Koh Panyee – The Floating Island

I love exploring new places and this urge of adventure provided me a chance to travel around the beautiful small islands around Phuket. I was having lunch with my husband in a local restaurant at the James Bond Island when a fellow tourist suggested us to visit the Koh Panyee Island. The place sounded interesting so we squeezed ourselves in a long tail boat with few other people heading towards the same destination. This saved our traveling cost and we were there in no time.

Panyee is a simple village with Muslim population mostly relying on tourism and fishing to earn their living. The island has its own interesting history. It is said that a few families left their homeland to live at a place where they can find plenty of fish to earn their living. It was decided amongst the families that if such a place will be discovered, others will be informed by raising a flag high on the cliff as a signal. After discovering the Koh Panyee Island by one of the families, a flag was raised on a high sea cliff and the island got its name as the island of the flag.

In a glance it seems the whole village is floating over water but this is actually how it is built. The houses and pathways are all constructed on the waters or on the silt with elevated structures. Though the water around the island is mostly shallow, but walking on the old wooden elevated paths with water underneath was an exciting experience for me. The local fisherman told us that these wooden houses and paths are regularly repaired as the wood planks needs special care in this humid environment. The security situation around the Island is quite satisfactory and I was surprised to know that the policeman on the island all day has no or little work to do. Although I paid a short visit to the Koh Panyee Island but it is surely an interesting place to go.