More around Phang Nga Bay

 

When the currents and tide fell into line, we moved northwards all of six miles to find more incredible rock formations, dropping anchor right next to this magnificent monolith. What a dramatic backdrop for our evening sundowners. This was just one of many, we were surrounded by equally impressive specimens.

After lunch, we dinghied around a couple of the islands taking in the spectacle of the immense steep cliffs and stalactite formations everywhere then went over to Koh Ping Kan, aka James Bond Island thus named as it was the set for the film “The Man With The Golden Gun”. None of the islands we'd seen 'til this point had any form of construction on them. In fact, with the steep sides, there is simply nowhere to build anything (thank goodness). However, James Bond Island was vastly different. It has a flatish area in the middle which I would suspect is partially man-made and a constant stream of boats line up to drop off their hundreds of tourists, hopefully to spend money at the many souvenir stands there.

We arrived amid all this mob and parked our little dinghy on the only bit of sand we could find thereby prompting a myriad of stares as if to say “where the hell did that come from?” We were the only people not following a guide with a coloured flag or numbered stick through the masses. In other words, we felt kind of special.

In truth, it's a very pretty island but one wonders why it promotes such a enormous mass of interest.

The following morning, we had to wait for the peak of high tide to make it across some very shallow areas to our next stop so at the appropriate time, we motored over to Koh Hong, another popular tourist attraction only three miles away. Koh Hong is well known for the numerous hongs within its walls (internal lagoons which are open to the sky) some only accessible via tunnels. We took the dinghy in and out of all the passages that would allow us to manoeuvre but weren't able to get right through one of them as it was only possible to get in with a low kayak. However, it was very beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed going in and out of the larger tunnels.

 

Calypso now sports an “evil spirit deflector”. In Thailand, if fishermen have had a bad day's catch, they feel that their boat is possessed of an evil spirit. They will then race at full speed towards another vessel only diverting at the very last second (in fact they are known to divert too late on many an occasion) and this is because they believe that this manoeuvre will make the spirit jump onto the other boat thereby getting rid of the bad luck that has possessed them. This can be very unnerving so the brightly coloured gadget handing on our bowsprit is supposed to stop such speeding boats from coming near us. Well, that's the theory anyway.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Storm coming in

Calypso at anchor

The other side of James Bond Island

Anchored outside Koh Hong

Inside the main hong