Pang-nga Bay

The cool thing about this partnership between underwater paparazzi & EasydayThailand is that I get the chance to explore this amazing country as a "photo-reporter"...

one of the many many trips available is that of Pang-nga bay, very famous for the now known as "James Bond Island"...

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bits from WIKIPEDIA:

GoogleEarth & GPS

8°16′31.36″N 98°30′02.02″E / 8.2753778°N 98.5005611°E

8.2753778; 98.5005611


Ko Tapu is a steep rocky monolith, about 20 meters tall. This rock column lies approximately 200 meters offshore of the two-islet pair known as Ko Khao Phingkan (Thai: เกาะเขาพิงกัน, lit. "hills resting on each other island"). The islands are located within the Ao Phang Nga National Park.
Ko Tapu has become a popular tourist attraction since it was featured in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974; for this reason, it is also often referred to as James Bond Island (the later 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies also includes a scene in Phang Nga Bay, close to James Bond Island).


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here below are several pictures I took on that day out...


please enjoy!


It all starts from main land, at a small pier  called "Sam Chong" not far from Pang-nga city, where we hopped on a long tail boat...

Phang-nga (I've seen and read any kind of spelling for it!!!) bay is a maze of streams surrounded by mangrove forrest that lead to open sea

a fuel/water stations on the way...

our captain!

few landscapes of the stunning bay coastline...

staring at the sun...

on arrival, there was a monk waiting for his ride back...

climb few steps on rocky side of the island and you get to the side of the bay hosting the famous monolith...

the island itself also offers unbelievable caves, walls, rocks carved by the pounding sea... this an example of a very unusual leaning straight wall I wouldn't expect to find here...

this is more the kind of rocks anyone would expect to see

James Bond Island in all its glory!!!

moving on... heading to a cave that goes through a small rocky island 5 minutes away...

more mangroves...

and a long tail mini mart! coconut, can of soda anyone???

snapping around freely...

third stop: Koh Panyee, the island itself is a steep rock protruding from the sea and has no one living on it, years ago there were several wooden pontoons where floating houses were attached to. Now the main pathways have been replaced with concrete structures and the whole community is still living "above water"...

a full throttle mini long-tail! the guy was racing like a maniac!

behind the frontline of seafood restaurants, there is a tiny community with shops and food stalls, a mosque (it is a muslim community), and a primary school with a concrete football field (also above water) and several classrooms. this is the "aquarium" science room also labeled as Koh Panyee Visitor Center...

let's have a closer look to those jars...

they had crabs, lobsters, box fish and several other "specimens"... those juvenile little sharks caught my attention.


on the way back, an egle!

better hurry up now, before the storm gets us!!!

a quick stop at a cave featuring some ancient painting on the walls...

final shots on the way back...

where next? only time will tell... ciao!