Whens My Vacation?: Thailand (Thursday Day)

Thursday started early because it was our last excursion day with the company. We got up went down and ate our normal breakfast of fruit and chocolate croissants (Lewis had mini pancakes which were delicious) and juice. We had to catch the buses by 8:30 to go to the marina. Our last day trip was The James Bond Island Tour. There is a rock that sticks out of the ocean next to a tiny island and they have filmed 2 James Bond movies there. I was totally excited!

We got to the marina, found our friends from the day before and got onto the boat that looked like the most fun. Well, we were assigned there but we made it fun anyways. We sat out on the front so we could feel the breeze as we flew through the water. Lewis was not feeling very well before we got onto the boat but he toughed it out. Here he is looking less than thrilled to be on a high speed boat while feeling under the weather:

Here is one of the rock islands that are in the water. There were hundreds of them. Most of them have trees growing through the rocks and have little to no beaches:

We were slowly going around one of the islands and we came upon some local fishermen on a tiny slip of sand. It was awesome to see them working and fishing using such small amounts of land:

After an hour or so exploring the islands we got into canoes and we were taken for a ride through some caves. Each canoe had a guide that paddled and steered us through the designated area. Here are our friends Kara and JF:

Lewis and myself looking very wind blown:

These are the caves that they took us through:

Here we are at the back of the cave. My head hit the edge because it is pitch black and I had no idea that it was coming. The guide took our photo:

After the canoe ride we got back into the boat and headed out to James Bond Island. Here is the rock that is famous for being in the movie, The Man With The Golden Gun. It might be the WORST Bond movie ever. We watched it before going to Thailand and I could hardly finish it, it was terrible. Anyway, it was really cool being able to see the rock:

Here we are with the rock. We got about 10 photos with it so I just choose one:

It is really neat to see and I suggest if you are ever in the area taking the time for the day tour and going out to the rock and island:

After James Bond we went to the floating gypsy village. This village is not attached to anything. It floats out in the water, you must get to it by boat:

We were able to eat lunch at the restaurant and shop in the store on the boat. I bought some souvenirs for the kids and also a carved elephant for myself:

Here is the loading/unloading area for the village:

After lunch and shopping we were taken to a private island. The owners of the tour have a little bar/food shop set up on the island and some chairs and umbrellas, but there is nothing else there. It looked like this:

Our boats and us. It was so nice. It was clean, clear water and quietness. We hung out for a couple of hours and all agreed that we should have spent a whole day just sitting out on this island. It was beautiful and relaxing. Nothing bust sand and ocean in front of us and jungle behind us.

Here we are just relaxing:

I did make Lewis get me a coconut drink. I just wanted to be able to say that I had one. When the bar ran out of coconuts, they had one of the kids climb a tree and toss down more of them.