charlescisco burimanga

Been in Phuket Town a couple of days now. My first day was spent relaxing, and taking care of administrative duties: checking my budget and how much I've spent (I'm on target); locating some good local food; blogging; planning an itinerary for my stay here; and getting my laundry done. All have now been actioned.

Yesterday, I went on a day trip to Phang-Nga province, just north of Phuket Island. Once in Phang-Nga we boarded a Longtail Boat, and trundled out into Ao Phang-Nga, 'a scenic bay of mangrove forests and limestone caves virtually melting with wax-like stalactites...ringed by limestone mountains as if bony fingers had struck through the surface of the earth and hardened forever' (Lonely Planet: 2006, p.783).

Ao Phang-Nga is indescribably beautiful, and no hamfisted attempt at putting its beauty into words can do it justice. Raj: for the record I thought it was even more beautiful than our visit to Mount Bromo in Indonesia last year...something I never thought I'd say. This, therefore, makes it the most wonderful place I've ever been to.

First stop was 'James Bond Island,' so called because it was the location for Francisco Scaramanga's island lair in 'The Man with The Golden Gun.' As I stood on the island beach I thought of Roger Moore, in a safari suit no doubt, looking Christopher Lee in the eye and confidently intoning, 'you won't get away with this Scaramanga,' and Christopher Lee replying, 'ahhh, but I already have Mr Bond. I already have.'

For the record, Roger Moore is the best James Bond. No question. I'm willing to accept that Sean Connery was a very, very good Bond, but nobody can raise an eyebrow to a supervillain like Moore.

Next we moved on to Panyee Village, a floating village in the bay, for lunch. In my experience lunches on trips of this kind are usually pretty pathetic, meagre affairs, but not in this case. It was a feast fit for a Thai king. Plate after plate of delicious Thai food kept arriving at our table in what felt like a never ending stream. I'm not ashamed to say I made a complete pig of myself, and embarrassed my country. The fried fish had to be tasted to be believed.

In the afternoon we chugged on to an elephant farm, resident at which were what our Thai host referred to proprietorially as fifteen 'Asian' elephants (more commonly known to you and me as 'Indian' elephants). While we were there I went for a ride on a female elephant called, inexplicably, 'Linda.' It was brilliant. I felt like an Indian Rajah. Thankfully Linda chose not to stampede into the wilderness and freedom, instead plodding with me on top for a leisurely ten minute stroll around the elephant farm.

Most of the people on the day trip were families, and I spent most of the day with an Egyptian doctor from Cairo called Dr Issam, his wife Laila, their daughter, and a couple called Abhi and Sonika who were on their honeymoon from Delhi. I spent much of the day explaining to Laila why, at 28, I am still not married to a nice girl, and talking to Abhi and Sonika about their wedding - all of India's billion people seem to have attended. Interestingly, Sonika recruits people to work in the Indian call centres which give information in the UK - including on British rail enquiries. She said her company employed 10 000 call centre operators!

I got back to the hotel about 5pm, and retired to a nearby cafe for a coke, and to listen to some delightful Jack Johnson ballards. Slowly I edited my seventy, or so, photos down to twenty, and treated myself to some chocolate chip cookies, because, as they say at L'Oreal, 'I'm worth it.'