After an eventful night – Luc crying because he cannot sleep and then end up in my bed (perhaps because they went to bed at 11!). We all go to the gym – I manage to run a bit further today, but it is difficult in the heat. We have yet another great breakfast – exotic fruit, tomato spaghetti and nice salad. Today we are on a mission to find James Bond, so we head off to James Bond Island (where “Man with a golden gun” was filmed. The weather looks more and more like the monsoon predictions we have been hearing about.
We are the second group to be picked up and soon discover that the group of Arabs sitting behind us is not only the most obnoxious, arrogant, loud tour group, but that they are drinking beers early in the morning and eventually ended up spilling some over us. This makes the long trip (about an hour) to Phang Nga on the main land. Due to the rain, our stop at the rubber sheet demonstration is cancelled, so we go straight to the Sauankuha Temple (or sadly called the Monkey Cave). This is because of all the wild monkeys, who are being fed by the hundreds of tourists everyday. We refuse to feed them, but they create some great entertainment when the steal a King Cone Ice-cream out of the hand of one of the Arabs! The cave is very interesting. Lots of Buddha and other figurines, some stamps in the cave walls by Thai royals who paid visits centuries ago. And lots of bats! I buy some beautiful freshwater pearls for much cheaper than at the shop the previous day. Of course we share our thoughts on the Arabs with our tour guide and the two Germans and Auzzies join in!
After another long drive (and by now the rain has started to come down), we stop at the Port. We take the advice of the tour guide and buy some plastic raincoats. From here we board the colourful long tailed boats and set off into the rain. We find ourselves on waterways surrounded by mangrove forests. We are amazed to see interesting formations appearing next to us through the rain – they look like gigantic boulders in the middle of the ocean, with straight cliffs and overgrown with trees and ferns. We are surrounded by these magnificent giants and so sorry that we cannot see properly through the pouring rain – must be a spectacular site in sunshine.
As we come around one of these beautiful cliffs we see a picturesque village on the other side. This is the famous Koh Pan-yi fishermen’s village. Most of the village is built on water. We sit down for a lunch in one of the restaurants. By this time Luc is chatting to Quentin, another South African who has been working in Abu Dhabi for the last 5 years. He gives us a great insight into PSP’s and promise to meet us at the shop tomorrow to check out the “goods”!
The food is very interesting. Big plate of rice to start with – and a bottle of coke to drink away to burn of the spices! We are served an interesting soup (which we skip), deep fried drum sticks, prawns in batter, spicy vegetable calamari, sweet vegetables, great fish (the surprise of the day cause it looked revolting initially!) and fried rice with prawns. We have 20 minutes to explore the village, which turned out to be mainly very touristy and expensive shops. The toilet was an experience – you have to squat, which proven to be painful after the running session in the gym.
When we depart the rain stopped and we can get good view of the village. We now seriously have to find James Bond and his island before the rain starts again. And finally, there it is!!! The famous pinnacle rock, private beach and high cliffs. Not so private anymore – the little beach is full of tourists and little shops. But it is still stunning. We get off on the one side and walk across to the famous beach. From here you can get stunning photos of the pinnacle rock.
We challenge Winsome to be the Bond “girl” and walk out of the water in her bikini. This causes great unhappiness with Katie, who does not want her mother to do it. In the end, Winsome is a great sport and does a spectacular exit out of the water that even got the Arabs staring with the mouths wide open – which also got them to shut up! Katie is in tears and does not stop crying!!! The fallen rock is the height of the island cliff (100 meters up) that looks as it is a piece of butter sliced in two by a hot knife. It is spectacular!
After saying goodbye to Bond – or not goodbye, cause we only found his girl and a wanna-be Bond (Luc!), we board our boat again. After a short drive we arrive in a little bay filled with about three “mother” boats, pumping out lots of little rubber canoes full of tourists. This is where we end up 5 minutes later. On a little rubber boat, with a tour guide who wants to know if we are Muslim (!) and very happy to hear that we are from South Africa – “football!” Poor Quentin ends up with a very fat Arab, which puts his life in serious jeopardy!
He garbles a lot of words we cannot understand, but finally figure out the following:
“camera, take photo”
“where’s pappa?”
“mind mamma head” – every time we went in below a low cliff
“VIP you VIP”
“mamma sexy, mamma Thailand” – working towards his tip!
We stop on a little beach (about 6 meters wide) with one baby palm on the beach. Quick photo session and then off to look at walking fish in the mangroves. Luc tries to paddle, but after a big dice with against the Mortimer boat, he is exhausted. It starts pouring with rain – thank goodness for our plastic raincoats. And finally, as we approach the “mother boat” our guide starts asking for his tip!
The ride back to the port is mostly in rain. We are thankful for the fat Arab and his friends sitting in front of us shielding us from the rain. At one stage it even looked like they were in serious prayer!
At the end of our trip we are surprised by a free coconut drink – in the coconut! When Winsome discovers it is a natural laxative – she immediately downs one! Luc takes his on the bus, which eventually ended up in the pool at the hotel… It’s a long drive back. Our tour guide is a star – he got rid of the Arabs – who protested seriously – must be after seeing Winsome in her bikini!!!
It is dark when we finally got home. The kids got into the pool, whilst we use the opportunity to drink our holiday drink – Singa Beer with Sprite. Or two…..
We struggle to get the kids to bed. Needing some space, but not even allowed to have frivolous girlie talk and giggles in the room. We even take some crazy photos and have lots of laughs talking to Uri on Skype. Poor kids – must think their mothers are crazy!!!! One day they will understand…..
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