Happy toilet, crappy toilet

Today was our package tour day from the “fleecing station.”  We had breakfast at the hotel, then a driver picked us up to take us on the tour.  We had to pick up people at other hotels, so we were over an hour in the van, but we got to see a bit of Karon and Patong (and be glad we didn’t stay in Patong…) before arriving at the marina.

At the marina we were all loaded onto a speedboat headed for Ao Phang-Nga Marine National Park, where we would be spending our day.  We stopped at a group of karsts, which are towering limestone cliffs jutting up out of the ocean.  This particular set of karsts were hollow, so we were loaded into inflatable boats, and our Thai rower took us through the karsts and into the lagoons inside.  We were lucky to get there before a hoard of other tourists on boats, so we got to enjoy the stillness inside the lagoons before 20 other boats arrived as we were leaving.

Some karsts and emerald water at Ao Phang-Nga Marine National Park.

Boat ride in the karsts.

Rowboats under a karst.

Lots of tourists...

Both here and Vietnam we took boat tours to the karsts, but neither tour told us anything educational, like how the karsts were formed, what kind of animal and plant life lived there, how old they are, etc.  Instead, our guides in both places were excited to show us the shapes of various rock formations.  “Look like dog!”  “Look like baby elephant!” “Look like Buddha upside down.”  :)

Us in the (for now) tranquil lagoon.

Us and our boat captain.  :)

Through the cave into the lagoon.

After boating through the karsts, we headed to a small cave where one of the karsts was hollowed out and had a few stalactites and stalagmites.  The cave was only about the size of a small house, so we didn’t spend much time there.

Sitting in a rock formation. That's allowed here.  :)

Next we went to lunch the Muslim village of Ko Panyi, which is permanently installed on the water.  300 people reside there, making their living in the fishing or tourism industries.  They had a school, a mosque and tons of little shops for the tourists, as well as some huge restaurants for tourists that made up probably 1/3 of the whole island!

Ko Panyi.

The dock appeared to be made of giant Legos.

Kids playing in the water next to the dock.

One section of the huge tourist restaurant on Ko Panyi.

I had the privilege of using the "Happy Toilet: Best Toilet of the Year 2008."

Colorful tourist boats docked at Ko Panyi.

After lunch we headed to James Bond Island, so named because of two classic James Bond movies that were filmed there.  I am not sure what was so special about it other than that, it was just a small karst next to a couple others that had a dock with a HUGE crowd of tourists, many of them in noisy boats that seriously sounded like a bunch of diesel trucks with no exhaust pipes revving their engines constantly, quite an unpleasant racket.  I also had the icky experience of having to use a squat toilet IN THE DARK, as there was no electricity on the island and only a couple inches of windows to let in daylight.  :) (quite a difference from the Happy Toilet, this one I would nominate for Crappy Toilet of the Year, 2015...)

Approaching James Bond Island.

The famous karst at James Bond Island.

Gavin and I at James Bond Island.

Lots of tourists and noisy boats.

A huge, sheer slab of rock.

Me on James Bond Island. Gavin asked me to stand there and
look like I am pondering nature.  :)

Our last stop of the day was a beach, and I was definitely ready to get in the water after this hot day.  The beach was on a small island, so only had a couple boats of tourists.  I seriously couldn’t imagine much more of a perfect beach.  It had perfect pure white sand the texture of powdered sugar, and it made squeaky noises if you dragged your feet on it (like the “singing sands” beach on Prince Edward Island).  The water was the warmest I can remember being in, almost like bathwater! There were a few tiny little carts on the beach selling drinks, and I had a delicious mai thai in a pinepple, and Gavin had a piña colada in a coconut.

Leaving the karsts.

Best beach EVER!!!

Gavin and I with our fancy drinks in fruits.

After a long day in the sun, I slept most of the van ride back to our hotel. Since we were both feeling tired, we decided to have dinner at the resort, as the restaurant workers cheerily called out to us “Tonight is steak night!” as we walked by.  Everybody working in this resort, from the restaurant staff to the housekeeping is incredibly friendly.

I guess we should just eat Thai food in Thailand.  The steak tasted like the cow had been fed a diet of cardboard for its entire life.  But it came with a delicious black pepper sauce that fresh (green) peppercorns in it, but even that wasn’t enough to redeem the steak.  :)

After dinner I dragged Gavin to Oriental Massage to get our first Thai massages – one-hour massage for NINE DOLLARS!!!  I was a little too sore and stiff to really enjoy it; Thai massages aren’t gentle.  :)  But I was still pretty relaxed afterward, as once we got back to the resort I couldn’t keep my eyes open for another minute and crashed into bed.  Tomorrow is our last day on Phuket.