The Phuket Diaries - Day 2

Day 2 was an intense day. Rajesh booked a travel company for some package where we visit a few islands on a speed boat and generally get a hang of Thailand and its many islands. I am generally wary of water but then this seems to be my year of water. 

Off to the speed boat

Breakfast at the Coffee Club was brilliant - English Breakfast. Surprisingly they had a door that had sensors but it would open only if you pressed a part of it or waved a hand at it - not automatic like it claimed. I could as well turn a knob. So I stood before it for a while expecting it to open but it didn't and someone came and did that thing with their hand and all was well.

Limestone

Our ride came, that same huge 12 seater which was very comfortable, a very courteous driver who drove us for an hour across the island.  He drove very gently, taking utmost care to go slowly over the speed breakers, staying to a side when making a turn. nothing like our traffic here which is all about showing everyone who is strongest. Culture does show in traffic.

Canoes

We reached the jetty from where our speed boat was to take off and we were ushered politely into a small cafe by a very polite young man who smiled continuously (he smiled in a day more than i would in two months I reckon) , surrounded by greenery. We tried some country liquor, very strong, bought some flippers, caps (I got one with roses) and were all set to go. Our guide was Patrick which is the Irish name he says - looks like a film star and was a lot of energy and fun. He led us to the speedboat, told us not to litter stuff, gave us soft drinks and water, some do's and don'ts, the general itinerary and we were off zipping cross the Andaman sea to what I feel must have been the farthest point.

Green lagoons

After half an hour or so we stopped near a cove or a lagoon overhung by limestone karst formations - quite beautiful - some 60 kms away from Phuket. Then we went ahead to what was possibly Panak Island. I guess we were traversing the Phang Nga Bay from whatever literature I could read. The Phang Nga Bay has about 42 islet in a 400 sq km area, with Krabi being on the other side of the bay. 10000 years ago they say one could walk from Phuket to Krabi, now there's a sea.

Floating village

Next we went to a place which I think was Hong island (Hong apparently means room) and saw many speedboats stopping there. Soon as we stopped some canoes drew up along side and we stepped in, two per canoe, and the canoe chaps paddled us away into beautiful lagoons inside the island, sometimes we had to fully lean back horizontally because it was quite low. its called an emerald lagoon and was quite stunning.

Ice Cream - James Bond Island

The canoe guys were quite tuned in to Indians and started singing some Hindi songs and doing Shahrukh Khan gestures and even presented the women in the canoe with a ring made of some root. After about half an hour of this beautiful canoeing we headed back to the speed boat and hopped on.

Crazy rock formation

Onwards to the next island which if I remember right was the Koh Panyee village, which stands on stilts entirely. It was built in 1880 apparently by sea faring Muslim fishermen from Indonesia. About 360 families live on the village which has about 1600 people. There's a school  a mosque, even a floating soccer field (which I did not see). The main attraction for us was the restaurant where we were to have lunch and we had a nice lunch and checked out some shops and hopped back on the boat.

The clouds were getting a little darker on one side and we next headed to the James Bond island or Khao Phing Kan island where the Bond film 'The Man with the Golden Gun' was shot. it is quite spectacular with an ice cream cone shaped rock in the middle of the bay. On the island there is a great rock which I cannot describe, maybe you can see the picture and get an idea. 

While there on the island the weather suddenly changed in minutes and a crazy wind blew hard and we all ran for protection in the rocks else we would have been blown back to Phuket. It looked like it would blow everything away for a while and after about 30 minutes subsided. We got on to our speed boat and off we were.

Eerie cave

Patrick had us stop at an island which had some stalactites and stalagmites - but to see the more interesting ones we had to almost bend double and go into a big room full of bats. Apparently this was the cremation place for some really old visitors to the island and he showed some markings which indicated that. It was fun. Half of us went and the other half stayed back.

Not what you think

Limestone formations

From there we went to another island, popular for swimming, water sports, beer and some stuff like that. While some water-loving members of the party flung themselves into the sea I stayed back and enjoyed a cold beer. After about an hour we headed back.

The chilling island

The last stop for the day was Koh Phae island which Patrick says is the sunset island and calls it the Patrick island. On this island the water recedes in the evening and a 300 mete sand bar appears which leads to an uninhabited island. There were many water jet riders doing stunts near the island. We hung around and looked for the sunset which looked normal. It's the island that is the highlight here and not the sunset.

Koh Phae Island

Headed back to the jetty and then back to the resort. Tiring day. Cannabis is legal here so M bought a few sticks - beginners stuff they said he said. We chilled in the evening and settled down for a more relaxed day the next day.