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Thailand
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A tour to "James Bond Island"
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From any place on Phuket Island you can book a tour to "James Bond Island", in Phang Nga province, the place where the James Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" was (partly) filmed. But before you arrive there, the tour brings you to some other fine sights.
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You can book this tour in the streets, anywhere on Phuket Island, or in your hotel, but if they want to charge you more than 1100 Baht per person (the rate I paid in 2004) you'd better look around a bit further.
![Entering the cave](JavaScript:openPopWin("phuket/jb01.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
![Buddha Images in the Cave Temple](JavaScript:openPopWin("phuket/jb02.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
You will first be taken by bus from Phuket Island to Phang Nga province, where you will first visit a cave Temple, called Wat Suwankhuha. Inside you will see some fine Buddha Images. The cave is quite large, so you should walk up to the end. The pictures above show you one of the entrances and an overview of the main hall in this cave Temple.
![Main Buddha Image in the cave](JavaScript:openPopWin("phuket/jb03.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
![Macaque near the cave Temple](JavaScript:openPopWin("phuket/jb04.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
The main Buddha Image of Wat Suwankhuha is a large reclining Buddha (left hand side picture). In and around the cave Temple lots of macaques are living (right hand side picture). They have a good life there, so the won't disappear: Tourists are feeding them constantly and of course there is plenty of monkey food to be bought there.
![Mangrove forest](JavaScript:openPopWin("phuket/jb05.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
![Tham Lod](JavaScript:openPopWin("phuket/jb06.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
From the cave you will be taken by bus to a boat terminal, where you will get a life vest and you will embark a long tailed boat. The boat eventually takes you to the island where the whole tour is about, but on your way there are many fine sights to see. In the first place you will pass one of the last pieces of mangrove forest in Thailand (left hand side picture). The rest has been cut down by shrimp and prawn farmers. (So better not eat those fine looking large shrimps! You eat them at the expense of the mangrove rain forest. And here too the rule is: stop the demand, and the supply will stop!). Another great spot on your way to James Bond Island is a cave called Tham Lod, a cave where your boat (probably) will pass through.
![View from James Bond Island](JavaScript:openPopWin("phuket/jb07.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
![This is where you came for](JavaScript:openPopWin("phuket/jb08.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
And here is the place you came all this way for: The island where the last part of "The Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed. On the left hand side picture you see the part of the island where you arrive (facing the direction you came from) and the right hand side picture shows the famous view of the rock in the film. Nowadays this doubtless is one of the most photographed sight of Thailand. (By the way: You will have to pay an entrance fee for the island and you will be (unpleasantly) surprised by many souvenir sellers. They charge you far more than they do in any place in Phuket).
![Koh Panyee (1)](JavaScript:openPopWin("phuket/jb09.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
![Koh Panyee (2)](JavaScript:openPopWin("phuket/jb010.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
On your way back from James Bond Island the tour by boat will go to Koh Panyee (often called the Muslim village by the tour leaders) first. Here you can walk around, and watch the sun set. You also can have a drink there. (When we walked there, a woman was trying to let us pay to make a picture of a baby gibbon, that she possessed illegally, because nobody in Thailand can own a gibbon legally. Look at my page about the Gibbon Rehabilitation Center how to report abuse like this).
From Koh Panyee, you will go back by boat to the boat terminal, where the bus will be waiting to bring you back to Phuket.
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