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Published: March 2nd 2010
The island
Its standing on such a narrow base is mind boggling.Anyone that has known me for some time is well aware of my obsession with the James Bond films. The allure of the action and adventure, exotic scenery and beautiful women is unsurpassed, completely enthralling me. One of my favorites was the ninth of the 22 Bond films was a 1974 film called
The Man with the Golden Gun (with Roger Moore as Bond). In it, Bond faced off with the villain Francisco Scaramanga, an assassin who, through thievery, developed the ability to harness solar energy and would attempt to sell it to the highest bidder. Much of the film took place in Southeast Asia, including the most memorable parts on Scaramanga’s island (now commonly referred to as James Bond Island) in Phang Nga Bay.
Geologically, the area around Phang Nga Bay is referred to as a
drowned karstland - a limestone region with sinks, underground streams and caverns. They were once mountains in the ice age but the melt off of ice and the resulting rise in tide left these former mountain peaks as numerous small islands. The bay has more than 40 such islands that can rise roughly 300 meters out of the sea, creating some of the
Phang Nga Islands
One of many islands in the area, with much vegetation growing out of the limestone. most marvelous scenery in the world. Today I would venture out to see them, including the most famous one - James Bond Island.
The day started off with me waiting outside for my shuttle pickup to take me to the tour bus. I was told that my shuttle would arrive between 7:45 and 8:00. Already well accustomed to the region’s lack of concern towards punctuality, I hardly expected them to be on time. I was, however, surprised when I was still waiting there for my ride at 8:50. I saw a guy working at a tour company nearby and asked him if they would usually show up this late. He said it wasn’t uncommon.
Finally, at 9:20, the driver showed up. He thought he was early as his paperwork told him to get me at 9:30. Someone dropped the ball at the tour agency.
The ride out was lengthy, with the shuttle making several stops, a transfer to a larger bus, then an hour ride from there to the pier. Most of the people on the bus were doing a similar tour by longboat (something I hadn’t seen in the brochure I found) but I would be
doing mine by speedboat. It ended up working out much better as I got to do something pretty exciting later on that the longboat tour didn’t do.
At the pier, I boarded my speedboat and was joined by a man from Wales and another from London, along with a few Koreans. We jetted along the bay, passing several of the tall, tree covered islands on our way to our first stop, a platform from which we would go canoeing.
I hopped in a canoe with my guide and he paddled me around the water with dozens of other canoes. We first took off through a large passageway which led to an area covered with vines where we could take pictures. I climbed about 10 feet up one of the vines easily, leading to a great photo, but had a much more difficult time coming down. I had managed to rotate my body around the vine on the way up, which lended itself well to the photo, but not for coming down. I slowly made my way down, leaving a bit of skin from my left knee for the next showoff.
We then headed along the perimeter of
Climbing
As far up as I could go before hitting my head on the rock above. one of the islands when he had me lay down so we could sneak underneath a tiny opening that led to a beach and swimming area. There were several people there already and I quickly joined them by hopping off the side. In the water, one little British kid swam up to me and climbed on the one end of the oar that the guide had given me, challenging me to hoist him into the air. He was a bit surprised when I actually did it. I was surprised (and thankful) that the oar didn’t break. In these situations, foresight and I diverge.
I climbed back into the canoe, giving the kid’s little sister quite the show as my trunks got caught on something, leaving my posterior for all to see.
We continued to row around the area, taking in the various rock formations, caves, gullies and vegetation, before heading back towards the platform. The guide referenced one last island formation on the way in. He pointed and, while chuckling and grabbing my right pec to break through any spoken communication barrier, showed me a set of islands off in the distance that looked like women’s breasts.
Tourists
People and shops line the rear of the island's beach. My group got back on board and headed off to our next destination, Panyee Village, for lunch. Along the way we saw more of the islands. It started to remind me more and more of
Milford Sound in New Zealand, with formations seldom seen anywhere else in the world.
At Panyee I joined the British guys for a quiet lunch. The waitress brought out a variety of Thai dishes consisting of vegetables, shrimp, chicken and pineapple. This was amazing, not so much because of the taste, which was fine, but because I was feeling ravenous. It’s almost like I’ve been undernourished of late. I eat plenty and yet lack the benefit of energy from the food. Perhaps the calorie counts are much lower than I’m used to and not enough for my hectic schedule.
After lunch we departed for James Bond Island. I immediately recognized it off in the distance, like I had been here before. It only took us a few minutes to get there. Pulling up to the back of the island I could immediately tell that this was heavily toured. Small stands lined the beach with all sorts of beads and cheap jewelry, postcards and other
Rock wall
A large wall exposes the many layers of rock in the area. souvenirs to be purchased. I bypassed this and the dozens of tourists as quickly as possible, making my way the short distance to the more familiar side of the island and the large rock formation from which a solar panel ascended in
The Man with the Golden Gun.
Walking my way around this side of the island and getting numerous views of my surroundings I noticed things were exactly as I had pictured them, yet, unlike many sights which I’ve seen over and over in pictures and movies, this one still left me awestruck. Maybe some of it was that it almost felt like being on the set of one of my favorite films.
Once I walked around the island and back it was time to go to our next and final stop. We took the speedboat back and transferred to a minibus - this was a much nicer one than my one from Hat Yai - to take a short ride to the Island Safari Camp.
The brochure said that at the camp we would be doing something called “elephant trekking”. I had no idea what this entailed - it wasn’t my reason for choosing this
Toomai
I am Toomai of the elephants. tour and it was not a part of the longboat tour so I didn’t hear a description of it at the beginning of the day. It turned out that this involved taking a ride on an elephant.
I got onto the bench that was loosely mounted onto the great beast and my driver belted me in by use of a small rope. As the elephant stomped his way along and I jerked back and forth I envisioned the bench falling to one side and me riding upside down under the elephant’s stomach.
We rode for a few minutes and, when out of sight of the loading area, my guide hopped off and said “give me camera.” I complied and he took a picture of me. Then he untied the belt and instructed me to slide down onto the elephant’s neck. This led to a photograph session conducted by what had to be an aspiring model photographer; he took a couple dozen pictures of me on the elephant’s neck from every conceivable angle save the posterior. As I sat there on the large animal I felt like
Toomai of the Elephants. That is until he started to dip his head and I
Sitting elephant
An elephant sits and crosses his legs during his performance. realized I had no control of him whatsoever. For his services, my guide earned a nice tip. That’s how you earn a tip over here; not just for doing your job (ironically, he probably earned this by not doing his job if his job entailed keeping me in the seat).
After the elephant trekking, we moved onto our next session - a rubber tapping demonstration. We started off at a rubber tree, where one of the workers showed how he scrapes back the bark of a rubber tree and lets the tree’s fluids ooze into a trough and small cup. Below the cup, a little old ant climbed his way up the rubber tree plant - really, not just in the song.
We took a break for fresh bananas, clementines and juice while we waited for the larger longboat group to arrive. They soon did and we proceeded to the next events - the elephant and monkey shows.
I thought the shows would be a little cheesy and child oriented. I was wrong on both accounts. The elephant show featured a baby Asian elephant - not to be confused with the large tusked African elephant - playing
Headstand
Truly amazing. to the audience to get banana treats after her performance. She sat down and crossed her legs, walked on her hind legs and, most awe-inspiring, did a couple headstands.
This show was immediately followed by the monkeys, who were not to be outdone. The monkeys started off by walking around with signs showing where they work, followed by a dance with umbrellas on a tightrope. Next they did some exercise, hoisting barbells above their heads and riding a tricycle around at breakneck speed. Finally, it was time for basketball, where they each did jump ball tricks and slam dunks.
At this point, I had exhausted the camp’s activities. While the longboat group did the rubber tapping demonstration, I walked around and relaxed on a chair. The woman in charge, Jeab, let me know a couple times how long until we would leave so she wouldn’t forget me, having been separated from the group most of the day. The last time she gave me a 10 minute warning. After about eight minutes I got up to head to the bus and all I found was a worker asking me if I needed a ride.
”I came on the
Dancing monkeys
The monkeys dance around with their umbrellas on a tight rope. bus.”
“Bus left.”
“What? She said I had ten minutes!”
He brought me out towards the entrance and found out they had just left. Fortunately, because of a divided highway, they had to turn around and go back past the camp. The bus pulled over to get me and I was met by a very apologetic Jeab.
No worries. But… No tip for you! On the way back to the guesthouse, I mostly slept.
Back around 8:00, I logged onto the Internet for the first time in days and let my parents know that I was not kidnapped, dead in a gutter somewhere or swept out to sea by a tsunami. I also secured my actual bus ticket to Bangkok for tomorrow.
Very hungry again, I went back to Mr. Thong’s for dinner. There I dined on sweet and sour beef with fried rice. The beef was very good and so was the rice after I added a spicy sauce.
On my way back from dinner I came across a street vendor making pancakes that appeared similar to crepes in Paris. I waited for a couple in front of me to have their
Dunking
One of the monkeys dunks a basketball. chocolate and banana crepe made and then ordered my honey and banana pancake. The vendor rolled out some pre-made dough, laid it on the griddle and rapidly sliced pieces of banana onto the center. After flipping it a few times, he cut it into bite sized pieces on a plate and added condensed milk and honey.
I had my first bite by the stand and he could easily see the satisfaction from a job well done. This was clearly the best thing I’ve eaten in a month. It was so much better than crepe I had in Paris that I feel bad comparing the two. I could have eaten one of each.
I headed back to the guesthouse and got things together for tomorrow. I’ll be up early in the morning to catch a 6:50 (or so they say) taxi to the bus station.
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Wendy
non-member comment
OHHH! I got a banana pancake from a street vendor in Thailand too when I went to visit a looooooong time ago when I was a kid. OH MY, that was the best thing ever. I still crave it to this day!