Phang Nga Bay is located in the Andaman Sea in the very north part of the Malacca Strait between Phuket and the mainland of southern Thailand, in the Phang Nga province.
The bay is about 400 sq.km. and have since 1981 been a part of Ao Phang Nga National Park. Phang Nga Bay is mostly known for the iconic limestone tower karst islands, you will find there. Many famous movies have been filmed in the bay.
To mention a few there is 007 James Bond “The man with the golden gun” from 1974 with Rogen More. And in the Star Wars movie: Episode III “Revenge of the Sith” are the limestone mountains used depicting the planet Kashyyyk.
The limestone cliff was originally a coral reef stretching from the south of Malaysia all the way up to China. But that was more than 250 million years ago, at that time the water level was 100 meters higher than it is today.
I left my home at Kamala about 6:30 in the morning as I had to be Ao Po pier, where Phuket Sail Tours are located at 7:30. When I arrived at Phuket sail tours a pleasant surprise in the form of a light breakfast buffet awaited me.
While having a cup of coffee and a bite to eat, our guide Jack told us about what we could expect and showed us, on a map, the route we would follow.
Click image to view full size.
Our boat was moored at the end of a long pier. This means that it is independent of high and low waters but can use it all the time.
There are many souvenir shops and many vendors selling food and drinks on the pier, although you may be tempted, you do not need to buy anything because on the boat there is an ice box, a true treasure trove full of ice cold drinks and snacks, all free of charge.
At the end of the pier there moored many tour boats, they are very different in nature, to my great joy I note that our boat is a new fiberglass speed should have in mind with 2 times 250 Honda horsepower engines. Already at that time, I knew that it would be a fantastic day.
The first stop on the trip was a desert island, the type you normally only see in the movies. There is not much to say about the island, the island was like I said deserted but enjoy the pictures.
The next stop was, what I for lack of a better word will call a bird’s nest mountain. And what is that?
It is a mountain where there are caves where the bird´s “Edible-nest swiftlet” or “White-nest swiftlet” or “Black-nest swiftlet” have their nests.
These bird nests are harvested to be used in bird’s nest soup. The nests are very valuable, the most expensive have a price tag up to 10,000 USD per kilo.
To protect the nests from theft are guards posted, 24/7 at the entrance to the caves.
After the bird’s nest mountain, we visited various small picturesque inlets where you could take a swim or just relax on the beach. Although there have probably been many thousands of tourists on the various tours around Pang Nga Bay at that day, succeeded our guide virtually all the time to bring us to places where we were practically alone