6th November 2007 - Phuket, Thailand
Arrived Phuket early morning and took a tour to James Bond Island. We travelled by coach for the full length of the Island of Phuket and crossed to the mainland over the Causeway Bridge, skirting Phuket town on the way. We were very surprised to see a high incidence of mosques in a country that we understood to be mainly Buddhist. However, we learned that the island is populated by a mix of Thais and Malays which explains this fact since the latter are strictly Moslem. Along the route we saw many rubber plantations where it is common to grow pineapples and other crops between the rubber trees during the first 6 years before rubber can be tapped.
On the mainland the scenery was, initially, much of the same but soon we saw dramatic and steep limestone hills. Arriving at one of the inlets of the Phang Nga Bay we boarded our transport for James Bond Island. On the trip we passed many small boats that looked exactly like those in the movie "The Man With The Golden Gun"; that is to say, rather like a liquidiser sticking out of the back of the boat. On closer inspection these very long prop shafts actually looked like truck engines with extended drive shafts with propellers on the end that sprayed water all over the place as well as driving the boat. These were simply lowered into the water to propel the boats by tilting the whole apparatus.
The trip was exciting with lots of irregular shaped islands of limestone sticking straight out of the bay. What cannot be seen from the movies is that much of the sea area is very shallow, but more surprisingly, the actual James Bond island seen on the film is a relatively small stack, although interesting in shape. It's made to look big by the camera angles.
We also visited a genuine kampong stilted village populated by Indonesian immigrants - so also Moslem - where the regulation tee shirt was purchased. We followed with our first genuine Asian meal at the end of the trip. Although we have an Indian chef on the ship, all the food is incredibly bland and over cooked to accommodate the sensitivities of the 'old dears' so this was our first spicy food.
We travelled back by coach and took an hour out to post the last blog - we're now into 5 star hotels to do this, at least they have clean facilities - and do a bit of shopping. All in all, an impressive day in Thailand.
