Ao Phang-Nga

From Phuket, we made a day trip to the province of Phang-Nga.  Our first stop was Suwanakuha Temple, better known as Monkey Cave.  This natural grotto is filled with beautiful Buddha images, the most striking of which is this 15 metre long Reclining Buddha.

Next we visited Ao Phang-Nga National Park.  We rode a long tail boat through twisting paths that cut through creepy mangroves until we arrived in Phang-Nga Bay.  The bay is filled with craggy limestone islands that make a very impressive view.  At one point, our boat had to travel under one of these limestone islands !

Clearly, the caves have been nicknamed for the monkeys that live here.  They are quite accustomed to tourists, and can become quite aggressive when they sense an oncoming handout of bananas or peanuts.

A person could easily spend days checking out all of the amazing limestone formations in this park and still be eager to see more.  One of the highlights for me was a Muslim fishing village called Koh Panyee where we stopped for lunch.  The entire village is erected in the middle of the ocean.  Everything, including village mosque, restaurants and school, are built on stilts above the water.  Apparantly the 2000+ ocean dwelling inhabitants of this village originate from just two sea gypsy families, who settled here from Malaysia about 200 years ago.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the village with the digital camera and it might be a while before I have access to a scanner in order to post photos from my regular camera.  In the meantime, here's a picture of Ryota, instead!  He is on the island Ping Khan, made 'famous' by the James Bond movie, 'The Man with the Golden Gun'.

The other Andaman Coast pages: Phuket        Koh Phi Phi       Krabi       Trang

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