4/3–Phuket afternoon–Nga Bay

Off the bus and onto the boat we go, grabbing a bottle of ice cold water each before we board.  The boat is a covered with moveable bench seats, and it makes for a pleasant 2 hour ride around the bay.  There is a nice breeze which mitigates heat and humidity nicely.  Jennifer gives us the overview of the national park and how the floating village folks live (fishing, and now tourists of course) and we happily watch the scenery pass us by.

Our first stop is the Muslim floating village, complete with a mosque in the middle of the village.  It is really picturesque from the water, with the vibrant colored stilt houses lining the bay, the mosque framed by a giant Karst.

We have 20 minutes here to explore, so we dive into the little warren of back streets, lined with trinket and food stalls.  Our goal is the floating football field built for the children, located somewhere behind the school.  It is the only one of its kind and we thought it would be cool to see.  So, we wander though little narrow alleys, tasting the spices along the way – some sort of dried shrimp with cashews that is totally spicy.  Wow!  We pass by the children at the school, sweetly selling us chicklets or whatever it is they have in their boxes.  Then finally to the back of the village where we find the floating field.  It is not as big as we expected, but it is still pretty incredible when you think about it.  The children of the village wanted a football field, but since they live on the water, there was no land to build a field. So, they collected planks of wood and attached them to fish cages that floated above the water until they had enough to be the correct size for the field.  Voila!  A field was built, and the children have go on to win 7 regional championships.

Speaking of children, there are 2 adorable kids who are watching us wander the boardwalk area, and wave to us as we take pictures of the mosque towering up behind their home. 

I’d like to visit the mosque, but we definitely don’t have the time for that, so we reverse course and head back to the pier, stopping at one of the shops to buy a coconut shell bowl that has been decorated with mosaic tiles.  That seems to be the big handicraft here, they seem to be in every village shop.

Back on the boat, we end up waiting for 4 people.  Sigh.  It’s why we don’t like ship tours, but we’re here now, so we’re rolling with the punches (and trying not to talk to the whiners of the crowd who are appalled at the “third world” conditions, think the water is so dirty – because they obviously don’t know the meaning of “brackish” - and don’t have a clue about Thailand, its culture or history).  ‘Nuff said.

So, we finally set off into the bay, which is similar to those in the northern parts of Vietnam, to view the Karsts up close.  It is absolutely beautiful out here and the scenery keeps us totally engaged, from one impressive outcropping to the next.

 

There are areas where you can canoe or kayak underneath the rocks, and through the grottoes.  There are big old ferry boats that have now been converted into restaurants and outdoor adventure stations moored out in the bay near these grottoes.  You can come here on a tour specifically to kayak or snorkel around the rock formations.

We pass a huge mangrove grotto..

…on our way to the James Bond Island, as featured in The Man with the Golden Gun.  We aren’t visiting the island, just driving by – and probably a good idea too – the place is packed with people – and I mean jam packed.  Docking there would just be a huge crowded waste of time. But the Island itself, with its rock formations is actually quite picturesque – if you ignore all the people.

After circling the island in order for both sides of the boat to take pictures, we head back the way we came, passing other boats and more gorgeous scenery….

… finally docking where we started, across from a hotel where we will have our lunch. If we have time we can visit a cashew factory on the way back to the ship, and we all agree to eat our lunch quickly in order to be able to stop.

Lunch is a forgettable buffet.  It’s a tour.  It’s a buffet. The fried shrimp and vegetables are the highlights of the food.  The rest…eh. I only wish the food were a little more authentic so the others on the tour could taste real Thai food.  It’s a shame they will come away from this experience thinking this is what Thai food is all about…but…again, what can you do?

We’re all back on the bus pretty quickly and we are one of only two buses that start our journey home fast enough to visit the cashew factory.  But, somewhere along the 2 hour drive something happens and Jennifer tells us that the visit will be rushed and maybe we should just head straight to the ship.  She asks us what we think, and there is a pretty overwhelming majority who want to go to the cashew factory, even if it is rushed. But we seem to have a few people who are fairly vocal about going back to the ship…so…back we go.

To say we are not happy is probably a bit of an understatement.  While we know it would have been a touristy thing, we were still looking forward to going there – as were others.  Jennifer, ever the good tour guide though, makes the bus driver stop so she can run across the street and pick some cashews off the trees to show us how they grow.  Seriously good tour guide!

So that’s our cashew factory visit!  We get to touch the nut, see the “cashew apple,” which Jennifer cuts open for us to see how juicy it is, and how it does smell like an apple. She also brings aboard some of the leaves for us to smell.  After that – it’s straight back to the parking lot and the walk back to the tenders (and you know people were whining about that too).  We are back on board earlier than we expected – too early to even get our first evening drinks with our Captain’s Club coupons.  Ah well…it was a very nice day overall.  Now onto to 2 days at sea.