Heaven and Hell

It was a bit of a sad goodbye from Rayavadee this morning, all 40 of us being hauled off in speedboats back to our cars on shore. Since we spent two days in Rayavadee, we got to know the place and the people there a bit and we really enjoyed being there. As we drove off, I felt a little heavy, knowing that I will probably never get to this place again or see any of the people who treated us with so much kindness. You wonder if there is a reason for why we meet certain people at different times in our lives. It is amazing how small the world really is. People here in Thailand in the middle of the ocean are just like us.

It's 3950 miles to the center of the Earth.

From the haven of Rayavadee we were dumped into budget tourism hell...we went on a boat ride from Phuket to the infamous "James Bond Island", a little rock in the sea on which there was apparently a scene filmed for the movie "The man with the golden gun".  The boats they drive out there are traditional Thai long tail boats that are powered by huge diesel truck engines on sticks out of which come 15 ft long shafts with propellers on them. Obnoxiously loud and inefficient.

Lacking any other notable sights, the insignificant James Bond Island has become a tourist attraction. Lots of overweight, sweaty and pale Europeans plus Thais selling plastic buddhas. We were so glad to be out of there. Our visit was followed by a pretty nice lunch in a seafood place close to the island. 

After that, it was a short 40 km drive to our resort for the night, the huge JW Marriott in Phuket. It's a good thing that we are just spending one night here. Tomorrow and the day after are days of long driving...we need to make our way up through Bangkok and then into Cambodia. Things will hopefully get a little off-road and rustic then. Yeah!