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Phuket, Thailand Is James Bond Territory
The cave tunnel gets smaller and smaller as we lie flat in the yellow inflatable kayak. "No moving!" laughs Sayaan, our Thai guide. The roof constricts to barely half an inch above my nose. Moments pass, then the grotto widens. "Turn your flashlights on," he whispers. Glistening stalactites hang down like giant ice crystals. A rock crab scuttles over a rose-colored, fan-shaped formation. I want to stay and absorb the beauty longer. But we're dependent on the tides, so he paddles us through the hong (island), shaped like an angel-food cake, to enter the inner lagoon. We're exploring Phang Nga Bay, Thailand, in sea canoes. This is just one of the exotic adventures that awaited us in this friendly and captivating land.
Made famous by the 007 movies "The Man With the Golden Gun" and "Tomorrow Never Dies", the bay is home to hundreds of weirdly-shaped limestone outcroppings that rise dramatically up from the sea. But while our son, 10 at the time, is obsessed with the '007' PSP video game, we don't go anywhere near the tourist site of James Bond Island.
"Too busy!", exclaims Sayaan. "We go where there are no other people."
Elephant Treks & Other Exotic Activities
We started our day trip to Phang Nga Bay from Phuket, off the west coast of Thailand. A world-class resort island, Phuket has fully recovered from the devastating tsunami of a few years back. Its international airport is more crowded than ever, and that's good news for families. You'll find deluxe hotels (and less expensive accommodation) offering cribs, babysitting services, children's menus, medical clinics and everything else you want when you take your kids on an exotic holiday.
My first taste that this was going to be no ordinary beach vacation occurred just after arriving. Jet-lagged, I dozed off in my beach chair, when a baby elephant tickled my foot with her trunk. 'Sally' and her handler roamed the grounds of six hotels spread along the three miles of white sand beach comprising Phuket's Laguna Resort area.
Without expecting money, her handler invited children to sit atop and pet his elephant. One afternoon, we noticed Sally standing in the ocean, getting splashed by a horde of excited youngsters and spraying them in turn with her trunk. We later learned that Sally and other elephants have been brought down from Chiang Mai, where logging had recently slowed. With Siam Safari Nature Tours (+66 76 280116), you can experience educational visits with an elephant and a half-hour "trek" without traveling to northern Thailand. But if you find the prospect of riding elephants daunting, three riding clubs at Laguna Phuket, Ban Sai Yuan, and Patak Road offer horseback riding instead.
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