Phuket Things to Do Tips by chatterley

We signed up for a day-trip to Phang Nga Bay through a tour operator (CCSP Company). Our hotel helped us to book and confirm the trip. We paid 1300 baht per person. This package includes hotel transfers, tours to Phang Nga, sea canoe tour, lunch at Koh Panyee and an ox cart ride. After being picked up from our hotel by a minibus, we were later transferred to a bigger coach, and reached Phang Nga Province in about 1.5 hours.

The first stop was cruising in the Bay on a longtail boat, traditionally used by fishermen. Here's a tip: sit nearer to the front of the boat, as the rear end is terribly noisy (the truck engine is situated right at the back). Along the way, we took in the beautiful scenery (mangrove plants, the rock formations that jut out of the water, etc).

Besides the longtail boat, another option would be using speedboats. After some consideration, we decided to choose the longtail boat instead. Although it's not as fast (meaning that we won't get to see as many islands, as compared to travelling on a speedboat), it has a "local flavour". Speedboat trips would also cost more (an extra 500 baht per person) due to its higher fuel consumption.

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To see the limestone caves and lagoons up close and personal, our tour included a sea canoe trip. It's quite safe (lifejackets are provided), and you don't have to paddle....each canoe takes 2 passengers and 1 Thai guy will sit at the back and paddle the canoe to take you to the various caves. At certain places, you'll have to lie down on your backs to get into the caves, as the crevices are quite small.

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This picture explains why you have to duck and lie down when the canoe goes through some of the caves...

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Like I've said, the sea-canoe tour offers you views of those stalagtites (stones that grow from the ceiling in limestone caves...stalagmites are those that grow from the ground)... the Geography buffs would love this tour!

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After having lunch at Koh Panyee, the next stop of our tour took us to Khao Ping Kan, more popularly known as "James Bond Island", as some parts of the film (The Man with the Golden Gun) was shot here in 1974. It was drizzling when we reached the island (well, it is the rainy season in Phuket, and we were considered lucky that it wasn't raining as heavily as the previous day!), but that failed to dampen our spirits. We braved the rain and took these pictures.

There are some stalls that sold souvenirs on this small stretch of beach, most of them selling sea shells and jewelry fashioned from the shells. If you don't intend to buy, just ignore the sellers... I find them a tad aggressive on their selling tactics. One of them kept pulling my arm and asked me to visit her stall, although I told her that I wasn't interested. In the end, I just turned and walked off.

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The last programme of our tour is the ox cart ride.....well, it's not too exciting, just a very short ride....and I should have opted for the elephant ride instead! Anyway, it is the first time we've taken a ride on an ox cart. These things are non-existent in modern day Singapore, though they used to be around...in the early days, ox carts were used to transport water to Chinatown. Hence, Chinatown is also known as Niu Che Shui or literally "Ox Cart Water" in Chinese.

For the elephant ride, I saw some tourists feeding bananas to the animals....seems a lot more fun! Nevermind, I'll try that when I visit Chiang Mai in the future.

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Well, this picture showed what we DIDN'T get to do....the elephant ride. Each creature can take 2 persons on its back, and I think you can get onto it easily....the elephant will stand beside an elevated platform (the "elephant station", as you can see in the picture) and tourists can climb on top.

These animals are local Thai elephants, traidtionally used for logging and transporting the fallen trees. I think these creatures are smaller than their Chiang Mai counterparts (I heard that the Chiang Mai elephants are bigger).

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