Thursday, May 31, 2007

Phang Nga Bay - Phuket

As with the first day in Phuket, we had a similar early start on the 2nd day. The tour to Phang Nga Bay started at 8am. Phang Ngah Bay is to the north of Phuket, the trip from Patong to the pier takes about an hour. We took a big boat out of pier AoPor, with a bunch of Chinese tourists and few guai lous. Boat is big though, enough to fit a toilet, several canoes and lots of refreshment.

First stop is Naka Island. It was an ordinary island with ordinary (sub par with all the beaches in Phuket) and calm water. Perhaps thats the reason why the place is suitable for canoeing and not swimming. Sand was rather rough and water not as clean. Regardless, we had the chance to canoe around the place just for the fun of it.

We were then brought to Hong Island (the main attraction of this tour) to witness limestones via canoe. We were each assigned a designated canoeing peddler to move us around, our canoeing peddler is very friendly and he likes to take photo for us although we hardly understand each other's language. Limestone along the Hong island was very unique and I wonder why the sea water in Phuket is always so greenish. It is raining on that day but still the tour goes on and in fact it is very cold when you are on the sea while raining, besides it is quite wavy and makes me feel uncomfortable.
Canoeing at Hong Island

Then we had our lunch on board. After that was James Bond Island. The island was made famous when Ia Flemming's Superspy went on her majesty's accord to do a film there entitle 'Man with the Golden Gun'. What truly remarkable is the fact that the limestone looks big on the top but is supported by a narrower bottom. We transfered to a long tail boat to land on the island, the scenery of the island is picturesque, but no sandy beach. We walked around the island, we climbed up to the small hill behind the island and it is connected to the beach in front and that's it for the whole island. It is very small yet primitive despite the bunch of stalls that sell souvenirs here.
The infamous landmark of James Bond Island

Peaceful 007

the rocky seaside of the 007

Our next island after James Bond Island was Panak Island. It is another unique limestone cave where you actually have to go through the cave underneath to reach the lagoon on the other side. Whats interesting was that as you venture deep into the limestone cave on canoe, you are pit into absolute darkness, as little light manage to shine through the deep cave. The cave smells awful in the middle section, thanks to the hundreds of bats making the cave their home. Then we reach the lagoon at the other side. This journey was something out of the ordinary.
Entering the cave, mind your head and we have to lie down

exiting from the cave, we saw a dim light

That's the cave we came out from

limestones everywhere

Then that's the end for the tour and they sent us back to our hotel, but I am feeling rather queasy and lax-ety. We had a short and simple dinner at Patong and rush back to our hotel, I had to rest while Allan went to get some medicine for my fever. This night is the last night in Phuket and we planned earlier to view a sunset at Patong beach, then get a decent seafood dinner following with a massage, too bad I end up having fever and missed the chance. So sad.. but thanks to Allan I recovered the next morning where we need to take a noon flight back to Bangkok again.

No comments: