Phuket City Tour & James Bond Island
Day 1 City Tour:
Agenda:
We booked the 1/2 day City Tour at like...1 or 2AM the day of...for the afternoon tour. Our hotel had a bunch of pamphlets and we basically took the ones that interest us and did an online search for direct booking. We found the same tour that was being advertised at a higher rate in the hotel for drastically less online. We followed up with an email to alert the tour company of our last min booking. In the morning we received confirmation via email on our pickup time.
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Our tour began with a drive through Patong Beach with our first stop being a visit to see the Elephants. We were told it was a retirement place but it became apparent this was not the case. There was an option to ride the elephants and everyone passed in our group. We did take a picture with a smaller elephant and I still have mixed feelings about it. The next stop on the tour was Tiger Kingdom. The animals seemed out of it and I'm sure they were drugged for photo ops with tourist. The ones we interacted with seemed in and out of it. We tried to rush through it in part because we weren't too happy about it but also because it was somewhat scary to know that they could decide at any moment to make a meal out of us (rightly so).
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After visiting the animals we proceeded to Big Buddha where we had a Kata viewpoint where you could see the different Islands at once. Next we visited the Wat Chalong Temple, then the jewelry factory where we tried some coffee there and had the chance to make a purchase at a "deep discount". The weather started to get cloudy as we made our way back to the bus and headed to the Cashew nut Factory and watch demonstrations on the process, and par-take in samples of various flavors of cashews. We ended the tour at the Honey Farm where we learned all the useful ways honey can benefit the body and skin. Needless to say, the tour was really one big sales pitch but you never felt obligated to buy anything (except at the jewelry place- they were a little pushy). The entire tour from beginning to end lasted roughly 4.5-5 hours! We had the rest of the evening to find a great dinner and massages!
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Day 2 James Bond Tour:
Agenda:
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I have to start by saying we really waited last minute on booking a tour for the day. The intentions were to do Phi Phi Islands and we priced a lot of tours ahead of time that came out pretty high. Usually when you get to many of these Countries you can easily get a deal for the tours for a much better price. The challenge we faced was due to the fact we wanted to use our credit card to avoid additional cash withdrawals. I must add that we initially took out enough of the currency but made a big error (I blame lack of sleep) in Bangkok when we booked the Floating Market at a highway robbery price (almost double) and paid in cash. Yeah, Bangkok caught me slipping and we took the L on that one. Anyways, it created a big hit on our cash funds.
Since we couldn’t find a decent price the night before- we decided to look into half day tours. We got up early and had breakfast while scrolling through packages online. By chance, I came upon a Half Day James Bond Island sightseeing and Canoeing Tour that included hotel pick up around 10AM. We were able to get ahold of the guide and get added on for a really good price ($1,200 TBH which was about $39 USD and the tour included lunch). So now we just had to haul ass to change and be ready for our 9:30AM pick up time. Which, the guide was a few minutes early (which seems to be a theme surprisingly) and had to wait on us. The drive from our hotel to pickup spots for two other groups took about 60mins and then another 30mins to arrive at our first destination which was the Cave Canoeing at Taiu Island. We were given a personal rower and taken on an “adventure” by canoe (which was small and shaky) to various caves. It was interesting...for about the first 10-15mins and then we were ready to return. However, I think we ended up out there for 30-40mins. Note: we were encouraged to tip at least $50 TBH to $100 TBH (so $1.50-$3 USD approx.). Oh and the rower isn’t shy about suggesting the amount either...lol!
We left that location and headed to Kasom pier (Longtail boat) where we hopped on to do some sight seeing at the PhangNga Bay National Park. Let me give you a heads up on this one...in the boat you WILL get wet. I don’t mean just a little wet...but for real wet. The water kicks up (it’s speed boat style) into the boat and if you are sitting four people across you will be pretty wet being on the two ends. I was in the middle and still got hit with water. Bring a towel with you and possible another shirt. Anyways, once we arrived to the Island we had the chance to take pictures via the boat and then continue on to James Bond Island and Ping-Gan. We were given the chance to take a ton of pictures...but our time was cut short due to a big down pour that occurred. After waiting out the rain, we headed back to our boat and proceeded to the Koh Panyee a Muslim Fishing Village for lunch. Let me say that although it’s nice to have food included in the tour it wasn’t the greatest. We received water and coke as drinking options, a fish soup (tasteless), a piece of chicken and piece of fish (chicken was baked and pretty good- the fish breaded and just ok). There was white rice and stir fry veggies as well as pineapple. It was enough to remove any hunger pains and keep you engaged in the remaining time on the tour.
The last leg of the tour ended with a visit to the Suwankuha Temple (Monkey Cave). This was an experience in itself. When you’re told to be careful around the Monkeys and to not go up to them to try and pet them because they bite- it’s serious business. During our visit we roamed around a little and came upon a Monkey cold- chillen' on the steps that lead to one of the exhibits. I didn’t really feel a threat and was able to pass without issue. Everyone followed suit after seeing my success. Everything seemed cool and uneventful and after a couple mins we decided to head back down towards the entrance. Well, that same Monkey made his way to the top of the stairs. He caught sight of a plastic bag that my friend had that was tied to her purse (sorta dangling down) with a plastic water bottle inside...when I say he came charging towards her!!!!!!! That would be a straight understatement! This fool had his teeth showing and I ran for my life because I initially thought he spotted my Thai hat and was coming for me! My friend was able to flee but he followed her- another person nearby (who apparently experienced this in Bali) told her to detach the plastic back and remove the water bottle and give both to the Monkey. Next thing I see is her throwing everything towards his direction. Comedy! She was able to escape at that point but needless to say- we were done.
It became evident pretty quickly that most of the people in our tour was over it and we actually left 15mins early to head back to our hotels. It took us almost two hours to get back to our hotel but it was still at an earlier time than stated on the site. The entire tour was from 9:30AM-5PM (inclusive of the hotel pickup and drop off). It was a cool tour for what it's worth- the price was good and half of a day was good enough for us.
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