Phuket, Thailand - Mar 8

Phuket, Thailand - Mar 8

This our 4^th time here and it is one of my favorite places. I honestly could live in Thailand. We tend to rotate land and sea tours as there is always more to see here. We hadn’t been to James Bond Island by Longtail Boat so that was the goal for today. We have done Phi Phi Islands with a speed boat and it about banged us to death out and back.

Here are the links to photos of past visits:

2013 Elephant Trekking & Beach https://photos.app.goo.gl/pRSffLZ8YHMWjtxG7

2017 Tiger Kingdom & Cobra Show https://photos.app.goo.gl/M9eCC61hDWSTPYv5A

2017 Phi Phi Island Sail https://goo.gl/photos/LPzzJgpAH8xKksQR6

2017 Phi Phi Island Snorkel https://photos.app.goo.gl/83DNAhcdN1Q941gz9

2019 Big Buddha, Chalong Temple & Phuket Town https://photos.app.goo.gl/SoNxxMoDTmceFddE8

This time I opted for a Long-tail Boat which was a smooth ride, but the drive to get to it was an hour and a half, which was all factored in, but the ship was very late getting us off the ship. It was a tender port, and the time came and went when an announcement came that they were having issues with getting the tenders in the water due to the choppy conditions. Everyone’s hearts sank as we feared the next words were “and we can’t make port today”. They got a ferry that held a ton of people and eventually they started calling us to go off the ship. So, before the butt-crack of dawn (it was dark, not dawn) we were around an hour and a half late getting off. Then we had to load this huge ferry and unload everyone and then gather us all together to find our driver. Phew!

It was an interesting drive past rubber tree, palm oil plantations, and bananas. We left the island and were on the mainland. The joke was we must be in Cambodia already as we just kept driving. It’s a 90-minute ride to the boat pier.

at the tender arrival on shore

a whole lot of things were named Porntip.....

gotta love Thailand's electrical wires

Finally, we arrive at the boat dock and knowing we needed to cut things out of our day due to the late start, we discussed with the van driver and the boat driver what we wanted. The boat guy said, “but you paid for 4 hours”. We said we no longer had that amount of time. So, they rearranged the day and then after we were on our way the boat guy rearranged again. He suggested we start with lunch and since the main attraction was James Bond Island, we would do that and then head back. We agreed that was a good plan.

this was the walkway to the restroom at the boat pier

I really enjoyed the Long-tail Boat ride past the karsts that reminds us of Halong Bay, Vietnam. After about 40 minutes we arrived at our lunch destination and were served family style many different dishes. There were deep-fried prawns, deep-fried chicken, a curry dish, several other meats/octopus/veggies in different sauces and the best tasting soup ever! There was also an egg dish and rice of course. Anything we wanted more they gladly brought it. We did a bit of shopping there and then we were off to find James Bond Island. 

John chillin' up front

John

arrival at the restaurant

Horst, Mark, Heather, Matt, Roberta, John

long tail motors

We only had about 20 minutes or so to explore the island, but we saw it and I got my token magnet. We thought it looked like a wet landing, but the crew brought out step ladders and helped us ashore.

arrival at James Bond Island

we quickly walked from one side of the island to the other

Matt in the opening

Our boat picked us up at the other side of the island and we did the boat ride back to the pier. We were all glad to see our van waiting for us. We were back with about 25 minutes to spare, and we did a bit of shopping at the pier. I didn’t find much, but bought a skirt, that is a bit tight. I was lucky yesterday that the pants I picked up fit nicely. Princess tour had the same drive times and boat times for the Longtail Boats and we paid $42 pp instead of $100 pp. It appeared theirs didn’t stop on the island, but not sure of that.

our boat ramp

back at the pier for the water shuttle

magnet

We got on a small tender boat and then waited a long time to get back on the ship. The big ferry was there and way after all the passengers were off, they just sat there. It’s hot and cramped in the lifeboats and some people were getting antsy or nauseous and wanted to get off. Eventually, we were able to get back on the ship.

Luckily, I had a great group of well-traveled people that understand when all doesn’t go as planned and make the most of the day. We were joined by Roberta & John, Heather & Matt, Horst & Mark, Gail & Art (new people we hadn’t met before) and Tom who was also on the last tender port that went sideways due to the guy and his wife who couldn’t be on time. The only tours he had with me didn’t go off as planned due to the late passenger and the other the ship wasn’t on schedule with the tenders. He didn’t seem to care and just laughed. He was just thrilled that we were able to make the port at all. The joke on the way back was Tom ate what he thought was a cherry tomato half in one of the dishes at lunch and it was a HOT pepper.

We got cold drinks and showered before having dinner at the buffet. We wanted to do some laundry before we pack for India, so we went to the early show which was ventriloquist Jerry Goodspeed that we have seen before. He is funny, but almost the same exact show he always does.

We were lucky to get 2 machines and got our laundry started.

We get to set our clocks back one more hour tonight!

Link for photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BMThCu55nFhUN7JHA

One more Sea Day before Colombo.