Living Daylights

Friday saw the second of our tours ; the first had been a return visit to Koh Phi Phi, it was great fun to go snorkelling in such a beautiful place again, however the trip to Phang Na - was way more entertaining.

Most of you will have seen part of Phang Na before in James Bonds "The Man With The Golden Gun" and also some helicopter fly by's in "Tomorrow Never Dies", I got the chance to go live my childhood dream of following in Roger Moores footsteps... however dreams coming true aren't always as you'd hoped. The beach that saw Bond giving chase to Oddjob en route to his showdown with Monsieur Scaramonga... is now a market place bustling with Thais trying to sell fake pearls and other such trinkets (also read: junk) - all on a beachy area no bigger than maybe 40x30metres. Yuck. Onward to the unruined Phang Na national park.

I dived from the roof of the boat into the murky warm sea and clambered aboard the chauffered kayak. The vessels were inflatable and pretty soon I was relieved I wasn't paddling. The islands we visited, have a network of caves that are only accesible when the tides are low. The rocks are covered with sharp barnacles that I would almost have certainly hooked one edge of the boat over. Inside, by torchlight you can see hundreds of bats sleeping.

When daylight once again reduced my irises to pinholes, we emerged in one of 3 'rooms'. An enclosed area of shallow waters, Mangrove trees and huge cliff faces and a completely surreal feeling - of feeling enclosed yet still being in the sea. After two islands like this it was time for lunch and the cruise back toward Phuket.

That left only a single day in Phuket - which was spent in traditonal Thai style... beach bummin.