Koh Chang Island Information

Koh Chang (Elephant Island) National Marine Park is a vast maritime park consisting of 52 islands spread out over 650 squire kilometer of the Gulf of Thailand. Koh Chang is the most populous, accessible and visited of all the islands. Nevertheless, it is a somewhat sleepy island notable for primitive beachfront bungalows and guesthouses, but coinciding with the-airport’s a few luxury and international resorts have either opened or are in the planning stages.

Hilly and rugged, Koh Chang is the largest island in the park, and the second largest island in Thailand. What sets Koh Chang apart from other islands in the Kingdom is the undisturbed tropical rain forest covering the many hills of the island, several of which are over 600 meters high including the intimidating Salak Phet at 744 meters. Indeed it should be left to the adventurous to explore the extreme interior reaches of the island. There are some good hiking trails near the main road, but it is farther inland where the terrain can be traversed via many interconnecting trails and footpaths.

At time of writing there was one scheduled daily boat departure at 10 AM, and usually another one in the early afternoon, but if there are more than six in your party, you can probably charter your own boat almost immediately; the journey takes about an hour and costs 100 Baht per person. Tell the boatman which bungalow you want and he’ll drop you as close as possible (though you’ll probably have to wade in); if you haven’t decided on one, you won’t have to walk for long from wherever you get dropped. Very few boats travel to Koh Chang during the rainy months of June through October, and those that do drop passengers on Koh Chang’s east coast, a 3 kilometer walk from Ao Yai.

During the tourist season, there’s at least one boat a day from Koh Chang back to Laem Ngop, generally in the morning between about 7 AM and 9 AM ask at your bungalows the day before. Any songthaew will take you back from Koh Chang to the mainland, but if you want to go directly to the bus station be sure to catch a blue colored one.

International known 7eleven shops are found around the island, offering 24 hour per day the basic necessities. There are also some other shops who follow the 7eleven idea. There are two petrol stations on the island which sell car petroleum; it seems that on every corner of the island you can buy whiskey bottles with motorbike petroleum, so it is almost impossible to get out of petrol. Be aware the two gas stations don’t accept credit cards