Thailand - Phang Nga Bay and James Bond Island

One of the fun things to do when you're hanging out on Phuket is to go on a boat trip. There are an infinite number of boat trips you can take to all the different islands in the area. We decided to start with a trip to Phang Nga Bay and James Bond Island - which is the famous island seen in The Man With the Golden Gun. Phang Nga bay is a 400 km² bay in the Strait of Malacca between the island of Phuket and the mainland of the Malay peninsula of southern Thailand. It has 42 islands in it.

The trip was on a speedboat packed as full as it could possibly be. Thankfully the views in the bay were worth it. We cruised around a bit in the morning, just taking pictures of the islands. A lot of the islands had bits of rock hanging down around them and sticking out over the water; in the second pic below that's what you see hanging down in the top because we were cruising right alongside one of the islands:



For lunch we stopped at Pawnee island, which isn't an island at all but a collection of buildings on stilts filled with little touristy shops and restaurants. It's really just there as a stop for all the tourists on boat trips and there is nothing special about it and no reason why you'd want to spend time there:



After lunch we headed to James Bond island, along with about a million other tourists. It actually wasn't too awfully crowded but there were a lot of other people there, not to mention little stalls selling touristy things. Here are some pictures of the view from the island and the different tourist boats hanging out there:



And some pictures from around the island:



One of the little stalls selling kitsch:



... and all the tourists taking pictures of each other with the famous needle-like island.



After we'd taken a million pictures with everybody else, we went kayaking. In Thailand, kayaking means you sit in a kayak while a guide paddles you around. We really didn't do anything physically taxing on this trip. It was awesome. Below are pictures from the little kayak excursion.



Then we finally got to hang out on a beach and swim! I don't remember what this island was called, but it had a really nice beach that wasn't crowded at all so it was a nice peaceful way to end the day.



Islands in the distance:



While James Bond island was neat and the beach we visited at the end of the day was relaxing, we could have done without the crowded boat, crowds of tourists in general, kayak trip where we didn't get to paddle, tourist trap lunch spot, and all the little shops on the islands. We don't think we'd recommend this trip, unless you could find a trip where they don't fill the boat beyond its capacity and they avoid the really crowded touristy areas except James Bond island (such trips do exist but you have to do some research and book at least a few weeks ahead of time because they book up fast).