Phuket - James Bond Island

Decided to do the James Bond Island tour on my last day in Phuket, I enjoyed being out on the water so much with the Phi Phi island tour I wanted to be out there again. Unfortunately the tour was more of a river cruise and there was no where to swim.

The tour was only a half day so spent the morning by the pool again. Went for an early morning stroll into town to try and find the post office but it doesn't open till 11 every day so no luck there. I've found I still haven't quite adjusted to the time difference over here so I wake up at about 5:30-6am every morning. Not so bad when have to catch an early flight but it means I get really tired at night.

So the first stop on tour was to a place called Monkey Cave. It was a buddha temple set inside a natural rock cave but there were heaps of monkeys hanging out there, hence its name. There were actually a lot of dogs there too and neither the monkeys or the dogs were particularly friendly so I kept my distance.

After that we headed to the pier and jumped in a long tail boat. These are the fisherman boats that they use up and down the river. We headed along the river for awhile, brown water but scenery was beautiful, and eventually stopped at a fishing village on stilts. Not much here to be honest except a couple food places, lots of people selling stuff and the constant smell of fish. The village itself was quite intriguing but it had obviously turned into a regular tourist destination as the only locals you saw were those trying to sell you something.

From the village we headed to James Bond Island. So named because it was the island where the filmed James Bond and The Man With The Golden Gun. One of the Roger Moore bond films. They played the movie on the bus on the way over so those of us who hadn't seen it could understand what it was all about.

James Bond Island was beautiful I have to admit. There were two sides, one side had the big limestone rock which is the most famous landmark, and the other side at the pier at a little beach. I preferred the pier side, it was really nice at the time of day we were there (dusk).

Final stop on the way back was a cave we got to drive through. Not a very big one but kinda cool. And then we headed back to Patong Beach. Got back in about 7:30pm so headed straight to my hotel to pack & get some sleep as I had to be at the airport at 6 the next morning!