James Bond Island

This morning we got up at 8:45 and got ready for a day out. We were picked up around 10 and drove for almost 2 hours to Monkey Cave, also known as Suwan Kuha Temple. It was, as the two names suggest, a temple inside a cave with a few monkeys hanging about outside. A very few I might add. We had a quick look inside the temple and then got back on the minibus for a ten minute ride to the boat. It was a long tail boat holding a whole load of us. We had to collect a life jacket and clamber on, sitting on wooden beaches in rows of 4 or 5.

We then went on a short but scenic ride to a Muslim floating village where we stopped for lunch as it was about 1pm by this point. The mosque was clearly visible rising above the houses/shacks. Lunch was at a restaurant where we had chicken with cashew nuts, chicken drumsticks and rice. There was also some fish options which we didn't have. This restaurant was clearly where all the tour groups came for lunch. Boats were coming and going and there was loads of people.

After lunch we all got back on the boat and continued to the main sight seeing point of the tour, an island commonly known as James Bond Island. It was the setting for the villains evil lair in the film 'The Man With The Golden Gun' and has been inundated with tourists ever since. We were only there for about half an hour, just long enough to get the iconic photo and have a quick wander round. Then we all got back on the boat. There was a bit of a commotion as one English man was wanting to get back into a seat where he has been sitting previously, despite the fact every one else had just sat in random seats. It ended with a girl moving seats and the English dude becoming very angry and aggressive, culiminating in two other dudes who were sitting where the English dude wanted to sit being called a very nasty word for no good reason.

We were only in these seats for about 20 minutes as we quickly arrived at our final stop; sea canoeing. Or at least that's what it was called but it was more like kayaking. We got in rubber kayaks, two to a boat and sat with our legs over the side. A dude called Ali paddled us round through caves and small holes in the rock formation while singing us lines from random songs. It was quite short but a nice way to see the limestone rock formations. We then got back on the big boat and headed back to the buses.

We arrived back at the hostel before half 6 and power walked down to the beach in an attempt to watch the sunset as the sky seemed to be clearer that yesterday. However after we got there the clouds came over and we couldn't see a thing. So we gave up and went for dinner at a bar that had a live band belting out some classics such as the BeeGees, ABBA and Aerosmith. We stayed for a while before heading back to the hostel and attempting to get an early night as we have an early start tomorrow.