Cruising to James Bond Island

Posted On March 28, 2022

Ao Phang-Nga National Park

James Bond Island is a part of Ao Phang-Nga National Park, you can read more about the park here Ao Phang-Nga National Park. The National Park is so beautiful, so many islands, There are a number of tours on this page which I wish I knew about before we went, some of these tours look beautiful and now I am planning our next trip based on their jungle hike through the wildlife sanctuary!

Rubbish in ocean

This was a nice day out amongst the island, it was sad to see the amount of rubbish floating in the water and to think that this is what they consider “clean” since there has been no tourists for two years. There was a lot of long tail boats out fishing for jelly fish, at first we thought they were getting the rubbish out of the water but then we realised they were jelly fishing. They sell them at market for 10 baht each. If you go to the beach, my tip is to collect some rubbish and take it back to the boat so it can be disposed of properly and not pollute the water.

Where to buy tickets for a James Bond Island Tour

We bought tickets from one of the stalls on the side of the road. Laws’ Dad is friends with one of the ladies who runs a massage shop so she took us to her friend to buy the tickets and they gave us a bit of a discount which was sweet of them. It was about $60 AUD for the day trip, that included hotel pick up and drop off and lunch, pretty good deal. You can buy online too and I have seen most tours range from $80-$100 AUD.

Hotel pick up and drop off

We were picked up at about 8:15am and it took about an hour to get to the jetty. We hadn’t had breakfast and were quite hungover so were very happy when we arrived and there are food stalls right next to the spot where you get dropped. Had some fried rice and chicken for breakfast – very nice.

Cruise boat to James Bond Island

We chose to do the tour that goes by cruise boat, you can go on the speed boat or by longtail boat. But we liked the cruise boat tour as it included more kayaking and we thought we’d be kayaking ourselves but they did all the hard work for you and took you through the caves, so we sat back and enjoyed the ride.

The boat was very comfy, they gave us bananas and tea and coffee and biscuits and water as soon as we got on board, which was nice. They had water available for us all day long and other drinks and snacks that you could buy.

Caves and the hong

We went through two caves, meant to be three but the tide was too high to go through the first one. The caves are pretty low in spots, we had to duck down in the kayaks to squeeze under. One of the most popular caves is the Bat Cave, this one was cool, very dark but when you shine your torch you could see a whole lot of bats hanging from the roof and flying around you. We were pretty noisy going through the caves but the bats didnt seem bothered.

We also explored the hong (I wasn’t sure what a hong was but I found this definition online – A hong is essentially a secret garden, hidden from prying eyes and offering those lucky enough to visit a beautiful and peculiar landscape to explore) so now I know for sure that I have been to a hong! The hong was two lagoons with a small channel between them, if you looked up there was trees growing out of the sides of the rock face and it was really very beautiful.

James Bond Island

We went by longtail boat to the Ao Phang Nga National Park that homes James Bond Island, you can’t actually go onto James Bond Island because, well, it is a tall piece of rock that would be hard to climb haha but you just look at it from the National Park island that you are taken too. The island you view it from is pretty cool, you can walk around it over a stair case that wraps around one side of it and takes you to another bay with a very nice beach. It was quite nice cause there weren’t many people around so it was clean and quiet.

There are a few little shops on the island trying to sell you trinkets and things, they were pretty expensive but things always are in tourist spots. I am not really a James Bond fan so I have no idea about the movie it comes from or the significance of it. But its still a very beautiful island and national park to explore.

Lunch

We had lunch on the boat, they put on an amazing spread – whole cooked fish, onion rings, tom yum soup, chicken noodles, fried rice. And they let ladies eat first cause they are such delightful hosts 😉 They provided some Pepsi with lunch but you can also purchase beers, soft drinks and snacks all day on the boat.

Can I fly m drone?

Once again, couldn’t fly my drone as the whole area is a national park.

Eagles chasing the boat home

The hosts threw some fresh chicken out to the eagles as we were leaving and they put on a great show, swooping around the boat for the chicken. There was about 20 eagles following us and it looked very spectacular with the islands in the back drop.

Thai spectacular – on board performance

Our tour guides were pretty funny and dressed up and did some dances for us, they went wild for Gangham Style and a few other songs. They were pretty funny and had the crowd going. Great bit of entertainment for the trip home.