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Tabkaak Beach
Maya Bay
Macaques on the beach
Pastries served on planeThe James Bond Discovery Tour
I cannot recommend this tour more highly! Built around the theme of James Bond's 'The Man with the Golden Gun', it is a high quality and fun adventure tour with a little bit of everything that this area has to offer...
Outlined is a brief itinerary, which I will expand upon with individual entries in the 'Must Do Activities' section.
08:00-08:15 - Pick up from room by air-con bus by the friendly guide. The pick up was bang on time and we had an enjoyable drive through the countryside past towering kharsts to get to the longtail boats.
10:00 - board long tail boat to enjoy viewing the spectacular limestone kharsts of Phang Nga (The National Park), the surrounding mangrove forests bordering the wide rivers out into the bay towards James Bond Island
11:00 -Visit the amazing Koh Tapoo better known as" James Bond Island".
12:00 - At Koh Talu you board a junk to join experienced guides and explore by canoe the amazing limestone caves and a close up view of the mangrove forests
12:30 - Lunch is a wonderful meal on the Muslim floating village of Koh Panyee
13:30 - Return to Phang Nga by Longtail boat to board the bus for the last part of the tour
15:00 - Arrive at the Island Safari Elephant camp. After meeting the elephants, you then climb aboard one and take a short trek along a stream through the forest.
Next you are shown how the locals tap rubber trees and produce natural rubber latex.
Finally you are treated to an elephant show including having a baby elephant give you a massage...
17:30 - Arrive Back at your room If you do just one package tour while you're around Ao Phang-Nga - be sure you take this one!!!
With many operations, the operators try their best to maximise profits by running everything on the cheap. Not here, the little things like the chilled water bottles and hot face towels handed out during the tour and things like the amazing sit down lunch provided as part of the tour where the food was of the highest quality and far too much for us to finish impressed me that these operators clearly wanted us to have as good a time as possible!
The whole tour was fantastic, with everything being just about the right length of time for each activity. The elephant ride for example took about 30 minutes and whilst great fun, it wasn't the most comfortable experience and I really pity anyone electing to go elephant riding for a whole day as your body would be an aching wreck!
My favourite 3 things were standing in front of the James Bond Island, the whole of the canoeing trip which was fantastic! And lunch on the floating village - truly an unexpected banquet!
The cost for a whole day's adventure? Normally around 1,600B ex Krabi, though we managed to negotiate down to 1,450B - a little over £20 for everything!
James Bond Experience: 11/10!
