Bangkok is Thailand's vast and endlessly energetic capital city: a place where gilded Buddhist temples stand in the shadow of luxury hotels traffic-choked boulevards give way to tranquil river klongs and street food stalls serve some of the finest cooking in Southeast Asia.
Thailand: Exploring Ao Phang-Nga National Park
Contents
1. About Ao Phang-Nga National Park
2. Things to do
– Rock Paintings
– James Bond Island Rock Paintings
– Sea Caves
– Floating Village
– Photograph the Merlion Statue at Merlion Park
– Explore the Asian Civilisations Museum
– Wander the Chinatown Heritage Centre
– Discover the Singapore Oceanarium
– Spend a Morning at the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari
– Explore Fort Siloso and Sentosa’s Dark Past
3. Getting around
4. Vegan dining options
5. Best time to visit
6. Where to stay
Thailand: Exploring Ao Phang-Nga National Park
🌊 Ao Phang-Nga National Park sits along the coast of Phang-Nga Province in southern Thailand, spread across 400 square kilometres of the Andaman Sea, and it contains the largest native mangrove forests in the whole of Thailand.
Declared a marine national park in 1981, this remarkable stretch of the Andaman Sea has been protected for good reason. The park takes in a vast, complex landscape of jungle-clad limestone karst islands, turquoise bays, white sandy beaches, hidden sea caves and the largest surviving expanse of native mangrove forest anywhere on the Thai mainland. The geology here is genuinely spectacular — these towering limestone formations were laid down on an ancient seabed some 280 million years ago during the Permian period, then thrust upward and sculpted over millennia by rain, wind and tidal action into the dramatic shapes you see today. The popular headline attractions are James Bond Island, a handful of other jaw-dropping karst formations, several excellent beaches and a network of caves that you can only reach by water. The turquoise waters between the islands are generally calm and sheltered, which makes the whole bay exceptionally well suited to canoeing, and there are some extraordinary spots to explore — narrow sea-level caves that open out into sealed inland lagoons completely cut off from the outside world, known locally as hongs, a Thai word simply meaning “room.” Besides the natural drama, the park also harbours a small number of archaeological sites dating back more than 1,000 years, including prehistoric rock paintings on the cliff faces and evidence of early human habitation in the form of stone tools and pottery fragments found during surveys of the area. The whole place is, frankly, quite something.
We spent a full day out on a tour exploring Ao Phang-Nga National Park aboard a small long-tailed boat, calling at several of the more popular sites. Here’s how it all went.
🎨 1. Rock Paintings
As we made our way through the bay, we passed a succession of extraordinary limestone rock formations rising sheer out of the water on all sides. These rocks are composed almost entirely of limestone, a sedimentary rock that is relatively soft and highly porous, which means it erodes remarkably quickly in geological terms — particularly when exposed to the combination of tropical rainfall, tidal saltwater and the carbonic acid that forms when rainwater absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Over hundreds of thousands of years this process, known as karst formation, has carved the limestone into the dramatic towers, undercuts, overhangs and caves that make Phang-Nga Bay look unlike almost anywhere else on earth.
In the undercuts and lower sections of several of the cliffs, accessible only by small, flat-bottomed boats during the right tidal conditions, we spotted a number of painted rock faces bearing images of various animals — fish, crabs, human figures and what appeared to be boats. These are prehistoric rock paintings believed by Thailand’s Fine Arts Department to be at least 3,000 years old, placing them firmly in the Bronze Age. The most widely accepted theory is that they were created by ancient mariners and seafarers who used the shelter of these overhangs to ride out the ferocity of the monsoon season, mooring their vessels beneath the cliffs and passing the time by painting the surfaces around them with pigments made from natural minerals. Looking at them from our boat, knowing they’d survived three millennia of tropical weather in this spot, was genuinely humbling — and far more interesting than anything you’d find in most museums, though we appreciate not everyone gets excited by a faded drawing of a crab.
🎬 2. James Bond Island
Our first proper stop was Khao Phing Kan, which translates from Thai as “Leaning on Itself Island” — a name that refers to the way the main island’s two rock masses appear to support each other along a shared fault line. To the rest of the world, however, it has been known simply as James Bond Island ever since 1974, when it was chosen as the principal filming location for The Man with the Golden Gun, the ninth film in the Eon Productions Bond series, which was released in December 1974. In the film — and we appreciate that you either know this intimately or you couldn’t care less — Roger Moore’s 007 confronts the flamboyant assassin Francisco Scaramanga, played with considerable relish by Christopher Lee, at his private island base, with the distinctive karstic scenery of Khao Phing Kan forming the dramatic backdrop to several key scenes. The film’s release turned this previously unremarkable corner of Phang-Nga Bay into one of the most recognisable bits of Thai scenery in the world, and tourism to the area has never quite recovered its obscurity since.
The centrepiece of the site is Ko Tapu, a separate needle-like limestone pinnacle standing roughly 20 metres high and only about four metres wide at its base, which juts improbably out of the sea a short distance from the main island of Khao Phing Kan. Ko Tapu means “Nail Island” in Thai, and you can see why — it looks more like something from a science fiction novel than a real geological feature. The rock’s precarious-looking base is the result of differential erosion: the limestone at the waterline has been worn away faster by tidal action and wave erosion than the rock above it, leaving the pinnacle balanced on a narrower pedestal than the top it supports. The entire karst landscape of Khao Phing Kan is densely covered with tropical forest, and its sheer sides make most of it completely inaccessible, apart from one small bay with a sandy beach where visitors can land. Given the sheer volume of tourists visiting — this is, by some estimates, one of the most visited spots in all of Thailand — no boats are now permitted to approach Ko Tapu closely, in order to protect the fragile base from the wake and vibration of engines.
Like all the visitor boats, we landed on the shallow beach close by and made our way along the steep rock path that winds up and around through the vegetation to the viewpoints above the needle and back down into the bay itself. Along the way there were a couple of decent spots to stop and take photographs, and the views across the bay from the higher points were genuinely impressive. James Bond Island is very small — there is really only this one path and this one view — so after around 20 minutes of exploring we were done, back on our long-tailed boat and heading to our next destination with the smell of two-stroke petrol drifting back from the engine.
🚣 3. Sea Caves
Our boat broke away from the main channel and headed into some quieter backwaters where the limestone formations crowd in close on either side. We came across three floating platforms moored in the shallower water, each operated by tour companies running kayak excursions into the sea caves — the so-called hongs we mentioned earlier. This was not a self-paddling affair. We both clambered somewhat inelegantly onto an inflatable kayak, where a local man settled himself on the stern and proceeded to do all the actual work while we sat there looking like passengers on a very small cruise ship.
We followed the line of the limestone karst walls until our guide brought us to a small opening in the cliff face — and when we say small, we mean it. The gap was probably no more than 75 centimetres high at its tallest point. Our guide told us to lie back flat, which we duly did, and he paddled us through on his back, pushing off the cave ceiling with his hands where necessary. The whole thing felt distinctly like being posted through a letterbox. Once through, we found ourselves inside a roughly circular enclosed lagoon, open to the sky about 50 metres above our heads through a jagged natural oculus. The cave ceiling had collapsed inward at some point in the distant geological past, leaving this hidden interior space entirely surrounded by vertical walls of limestone draped in hanging roots and vegetation, with the water inside eerily still and the noise of the bay completely absent. It was genuinely extraordinary — one of those places that makes you feel as though you have stumbled into somewhere that shouldn’t really exist. We repeated the same process of lying flat and being guided through the entrance a couple more times at different caves, and the sensation didn’t get any less strange.
As we paddled through the broader channels lined by dense mangrove trees — the roots of the Rhizophora and Avicennia species forming tangled archways over the water’s edge — our guide paused his paddling duties to point out what he told us were lungfish lurking in the shallower mud. True lungfish (Protopterus and related species) are genuinely ancient creatures that have been around in some form for roughly 400 million years, though the ones in this part of Thailand are more likely a local species of air-breathing fish adapted to the oxygen-poor conditions of mangrove mud. Fascinating, regardless. Less fascinating was our guide’s other running commentary, which had by this point deteriorated into a series of coarse jokes about the resemblance of certain rock formations to various items of human anatomy. He delivered these quietly, apparently on the understanding that Karen couldn’t hear. He was probably right to be cautious on that front.
The tour finished by passing through a massive natural tunnel cut clean through a limestone karst, which was genuinely impressive. On the way back to the jetty our guide shifted smoothly from geology to personal finance, sharing thoughts on the relative generosity of different nationalities as tippers and making some pointed remarks about his own income. We gave him a fair tip, re-joined our long-tailed boat, and said nothing.
🏘️ 4. Floating Village
Our next stop was Koh Panyee, one of the most unusual and interesting communities we’ve come across anywhere in Southeast Asia. The village appears to float in the middle of the bay, though the reality is slightly more prosaic: it sits on a platform of stilts driven into the shallow seabed, with the actual rocky outcrop of Ko Panyee Island rising behind it. The settlement was established in the late 18th century — most historical accounts suggest around 1780 — by two seafaring Malay Muslim families who had sailed north from the Kedah Sultanate on the Malaysian peninsula, seeking new fishing grounds. Finding the bay rich in fish and the water around Ko Panyee suitably sheltered, they built their homes on the water rather than on the island’s steep, largely unusable rock face. Their descendants are still there today, and the village now houses around 360 families and roughly 1,685 people — a self-contained community with its own mosque (built in 1878 and still in use), a school, a medical clinic, a small market, a football pitch and, inevitably by now, a lot of restaurants catering to visiting tourists. The economy has shifted significantly over the decades from pure fishing toward tourism, though the village still operates a working fishing fleet and the early morning sight of boats heading out through the bay is a reminder that this is a real, functioning community rather than a theme park.
The first order of business was lunch. We were ushered into one of the larger restaurants that line the waterfront, where we sat out over the water with the bay stretching away on all sides and had a very decent meal. Standard tour-group fare, but perfectly fine.
After lunch we had a few minutes free to wander, and we headed immediately for the village’s most famous attraction: the floating football pitch. The story of this pitch is one of those genuinely uplifting tales that sounds too good to be true. Inspired by the drama of the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico — watched on grainy televisions in the village — a group of local children decided they wanted to play football. The small problem was that they had no flat land and no money. Undaunted, they built a pitch from old wooden planks, fishing rafts and whatever other materials they could scavenge from around the village, constructing it over the water on an extension of the existing platform. They then formed a team and entered the Southern Thai School Championships, which required them to travel to mainland venues and play on real grass for the first time. By all accounts, they adjusted remarkably quickly: they made it all the way to the semi-finals of an inland tournament, and in one reported incident during a second-half comeback, they simply kicked off their shoes and played barefoot, as they were used to doing on the wooden pitch at home. The whole village became football-mad after that, and a proper pitch was eventually constructed to replace the original ramshackle version — though the wooden one remains standing and extremely popular with tourists who want to have a kick about over the sea. When we visited, there was no fencing around the perimeter of the pitch at all, which would have made corner kicks an interesting logistical challenge. We decided against a penalty shootout.
It was soon time to leave Koh Panyee and head back toward the pier.
🙏 5. Wat Suwan Khuha
Before heading back to Khao Lak we had one final stop, and it turned out to be one of the most atmospheric of the day. Wat Suwan Khuha is a Buddhist temple complex built inside and around a series of natural limestone caves on the hillside above the town of Phang-Nga, and it has been a place of religious significance in this region for several centuries. The temple is sometimes known locally as Wat Tham, meaning “cave temple,” and it is believed to have been established during the Ayutthaya period of Thai history, which ran from 1351 to 1767 — making it a site of considerable antiquity even by the standards of a country not short of ancient religious buildings. The caves themselves are part of the same karst limestone formations that characterise the entire Phang-Nga Bay area, and the combination of natural cavern and Buddhist iconography creates an atmosphere quite unlike any conventional above-ground temple.
Inside the main cave there were numerous Buddha images of various sizes and periods, arranged across the cave floor and set into alcoves in the walls. The most impressive by a considerable margin was a large reclining Buddha figure, gilded in gold leaf, measuring several metres in length and occupying an entire side chamber of the cave. The reclining Buddha posture — known in Thai as Phra Phutthasaiyat — depicts the Buddha in the moment of entering Parinirvana, or final nirvana, at the end of his earthly life, and it is one of the most significant iconographic forms in Theravada Buddhism. We walked through the main cave, which opens out at the far end into daylight, where we found a considerable number of tourists engaged in the deeply unhelpful activity of feeding wild monkeys. We loathe this, and we make no apology for saying so: feeding wild primates habituates them to human contact, makes them aggressive and dependent, and invariably ends badly for the monkeys. We gave that particular scene a wide berth and headed instead into a smaller secondary cave adjacent to the main complex — an undecorated, unlit natural cavern with no Buddhist imagery whatsoever, just good honest geology and some rather sketchy stone steps worn smooth by centuries of feet. Karen, ever alert to my well-documented talent for falling over and breaking bits of myself in inconvenient locations, maintained a watchful eye throughout. I am happy to report that we both exited entirely intact, which she appeared to regard as something of a personal achievement.
Getting to Ao Phang Nga National Park
🌊 Ao Phang-Nga National Park
| 📍 Location | 80 Moo 1, Ban Tha Dan, Tambon Ko Panyi, Mueang Phang-Nga District, Phang Nga 82000, Thailand | 🌍 Established / Area | Established 1981 · approx. 400 km² |
| 🕖 Opening Times | Daily, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM | 🌐 Website | dnp.go.th |
| 📞 Phone | +66 (0)76 481 188 | ✉️ Email | Not publicly listed — enquiries via the DNP website |
| 🎫 Entrance Fee | From ฿300 (foreign adult) | ℹ️ Best Time to Visit | November – April (dry season) |
🎟️ Entry Fees
| Foreign Adults | Foreign Children | Thai Adults | Thai Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| ฿300 | ฿150 | ฿60 | ฿30 |
Getting There
By Air: Fly into Phuket International Airport (around 65 km away) or Krabi Airport, then take a taxi or transfer to Phang Nga town.
By Road: Take Highway 4 between Phuket and Krabi, then turn onto Route 4144 about 3.5 km west of Phang Nga town, following signs to Tha Dan.
By Bus/Van: Regular buses and minivans run from Phuket, Krabi and Surat Thani to Phang Nga bus station, followed by a short songthaew ride (about 6 km) to the park headquarters at Tha Dan.
By Boat: Piers at Ao Po (Phuket), Ban Khlong Khian (Phang Nga) and Nopparat Thara (Krabi) all run boat tours directly into the bay.
If your document tool doesn’t preserve the pasted table formatting well (this varies), let me know and I can put together an actual Word file instead.
The Best Time to Visit Thailand
Thailand’s climate is more complex than most, and the single most important thing to understand before planning a trip is that the country has two distinct coastlines — the Andaman Sea to the west and the Gulf of Thailand to the east — which follow opposite monsoon cycles. When the Andaman side is being battered by the south-west monsoon between June and October, the Gulf coast around Koh Samui and Koh Phangan is largely dry. When the north-east monsoon swings in from November, the situation reverses. Bangkok and the north operate on a third rhythm of their own. Getting that geography straight is the key to avoiding a soggy fortnight.
🌞 November to February — Cool & Dry Season
This is Thailand at its most comfortable and, not coincidentally, its most visited. The south-west monsoon has retreated, the north-east monsoon brings dry, cooler air down from China, and the result across most of the country is warm, sunny days with low humidity and pleasantly cool evenings — particularly in Chiang Mai and the northern highlands, where temperatures can drop to 15°C or below overnight in January. The Andaman coast — Phuket, Koh Lanta, the Phi Phi Islands, Krabi — is fully open and at its most inviting, with calm, clear seas ideal for snorkelling and island-hopping. Bangkok is at its most walkable. The trade-off is straightforward: this is also the most expensive and most crowded window of the year, with accommodation on the popular islands booking out months ahead around Christmas and New Year.
Packing: Lightweight breathable clothing for the days, a light layer or thin long-sleeved shirt for cooler northern evenings and air-conditioned transport, swimwear, reef-safe sunscreen, a hat, sandals and a smarter pair of shoes for evenings out.
🌶️ March to May — Hot Season
The coolness of January fades quickly into an often ferocious heat that builds through March, peaks in April and only begins to ease with the first pre-monsoon storms in May. Temperatures in Bangkok regularly hit 38–40°C, the air in Chiang Mai and the north becomes hazy with agricultural burning, and humidity climbs steadily. The saving grace is Songkran, Thailand’s exuberant water festival, which falls in mid-April and turns the streets of every city and town into a good-natured nationwide water fight — one of Southeast Asia’s great travel experiences, and worth timing a trip around specifically. Rates drop noticeably from the December–February peak, and some travellers find the heat manageable provided they plan outdoor activity for early mornings and evenings. By May, the first Andaman resorts begin closing for the low season as the south-west monsoon approaches.
Packing: The lightest, most breathable clothing you own, a refillable water bottle, high-SPF sunscreen, a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and a change of clothes for Songkran if travelling in April — you will get soaked regardless of your plans.
🌧️ June to October — South-West Monsoon
The south-west monsoon arrives in earnest from June, bringing heavy, sustained rainfall to the Andaman coast, the Gulf of Thailand’s western shores and much of the interior. Phuket, Krabi and the Andaman islands receive their heaviest rain of the year, seas turn rough, and several of the smaller island resorts close entirely between June and October. Bangkok floods periodically in September and October, when rainfall peaks. The Gulf coast, however — Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Koh Tao — follows the opposite pattern and stays comparatively dry through this period, making it the right side of the country to base a beach trip. The north and inland areas receive regular rain but often in short, intense afternoon bursts rather than all-day downpours, and the countryside is extraordinarily lush. Prices across most of Thailand drop to their lowest, and popular destinations feel genuinely quiet.
Packing: Quick-dry clothing, a lightweight waterproof jacket or compact poncho, waterproof sandals, a dry bag for boat trips and electronics, insect repellent, and a flexible itinerary that can bend around weather disruptions.
🌀 November — North-East Monsoon (Gulf Coast)
November sits in a transitional position that deserves separate mention. For most of Thailand, it marks the beginning of the best season — the Andaman coast reopens, Bangkok cools and dries, and Chiang Mai starts to feel wonderful. But the north-east monsoon, which is bringing all that dry, pleasant weather to the rest of the country, simultaneously pushes rain onto the Gulf coast, and Koh Samui and Koh Phangan see some of their heaviest rainfall of the year in November. Flooding can be significant, and a handful of years have seen the Samui airport disrupted. Anyone with the Gulf islands on their itinerary in November would do well to adjust either their timing or their destination.
Packing: Similar to the cool and dry season for most of Thailand — light layers and sun protection — but with a waterproof jacket and a contingency plan if travelling to the Gulf coast.
Overall Best Time
November to February is the easiest answer for most visitors: the weather is at its most reliable, the widest range of destinations is fully accessible, and Thailand in the cool season has a particular lightness to it that is difficult to argue against. For the Andaman coast specifically — Phuket, Krabi, the Phi Phi Islands — December to March is the undisputed prime window. Travellers who want the Gulf islands and can travel outside peak season should target February to April, when the Gulf coast is dry, the Andaman is still perfectly good, and the worst of the heat has not yet arrived. Those happy to follow the sun around the peninsula’s two coastlines, and who plan accordingly, can piece together an excellent trip in virtually any month of the year.
Where to stay
1. Mid Range – The Retreat Khaolak Resort
We spent several nights at the Retreat Khaolak Resort, using it as our base for excursions to the Surin Islands and Ao Phang-Nga National Park. The hotel sits well away from the main commercial strip of Khao Lak town, in a genuinely quiet village setting where the loudest sound at night was insects doing whatever insects do at midnight in southern Thailand. Close by there were a handful of local shops including a couple of small supermarkets and several local restaurants that we really enjoyed — the kind of unpretentious places that serve good, cheap Thai food to local people rather than tourist-friendly approximations of the real thing. The owner was exceptionally friendly and helpful throughout our stay, organising tours, dispensing honest advice about where to go and what to eat, and generally making us feel properly looked after rather than just processed. The hotel also had bicycles available to borrow and mopeds for rent. The bicycles were, if we’re being kind, a bit elderly and not especially well maintained, but they did the job perfectly well for pottering along the quiet local roads without requiring us to think too hard. We’d happily stay here again.
2. Luxury – JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort & Suites
Located in Khao Lak around 600 metres from Khuk Khak Beach, the JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort & Suites is the sort of place that makes you briefly wonder why you ever stay anywhere else, before the bill reminds you. The resort offers free bicycles, free private parking, a large outdoor swimming pool and a well-equipped fitness centre, along with an impressive range of water sports facilities and its own private beach area — so you could, in theory, never leave the grounds and still have rather a good time. The extensive tropical gardens are genuinely lovely, the shared lounge is a civilised spot for an evening drink, and the on-site restaurant and bar keep standards high throughout. Rooms are spacious, well appointed and exactly what you’d expect from a JW Marriott. This is very much the top end of what Khao Lak has to offer, and it knows it.
3. Budget – MJ Boutique Hotel
Located in a peaceful spot on Khao Lak South Beach, MJ Boutique Hotel sits around 100 metres from the water and represents good, honest value for money at the budget end of the market. The rooms are air-conditioned, clean and simply furnished, each with a flat-screen television, a kettle and a private bathroom fitted with either a bath or shower depending on the room type — nothing flashy, but everything you actually need after a long day out on the bay. The on-site restaurant handles breakfast and evening meals without any fuss, which is handy if you’ve come back late from a tour and can’t face the effort of finding somewhere to eat. The surrounding area is quiet and largely residential, which suits the place well. If you’re here primarily to get out and explore rather than lounge around a resort pool, MJ Boutique does the job very comfortably indeed.
1 2
More to Explore
