My Trip To Australia, New Zealand and Asia

James Bond Island

Location: Ko Pha Ngan
Weather: Hot and sunny

After saying goodbye to Ko Lanta I got a bus to the small town of Phang Nga (pronounced Fang Nar).
Turned out there were only two 5minute car ferry crossings to get to the mainland from Lanta, how good is that island!
Anyways, the reason for going to Phang Nga was to go on the James Bond Island tour. This is the place where the Man With The Golden Gun was filmed. So I went on the daytrip there the next day. There were 9 of us on the tour and we started off in a long-boat which sailed out of Phang Nga bay, through the very picturesque mangroves and hills and rocks.
I WILL PUT SOME PHOTOS HERE SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT I MEAN
After being on the boat for about 30mins we left the mangroves and came across a white cave, we got out and had a look. You can swim in a hole on the other side of the cave when it is high-tide, but sadly it was low-tide so no swimming for us. Another 30mins on the boat and we came to a deserted beach, where we had lunch. We then went to James Bond island - this was instantly recognisable by the towering piece of rock that juts out of the sea(I think it was Scaramanga's hideout) as seen in the film. There was also a cave that had an angled sheer ceiling that I also remember from the film - other than some photos and a market, there isn't much else on the island. We then went back to Phang Nga via boat and a temple which had hundreds of monkeys outside. Luckily this time, the beasts didn't mug me, but instead you could buy bunches of bananas for 10p and feed them. There was also a cave in this temple which had hundreds of bats and it was surprisingly beautiful to see them dance around the cave in the candle-light, watching their shadows on the walls.

By JamesReed on 27.02.05 @ 09:36 AM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]

Phuket, Ko Phi Phi and Ko Lanta

Location: Phang Nga
Weather: Hot and humid

Phuket - No Worries, Mate
OK, well I decided to ignore all the hype and go south and check out the islands.
A couple from South Africa told me that Ko Phi Phi had an amazing beach that was worth a visit since there were only about 5 people there, so I primarily headed there, however, for some reason(I think the ferry trip sounded too long) I got the bus to Phuket instead. Yes, Phuket, the place according to the entire world media that the Tsunami hit with full strength. Catching the 2:30pm bus which actually didn't leave until after 5:30pm, I got there at night and decided to stay at Patong Beach. This is the most popular part of the island and allegedly disaster central, I had seen a website saying that 90% of the hotels there were out of business! This coupled with the travel agency dude saying that the first two floors of the hotel were off-limits I didn't quite know what to expect. BUT as it turned out it was perfectly fine. The hotel was great, my room was fantastic and the beach excellent. I hired a scooter and toured the island a bit, it was very much like Benidorm in Spain but of a higher standard and with much less people about. As for the tsunami damage, it was mostly at the southern end of the beach, I'd say almost a 500m block was being rebuilt, tragically McDonalds, KFC & Haagen Dazz were still not up and running, but Patong is a big place and if I didn't have a scooter I wouldn't have seen any damage much at all. I have to say I liked the place very much.

There were also a fair few 'tourists' and travellers about, actually more like about 4 travellers and the rest 'tourists', if you can describe the numerous late 25-60 year old western men hanging around with their paid-for Thai women as tourists. I found them quite funny at first, but after a few days seeing these blokes literally everywhere became pretty disgusting. Even the girls who worked in the bars and massage places and occasionally shouted "me love you today and tomorrow for cheap, cheap!" as I walked past weren't so annoying.

Ko Phi Phi - Wo!
Anyways, after a few days taking it easy I decided to see somewhere else and got the boat to Ko Phi Phi. After the 2.5 hour trip, we got out and this place was DIFFERENT! I mean, Phi Phi Town was seriously not good. The entire place was wrecked even after 1 month. Basically a path through the town was cleared out and rubbish lay on either side, CD's, postcards and general refuse lay on the ground everywhere. Posters were up saying "Please buy something from the locals - they need your money". I think only 1 shop and 2 restaurants were open. It was pretty mental, the place looked like war torn Beirut. We met an English dude who had been there since the tsunami and he said for the first 2-3 weeks it was only him helping(now happily things were picking up and lots of volunteer helpers were starting to arrive) and that the first time anybody from the government had visited was the day before! He said they *might* now provide free accommodation to the volunteers. Yes, despite the millions in foreign aid, thanks to corruption and the just-held general election, staggeringly little has got through. Considering Phi Phi is probably the 2nd most popular place, I found this quite shocking. Shortly after landing, I suddenly realised I only had 200Bart on me and to stay would cost 300Bart(the one working resort in town costed this much), so I walked for 20mins to Long Beach (the place I'd been tipped to stay at) in search of an ATM, but there were no working ATM's on the entire island and despite it probably being the most beautiful beach I've seen in Thailand, once you've walked through that town, I don't think I would have felt right lounging on that beach, whilst people were needing so much help elsewhere, also the atmosphere for me wasn't too good. Anyways, I joined the other volunteers and locals(all credit to the volunteer leaders, they were very well organised) for a couple of hours and helped clear away some rubbish from outside a local pub called the Tiger Bar to try to get it up and running again. It was a bit harrowing when we found some English girl's driving license and some dude's credit card (mind you they probably just lost it when their hotel got flooded or something). I then had no other option than to catch the ferry to Ko Lanta island - as Tung, who was promoting a hotel there paid the extra 50Bart I needed to get the boat!
Note: I've now heard they've got mechanical diggers working on Ko Phi Phi clearing the rubbish, thank goodness, when I was there, it was just human power. Hope they get up and running again quickly now.

Ko Lanta - My Favourite Place So Far
After the hour journey to Lanta, I stayed at Tung's 'Lanta Family Resort', which was in the south of the island and one of the nicest places I've ever been to. A beautiful beach, good swimming/snorkling(despite the rocks), great bamboo bungalows with ensuite bathroom, lovely people for staff, good food, a wonderful bar next door and the best sunset I've ever seen - all for 150Bart a night! I hired a motorbike for a couple of days and drove around the island, visited a cave and saw some crazy spiders and bats - also met Dominic there - from Wimbledon, can you believe it! Lanta was just an awesome place to relax and chill out. Apparently 2 years ago the area was so booked out, people had to sleep on the beach for 2 days before getting a bungalow! Now, the place was largely deserted and whilst I guess this is not so good for the locals, for us there it was something else. The first few days at the hotel it was literally just me, Greg from San Francisco and Paulo & Alfred from France - that was so cool - as Greg said I think the hand of Buddah must've been over us when we met Tung. Then Holgar and Raymond from Germany turned up. Then Ben & Charlie from Paris & Anna from Sweden. We all got on very well and had some great conversations and times. Put it this way - I planned to stay there for 2 nights and I only just left today - a total of 10 nights in all - every time I was about to leave, I looked out on the beach, sea and sky and decided to stay another night!

I am now in Phang Nga town, as I want to visit the island where they filmed James Bond - The Man With the Golden Gun - you know, the one with Roger Moore, Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland.

By JamesReed on 18.02.05 @ 12:33 PM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]

Onto Tsunami-land

Location: Patong Beach, Phuket Island
Weather: Warm and sunny

Well after returning from Langkawi I stupidly got the ultra-slow bus to Batu Ferringi to buy a blow-pipe for a friend of mine, but I ended up having to get an expensive taxi all the way back to Georgetown. Basically I waited at the bus stop for 45mins, till 11:30pm when it was obvious I'd missed the last bus, because of course having a timetable on the bus stop would be a crime wouldn't it.
Anyways, the following morning I got the first bus out of Malaysia and into Thailand. I was quite pleased to leave - I'd had enough of everything being half-done and/or generally confused there. Many of the people were ok, it was just everything else that wasn't, I dunno maybe I've been drinking too many fizzy drinks and not getting enough sleep or something, the whole place just annoyed me in the end. The one good thing about Malaysia was the Post Office, it must be the cheapest place in the world for sending stuff by ship.

Anyway, after 8 hours or so I got off at Krabi - a small town which is the gateway to the southern islands of Thailand. I was a bit concerned at first, because this is where the tsunami struck and what with all the newspaper hype, I didn't know what to expect, but it seemed ok. I got an open ended taxi to Ao Nang beach, which is the real centre of the area and stayed there a night. They had a Tsunami Fund Raising Street Party, which was great fun. The next day I met up with Mark & Kara again and got a longboat to Tonsai beach. Tonsai is next to Railey beach which is famous amongst climbers, because there are some big rocks there. The place was deserted except for us and well, a lot of climbers. I liked Tonsai a lot, we stayed in a bamboo huts in the forest(there were a few insects about but the hut had a cool mosquito net) and it was very relaxing - a strange feeling after travelling so much. The restaurant(the Freedom Bar?) there was also exceeding good.

One day we hired kayaks and paddled all the way to Chicken Island, where there is a truly white beach with crystal clear water. Chicken Island was good, getting there was not! In fact it was a nightmare for me, since I was in a single kayak and rowing that thing against the current and wind reminded me a lot of sugar cane planting. Next time Steve Redgrave or that Matthew Pinsett bloke can do the rowing.

After a couple of nights, we moved back to Krabi town. I stayed at the Grand Tower Hotel. This place was well quality - great bed, big room, ensuite bathroom - and very cheap,cheap. In the arvo I took a bus to this Buddist Tiger Cave temple known as Wat Tham Sua, this place was amazing, the temples here are like monastries back home set out upon large parkland areas. It had many statues and a couple of temples in it. One highlight was the hundreds of stray dogs lying/barking around, I think Thailand has a stray dog problem actually. Another was the Tiger Cave itself, which had a lucky Buddah footprint in it, as well as a scarily real looking waxwork of some monk in a glass case(I thought it was a real monk meditating or fasting, until I read the book). But the best part was climbing 1237 very steep steps, this was very exhausting, I would have collapsed had this been earlier in the day, to get to the top of a mountain. I was greeted by a small black & white cat, a very large Buddah statue, a golden object with 7 levels and a staggering 360degree view of the countryside. It was deserted except for me and the cat and I watched the sun go down, which ruled.

That night I wandered around town and just looked at the markets and stuff - had the best noodles & shrimps I've ever tasted from a street stall. This was Friday night and on Sunday, Thailand was having a general election and all the candidates were making speeches in central Krabi, I couldn't understand a word though.

The next day Mark & Kara decided to go to Bangkok, but after hearing a few people, I decided I'd like to go see the islands.

By JamesReed on 07.02.05 @ 02:55 PM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]