Phang Nga (Pan-nyah) is one of the natural wonders that we wanted to see on this trip; it’s a bay full of dramatically shaped limestone mountains that rise from the water. The journey takes an hour by bus from Phuket, so that wasn’t too bad, but once we arrived we discovered that the only way to get to the bay if you don’t have a rental car is by motorcycle-taxi. The harbor we arrived at was pretty bleak for the middle of the day, but we didn’t consider this much and went ahead on the ride. We were taken around by boat to see the mountains and after about an hour arrived at “James Bond Island” the most dramatic grouping of limestone forms where The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed.

On the way back to the dock I started feeling a bit sea sick and dizzy, but I didn’t think much of it. Much worse luck was still ahead - we couldn’t find a ride back into town to get our bus! After we were entering panic mode, a silver car sent from heaven arrived with a friendly family who ended up taking us all the way to Phuket since they were headed that way too.

My dizziness got worse and worse, and finally, I threw up! Luckily the little girl sitting in the back seat with me was quick enough to open the window for me in time. I heaved a few more rounds and felt a lot better. Later I got a fever and Eoin played nursemaid to his sick sister. I’m just glad that I wasn’t on a nasty bus when all that happened. Eww.