The weather has been mixed these past few days...the rain has woke me up in the middle of the night...but the heat doens't go away..yesterday I decided to hire another car and go north to phang nga bay which was a 2 hour drive over next to Krabbi Island...so I collected the car and headed north over the Sarasin Bridge...
It was going to be hit and miss because the car hire company culd only give me a map of Phuket island...very unhelpful....so I did my best and spent the first hour going in a complete circle...which cheered me up no end...eventually I found Highway 4 and I was on my way to Phang-nga bay...I then came upon some tourist coaches and thought as I often do in London when I see a black cab taking short cuts..."Oh I'll follow it!"...itusually works!...so I followed the coaches for about an hour and they headed for a small harbour from were I discovered they were catching boats to go to James Bond Island...HAH! A Result! I would much rather get a boat than drive for 2 hours.. so I drove into the car park...and within seconds a women on a moped..said "You wanna boat"...?? ..."Yes..I want to got to James Bond Island and back... how much..."$2,500Bhat"...I agreed to pay her $2,000bhat...and so had my own long boat..which I liked doing when I was in Bangkok....
So sure enough - five minutes later the boat arrived...I gave her the "readies" and off wes sped...I felt like Roger Moore in "Octopussy" when he drove one of those supped up Vienese Gondolas Q custom made for him...we sped of into the distance flying over the choppy water...th sun had come out and it is when you get out into the sea and look at all of the islands that you realise just how stunningly beautifiul this part of the world is...
It took about 40 minutes to reach James Bond Island off the Thai coast, and although it is beautiful...people have tried to capitalise on the link to the bond film and have placed a whole long line of crappy souvenir shops right on what would have been the beautiful beach.we all saw in the movie - "The Man with the Golden Gun"..well its RUINED!!! I was so pissed off I refused to get off the boat...oh and I would have had to pay 100 bhat to actually stand on the island....YEAH RIGHT! ...the most gorgeous archipeligo and they go and ruin it to make a fast buck - fuckwits!...but there is a lot of that going on around the islands..I think the locals are forgetting why people actually come here....once the pristine beaches are gone and the sea is full of shit...the tourists will disappear..
We did a few loops of the island on the boat and sped off to the floating market...again ..upon closer inspection it was full of opportuntic traders selling TUT - NO THANKS....I told the driver to return to port..I'd had enough.
We were about 3 miles from the harbour when the engine stopped.....there was a real breeze blowing now and it wasn't long before the current had got us and was sending us sideways.. I turned around and saw the driver playing around with the engine..."OHHH SHIT"...that's all I need....I gave the crazy cow on the harbour 2,000 baht and they are too tight to put enough gasoline in the engine!!
As we started to flow away out with the tide..backwards...the driver got on his mobile and started talking..I could see we were geting near a collection of mangrove trees and I reckoned if we slammed into them we could grab the roots and hold on because we were really moving now..the tidal currents were strong... Well luckily the tide did slam us into the trees..a little too hard for my liking and we didn't get a grip but then we crunched into them again and it was make or break this time so I lunged for them and got a grip....at least now we were not going to go any further....
The driver was very apologetic..but now that I had got an anchor I wasn't bothered...I just didn't fancy floating out to sea....about 20 minute later the cavelry arrived..and I jumped into the reeif boat that sped me back to the jetty....PHEW!!Terra Firma!
I then took a lazy drive back to the hotel..and along the way stopped off at a Temple...in Phang-nga..and I was Elephant Mountain...here are huge limestone caves in the mountain but because it was around 4pm I didn't go in...I can go there the next time I come to Phuket....so I left and made it back to the hotel just before the heavens opened again - perfect timing...for what as a very wet night!
Well at Mai Kao beach and he marriot..tomorrow I go to La Flora and Patong...GOD HELP ME!
