25 April

O no, It's 07h50! That was the first thought that ran through our heads this morning…The alarms didn't go off at 06h15. No they did, we just slept through one and the other was set for 18h15! 10 minutes to shower, shave, get dressed and head for the door where our transport was waiting. 08h02 I'm at the door but our bus has already left thinking we did not pitch for our already paid tour, I call the company and within 15 minutes the driver stops to pick us up for the tour to the James Bond island and Phang Gna province.

We stop to pick up 8 more people before heading to Phang Gna Province, a 11/2 h drive. We stop at the national park and board a long tail boat. Literally a 10 m long, thin wooden boat with what looks like a motor engine attached to the back of it, the petrol pedal being a rope pulled down by the driver to accelerate/decelerate while steering with his right hand on the 3m long propshaft (disselboom), while only the propeller is submerged and propels the boat forward. A project looking doomed to fail before being tested but in actual fact being quite efficient.

We drive through the mangrove swamps, trees half submerged due to the high tide. On our way to the James Bond Islands we pass the floating market built by Muslim Indonesians 200 years ago, the mosque erected at the highest point providing evidence of their identity. We travel further past shear walls of lime stone literally shooting out from the depths of the ocean topped with a tropical topay others with a mullet hanging down from the sides J We snake through these cliffs of white to arrive at our destination, where goldfinger was shot (no pun intended). Due to the high water we wade from our landing spot around the island to where the beach is located with the iconic vertical stone marking the entrance. Lost in nostalgea from the film one is soon brought to reality by the tourist trap that awaits us on the beach, stalls fill most of the beach trying to catch those unsuspecting tourists who find it easy to part from their dollars. The prices for a porcupine shell with a picture of the James Bond Islands carved on starts at 450 Baht! We haggle and haggle some more and in the end purchase it for 70 Baht. Content with our little piece of movie history we continue around the island through the caves and tunnels leading to the other side. Our guide calls us back to the boat and we head for the floating market where we dock for a lunch of Tempura Prawns, fried fish all parts still attached, Tom Yam seafood soup, chicken in vegetables and rice. After the scrumptious meal (we didn't have a lot of the fish - not much meat you can pick of the bone) we wander the floating street markets lined with silk materials, clothing, memorabilia, dried fish hanging, shells and much more.

We head back to the boat and depart for shore, the waters have now subsided and the mangroves are fully exposed showing how the water levels had dropped by more than a meter at some places. The bus departs for monkey Temple, legend has it that a monk traveled for many days through the forest and came upon the caves, here he meditated and built the temple. The tree outside the temple was the same as the one under which the Bhuda died in India (by that I understood the same type, but the way the guide explained it,it sounded like the same tree??). The temple is filled with Monkeys who I should mention are well behaved, not grabbing your camera/glasses, but sitting and waiting for you to feed them. Inside the cave is a huge reclining Buddha with many statues of monks praying to it.

After this we head to the waterfalls passing palm tree and rubber tree plantations. All along our trip to Phang Gna forests had been routed out to make land available for man's ever increasing needs, the hills were covered for km's on end with these plantations. Sap is collected from the rubber tree by cutting an inclined strip of the rubber tree's bark and allowing it to flow into the cup suspended on a wire mesh at the bottom, this process is repeated each day for each tree, if you see the size of the plantations you would understand that this is no small feat. For the palm trees, the fruit are collected, 100 fruit are needed to make 1 L of palm tree oil used for creams and the like. The waterfall is nothing spectacular but it's something extra on their pamphlet that makes the tourists more content. (Maybe it's because we have so many great waterfalls in SA). We head home only to have the aircon pully of our bus snap on the way and the smell of burning rubber fill the new bus, almost immediately it would seem everyone shows the signs of the heat as persperation drenches the tourists, the driver in an attempt to stabalize those near to combustion opts to open the exit door of the bus. So we continue on driving with a gush of fresh air filling the bus.

We arrive home and head for the street market again where we are entertained by 7 year old girls who evidently are not shy of singing on the platform to hundereds of onlookers enjoying their meals. Today it's the Tempura prawns, deep-fried pancakes, deep-fried ice cream, some kind of chicken and vegetable dish. We travel the street shops looking for those much needed sun glasses and after bargaining for a price I was comfortable with Adidas dark glasses.

We head out to look for accommodation that's a little cheaper than our current accommodation where we will be able to stay tomorrow and decide on Blue Juice Guesthouse, a quaint restaurant with a dive shop attached and 4 rooms on top of the restaurant. We pay for the next evening and head back to Good Dreams Guest house across the street.