25 February 2009

Today was our last full day in Thailand so we booked ourselves on a boat trip to visit Phang Nga Bay. Puy helped us to get a really good deal by managing to persuade the lady at the travel company that we should only have to pay the child price! The only condition was that we didn't tell any of the other guests.

When we arrived in Poy Bay we boarded a boat that took us out to various islands off the coast of Phuket. Our first stop was Lawa Island, we then took sea canoes to the shore which at this point we thought were quite pleasant. Lawa Island had lovely sandy beaches so we had a quick sunbathe and a swim. I saw a massive jellyfish in the water and quickly went in the opposite direction while a crazy german lady next to me tried to stroke it! The most eventful part of the morning was that i managed to somehow lose my top on the beach so unfortunately it is now stranded on a tropical island. I may have to come back to check up on it one day.

We then returned to the boat for the next leg of our trip. It took about half an hour to arrive at Hong Island our next stop. Once again we boarded the sea canoes as our guide explained that we were going through some caves to find a secluded lagoon. He also mentioned something about having to duck quite low at times because the caves were quite small which seemed reasonable enough. When we entered the cave we realised that we would actually have to lie down in the canoe for the majority of the time as the caves were so small and dark! Wondering what we had let ourselves in for we decided just to lie back and wait for it to be over. Unfortunately, the canoe had other ideas and began to get wedged between the caves. Feeling quite clostrauphobic at this point we asked the guide what the problem was hoping this happened all the time. He then laughed and said 'Oh the tide usually isn't this high'. He then had to get into the water and deflate part of the canoe (letting in all the water) so that we could fit through the caves. We breathed a sigh of relief when we finally reached the lagoon and managed to see the funny side. Although another girl in the group looked like she was having some sort of panic attack behind us. The Lagoon was very beautiful but not sure it was worth the journey in the death caves to get there!

After surviving the trauma of the caves we got back on the boat for a buffet lunch. In the afternoon we visited another (much safer) lagoon by sea canoe and ended the day at 'James Bond Island' where scenes from The Man with the Golden Gun were filmed. The locations main attractions is a huge piece of rock which over the years detached itself from the rest of the island and drifted out to the centre of the bay. After posing for some photos we boarded the boat and travelled back to Poh Bay in Phuket and then on to Nicks house for our final night of proper rest before we stay in our first proper hostel in Singapore!