Pha Nga Bay Tour by Speedboat

We decided to take the Speedboat tour instead of the Big Boat tour to go to Pha Nga Bay, although the price was more expensive. The Speedboat tour was THB 1,300 per person while the big boat was around THB 1,000 per person. I asked suggestion to Miss Ladda before booking the tour. She said better to take the speedboat tour, beside it’s faster, it also stop at Panyee “the floating village” for lunch. While for the Big Boat tour lunch will be provided on the boat.

We were picked up early at 7.30 am, and the van continued picking up other guests in the Patong area. We had to wait about 20 minutes for one group staying at Milenium Hotel Patong, oh no..so annoying:p It was a long journey to the Pier, giving us an opportunity to sleep. We arrived at the Pier at about 9.15am. It was a sunny day, so we bought hats while waiting at the Pier.

After waiting for 30 minutes, we were informed that it was our turn to get into our speedboat. We had to walk and cross the bridge, while the bigger group were transferred by songtheauw..not fair! But thanks to our new hats.

at the pier

 There were about 20 people on the speedboat, we were the only Indonesian, many of Indonesian groups taking the big boat tour, that’s what I heard from Miss Ladda. Our first stop was the Panak island. The speedboat stopped and the tour guide gave us the opportunity to take pictures of the beautiful stalactite and stalagmite.

There were also canoe man around Panak island, but the wave was too hight to try canoeing there.

Than we continued visiting Panyee island, our next stop for lunch. It was too early, so we were given time to shop at the souvenir shops at the back of the restaurant. Too bad we couldn’t go to the village, we could just stay at the resto.

We stopped there about one hour, than we continued our journey to the James Bond Island. Finally we saw the James Bond stone. Many people swimming to reach the stone. Too bad, our group were only given 30 minutes at James Bond island. So we only took pictures and went back to the speedboat.

After the James Bond island, we continued our journey by speedboat, after 10 minutes we arrived at Hong Island, where we saw canoe man again. The canoe started to approach us and one by one is transferred from the speedboat to canoe. We were asked to leave everything on the boat, and take only camera and hats. One canoe max is for 3 person, 1 canoe man and the other two person. We didn’t wear any life jacket, wow it was not a safety riding activity at all:p

The canoeing was amazing, we went into the caves, and enjoying the view from canoe. It was such a lovely experience.

Our canoe man named Ahmad took a picture of us.

The last island was Naka Island, where we were given 1.5 hours to enjoy the beach. We rented beach chair which cost THB 150 THB, but after 10 minutes, it started raining. We went to the café area to avoid the rain, thanks God the rains stopped after 15 minutes. Everyone was heading back to the beach again.

At 4.15 pm we went back to the speedboat again, and arrived at the pier 5 minutes after we left Naka island.

4.45 pm we left the pier after our toilet break and the van took the guests one by one to the hotel.

It was a really unforgettable journey visiting Pha Nga island, especially the canoeing activity! By the way, if you are considering whether to take big boat or speedboat to go to Pha Nga island, we heard from our friends that they finished their tour with bigboat at 7.00 pm at the pier. Well it’s than your choice. We were glad that we took the speedboat tour.

 written on 6 June 2012