What to do on a One Day Big Boat Tour to Phang Nga Bay

Day 2

On the second day of our holiday in Phuket, we would be doing a full day Phang Nga Bay cruise by Big Boat. The Phang Nga Bay cruise, along with Phi Phi Island day tour, are the top 2 must-do activities for visitors in Phuket. The cruise would take us to the Phang Nga Bay for island hopping, sightseeing, canoeing, and swimming activities.

 

Map of our Phang Nga Bay cruise tour

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We had a early breakfast at our hotel (Saladee Gallery Residence) before we were picked up by the minibus transport to Ao Por Pier, located at the eastern coast of the island and approximately 1 hour drive away from our hotel in Patong. 

Phang Nga Bay

After the long road journey, we arrived at the cruise operator (Phuket Patri Tour P.P.T)'s premise at Ao Por Pier. We waited for a while for other passengers of the same cruise to arrive before we were picked up by the shuttle to transport us directly to the pier (only a short distance) for the boat boarding.

Boarding the Big Boat at Ao Por Pier

Another similar Big Boat with tourists beside our boat

The Big Boat consists of 2 decks. The upper deck is where the passengers will be located, and the place where lunch will be served too. Overall, there were probably close to 25 passengers on board, but the deck area was quite big, and we did not feel too crowded. Life jackets were provided for every passenger, including children, which were strapped to the side of the boat. The life jackets came with different sizes, so we just had to select the one that fit the individual. The lower deck is where the kitchen and the toilet are located.  The staff provided the safety briefing and introduced the itinerary of the cruise as the boat headed out of the pier and into the Phang Nga Bay.

Cruising into Phang Nga Bay

View from the lower deck

View from the upper deck

The weather was fantastic, sunny and the sky clear and blue, perfect for a cruise tour. Phang Nga Bay is sheltered from the open Andaman Sea, thus the water was relatively calm. In addition, since we were travelling on the big boat (despite slower), it was much more stable and comfortable as compared to travel on speedboat. Throughout the cruise, we would enjoy the sea breeze and beautiful view of the bay, while at the same served with complimentary beverages such as soft drink, coffee, tea, and fruits (bananas).

Hundreds of limestone islets seen across the bay

James Bond Island

After cruising for around 1.5 hour, we had finally reached the first attraction, James Bond Island. As our Big Boat was not able to dock on the island, we had to transfer to the Long Tail Boat, which would bring us to the island. 

Transfering to the Long Tail Boat

The island is officially known as Ko Khao Phing Kan. Within the vicinity of the island shore, there is a 20m tall limestone islet called Ko Ta Pu, which is the most iconic feature of the place. The islands were collectively called James Bond Island because they were featured in the 1974 James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun and became famous worldwide ever since.

Arriving the jetty at James Bond Island

After we disembarked from the Long Tail Boat, we went directly to the towering Ko Ta Pu spot for photo taking. We could see many tourists making the iconic James Bond pose while taking the photoshoot. 

The iconic Ko Ta Pu at James Bond Island

The island is not very big. Other than the Ko Ta Pu photo spot, there is another catching fault feature, which a large rock cracked and now leans against the cliff. 

The rock fault

Introduction of the rock fault

Other than these, there were other tourist shops, especially around the jetty area. We stayed on the island for around 20 minutes only, before we boarded the Long Tail Boat at the jetty again to the next location, Panyee Island.

Panyee Island

Panyee Island is located further north of James Bond Island, and the Long Tail Boat ride took around 15 minutes. 

Panyee Island comprise of a Muslim fishing village, which is built on stilts over the water. The settlement here used to depend on fishing as their main livelihood. But over time, they started to open to tourism to supplement their income. 

Arriving at Panyee Island

From the jetty, our tour guide started to introduce us to the history of the island, as well as guiding us through the village. There are a few notable landmarks at the island, such as the floating football field (located just beside the jetty) and the mosque. Other than that, we could find a number retail and souvenir shops, and restaurants that catered to the visiting tourists.

Dome of the mosque can be seen at the background

Floating Football Field (Photo from ambitionearth.com)

Introduction to the Floating Football Field

The Mosque

The tour on the island was short, around 30 minutes, before we headed to the jetty to take the Long Tail Boat back to our Big Boat.

Hong Island

When we returned to our Big Boat, it was already lunch time. Lunch was already prepared onboard and laid on the table. Our Big Boat left for the next location at Hong Island, while we enjoyed the lunch buffet along the journey. The buffet was simple, but had a good spread such as fried rice, noodles, fish, fried chicken, and vegetables etc. 

Lunch buffet on board (Photo from Phuket Patri Tour)

The next activity at Hong Island would be sea canoeing. 2 to 3 people would be assigned a rubber canoe where a local would paddle us from the Big Boat towards the island. 

Rowing towards Hong Island

That was the point that we would put on our life jackets (although many others didn't). For non-swimmers, it was recommended to put on the life jacket, despite that the chance of falling into the water was low. We would pass through the caves and lagoons, surrounded by lush green cliffs. 

Rowing through the cave

Lagoon surrounded by lush green cliffs

Rowing through a narrow path

I must say that this was the best and most exciting part of the tour so far. After some 20 minutes, we were brought back to the Big Boat. 

A busy afternoon with many other visitors at Hong Island

Phanak Island

After Hong Island, we were brought to the Phanak Island further south. With the same arrangement as at Hong Island, we had more sea canoeing activity. 

Arriving Phanak Island

Paddlers waiting to pick us up

We passed through the bat cave, which was pitch dark inside. The paddler came prepared with torch light, which he pointed to the roof of the cave, and we could see lots of bats. Out of the cave, we were lucky to see a monkey around, which was given a banana treat by other paddlers.

Bats in the cave

Rowing out of the pitch dark Bat Cave

Monkey at Phanak Island

After we returned to the Big Boat, we moved to another location near an island, which we could swim around the boat. It was not shallow water, but those who were non-swimmer could wear their life jackets and had fun swimming with the rest too. 

Swimming around the Big Boat

After the swim, we had a 'shower' at the lower deck, which was simply a hose with fresh running water, to remove the salty water. That was the last activity and concluded the 5-in-1 Phang Nga Bay tour. Everyone onboard was tired and tried to catch some sleep as the Big Boat travelled back to the Ao Por Pier.

Patong Beach

After we returned to our hotel, it was still early for dinner. For those that were still energetic, we decided to head down to the Patong Beach. Patong has a long stretch of white sandy beach, but the water was not very clear or turquoise as compared to other smaller islands like Phi Phi. 

Patong Beach

It was quite crowded when we were there, with many tourists engaged with various activities like sunbathing, swimming, jet skiing and parasailing. Our kids started to build their sandcastles while the adults laze around at the beach and some eventually tried out the jet skiing.

Operator pushing out the jet ski to the sea

Parasailing at the beach

We were lucky that the beach is facing the right direction at that time, as we enjoyed the beautiful sunset at the beach.

Sunset view at Patong Beach

Dinner at Urban Food @ Jungcelyon Shopping Mall

As the day turned dark, we returned to our hotel to wash up. Next, we strolled to the Jungcelyon Shopping Mall in search for the dinner spot. Located just opposite the popular Bangla Road, Jungcelyon Shopping Mall is the largest shopping mall in Phuket. 

Outside Jungcelyon Shopping Mall

It has the regular apparels, footwear, souvenir shops, fast food, cafes, restaurants, and the Big C supermarket. We explored the big mall for a while before we settled at Urban Food for our dinner.

Urban Food had an extensive offering of food, such as Thai, Asian, and Western cuisines. The pricing of the food was acceptable, considering the fact it was in a shopping mall. We ordered a variety of food, such as pizzas, chicken cordon bleu, Thai curries etc. The food was delicious, and portion was big as well. Some of the food also allowed you to help yourself with the salad bar.

Chicken Cordon Bleu at Urban Food

Hawaiian Pizza

After the dinner, we went to the Big C supermarket to buy some snacks and local produces, before we headed back to our hotel and call it a day.

Travel Guide to Phuket Half Day City Tour with Private Transport

Day 1

It was the year end school holiday, and we were going on a 7D6N holiday trip to Thailand, covering Phuket and Bangkok. This time round, it consisted of our extended family members, accounting to more than 10 pax in total. Our trip would be partly free and easy, and for some days engaging local travel companies for day tours. We departed Singapore on a 2 hour Jetstar Asia flight to Phuket in the early morning.

View of Phuket island from the aircraft

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Phuket is a very popular tourist destination for many travelers around the world, famous for its pristine beaches (especially at the surrounding smaller islands) and tropical scenery. Phuket may not be the cheapest place in Thailand, but it certainly has loads of attractions and activities catered for tourists.

Saladee Gallery Residence

We had arranged with a local company Phuket Travel Company for the day tours in Phuket, as well as the airport-hotel transfers. As soon as we cleared the immigration at Phuket International Airport, we were greeted by the drivers waiting for us. Since we were a large group, we were split into 2 minibuses to transfer us to our hotel at Patong, which was around a 1 hour drive.

We would be staying at Saladee Gallery Residence at Patong throughout our stay in Phuket. It is rather small hotel, but we had selected this hotel due to its excellent location, being strategically located near the heart of Patong (Bangla Road), Jungceylon Shopping Center and of course the Patong beach itself. The price of the rooms was also very affordable, and they had excellent reviews from Tripadvisor. We checked in the hotel and were allocated the rooms, which was clean and neat.

Our hotel room

Bathroom

We did not stay long in our rooms. We headed to the Lucky Restaurant just beside our hotel to have our lunch, which sells a mixture of Thai, Chinese, Indian and Arabic cuisine. The serving of the food was rather slow (despite our group was the only customers there), but eventually we managed to finish up the food just before the transport arrived to pick us up for the tour.

Our lunch location at Lucky Restaurant

Phuket Old Town

The Half-Day Phuket City Tour program with Phuket Travel Company kicked off with a visit to Phuket Old Town, which was around an hour drive (by minibus) from our hotel. We were dropped off along Thalang Road, which is considered as the heart of Phuket Old Town. The street is narrow and lined by two rows of heritage shophouses. Many of these shophouses are converted to hotels, cafes, restaurants, boutique clothing shops, souvenir, and handicraft shops. Unfortunately, we were only given 30 min to tour the area, which we had mainly spent our time visiting a couple of shops. 

Walking along Thalang Road

Big Bee Farm Phuket

Next, we headed to the Big Bee Farm Phuket, which is around 20 min drive from Phuket Old Town. The tour began with a short tour around the compound, where we were introduced the different types of honeybees and bee farming. 

Entering Big Bee Farm

Giant bee statue

Information on different types of honeybees

The staff also showed us the beehives with lots of bees, where we could take photos of it. 

Hundreds of bees at the beehive

After this, we were led to a small showroom where the staff would introduce their honey products and the associated health benefits. We did not buy any products from the salesperson and exited the showroom towards the main shop, where they had more honey products (royal jelly, pollen, vinegar, tea, chocolates, and ice-cream etc). 

Giant honeybomb display at the shop

Personally, I felt this place was more of a shop rather than a farm. But nevertheless, it was still interesting to see the honeybees at close-up and learn about the bees and honey products.

Cashew Nut Factory

We boarded our transport and took a short 3 min ride to the next stop, Cashew Nut Factory. 

Big cashew nut display at the entrance

The area is not very big, with one side the cashew processing area and the other side the retail shop. We could see a several ladies operating the machine to crack the nuts. After this, it was sampling tasting and browsing through their huge variety of flavoured cashew nuts and other local produce. 

Woman cracking the cashew nuts

The retail area

The nuts were tasty and some of us ended up buying some of the nuts. After the short shopping activity, we headed back to our transport to the next destination.

Wat Chalong

Our next destination was Wat Chalong, which is just a short 10 min drive away. So far I felt the places I had visited were mainly shopping related, so I was really looking forward to the next destination. Wat Chalong (officially known as Wat Chaithararam) is the largest, and most popular and visited Buddhist temple in Phuket. The temple was built in the 19th century, dedicated to 2 monks Luang Pho Chaem and Luang Pho Chuang. 

From the carpark, we first passed by the main temple, which is the Ubosot. This building is closed for visitors, as only the monks can enter to perform ceremonial services. Nevertheless, we were happy to take photos from outside and admired the architectural design, which consist of very decorative tiered roofs. 

Wat Chalong Ubosot

The next building opposite is the Viharn, which has a similar architectural design as the Ubosot. In addition, there are several elephant statues at the entrance. The temple is open to public and house the bronze statues of the 3 most revered abbots of the temple, where visitors can make their prayers.

Wat Chalong Virhan

Occasionally, we could hear loud 'explosion' that sounded like firecrackers coming from the brick oven in front of the temple. The locals would buy and lit the firecrackers in the oven, and the loud sound signifies that the prayer was heard and answered.

Prayers throwing firecrackers into the oven

The last building we would visit in the complex is the Chedi, which is a magnificent 60m tall temple.

Wat Chalong Chedi

The temple is open to public and has 3 levels. The first two levels contain many Buddha statues. The roof and walls were painted with murals that depicts the life and teachings of Buddha. The 3rd level is an open terrace, which we could see the entire Wat Chalong complex, as well as the surrounding mountainous scenery. 

Overview of Wat Chalong complex from the Chedi

The most important piece of sacred relic that makes the temple special is stored in the glass chamber located here, which is a piece of Buddha's bone fragment. It was brought from Sri Lanka and installed here by then Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn. After this, we exited the temple and headed for our transport to the next destination.

Buddha bone relic in glass chamber

Phuket Big Buddha

Our next destination was the Phuket Big Buddha, which was another 20 min drive winding up the mountainous roads. The Big Buddha is a white coloured Maravija Buddha statue in a seated position, measuring 45m tall and 25.5m wide. It is located on top of the Nakkerd Hill, facing the Chalong Bay, making it an excellent viewpoint of the surrounding area and thus one of the most popular tourist attraction in Phuket.

Walking up from the carpark, we arrived at a large open terrace where we got an unblocked view of the eastern coast of Phuket, more specifically Chalong Bay and the surrounding smaller islands. 

View of Chalong Bay from Big Buddha

From here, the flight of stairs (also known as the Stairway to Heaven) leads up to the upper terrace where the base of the Big Buddha is located. 

Stairway to Heaven

Another magnificent view of Chalong Bay from the upper terrace

Over here, visitors could make prayers and offerings to the Buddha. At the other side of the statue, we could also get a view of the western coast of Phuket, covering the Karon and Kata Beach area. 

The majestic Big Buddha statue

Map of Big Buddha garden

After this, we headed back to the transport and departed for our last attraction of the tour, Promthep Cape.

Promthep Cape

Promthep Cape is located at the southern end of Phuket, which was around 30 min drive from the Big Buddha. It is famous for its sunset viewpoint, and that was exactly the same reason we were going there for. When we arrived at the viewpoint, it was still early for the sunset. But as the time goes by, more and more visitors (both locals and foreign tourists) started pouring into the area to catch the sunset view. From the viewpoint, we could enjoy the sea breeze and beautiful sunset across the Andaman Sea.

Sunset view at Promthep Cape

We had requested our travel agency to book our dinner with Phromthep Cape Restaurant, which is just a short walking distance from the view point. The tables were located outdoor facing the coast, so we had the opportunity to continue enjoying the sunset view while waiting for our dinner to be served. 

Outdoor dining at Phromthep Cape Restaurant

Our reserved table

We ordered several of authentic Thai food such as Seafood Tom Yum, Green Curry Chicken, Stir Fried Chicken, Pineapple Fried Rice, as well as some fries and chicken nuggets for the kids. The food was good and the prices (although higher than other places in Phuket due to its prime location) were within expectation. However, there was one big problem with the place, which there were a lot of mosquitoes in the area, which many of us were badly bitten. Although the staff tried to put several mosquito coils around our table, that was still in vain. This had dampened the entire dining experience, which would have otherwise been a perfect dining event.

The conclusion of our dinner marked the end of our tour. We were picked up by the transport and headed back to our hotel. The journey would take around 45 min. With a full stomach and after a long and tired day, many of us quickly fell asleep during the journey. Upon arrival of our hotel, most of us decided to retire early, except a few young ones who were still energetic and continued to explore the lively street surrounding our hotel.

Bustling night along the main street in Patong