North of Phuket, Ao Phang Nga National Park is a drowned karst landscape of sheer limestone towers, mangrove channels, and hidden sea caves, and it makes one of the most memorable day trips in the south. The star is tiny Ko Tapu, the needle of rock beside Ko Khao Phing Kan that appeared in the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, and the tours also visit Ko Panyee, a Muslim fishing village built on stilts over the water with its own mosque and floating seafood restaurants. The real magic, though, is paddling a canoe into the hongs, collapsed cave lagoons hidden inside the islands that you can only enter at the right tide through low limestone arches. Trips run by big boat, speedboat, or traditional longtail, usually with a seafood lunch, often at Ko Panyee. Choose an operator that includes sea-canoeing, since drifting silently into a hidden lagoon is the part you will remember.
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