R. Doug Wicker — Author

The towering limestone karsts in Phang Nga Bay are just an incredible sight. As our long-tail boat motored through the bay, we passed many of these structures on our way to see perhaps the most famous of them all, which we’ll get to shortly. But before we do, I’d like to mention another sight along the way. Not only does acidic water sculpt limestone into towers, it also dissolves limestone to form caves (Carlsbad Caverns, for one) and what the Thais refer to as hongs — caves that have collapsed into sinkhole “rooms.” On this voyage we saw not only sea caves, but also stalactite-type formations:

By now Ursula and I were deep into Phang Nga Bay and speeding alongside other long-tail boats:

And everywhere we looked we saw more karst jutting from the waters of the bay:

I’m now going to show you the most famous of these karst islands. Can you recognize it?

The island above is Khao Phing Kan, and the lone, 66-foot/20-meter pillar just in front of it is Ko Ta Pu. Between the island’s two peaks is a popular beach, but not before that island, beach, and pillar were used in 1974 in a famous film:

Yes, this was Francisco Scaramanga’s island in the film The Man with the Golden Gun, a hugely disappointing film that has almost zero in common with the 1965 Ian Fleming novel of the same name. Even Scaramanga’s gun was changed from the novel to the movie. Instead of a nonexistent modular “single-shot 4.2mm” it should have been a gold-plated Colt Single Action Army chambered in .45 Colt. The “Solex Agitator” wasn’t the only agitating thing about this film. Don’t even get me started on how badly the Bond franchise went down hill during the disastrous, campy Roger Moore era.

Nevertheless, this is the reason today why tourists seek out Khao Phing Kan for a visit. Let’s leave today with this visual cruise around Jame Bond Island and the Ko Ta Pu top-heavy karst pillar:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)