On Sunday morning we went to Phang Nga Bay. We took a long tailed boat through a mangrove forest until we came to the cave that is shown in the first picture below. We went through this cave and came out in the bay. We moved through the bay and by the many limestone islands that are in it. This is an absolutely beautiful place. I don’t have words to do it justice. The second picture is of Panyee Island. It is one of the very few inhabited islands in the bay. The residents are Muslim fisherman whose ancestors emigrated from Indonesia in search of good fishing. We stopped here for lunch on our way back. Next we stopped at a large boat that is home base for sea canoes. I got in a canoe and was given a tour of the bay. The third picture is of another canoe going through the first limestone cave. This cave is quite large but there are several others that you have to lay down in the canoe to fit through and if you were much bigger around than I am you couldn’t fit at high tide (which it was when I was there). The forth picture is the entrance to one of these caves. I think this is the one where you enter and surrounded by limestone walls with only enough room for a couple of canoes inside. I thought this was the coolest place but I guess some people might get nervous even though you can see the sky above you. After I returned from my canoe tour we continued through the bay to the island that is featured in the James Bond movie “The Man with the Golden Gun.” The fifth and sixth pictures are what is now known as James Bond Island. We briefly stopped here and then returned through the bay stopping for lunch at Panyee Island. I also did some shopping. If anyone wants some pearls this is the place to buy them. They are really inexpensive here.
Our next stop was Suwaan Kuhar cave temple. There is a golden reclining Buddha inside a cave at the temple but the real attraction is the large group of Long Tailed Macaques that live here. Khun Sunthorn bought some peanuts for me to feed them. They are suppose to take them out of your hand but one large male decided that he didn’t want to share with the others so he climbed me and took the bag and sat on my shoulder while he ate. 
Next we visited Phang Nga Naval Base. It is home to a Sea Turtle Conservation Center. The center raises young sea turtles to give them a better chance at survival. I saw and held all sizes of turtles. The one pictured below is one of the middle sized ones. I think it was about 8 months old. This was an incredible day and there are many more pictures on the SnapFish site, click on the Fellowship Photos link.
This was supposed to be the end of the day but Khun Sunthron invited me to visit his farm which is a long drive across the mountains that run down the middle of the peninsula. On the way we passed through Khao Sok National Park, which is an incredibly beautiful place, the mountains here are stark limestone outcroppings just like the islands in the bay. The landscape seems otherworldly. I couldn’t get any pictures because it was getting dark. We visited Khun Sunthron’s farm. He has oil palm that is just starting to produce and in between the palms are banana trees. The bananas will be removed soon to give the palms more room as they mature. I didn’t get back to the hotel until very late. It was a long day but it was also one of the best days of my life. I will come back here.
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