Claustrophobia in Phang Nga/James Bond Island,Elephants Sans Shock Absorbers, & When Monkeys Attack

our time on phuket is more relaxing/chill but the big tour we did was to phang nga bay and james bond island (a location for the man with the golden gun).  the tour took us elephant riding (sort of neat for the first time, but I can see how one wouldn't want to do it again) - elephant unemployment is a growing problem in thailand as they are revered but expensive to maintain and the traditional lumber work they do is limited now due to forestry conservation. so now most work in the tourist industry. the ride was fun but a bit unsettling at first because of the big steps these animals take - guess they don't come with shock absorbers. 

 

then we hit james bond island - the setting of the film "the man with the golden gun" which was nice but the huge volume of tourists coming and going was on par with DiCaprio's Koh Phi Phi Leh beach. so it was a bit anticlimactic and we sorta got yelled at by the tour guides b/c we didn't get on the boat in time <shrug> The other highlight was when art got attacked by some ultra aggressive ants while I was trying to take a picture of him. after I knocked them off I realized that the heads were stilll stuck in him and I had to pick out each ant head one by one. little buggers

 

the highlight though was kayaking (with guides) into these really tiny passages that are probably impossible to get into during high tide.  we literally were lying flat on our kayaks to get into these passageways (major claustrophobia) with rock formations mere inches from one's face.  we were also kayaking through a mangrove area, basically a submerged tropical rain forest. the vegetation was so lush and green... of course, commercialism is always peeking around the corner, as we saw a guy in a kayak trying to sell us soda in the middle of the mangroves! 

 

then we went to a a thai muslim "gypsy village" floating on water (their ancestors settled on these piers jutting out from the land and out of tradition, successive generations stayed there,)  In the past 20 yrs, I'm sure it's gotten quite lucrative as james bond island tours passs thru for lunch.  Unfortunately, the lunch was ultra greasy and I was feeling a bit sick afterwards <blech>

 

then, we dropped by this reclining buddha shrine inside a cave somewhere - the cave was pretty neat and so was the scenery, but there were more monkeys! there was some kind of commune/extended family living right outside the shrine entrance. I'm telling you, thailand is monkey heaven. I saw one alpha monkey sprint towards a man, ran up his front, and grabbed his ice cream one! makes me wish I bought that stun gun at khao san road 

 

the last part of the tour was this random visit to a cashew drink tourist trap. totally random... like they prob got kickbacks from the cashew drink co to bring tourists there.  got free samples of the cashew juice (yeah, I didn't know there was such a thing either. .. like, is there such a thing as peanut or walnut juice?) the greasiness of lunch made me pretty much just wait outside