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Published: January 7th 2006
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Today was a real scorcher. After too many lazy days we signed ourselves up for a tour, to ensure we got out of bed at a cooler hour and had a little more to show for the day than Steve's deepening trunk line. This meant waking up at 7am!!!! Unheard of for us in this section of our lives unless we have a flight to catch.
We spent the day kayaking around the sea cave lagoons and mangroves of Phang Nga Bay. This sounds active but we were assigned our own paddler (Benny) who skillfully traversed the shallow waters, so we only had to lay back and enjoy the view. Felt very peaceful. It was very peaceful. The sort of place you would expect Gollum to suddenly appear swinging on the vines. To reach some of the lagoons we had to travel through dark caves with low ceilings and stalagtite chandeliers. At some stages we had to lay down flat on the kayak floor and deflate the boat a little to squeeze through the tiny tunnels. Not a trip for those with a fear of enclosed spaces! Diamond cave had walls with tiny speckles of silver throughout, very beautiful.
We had been promised a visit to the 'Bat Cave' but as the water was fast rising as the day wore on it was no longer possible to access. Steve was gutted, having set his heart on meeting Robin, but, our next stop soon revived him. James Bond Island! Benny told us very seriously that this was not actually it's real name! Really? It has colloquially become known as such following 1974's Man With the Golden Gun (altogether now... "Scaramanga!") which featured the isle. Inevitable photos followed, well you've just got to haven't you?
Delicious lunch awaited us back on board (however did I ever get by in my previous carnation not having chicken with cashew nuts, battered pineapple fritters and sweet and sour snapper on a regular basis?). Final stop was Naka Island where we could swim, kayak ourselves around or just laze in the shade. By this stage I was so exhausted I had to have a quick snooze. This is the busy life we lead. Was only revived with the help of a strawberry cornetto.
The only other point of interest since we arrived here was our visit to Phantasea. The closest you
James Bond Island
small children in corner, happy bonus can get to Disney in Thailand. Perhaps Disney on LSD. So overblown and ridiculous that you can't help but smile. Basically a theme park where the attractions are energetic Thai cover bands in peculiar costumes (only theme that unites the groups look seems to be 'utter bonkers'), buying overpriced fish food so you can feed the overfed enormous koi carp (the size of a corgi I swear), madly gyrating ladyboys dancing to high energy europop watched by an elderly couple on a park bench and shop after shop of expensive tat all embellished with elephants. Elephants turn out to be the big draw here. You can take a ride on one, feed one, almost get crushed by one, have your photo taken with a baby one (their eyes were very wacky, Steve was sure they were doped up) and watch the cabaret show which heavily features them. Phantasea is not the kind of thing we normally do. We had been heavily misled by Lonely Planet that we were in for a cirque de soleilesque night of acrobatic, trapeze mayhem. The 70 minute show did have a short section of fluroescent lycraed trapeze artists hoisted high up in the rafters, delighting
James Bond Island 2
explanation of this geological feature to follow . . . those below with glo in the dark antics. Sadly there was just not enough of this kind of entertainment for us, too much flouncy about and traditional dance. By the time the elephants came on for the grand finale we had ants in our pants. The depressing spectacle of these beautiful dignified animals climbing up on each other's backs, bowing and other manner of tricks finished us off. We declined the offer of the mouse mat, DVD, soundtrack and tshirt on the way out.
As far as recovery from last year's tsunami goes, Phuket seems to have bounced back well. Our current home of Kamala was one of the worst hit places, and whilst the visible signs are more prevalent than in Phi Phi, the town is fully functioning with tourists aplenty.
The demographic shifts notably from island to island, even beach to beach. As such, amongst the holiday making families and retirees of Kamala, we feel young again....!
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helen lord
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steve would be a good Bond.