Phang Nga Bay boat trip

I always hated dragging myself up from bed even though it's for a tour. But the hatred won't last long. We didn't have much time to take our breakfast in, for the driver came very punctually to pick us up from the hotel.

We were the 2nd group of people, among the 3, and very soon, the whole van of 8 adults + 3 kids were on the way to the boat pier. The journey took almost 1 and half hours though Papa had covered the same route the day before in about 30 mins. That was the reason why he kept complaining about the journey back as the driver was stepping on the pedal to go on 40km/hr average. I begged to differ with his complaint, as I thought it's better to be safe than sorry. Nobody wishes to have a holiday turned into a disaster, right? Well, that's women's thinking! And the difference in men's!

Anyway, back to this tour, remember I talked about the episode where little girl wanted desperately to pee?? My goodness, it was !@#$%, a RERUN!

I had to "plead" with my eyes (since I didn't know Thai and the driver doesn't seem to talk English), you know, like telling him I really need to "release nature's call" really quick else he would need to wash his van later! God knows how I had the gift to pass the message across with that expression of mine, but it WORKED! haha!!! I was so glad he stopped by the road and let us get down to let the girl, well, un-ladylike-ly peeing by the roadside. Gosh! So "fish" la.

So, with a sense of relief, I look forward to continue with the tour.

We came to this pier and very soon, boarded the big boat. Had to wait a little while more for the rest of the tour groups.

The tour costs us 4500 Baht total. The full day tour included lunch on board and 4 destinations with free flow of drinks and food. This is how the interior of the boat looked like.

We stopped by at an island to swim a bit first. The tour guide explained that is to wait for the tide to lower down so we were able to canoe under some "lubang" later. Furthermore, he jokingly added that he knew all of us still had not taken our shower before coming over. How funny!

We reached the first stop very soon, and before I knew it, all the big boats were taken and left only the canoes to "move" us over to the beach from the anchored point. I was really ultra worried riding on the canoe with the 2 youngest ones with the waves gently swaying. Was really glad nothing happened and it was not far.

Hahaha... this is me in my bikini! See? I so nice, don't want you to end up washing your eyes with tonnes of water so I "photoshopped" a bit. Honestly, how do I feel wearing bikini for the first time in public ah? I felt rather "naked", if you ask. And very perasan too, like feeling people were watching and thinking "OMG!" Then again, it's really not a big deal there. Everyone is really walking and running around in bikinis, thin or fat, old or young alike. So, what's the big deal?

It was only awhile splashing ourselves wet on the seaside. I quickly jumped on the long tailed boats to ride back to the main boat. Whew! Made it back to homebase.

Then, we reached the 2nd stop, forgotten what's the name of it liao. This time, no way out, we really need to hop into the canoes as it's the only way to weave around exploring the area there.
I wasn't too shaky after the "warming up" session on the 1st stop, so very soon, I relaxed a bit, and started to really enjoy the luxury of being "chauffeured" around in a canoe. Though it seemed rather flimsy, like we could anytime turn over and land up in the sea, it was actually very stable. The kids were really behaved and apparently, they too seemed to be awed by the experience.



Don't know why, the canoe-r seemed to enjoy taking us below the teeny weeny holes. The smaller the better. And the children knew very soon they had to lie down fully on their back when we were near the holes. Oh, how they loved it! Especially Son#2. He would say "OH, quick, we need to lie down now" and he would stare back up with eyes wide and a smile on his face. Like he's TOTALLY in bliss.



Entered a lagoon, took one round, and back to homebase.

Lunch time while on the way to James Bond Island, which was about an hour's drive away. Food was OK, I was too busy feeding the 2 younger ones and by the time they were done, it was almost time for another adventure. So, I had quickly gobbled up some fried chicken and stuffs. Didn't feel too eager to eat so much as well.

This is James Bond Island, apparently the venue for one of the James Bond movies. Something about the Golden Gun. Heck! Too lazy to find out la.

Everyone hopped into the long tailed boat to get into the island. It's a place to take pictures and shopping.


This weird looking stone is the favorite background for the tourists to take pictures with. Like to tell everyone, "I was here", fullstop, no arguments.

The place wasn't too big for any exploration, just some hiking up the hill, see the stone from a different angle and hiked back down to where we were.


Lucky the time allocated there wasn't too long, as there wasn't much to do there either. Shopping was futile. That's because everyone knew these sellers were waiting for waterfish to come and pay a stupid few hundred dollars for their so-called pretty homemade souvenirs. Who would want to be this waterfish?

Like at one point of time while waiting for the long tailed boat, the children were playing around with some magnets in one of the stalls. The woman tried to lure us be the waterfish, saying the kids just seem to love the things there, and let them have one each. So, I kehpoh a bit and asked how much is one. She said "850 Baht" for a lousy tut-tut magnet. My God! I wanted to tell her no wonder business was so poor.

Isn't it crazy? What do they think at all? I don' t think they ever give it a thought. Isn't selling more things at a lesser profit to gain more sales better than closing one sale in 1 day (maybe even none at all) at a high profit margin? By selling things cheaper and more reasonable, tourists would surely spread the word around and customers would be back again for more. Sigh.. no wonder those stall keepers seemed to be "beating flies" only.

And that woman was pretty rude as well. She was in for a bargain with me, but I wasn't keen. Having lost interest, she was like shoo-ing my children away, something to the effect like if I do not want to buy, then don't let the children hang around there and play with her stuffs. Well, fine, I wouldn't want to stay there as well.


We could have explored that area too, but the long tailed boat was here, and we need to get back into it. Was rather glad too, as I was getting rather bored with that place.

He seemed to enjoy sitting on the chair, lazing around, relaxing and feeling the breeze on his face. haha.. Seems kinda cute, for a child at this young age to know the word "enjoy".

As for the elder one, he seems to have his dad's genes, checking out the place all the time, never seemed to stay at one spot.

Last stop for to call a day was the cave exploration. Again, we were taken to the beach from canoe and water tide was so low that we could walk around instead. The cave was pitch darkness at one point. It made me recall the movie "Cave", where a few female cave explorers met some aliens in a secluded unknown underground cave. I couldn't comprehend the kind of excitement it gives to really do such thing.

Halfway through, the water level seems to be rising, and we asked our guide if it was safe to keep walking. I really couldn't see what was in store as we walked each step forward. The guide kept telling us no problem, the water level very low only... while it was already up to my knee. I was darn worried about the youngest one only. He read my mind immediately, like he had no idea there was a child that young with us before that.

I was grateful that he volunteered to help carry her while I held on to Son#2's hand while the big one stayed with papa. Soon we saw light at the other end of the tunnel (whew! breathe a heavy sigh of relief!)

We came to a "lagoon", sometimes water level was high that it would be better to canoe in. This time, it was dry and we can see mangrove all over the place.


Took some pictures and went back to where we came from, via the same tunnel.





Mostly the tourists were back in the boat, and we were on the way to where we belong. Coconuts on board, that was really good! Chilling and thirst quenching, we savor all the coconut flesh as well, "sapu" up clean and nice.

Obviously, everyone was exhausted from the day's work, all of us just fell back in our chairs smelling the sea breeze on our face. The hifi was blasting away with some rock songs, and suddenly the crew started to perform some disco-dancing away to liven up the mood. Then, there was this humorous "akua", dressed up extravagantly with XX bra size coconuts boobs, dancing and jumping all over the place. Quite a nice attempt indeed to please their customers.

We reached back uneventfully by about 7pm, and there wasn't time to hop onto the beach (as I intended to). Quickly showered and went out for dinner. Lucky the kids get some "recharge" while on the way back from the pier and we could hang around at Patong beach until late at night.