Khao Phing Kan is the official name for what the world knows as James Bond Island, after its appearance as the villain Scaramanga's lair in the 1974 film The Man with the Golden Gun. The island itself is a forested limestone mass, pleasant enough, but the real draw is Ko Ta Pu — a 20-metre needle of rock that rises from the water just offshore, one of the most photographed geological formations in Thailand. It got its shape from millennia of wave erosion undercutting the base of what was once a section of cliff.
The island is crowded. Virtually every boat tour from Phuket, Krabi, and Phang Nga town stops here, and by mid-morning the small beach and cave can feel claustrophobic. Arriving early by longtail from Phang Nga town — rather than on a group tour from Phuket — gives you a window before the tour boats arrive. The cave on the island contains stalactites and paintings said to be several hundred years old.