Phang Nga Bay Excursion

5th Day

After lazing 1 day in the hotel, just looking at the information for the next trip, basically we have recharged and back to full gear.

We decided to do something different in the last trip. Sea canoeing at Phang Nga Bay looks pretty interesting, but we were hesitated at first because we thought we need to paddle the canoe all by ourself. We are not good in it lo...

Later on, we saw from the photos that all of the paddlers were wearing same clothes. Could it be we won't need to do it, but a well trained paddler will go along and paddle for us? We had confirmed this point when we went to the tour agency to ask for the details. He said this trip is good and safe for the children as well. Now, all our worries gone.

There are 2 options to go to Phang Nga Bay, by coach or by boat. We chose the coach ride. Apart from sea canoeing, the package includes visiting Suwankuha Temple, Koh Panyi Village and James Bond Island. Sounds comprehensive enough to me.

On the way to Phang Nga Bay, we stopped by Suwankuha Temple, also called monkey cave.

There are many monkeys out there. They don't have to ask for foods, people would feed them automatically. And they would only pick the foods that they like to eat. What a life !

The cave has nothing too special.

According to the tour guide, this buddha statue is gold plated and is 306 years old. Such a precious thing, but with very minimum security protection.

This small cave has nothing special too. We went down and went up to the temple hall within 10 min.

Somehow I felt that this mont statue was looking at me the same time when I was looking at him. I made some wishes and left quickly.

We stayed at this place for about 30 min, then we continue our couch ride to Phang Nga Bay.

The nicely sheltered Phang Nga Bay, dotted with tiny islands of dramatic shapes, is an ideal place to explore by boat. The most popular stopping-off points are Koh Ping-Gan, better known as James Bond Island, and Koh Pannyi, a floating fishing village built on stilts.

After 20 min, we reached the pier. Then, we were transferred to this long tail boat. It's very long that I think it can carry at least 30 passengers at one time.

Traffic is quite busy here. From time to time, other long tail boats would pass by us in a near distance.

A distinctive feature of Phang Nga Bay is the sheer limestone cliffs that jut vertically out of the emerald green water.

Koh Pannyi (also called Sea Gypsy Island) is a Muslim village, hence the mosque. The whole of it built out over water on stilts and with a giant rock monolith guarding its rear.

Ko Panyi has become a popular stopover for lunch break on Phang Nga Bay excursion. At lunch time, up to 3,000 tourists tours are brought in to eat and shop for handicrafts. As soon as the tourists leave, the community closes up its restaurants and trinket shops and transforms itself from a tourist trap into a quiet community of fishermen.

We were brought to this restaurant for lunch break. The foods were normal, no fresh seafood was served. Anyway, I didn't expect they would.

The pattern of the wall is very beautiful. I like it.

Some of the handicrafts sold there. Since I have no intention to buy, I didn't check for the price.

Maybe all the pretty sea-shells had been collected by the local people to make the souvenir, so there isn't any left on the beach for me to pick?

Our tour guide, Emma. She said she loves to take photos. When I invited her to take a photo with us, she accepted it happily, like a small girl.

We left this village about an hour later.

We continue our journey to the long awaited activity - sea canoeing.

The long tail boat dropped us on this bigger boat. Basically, this place is for transferring the passengers to kayaking.

Most of the islands are uninhabited. Many of them have spectacular caves (hongs in Thai) which we can only reach by an inflatable canoe.

Canoes are used to transport us into the caves. 2 person and 1 paddler on each canoe. No paddling required, the paddler will do all the work.

Phang Nga Bay is a great place for boating. The fact that it's protected from both the Northeast and the Southwest monsoon seasons means that its waters remain calm year-round. The interesting limestone cliffs create a picturesque backdrop and there are many safe places to explore.

The cliffs are a mixture of black, tan, ivory, gray and red hues. According to some geologists, the red stains are the result of iron deposits leached by ground water from ancient river beds. The tops of those islands were once part of a continuous land mass covered with forested hills and carved streams. That would have been long before human beings appeared on the scene. But sea levels have fluctuated significantly in more recent times.

The paddle man told me this limestone formation is called 'nose of the elephant'. I don't get it, it doesn't look like anything to me.

A variety of geological forces have fractured the limestone beds and pushed up the 40 steep-sided islands that provide the exotic scenery for which this shallow bay is noted. Mineral oxides from various sources paint the vari-coloured streaks that characterise the cliffs of Phang Nga Bay.

Basically, we paddled through the caves, and...

the sea jungle...

This kind of cactus plant can be seen everywhere on the rock's wall.

According to the paddler, this place is so calm that they've never seen any animals here. Really, not even a small fish was seen here. When William knew for sure this place won't have crocodile and shark, he started to play water here.

This place is really so calm, can be described as the sea without waves.

He was telling me the toy he was bringing along still with him. He didn't drop into the water, as I warned him before.

His new sign-language pose.

Cute (cough cough)...

I've tried to paddle the canoe myself, but it didn't go to the way I want it to go. After a while, I gave up.

We were brought back to the big boat about 45min later. After taking a simple refreshment, we got on the long tail boat to our next destination, James Bond Island.

The clifts we saw along the way is the same as before.

About 15 min later, we reached this small island, called Hong Island.

People parked their long tail boat here, so did we.

A giant rock fell off from the clift...just kidding.

This bird was the 1st animal I've seen in Phang Nga Bay. Hello, is this place too calm that you animals feel too bored to live here?

There are many tourists in this small island, most of them are from Korea. They like to put thick make-up and wear sexy clothes wherever they go. When they pose for photo, they usually take a long time.

This famous landmark is called Ko Tapu or James Bond Island. Dramatically rising from the water about 200 meters from Khao Phingkan, this is the most photographed island in Phang Nga Bay.

James Bond Island first found its way into the international map through its starring role in the James Bond movie "The Man With the Golden Gun". And this is where they seem to take all of the tourists - all at one time.

"The Man with 2 Naughty Sons". How's that? Haha..

"The 2 naughty sons"

Bond's Girl (cough cough)

Although this island was packed with tourists, not many of them were interested in what the local people were trying to sell here. See how bored this lady, like she didn't make any business for a long time.

Ok, my hypothesis why the business is NG here? They didn't put the price tag on the sold items. Said, if I don't have to open my big mouth to check for the price of those stuffs, the chances I would buy is higher.

Khao Ping Kan : don't know what's the cause, the ^ openning is cut very straight and smooth.

William was getting particular again, he refused to walk on the sandy ground by himself. He hate to feel the small stones trapped inside his sandals. So, we have to either carry him or keep unbuckle his shoes to remove the stones.

The tour guide said the view up there is good. So, we climbed up the stairs like the rest of the tourists did.

James Bond Island at a higher perspective.

That's it, can't go any higher to view it.

I think should we choose the sea way to Phang Nga Bay, we would land Hong Island at this pier.

We walked back to where our boat park. The tour guide said we have to be puntual cause the boat would leave at 4.30pm. Really, we didn't need to wait long there. I appreciate the punctuality.

This is a very lovely trip.

I'm glad we didn't miss it because of the wrong assumption we have had - that only the canoe expert can go there.

On the way back to the hotel, we asked the driver to drop us at Central Festival, the biggest shopping mall near Patong town. Of course we didn't go there for shopping but for foods. Quite disappointing, there isn't any special restaurant that sell good Thai foods. We simply went into a small shop (like fast food type) that sell basic Thai dishes. One hour later, I suddenly felt stomach upset and throw out all the foods that I've ate. It came so fast that I couldn't even run to the toilet to do that. I guess the food I ate there is not hygenic. Fortunately, I felt just fine after I vomit.

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(To be continued)