Fruit haul:
I swear to God worth the trip right there.
From my balcony:
These little bird mobile things are everywhere on the hotel grounds - the tails spin in the slightest breeze. There's 4 or 5 on my balcony alone.
Flying in to Phuket:
1st one is Phuket town & Cape Panwa.
2nd is passing the Andaman side where I stay as we fly out to sea before turning into the airport:
OK, so back to Bond, Dave Bond:
Scaramanga, the role played by one time Canadian thespian Christopher Plummer in The Man with the Golden Gun (theme tune that time sung by Lulu, one time matahari and cabaret chanteusse), had a little hide out some where in Asia where all kinds of goodies deep in the tropics awaited a moment to unleash evil on the world. It was the mid 70s and of course the west was best, so Bond always won. And now the west was proven the best as the communists all live like us now, or at least pretend to. I digress. Sure enough, the odd shaped limestone peaks of Pang Nga was the chosen place and now it is known as James Bond Island. But it is only one of several islands, and weirdly, the island looks far bigger in the movie. A giant laser came out of the rock and nearly frazzled Mr. Bond. But showing great innovation in Bond movie scripts, he managed to get out of harms way just in the knick of time... Whew!
It is quite a hike on a shared bus picking up from many places to get to Phang Nga, it was a long day. I am sunburned, I wish the iron curtain were back in place (Phuket would be far easier to get around if half the tourists were gone, and half seem to be Soviet spies) and I am about to flunk into bed.
This is the Bond Island rock.
The canoe scenes however, at low tide you paddle in to caves, lying flat in the canoe to enter the cave, then inside it is bright and open to the sky above.
Also some floating islands here, well, built on stilts.
Pretty neat. I also had another fried rice dinner, served in half a pineapple. I like that. I want more.
One last amazing tale, no, two:
1: What was Scaramanga's defining "feature"? And no it was not the pituitary dwarf who played the annoying butler.
2: In my room, every day, new items arrive on the desk to buy. There was a Panasonic flashlight and some citronella oil. Next day a burner for the oil. today Durex condoms.
Should I phone the front desk and tell them they left their condoms in my room? There's no party here, so maybe someone is waiting for them to arrive....
Okay answer to the Bond trivia is a third nipple. The Chinese agents knew it was a genuine Scaramanga by that one feature.... I am applying for a job at IMDB as we speak.
- BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on picture for larger image and gallery.
