Rob and Anna's travel adventure

Some guide books make reference to the Phang-Nga province of Thailand as Eden of the Ocean, implying that the natural beauty is absolutely stunning. It may be a little bit of over-exaggeration, since there are a lot of beautiful places around the world, however, Phang-Nga is a very unusual place indeed. No wonder, that a James Bond movie production (Man with a Golden Gun) was shot in the very Phang-Nga province – since that time one of the numerous islands has been called a James Bond island by locals.
Phang-Nga is a very dreamy place in my opinion, surrounded by the ocean, vertical islands, forests, and waterfalls. One day, we took a long-tail boat to explore the province, and some remote islands. I think the islands’ structure is what makes the scenery so unusual... They arise in the middle of oceans like invisible rocky giants, many meters up, surrounded by the ocean and clouds from all sides. Some islands have the arches and caves, and it is possible to get through them. The visual picture is very unusual, and yes, stunning too. We also stopped at one of the fishing villages, entirely built on stilts – every building, road, square, school, house, temples are built on stilts – this is why they call it a floating village.
On another day, Rob and I decided to explore a near-by Manora National park. We had read that there were a number of picturesque waterfalls in the area, plus the admission to the park was free, so it made it more appealing. We chose to forego the tuk-tuk drivers (we dislike them), and were able to figure out how to get half-way to the park by a public transportation, and then walked about 4 km. We were glad we did – we passed through small villages, and rubber tree plantations, locals were not used to seeing outsiders walking around (especially foreigners, who never seem to bother getting to places without a use of taxis); so we were given a nice welcome by local ladies and children. Eventually, we reached the park, and began our hike. It was hot, and humid (about 40C), but it was nice to walk among the giant tress and waterfalls. Frequently, we had to walk on a narrow bamboo hand-made bridge to cross the stream, and added some flare of adventure. We reached the end of the trail crowned by a large cave, and began walking back. We decided to take a dip in one of the waterfall on the way back, locals have a legend that at night a princess nymph come here to bathe naked, so we decided to follow her example. We found a nice swimming area, the water was refreshingly cold, and since there was no one in sight, and it would take a long time to dry our clothes in such humidity, we went bathing just like that princess does. It felt very liberating I must admit – to bathe in the middle of the forest, waterfall water running, birds singing, butterflies flying around... A few minutes after we exited the waterfall swimming area, we heard the voices of a few local guys approaching the area (they were on the way to have a picnic in isolation too), so good thing we exited the water when we did – it would have been a little bit embarrassing to be found swimming naked in the transparent waterfall pool... :)
I think the picturesque scenery of Phang-Nga will stay in my mind for a while – dreamy ocean, vertical islands, floating villages, and waterfalls... It is almost too good to be real...