Initial arrival at Ao Por Pier
Walking the pier to our boat
Leaving the bay
About 10-15 minutes into trip
Boat ride to Panak Island
50 people or so on board
Half way to Panak Island
Arriving at Panak Island
First canoe ride
We went inside this "Bat Cave"
Hidden cove
Impressive scenery
Overhanging cliff walls
Boat ride to Hong Island
Canoe ride at Hong Island
Pic on the canoe ride
Hong Island - steep cliffs
Hong Island
We went through a number of coves
Coves opened back up to our boat
One of the boats bringing folks to James Bond Island
James Bond Island - initial views
Here's the sign
This is the pic
Pic on my cliff walk
A cove on one side of James Bond Island
I like this pic
A lot of people
Our boat today
Departing shot
My dinner spot tonight - really good
Interesting site in Phuket
Final full day on the Asian continent on my Sabbatical. Great stuff in Phuket! I chose to really chill out and take a tour to 1 of the 2 main tourists sites via a day trip from Phuket - Phang Nga Bay. (The other being Phi Phi Island)
I had an early pickup at 7:30am from my hotel. We took a 45-minute drive to Ao Por Pier for our departure. The tour consisted of 4 parts: (1) Panak Island (2) Hong Island (3) James Bond Island (4) Swimming. See below for more details:
Panak Island
The first stop of the day yielded incredible scenery. Huge cliffs soared high above us. We actually got into canoes here so we could explore some caves. It was impressive. The caves opened up into hidden coves. We did about a 30-minute tour of the caves with a canoe guide
Hong Island
Next stop at Hong Island was another 30-minutes by boat. This area was a little more like Panak Island - just more impressive. We took canoes through a number of channels between the cliff walls opening up into fantastic lagoons. We were able to get out and take some pics along the way.
James Bond Island (Tapu Island)
On the way to the next destination, we had lunch on-board. Nice layout for lunch. They served us chicken, fish, rice, and some salad. Our final island stop was James Bond Island. This was my favorite of the day. We were allowed 1-hour to tour the island. Incredible pictures. This is the island featured in the James Bond movie - "The Man with the Golden Gun". I'm not sure if I ever saw this movie - if so, it's been long ago. I definitely need to check it out (a lot of folks were doing special pics of what I can only assume where featured in the file) There was a trail leading along the cliff bluffs that I walked to get more secluded photos. Really great visuals.
Swimming
This was a bit of a flop on the swimming thing -- but the rest of the trip was great (so all good here). They anchored the boat in this area a couple hundred yards off shore. Unfortunately, the currents where pretty fast and they only allowed people in the water if they had a life jacket on. And - you could only go a few yards from the boat. I decided to chill on-board and watch the sites. I'll leave my swimming to another day.
We pulled up anchor around 4pm to depart back to the pier. We arrived for our van departure home around 5pm. I ended up getting to my hotel at 6pm. A couple hour nap, I then decided to go out for my last dinner of the trip. I don't generally go out much on my own to eat at night. I'm glad I did this. I had a really nice sea bass with a couple drinks. I walked a bit around the city after dinner - then back to the room.
I'll have a bunch of downtime tomorrow to give some parting thoughts. It's definitely a reflective time for me right now. Good night from Asia - for the last time on this trip.
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