James Bond Island Tour

Tickets cost 1400 baht and included hostel transfer, sea canoeing and lunch. 

After being picked up from our hostel in Patong (Phuket) at 10 we had to pick up other passengers and then had an hour and a half drive to the Monkey Cave Temple. 

There are monkeys on the grounds of the temple- inside the cave is a large reclining Buddha and other, smaller Buddha statues. There are two other caves- one light and one dark. 

We were back in the car to get to the port where we met with other groups. We all got into big longtail boats. The boat was super fast and loud and there was water flying in (bad idea to sit on the outside seats). We got to a bigger boat in the middle of the water where we went in pairs to canoes that had a guide. A little disappointing because I thought we paid extra to be able to canoe ourselves but the guide was very friendly and chatty. 15 minutes into what was meant to be half an hour of canoeing-the skies opened. all of the kayaks paddled under this huge stone opening to wait it out. The guide was more than willing to take pictures for us and even made a cute little heart frame out of a leaf to take our pictures in. He told us that they don’t get paid a salary so they do really rely on tips. 

After the sea canoeing we got back onto the longtail to go to James Bond Island. The island is really cool looking. Just one big limestone jutting out of the water feet away from the beach. The pouring rain didn’t stop any of the James Bond poses. There’s a path around the island to another beach which would’ve been really nice if we had had better weather. 

From James Bond Island we went to Muslim Village- a fisherman’s village built on stilts. We got in just in time for lunch before it literally started monsooning on us. The wind and rain was alarming- but at least lunch was yummy. Lunch was over and it was time to get back on the boat even though the rain didn’t let up that much. The boat ride back was funny in a not really funny way- we were all being pelted either with rain, waves or both. 

The trip would’ve been great if the weather was better but that’s one of the risks of traveling here during monsoon season.