Phang Nga Bay
Limestone Karst Bay Within Ao Phang Nga National Park; Khao Phing Kan Is Known As James Bond Island · Phang Nga, Phang Nga
Phang Nga Bay is a wide, shallow bay between Phuket and Krabi where more than a hundred limestone islands and towers rise sheer from calm green water, many of them undercut by the tides and hung with jungle, so that the whole seascape looks like a classical Chinese painting. Much of it lies within Ao Phang Nga National Park, fringed by some of the largest mangrove forests left in Thailand. The best-known sight is Khao Phing Kan, called James Bond Island since The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed there in 1974, with the slender rock of Ko Tapu standing in the water beside it. Sea-canoe tours paddle through low caves into hongs, hidden lagoons open to the sky inside the islands, which can be entered only at the right tide. At Ko Panyi a Muslim fishing village stands on stilts beneath a towering cliff, with a floating football pitch. Most visitors come on day trips from Phuket or Krabi by longtail, speedboat or big boat; James Bond Island is crowded around midday, so go early or late. Sunrise from Samet Nangshe viewpoint is spectacular.
Ao Phang Nga National Park, Ko Panyi, Phang Nga, Phang Nga, 82000, Thailand
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the national park islands and James Bond Island are open to visitors from about 8 am to about 5 or 6 pm every day, with no weekly closing day; tours leave Phuket about 7 to 9 am and return late afternoon, and longtails from Phang Nga piers leave from early morning. Sea-canoe times shift daily with the tide. Samet Nangshe is visited from before sunrise. Ko Panyi restaurants serve tour lunches from about 11 am to 2 pm. The traps that ruin a day are reaching James Bond Island at noon with every tour, a canoe trip scheduled at the wrong tide, a rough-sea cancellation in the wet season and no cash for the park fee. Confirm current times before relying on them.