Phang Nga delights

Heya,

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of the vegetarian festival! After the festivities we decided to escape the heat in an airconditioned tour/antique shop. Without any real plans for the rest of the day, we ended up signing up for a tour of 'James Bond Island', whatever that was supposed to be.

So, 12:30 and we get picked up by the tour company and driven to the setting off point, where the rest of the tourgroup is assembled. Here we are herded into another minivan and off we go! The people behind us are an assortiment of Icelanders, and the people in front of us Japanese, I think. Our Thai tour guide had excellent English, a shame that he talked so quickly without any breaks that we didnt understand a word of it.

First stop was what the locals call the Monkey Temple, which is actually a temple in a cave with a set of random buddha statues, including a big gold reclined one. But yes, there were loads of monkeys! Melissa also was blessed by the resident Buddhist monk.

Next stop was the pier, with a quick loo break at a shop where I got myself a wonderful hat! Anyway, we climbed down into our longtail boat which took us on a trip around Phang Nga Marine National Park. Its basically a large shallow bay with lots of rock islands of all shapes and sizes and covered by tropical forest, but it was very beautiful!

Our longtail boat picked its way around the islands and mangroves, taking us to our first stop, James Bond Island (AKA Ko Ping Kan) as featured in The Man With The Golden Gun, starring Roger Moore. Now its basically just an island with a hub of souvenir shops stuck in the middle, but it was still beautiful. There were also a few plaques on a wall that I believe were put there to commemorate some princess' visit. In front of the island stands Nail Island (Ko Tapu), which was quite cool.

After that, we got back into the longtail and headed towards the Muslim Sea-Gypsy Village. However, as we approached the village we could see rain clouds closing in on us, but we thought we would be safe. As we were about to moor the boat, the heavens opened and we got very wet! It was a real tropical rainstorm. What most people see of the village are a few restaurants and a long alley of mostly souvenir shops. However, deviate from the beaten path and delve a little deeper, you find a ramshackle living village, complete with a telephone, a school and a mosque. About 200 people live on this village built on stilts on a sandbank, with a Tsunami evacuation route that leads to the big rock the side of the village is attached to.

Back at the restaurant I was served a huge plate of fresh grilled prawns, before clambering back onto our boat and heading back to the mainland.

Since then we've been busy with our course again, only one week go, yay! Then we have to find jobs. Yay. Also, we took our first dip in the Indian Ocean! It was salty and wet.

Best news of all: we have a new phone! Number is still the same, scroll down to see it. Big up to Damian for txting us!!!