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Excursion & resume made by Jeper Vagt-Andersen

We were picked up from our hotel at 08:30AM. After a 20 minutes drive, we changed from the minivan that picked us up to a large bus. The minivans are used to pick up guest at different hotels in Phuket and then everybody is gathered in a large bus. During the whole tour, we had a very good English-speaking guide that right from the start gave us useful information about the tour and what was going to happen during the day. The James Bond 3 in 1 is a combined tour of visits to James Bond Island in Phang Nga Bay, Canoeing around Phang Nga Bay and elephant riding & show.

We where ready to depart from the pier to Phang Nga Bay at 10:00AM. After a 20 minutes tour in a long-tailed boat, we arrived to another large boat near James Bond Island. We changed from the fast and noisy long-tailed boat to the slow but very quiet canoes. The one hour canoeing trip was very nice. The canoes took us to some small hidden lagoons. However, since I had already been on the full day Sea Canoe, (click here for full resume) where you are exploring much larger and more beautiful lagoons, theses lagoons did not seem so impressive. The other guests on the tour that never went on the Sea Canoe Tour felt that this part was the best part of the tour.

At 11:30AM, we departed for James Bond Island by long-tailed boat. James Bond Island was made famous from being the shooting location of the James Bond movie “The Man With The Golden Gun”. We had around 45 minutes at James Bond Island for pictures of this famous limestone rock

At 12:15PM we were leaving for lunch at the Sea Gypsy Village that was built on the sea. The lunch was traditional Thai food and seafood.

After lunch, we were transferred back to the pier by long-tailed boat. At the pier, the coach was waiting for us and took us to the elephant camp. At the elephant camp, we had a 40 minutes elephant ride. A good tour with some good elephant drivers who get down from the elephant to take pictures of you or even let you drive the elephant by yourself. The elephants seemed to be treated well at the camp. The following show was what I would call a “circus show”. Not my kind of show, I rather see the ones where they show how the elephant used to be trained for forestry work but the rest of the guest seemed to enjoy it.

At the end, the elephant ended the show with a great finish: It collected money from the audience then went to buy bananas, brought the bananas back to them and the change as well! Then the audience could feed the bananas to the elephants. Before the show, the guide had made every body aware that you should not tease the elephants. It is better to give them the bananas straight away. My fellow guests respected that to the fullest. I would like to advise everybody who visits elephant camps not to tease the elephants by offering them food then to take it away. The elephants in the camps are generally friendly but, if teased by thousands of tourists, even the best elephant can loose its temper. Please respect this magnificent animal.

After the elephant show, we had a short introduction on how to extract raw latex and how they tamp the liquid used in the process from the rubber trees. I was back at my hotel at 18:00. I still feel that the best way to experience Phang Nga Bay is by Sea Canoe and even though you get a taste of this trip, I felt that canoeing in Phang Nga Bay is so interesting that it deserves a whole day and not simply one hour. However this tour is very good for people who would like a taste of it all. This is the perfect additional or optional tour from the Sea Canoe. However, should you choose to go on both excursions, I would strongly advise you to go on the James Bond 3 in 1 first as the canoeing part on this tour seems a little boring ones you’ve experience the large & beautiful lagoons on the full day Canoe Tour.