Today was another adventure day! We met up with a tour van at another nearby hotel (saved us $200 baht per person to drive 10 minutes – so if you stay outside of a pickup area, feel free to ask where you could meet up to save yourself some $).
We drove North to a small marina filled with longtail boats, put on life jackets, and enjoyed an hour or so ride across part of the Phang Nga Bay with little islands all over the place. One thing we weren’t quite prepared for was that you get kind of wet on a longtail boat! At least these ones… They had small tarps you could hold up when the spray was really coming in, but sometimes you’d get smacked in the face with a splash of seawater. We kept our nice camera and zoom lens in the middle of the boat as covered as possible.
Somehow Spud and Littlest got in a nap on the boat too… I guess you know it’s a great vacation when you wear out the little kids!
We docked at a floating transfer station where guides were waiting for us in inflatable sea canoes. Our guides figured out that we were a “Big family, happy family, we take care you, make you happy happy Thailand” and kept our three canoes close together for the excursion.
We really had no idea what we were in for– we thought we were going to canoe around James Bond Island but it didn’t look like the right area. We were taken across the water to a cliff island and saw a small cave opening at the bottom. I thought we were just going to go close to it, but then the guides said “lay down!” And we went under the cave opening and through to the other side under the rock. Cool!
We went into and out of half a dozen or so little caverns- some of them were covered by rock, others opened up into a full circle of cliffs with just the small opening to the sea. So much fun!
The guide on my canoe cut a heart out of a leaf and took pictures of our family for me. The guide on Superman’s took a leaf and palm frond from the water and made it into a rose and gave “Valentine for you!” to Spud, Littlest & Nixi Ray. Miss A was given a leaf heart that her guide made using a seashell to cut it out.
The whole time my guide kept saying “Happy family! Happy Thailand!” The guides pointed out some big brown jellyfish (apparently edible??) that everyone else saw, but I was too far away. My guide took me over to a mangrove tree and pointed in the roots and kept saying “Jellyfish, jellyfish, many many baby jellyfish,” but despite searching I couldn’t see anything… I just smiled and nodded. Haha.
We also canoed through a mangrove forest – the trees always look like they could get up and walk. Someday I want to write story about them.
In the distance we could see an island and village – the guide told me he lives there with his family, even his mother who is 90 years old. I found out later this is the fishing village we visited for lunch. I wonder if they have ever been further from home than Phuket. Probably not….
We got back in the longtail boat and rode 15 minutes or so to the fishing village, Koh Panyi. We got off and gathered our group on a floating soccer field! No idea how you could play soccer when every step makes it bob in the water… Spud was dying to try. Our guide, Nikhom, explained that this village was founded by 7 Muslim fishermen who settled the area. Over the years it has grown to over 1600 residents and has a Mosque, a school, and a medical clinic. Only a few of the buildings are actually on the island. The rest of them are on stilts over the water or are floating.
Nikhom gave us his WhatsApp phone number in case we get lost (so we could call, hand the phone to a local who could tell him where we are, and he could come find us) and then he led us through a labyrinth of narrow alleyways lined with shops and Muslim women selling their souvenirs and food with their babies and toddlers nearby.
The poverty here is unreal. The homes are literally patchwork pieces of scrap lumber or metal haphazardly put together and falling apart. Not sure how some of them are still standing, and we saw several that weren’t anymore. What a hard life.
We were taken through to a giant floating buffet restaurant on the opposite side of the village. We ate a variety of Thai foods – Superman even tried prawns (we are not seafood people). Littlest tried spaghetti again…. This time it was noodles with ketchup. Just really not that good. I’d love to have them taste some really good American food sometime. We were all grateful for the fried rice and fried chicken.
After lunch we had an hour to wander around. We went down a few more alleys and across the sketchiest wooden walkway I’ve ever seen.
Back in the alleys with shops the women all say “Shopping, hello, shopping. Baby shopping.” They were trying to encourage us to let the kids choose souvenirs. I got a seashell turtle because I haven’t seen ones like this anywhere else in Thailand.
We didn’t get lost in the maze of alleys and made it back to our rendevous point a little early and used the time to change into swimsuits. Superman was taking his turn to change when Nikhom waved us all over to the boat which was now on the restaurant side of the village. I told him we were waiting for one and he said “No problem, we’re waiting for a few more” and had the kids get on the boat. I stayed off to make sure Superman could see where we were on the dock and Nikhom went off to find more of our group.
Next thing I know, the boat is leaving. Everyone on board starts yelling at the captain and pointing at me as I’m yelling at the boat saying “Wait, those are my kids!” But the captain doesn’t speak English and wasn’t looking at the passengers. Another boat came up to the dock and I thought there was a chance that our boat was just getting out of the way, so I didn’t panic yet. But I did yell to the kids that we’d figure it out. Fortunately the boat only went 100 feet or so from the dock before starting to turn back around. Nixi Ray signaled to me that they were coming back and I saw the whole tour group relax. Phew.
Superman came out a minute later and was like “What is happening here?” as I’m watching the boat waiting 100 feet from the dock with all of our kids in it. Finally it came back around and we got in. Everyone around us, though no one spoke English, gestured that they were happy we were back together. Me too!! Thankfully the little kids didn’t panic and the older girls were only a little worried.
One couple from our tour did get lost in the village, so Nikhom went to find them and met us back at the floating soccer field on the other side. Quite the crazy place.
The next stop was the main event- James Bond Island. Well, you actually get off on Khao Phing Kan Island to view the rock that is James Bond Island (Ko Tapu in Thai). This time instead of pulling alongside a dock to disembark, the longtail boat ran itself up onto the shore/embankment of the island. Some guys came up to the front with a ladder and we realized we all had to walk along the side rim of the boat to get off the front, and then down the ladder.
The older lady behind us looked at that and was like “no way” – she and her husband had to climb up and over a dozen benches to the front. As we were all on the side of the boat as it’s pitching in the waves and the captain keeps revving the engine to keep it onshore Nixi Ray said “The sketch level just keeps going up and up!” Yes indeed it does. We all made it off without falling off the boat, yay us!
There are some cool caves and rock formations to explore right off the boat (plus some souvenir shops of course).
The sketch level rose again when we walked out to the famous James Bond Island (The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed here in the 1970’s). The first 50 feet or so were fine- sandy rocky bottom and water up to our waists. Then all of a sudden the bottom turned into squishy mud several inches deep. Superman, Nixi Ray & Spud took off swimming. Miss A said Nope! Littlest girl really wanted to go touch the big rock too but we didn’t have a life jacket with us. I tried walking her out there… Squished in mud up past my knees with every step and the water got shoulder deep. I had to turn back. Yuck!
I did swim out there myself when the other kids came back but I never touched the bottom again. Not a fan of squishy mud!
The island itself is a crazy natural formation. Looks like it should be impossible! It’s sharp to touch because it’s covered in broken mussel shells and barnacles.
We had fun taking some 007 pictures. There are also more rock formations to explore and views of the surrounding islands. It’s a fun stop! Highly recommend taking a tour to see it!
We got back on the longtail boat the same way we got on – using the side as a balance beam as it pitched on the waves. Nikhom said to me that he asked others to leave the front seats available for the babies, but no one listened to him. We appreciated the thought!
We rode the boat about an hour back to the marina – the tide had gone out and the water level was down probably 15 feet so where we had gotten in the boat was just mud. Crazy! We got off on a different dock instead.
We had another stop at the Monkey Cave Temple. The tour guides handed out big scarves to tie around waists for all of the women wearing shorts or tank tops (“No sexy”). One guide loved that Littlest girl wanted to wear one too (kids aren’t required) and he tied it on her while beaming and patted her on the head and said “Baby!”
There are monkeys all over near the entrance to the cave temple. Nikhom warned us not to buy the monkey food because they can get aggressive and bite. We watched from a distance for a minute, then went through the cave and saw the reclining Buddha. There are also initials carved and painted gold on the cave walls from all of the Kings and Princesses that have visited over the last few hundred years.
Outside we again watched the monkeys from a distance and saw other tourists get way too close and even have monkeys climb up them. Lots of people were feeding them bananas- the monkeys who didn’t get a banana got jealous and more aggressive. Luckily no one got bitten while we were watching, but we didn’t stick around too long.
We were all tired out after the fun day and the kids asked if we could go get French Toast again. Why not? We went back to the Alien Diner – the waitress girl recognized us from a few days ago and was happy to see us.
On the way back to the condo Littlest girl made us all laugh when she said: “I wish I was a monkey. I would scrub off all the rabies and go play with all the people and I would not bite them.” She’d be a cute monkey.
