Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We were picked up from our hostel at 11am for our James Bond Island & Tham Pung Chang Tour. Our first stop was to Suwankuha Temple, also known as Monkey Cave Temple! When we got out of the mini bus we could see monkies running about everywhere! The mountain was huge and of course covered in Monkies!! We walked to the entrance of the cave and one of the monkies went for me and then for Nick, bit scary, it was hissing and everything! Nick told him if he tried it again he'd kick him in the head and the monket ran off lol. As you walk into the cave you can see the huge reclining Buddha - it was beautiful and really lit up the cave. We walked further into the cave and looked up to see hundreds of bats hanging asleep, couldn't get a photo though as it was too dark. Back outside Nick made friends with one of the smaller Monkies - fed him leaves, very cute!
Next we went for lunch and chatted to other people on the tour. A malaysian couple were really friendly and the husband explained that he had spent 2 years in Sussex!! Tour guide then announced we were going to get wet, something we had no idea about as it wasn't mentioned in our tour package!!
We made our way to Pung Chang Cave and got into a canoe - yep I managed, just about lol, to get my backside into a canoe! We sailed through the cave and the stone was amazing. We then had to get out of our canoe and get onto a bamboo raft, a little more tricky but we did it! Continued to sail through but the cave became very narrow, "arms and legs on the raft at all times!!" When we got off the bamboo raft we were told to look up at this rock - it looked like a Pagoda made up of tiny white elephants. It is completely naturally formed, pretty spectacular. They then told us that we had to walk through the rest of the cave in the water! Nick and I chose not to proceed - as we weren't expecting to do it we hadn't brought a change of clothes and the water was filthy and was going to soke us! I could have worn my flip flops in the water but Nick was in trainers so wouldn't have anything to protect his feet and god knows what is under all that water! So we made our way back on the bamboo raft and canoe, seeing other rock forms on the way back (a rabbit and crocodile) they call it the cave of imagination.
We stood drying off while waiting for the others before then heading to Phang-nga Bay National Park where we boarded a long tail boat and did sight seeing of the bay on the 30min ride to James Bond Island. We saw some amazing sights. When we arrived to James Bond Island we had to climb along the side of the boat to get out! We walked around the island and saw the beautiful rick in the middle of the sea (the photo above). The tide was low so could see the lower part which was a shame but still so beautiful and amazing how it just stands in the bay alone. Got some great photots.
On our way back we stopped at the Muslim fishing village, Panyee Island - the village is entirely built on stilts!! We stepped off the boat onto the pier which was swaying, such a weird feeling! We walked through the village and a lady literally threw a baby Gibbon at Nick! It was so small and so cute! Longest arms! Nick had a cuddle and she said we could take photos - we knew she'd ask us for money but went with it. I then had a cuddle and someone on the tour took a picture of both of us with the baby Gibbon. He was adorable and so cuddly - he held both our fingers, hands were so soft. The lady asked for a donation to go towards his food so Nick handed her 10Baht (all we could spare with our current ATM problem!) and she said she wanted 100 Baht! Nick said no and explained she should have said before throwing the Gibbon at us and then we would have said we wouldn't pay that. We walked away and that was that. We also didn't want to give too much money as I hate to think what they did to get that baby Gibbon.
We met a family from Melbourne on this tour, they were so friendly and really interested in our trip, giving us tips for when we get to Oz. The Dad was a spitting image of Vin Diesel - no joke!
When the boat got back to the port we headed back to Patong. We went to an ATM and had a huge sigh of relief as it let us take out our money!! Went for dinner and then headed for showers and bed. Off to Karon Beach tomorrow. We have been very lucky today, it's been really hot and sunny all day, some clouds but not many - ltes hope it continues!!
- comments