and laziness among the monkeys. It also causes them to congregate like rats. They swarmed around the cave of this particular temple.

The actual tour was much more interesting. We piled into a long-tail boat and coasted through the saltwater mangroves that cover most of the bay. Every so often we would glimpse karsts rising out of the ocean. We passed right through one of them using a water cave. Then we hit the bay and jetted through beautiful karst scenery like that of Halong Bay.

The main event was James Bond Island. It is a beautiful sheltered beach protected by an encircling cove. Out in the cove is a very distintive rock rising out of the water. It tapers almost to a point at the bottom end, making it look as if it's about to fall over. This bay was used in "The Man with the Golden Gun." He comes in on a personal underwater vehicle and then fights some guys with a diving knife I believe. The top of the rock opens up to shoot a missile. Or something like that. We spent the time trying to get other tourists to take a picture that included our heads and the before-mentioned rock. Then we gave up and set up the tripod.

From here we stopped at a Muslim fishing village for a lovely seafood lunch. We had a little time to wander around the village, which is built on stilts around one of the islands. You could look down to see hundreds of fiddler crabs, guppy "walking" fish, and other exciting things.

We stopped at a cashew factory on the way back where people tried to get us to buy things. I tried a chili cashew, which was interesting. Also cashew juice. Strange.

Then back to our hotel to laze around again. Tomorrow we go to Phi Phi Island. We can go to the beach there.

~Travis
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