Phang Nga Bay

The bay was shaped by the drowning of an old limestone landscape: as sea levels rose after the last ice age, valleys flooded and the hills became islands. Some caves and cliffs around the bay hold rock paintings estimated to be more than a thousand years old, and fishing communities, including Muslim villagers of Malay descent, have long lived on the shore and on stilts over the water.

Ao Phang Nga National Park was declared in 1981 to protect a large part of the bay, and in 2002 the bay was designated a Ramsar wetland of international importance for its mangroves, seagrass and wildlife. International fame came with the 1974 Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, which used Khao Phing Kan and Ko Tapu as the villain's hideout, and the bay has since become one of the busiest day-trip destinations on the Andaman coast.

Many of the bay's villages are Muslim fishing communities, and Ko Panyi is the best known, a settlement built largely on stilts at the foot of a limestone cliff. Families fish, farm shellfish and harvest nipa palm fronds for thatch, and seafood restaurants on the water serve visitors at lunchtime. Dress modestly when walking through village lanes.