James Bond Island, fish bites, and whitewater rafting
We survive Scaramanga's lair, find paradise, taunt the Andaman sea gods, and say good bye
This is a travel journal of our adventures in South East Asia. Trust a bunch of Newfoundlanders to find trouble no matter where they go! You can read the entries as we climb Mt. Kinabalu and explore some parts of Thailand. A month after we left, this entire region was devastated by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. We were very lucky to have witnessed life and adventure before that and our hearts go out to everyone in this journal who might have been affected. A gallery of photos from this trip is available on my photos site.
~11pm November 29, 2004 Karon Guesthouse, Phuket
The Royal Anarcho-Geographic Society of Newfoundland (RAGSN) part of this trip is about to end for me. Tomorrow morning, the group splits up.
I will stay to do some whitewater rafting and some elephant trekking. Keli flies to Singapore, Chris flies to Bangkok, and Mike and Andrew leave for Krabi for some climbing.
All in all, a very successful vacation so far, and I am sad to not have more time to spend with my former Kilimanjaro group of Chris, Mike, and Keli. Though hopefully, I will see Keli on Wednesday night in Singapore.
Back to recording our misadventures. No more mollycoddling.
The James Bond Tour
On Sunday, we all decided to take a package tour to Phang Nga Bay, or as the brochure proudly stated, "The James Bond Tour." I wonder how many places in the world have a James Bond Tour.
Phang Nga Bay contains an island that was the location of Scaramanga’s lair in The Man With the Golden Gun. It was odd to be on a packaged tour, but with only three days (two for Keli), there was no time to set up private tours or spend hours haggling. Oh well.
Our first stop on the tour was the Monkey Temple, a temple created out of natural caves—very interesting. However, we were sorely missing beer. We vowed to get beer at the next stop, which we did. Everyone else loaded up on Coke and Sprite while the Newfoundland group stocked up on a couple dozen cans of beer.
The second stop was to load onto Long Tail boats to go to Phang Nga Bay. The bay contains odd islands that look like something out of a Chinese watercolor painting. It is a National Park, a World Heritage Site, and truly interesting. As we tried to skirt an island, the rain, which had been dogging us, settled in. We could watch the rain clouds and mist roll over the islands, draping them in a flowing grey cloak.
The stark and distinctive islands started to take on sinister shapes. We pulled into a natural limestone cave for protection from the wind. Very cool. Leave it to a bunch of Newfoundlanders to get caught in a storm on the Andaman Sea. Arr.
"James Bond Island" itself was both fascinating and extremely tacky—there was no question why the cinematographers had chosen this location. Keli tried to pretend she was the Thing from the Blue Lagoon when she got stuck in the mud. The four of us took a ton of photos at her expense. What a chivalrous bunch of lads!
The next and final stop was the Muslim Village, which is built on stilts over the water in Phang Nga Bay. Very, very cool.
~9:45 a.m. – December 1, 2004 – AirAsia Flight, Phuket to Singapore
Amazingly, this flight actually left on time. Wow. It took four flights to get an AirAsia flight where I didn’t have to hum "Delay-O." As I look out the window, I see the amazing Phang Nga coastline, with its towering islands dotting the sea—sentinels of long-ago geological forces.
Well, where were we? I actually passed out in bed while writing the last entry, so Phang Nga is where I’ll start.
When I last left the intrepid crew, they were drunkenly weaving through the amazing scenery of Phang Nga. We had made it to the Muslim Village, where Chris and I handled a very tame eagle. Our pirate talk became even more pronounced. Arrr!
Andrew rolled his eyes.
With this last stop, we made it back to the quay, where the tour had photographed each of us—minus Andrew for some reason (not that he was complaining!). They had kindly placed our pictures on commemorative china plates—cough, ugh.
In what I can only assume was a fit of madness—though with Chris, this might just be considered a state of normalcy—Chris bought all the plates, telling everyone that he must have the entire collection.
Sigh.
Taunting the Andaman Sea and Koh Phi Phi
Our evening was spent on the beach, where we all stripped down on an empty white sand beach and jumped in to frolic. Andrew wisely refrained from photographing us, though photos of all of us topless would have likely increased traffic to my site a million-fold.
Chris, in another fit of madness, started taunting Andy (the Andaman Sea) by claiming that his "fire stance" beat Andy’s "ocean stance." He also went "down with pants" and taunted Andy. Andy responded with several lightning flashes.
With sand in every crevice of our bodies and clothes and having consumed vast amounts of wine, we headed to bed. The plan for the next morning was snorkeling in Koh Phi Phi.
I was the first up the next morning and promptly booked an afternoon trip to Phi Phi Island (unfortunately pronounced Pee Pee). One of the "thousand things to do before dying!" according to the travel book. Andrew was feeling a little off and opted to sunbathe on the beach instead. Keli was also extremely sick in the morning—apparently, some of the veggies might have had fish oil, which she is allergic to. We immediately downgraded the rating for the previous night’s restaurant. However, armed with a gallon or two of water and tons of fruit, she persevered.
The speedboat ride out to Phi Phi was fairly rough.
I blamed Chris.
This was Andy’s revenge for his taunting.
Chris is a bastard.
However, despite Andy’s attempts to throw us overboard, we made it to Phi Phi. Our first stop was an amazing beach—Maya Bay. The water was emerald green and clear, and the bay was surrounded by cliffs. This was apparently where the movie The Beach was filmed. The question running through my mind, as I imagined -20°C in Edmonton, was:
"Why the heck do I live where I do?"
This is surely paradise.
Next, we traversed around Phi Phi Ley and headed towards Phi Phi Don for some snorkeling.
At first, when I jumped in, I was kind of disappointed—where was the coral? But after a little swimming, I found an amazing scene. The sea was alive with fish, multicolored coral, and sea plants. It was like something out of Finding Nemo. I could well imagine that among the thousands of fish encircling us, one of them was a shy little fish on a school field trip.
We all had the opportunity to feed the fish from a banana. Literally hundreds swam up to us, and we could feel them pecking at the banana as they surrounded our hands. I really have to get over my fear of deep water and learn how to dive. Hopefully, some of Chris’ underwater photos came out.
Our last night together was spent in what we all considered to be the best restaurant of the trip—The Royal Tandoor. The Indian food was heavenly. Andrew was as giddy as a schoolboy upon discovering a place that not only understood the concept of vegetarianism as he defined it but also produced fantastic food. Our attempts at gorging ourselves were successful. The owner even did magic tricks for us, and the service was impeccable.
One more quick visit to Karon Beach. This one only lasted 5–10 minutes, as Andy showed his anger at Chris’ privates by showering us with rain.
Goodbyes are said, bags are packed—time to sleep.
Alone for a day
My final full day in Phuket was to be spent whitewater rafting and elephant trekking. After seeing off Andrew and Mike, I set off alone.
The elephant trekking was nothing special—just a 30-minute ride on a very gentle elephant. I would never have done this alone as a day trip. Seeing them domesticated after watching them in the wild was disheartening, and the mahouts' treatment of them left a lot to be desired. I was actually glad to end that tour and move on to whitewater rafting.
Now, the rafting was not a disappointment!
Final thoughts
Phuket was quiet and relaxing. After a hectic "go, go, go" schedule, it was the perfect way to unwind before Sri Lanka and my brother’s wedding. I wish I could have spent more time with Andrew and Mike—especially climbing.
I suspect the next few days will be filled with hilarious wedding moments.
