Thursday, December 26, 2013
Yesterday, upon driving towards the hotel we’d scoped out a week ago on our way through here to Phuket, we saw the same man we’d talked to then about a boat trip. We agreed on a 7am departure this morning.
We drove into town for gas and something to eat. The Lonely Planet doesn’t say much good about town, but guess what: we passed 2 lively looking evening markets and found a very local, friendly place that served good food for not a lot of money.
So up at 6, quick breakfast and off to the boat ramp for a long-tail boat trip past the ‘floating village’ of Koh Panyee (it’s actually on stilts) to Ko Tapu, aka ‘James Bond Island’. It featured in the movie ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’. The whole idea of leaving this early was to beat the tour groups and it paid off: we had the tiny island to ourselves. Back we went, past the mangroves, back to the dock. A lovely 2.5 hours spent cruising around the amazing scenery of the region.
After our fun boat ride we returned to our hotel to freshen up before heading towards Khao Sok National Park, our next intended stop.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Before leaving Phang Nga we made a short stop at Elephant Cave and a temple in a slight state of disrepair (which made me kinda like it) before heading towards our next stop Khao Sok National Park.
