The Man With The Golden Gun sees James Bond follow Mary Goodnight to an island in Chinese waters, landing his seaplane and mooring it on the beach. There he is shown Scaramanga’s high-tech solar power plant, at the heart of which lies the Solex Agitator.
The Solex is powered by solar energy reflected by a folding mirror housed in a mushroom-shaped rock just off the beach, and in among the equipment Scaramanga shows off is a solar powered laser that he uses to destroy Bond’s plane.
In reality you can find the mushroom shaped rock is found in Thailand’s Phang Nga Bay and called Ko Tapu – “Nail Hill” – in Thai. However, since being made famous in The Man With The Golden Gun it is usually known simply as “James Bond Island”.
Located in the Andaman Sea, between Phuket and the Malay peninsula of southern Thailand, Phang Nga Bay is 400 square kilometres, of which a large part is now protected as the Ao Phang Nga National Park.
The bay contains 42 islands many of which have weathered spectacularly due to limestone erosion and the shallow waters are home to many species of mangrove, coral reefs, as well as the Black Finless Porpoise.
Today visitors to Thailand can visit James Bond Island. Click on the links below for details of three tours available to book online:
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