007

Well today was day one of island hopping.  Again after living in the desert for 5 months all water looks amazing, but especially the crystal clear, teal waters here.  It’s really unreal looking, like something you would see in a movie---BUT wait—you did see it in a movie-  007 Man with the golden gun to be exact!  That is our destination today, and man what a fun one to get there!

The tour was a dusk tour so we had all morning to recover from the days of travel and catch up on some well needed sleep.  Then it was time to catch our bus back to the 70s…ok well we didn’t go back in time but seriously this bus did…it was sooo 1970!  Which was a bit ironic since the place we were going to see where it was filmed was done back then too.  So we get on the bus and the tour guide tells us what we will be doing for the day; monkey park with sleeping budda caves; long boat ride to James Bond Island, a fishing village and back to the hotels.  But the best part- as we are driving he starts playing 007 man with the golden gun…talk about awesome.  This is the part where we should say that we had already seen it and were focused on the outside and looking into the towns we were passing, but nope.  Tony and I had never seen the movie, so we were eyes focused on the tv.  Yepp, pay for a tour of Thailand, and you get a movie for free.  Hey it was great. 

So we pull up to the monkey park/ sleeping budda in a cave, and we get a little excited to see the monkeys and they have bananas for sale (I know cheesy tourist picture- but come on you would do the same!); BUT the tour guide then starts telling us about how they are mean monkeys and they bit, watch the children as if they get too close they will bit them and the monkeys have rabbis.  Rabbis was said like 10 times…yeah not so excited for our cheesy tourist picture anymore.  Either way we brave the elements and check out the monkeys and the budda.  The budda is amazing.  So pretty, there are real monks praying there and it’s peaceful. 

Back to the bus, time for more 007!  We arrive to the dock, literally a parking lot with one dock.  Interesting, much much smaller then we thought, but then again it’s Thailand and really anything can be done here.  So we line up to get on the boat, and me being a keener, get us up to the front and sure enough driver gives us the front seats.  Awesome.  Long Tail boats, are sooo old school, they look so amazing, colourful, vibrant and fast.  We are off!  We get to the island and it’s amazing, exactly like the movie (minus the girl in the bikini—no wait there are some there! Hahaha)  The greens seem greener and the blue water bluer it’s just amazing looking.  We climb up the side of the rock, twisting and turning with the lime stone before getting to an amazing look out.  What a view (pics to come I promise!) We spend a few hours checking it out, before it’s time to head back to the Long Tail and head to this fishing village on stilts in the middle of nowhere. 

Here we jump out and find some great photo ops.  They give us an hour here and leave us in a restaurant…what to do eh…better order some fish!  And we did.  We should mention that we are both a little fish hesitant these days…We had a bad experience with a fish market in Bali, and then in the desert no one should order fish- seriously it’s a desert it cant be fresh! So we were a little held back on ordering seafood on this trip, but this might have changed it.  It was great seafood.  Definitely fresh seeing as we could see the fisherman pulling in the catches, and tasted fresh (not too fishy!) Not sure it will be our first choice but we will definitely not completely avoid it like we have been!

Then we headed back to shore where we finished the 007 movie on the way back to Patong.  What a good adventure.  The islands are amazing, and anyone who hasn’t watched 007 man with the golden gun, really should, the last part is all Thailand (not china like they say!) 

the island...and this is sooo not my picture and take no credit for it!  thanks