Stretching between the warm waters of the Andaman Sea and Phuket, Phang Nga Bay is a singular karst landscape born when a 250-million-year-old coral reef fossilised and rose, leaving hundreds of limestone towers springing bolt upright from the sea. Carved by the rains, the rocks have over time become colossal sculptures; some are little islets crowned with rainforest, others honeycombed with caves that open onto hidden lagoons. The shallow, calm, milky-green waters mirror these sheer towers like glass. Made famous by the James Bond film, Ko Tapu (James Bond Island) has become the emblem of this landscape; with its rock that seems driven into the sea by its slender waist, it is one of Southeast Asia's most recognisable natural icons.
To put out into the bay is like slipping into another era. The engine note of the painted long-tail boats echoes through the mangrove tunnels, and the air smells of humid salt and green forest. Paddle a canoe into the heart of the hong islands and, beyond a narrow cave, a hidden courtyard open to the sky — a hong — appears; ringed by sheer walls and home to nesting birds and bats, these concealed worlds can be entered only at the hours the tide allows. At sunset, seen from the Samet Nangshe viewpoint, the bay turns into a surreal painting of countless island silhouettes rising out of the mist.