Phuket, Thailand - 3 of 3

Back on the water (since we were on an island and thats the only way ) for another hour on a motorboat after lunch to arrive at James Bond Island.

In the 1974 the James Bond film (the 9th Bond movie, starred Roger Moore and Christopher Lee), The Man with the Golden Gun, Scaramanga (its the hideout for this one of Bond’s antagonists) describes Ko Ta Pu as a "mushroom-shaped rock", which houses two large solar panels that come up on top of Ko Ta Pu and lock on to the Sun and of course can blow up the world. Ko Ta Pu is also featured in another James Bond film (Tomorrow Never Dies, identified as in Vietnam) and in Star Wars Episode 3- Revenge of the Sith (Kaashyyk, the home planet of the Wookiees). Of course, before these movies, no one visited this area but now it is popular.

We then took the boat back to the mainland for the 2 hour ride back south to our ship. We did see some Buddhist Temples and Shrines as we drove through neighborhoods and got a feel for the areas in and around Phuket (see additional photos in posting 1 of 3). Phuket has a heavy influence from Singapore, as it is almost the same distance as Bangkok (capital of Thailand) to Phuket. We saw sitting, standing, lying and walking buddhas as we drove around which were explained for different stages of the Buddha and life. There are mostly Buddhist in Thailand but interestingly Phuket has almost an even split of Moslems and Buddhists.

Although we did not see much of Phuket on this trip, we decided this excursion would give us a special experience in the area ... and it sure did.Read more