Ferg & Jude\'s Thailand Adventure 2002

Wednesday 6th November
Farewell Khao Lak, hello Phang Nga

On the road again, packed our bags and said farewell to our gracious host at Phu Khao Lak then walked down to the main road to catch the next bus heading south. We were heading for Phang Nga but had to change buses at Khak Klai. The scenery enroute was very lush jungle interspersed with latex tree groves and small villages.

When we arrived at the bus station in Phang Nga we went straight into Sayan Tours office to book our 1/2 day boat trip to James Bond Island for the afternoon. Sayan Tours recommended a local guesthouse and drove us around to it. It had a good air con room though no hot water and cost 600bt. A bit expensive but comfortable.

We took a walk through town and food a great food market selling live fish, baskets full of red chillis once again the sights and smells were fantastic. We found a great restaurant in the back streets called "Cha Liang". We had a delicious lunch which cost 195bt for both of us.

It started raining while we were having lunch so we decided to walk back to Sayan Tours and change our booking to the next morning hoping the weather would be better. We also used their internet service, 45bt for one hour.

Later that afternoon we walked up to the main road and caught a songthaew to Suan Somdet Phra Sinakharn park. It is a public park on the outskirts of the town with large limestone cliffs with caves. It was quite spectacular walking through the caves. In one area there were several food vendors with lots of monkeys fighting over the food scraps. The park was very pretty but there was a lot of rubbish lying around which spoilt the look of the place. Our songthaew driver hung around waiting for us and we eventually got a lift back to town with him.

Thursday 7th November
James Bond Island & Koh Paynee, Muslim Stilt village

After a quick breakfast the Sayan Tours van picked us up at 8.15am. The van was already full, I was in luck and got the front seat, poor Ferg had to kneel in the back all the way to the harbour. Luckily there were only two others on our 1/2 day trip, the rest were going overnight to Koh Paynee.

Our longtail was a bit dilapidated but it was good fun. We started the tour through the mangroves and what amazed us the most was the lack of birdlife. We only saw one bird an orange hornbill. The tour took us through a limestone cavern then across Phang Nga bay to Khoa Tapo (James Bond Island). We arrived just before the hordes of tourists on boats from Phuket. The very small island is over commercialised, the whole beach is covered with vendors selling tacky tourist items.

We stayed about 1/2 hour on the island then back onto the longtail to Koh Paynee, a Muslim stilt village built over the water. We had 1/2 hour to walk around the village and check out their markets. The village even has a large mosque dominating the skyline. I bought three glass ornaments (500bt)from an excellent glass blower at the village. We arrived back at the harbour at 1.15pm, it was a good trip.