Thailand: Day 3- Phang Na

We went on an organized trip to Phang Na (James Bond Island), which took us to a private pier and we speed boated around several islands. Our tour guide was totally useless in the sense that he knew nothing more than the names on the places we passed- and nothing else. We were jammed in pretty tight on that boat, but the view was very pretty.

We also stopped by a place called the ice cream caves, which had odd stalactites and bats. The bats were cool. Parts of the cave were cool and everything supposedly looked like ice cream (too dark for photos to come out). Then, we made it to touristy James Bond Island where 'The Man with the Golden Gun' was filmed. It was another little island/ rock and was way too touristy. 

Osho is being a goober

Next, we stopped by a Muslim village to get lunch. They literally had thousands of seats at the restaurant we went to- also very touristy. The food was room temp and ok at best because it clearly was made in mass quantities and had been sitting out. We weren't worried about food poisoning because it had been cooked and so many other people were eating it. The interesting part of the small village ( all houses mounted on a huge, elevated pier) was that the people thought they were protected by God because their village was the only place in the area to be unaffected by the hurricane of 2004. We also found out that Phuket has many natural pearls and the village people sold them for very cheap. Osho and I both bought real (the seller lit them on fire so we knew it was real and showed us the oyster shells) pearls for almost nothing. It was insane. The bats and pearls were the highlights at that point, but then everything got way better. It is safe to say that the first half of the day was disappointing and he second half is what we were expecting. 

The next stop was sea canoeing, which I wish we did the whole time we were out for the first half of the day. It was awesome! Everything was so peaceful and we just drifted through little caves, and came right up close to the rock of the island so we could see the little crabs, algae, and oysters that lived in the area. There were oysters everywhere we looked, which is also why we weren't skeptical about the pearls. Next, the speed boat took us to a private beach I don't know the name of (also wish we spent most of the day here). It was somewhere you see and can't really believe is real, something that must be fake in photos. The sand was soft and white, the water was clear and blue, with layers of a more saturated shade the further you looked, and mountains hiding in the background. Gorgeous. 

When we got back to Patong, we stopped by a food market and got crab. Then we lounged by the pool and researched a place to eat. We went to Home Delivery, which was epic. We got delicious chicken larb, pad Thai, Tom yum soup with shrimp, masaman curry, and iced green tea for about $24. This was the kind of meal I had been waiting for. We packed a little for our flight to Chiangmai and went to sleep.