The story of Khao Phing Kan

Out in Phang Nga Bay, northeast of Phuket, a slender rock rises straight out of the water. This is Ko Ta Pu, a limestone spike about 20 metres tall, standing some 40 metres from the shore of Khao Phing Kan, whose Thai name means 'hills leaning against each other'.

In 1974 both appeared in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, as the hideout of the villain Francisco Scaramanga, and ever since they have been known as James Bond Island. The island became part of Ao Phang Nga Marine National Park, established in 1981, and since 1998 tourist boats may not come too close to Ko Ta Pu, to protect the fragile rock from erosion.

Local folklore has its own explanation for the spike: a fisherman kept catching a nail in his net instead of fish, cut it in half with his sword, and one half leapt into the sea to become Ko Ta Pu, the 'nail island'.