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Koh Chang is the second largest island of Thailand (largest island in the Koh Chang Marine Park archipelago), located on the Thai east coast 310 km away from Bangkok near the border to Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand. The name means Elephant Island. |
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| Koh Chang was named for the elephant shape of its headland, although elephants are not indigenous to the island. At present, there are 8 villages in total. It is a mountainous island and Khao Salak Phet is the highest peak of all at 744 metres. |
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| Visitors are also met with several waterfalls, splendid reefs and rainforests. The island has an area of approximately 429 square kilometers. Koh Chang was previously an unsettled island but it is now important as a harbour for ships to escape from the monsoon, and dietary or fresh water resources, especially at Ao Salak Phet or Ao Salat which is well known to pirates, Hai Lam Chinese and Vietnamese. |
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| The island is part of the Mu Koh Chang Marine National Park. During World War II, when Thailand was occupied by the Japanese, Koh Chang was the scene of a naval battle between the reluctant Royal Thai Navy and a Vichy France squadron, in which the Thais were decisively beaten. |
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Until the mid-1980s the infrastructure on the island was undeveloped, but tourism has increased significantly since then. Around the year 2000, malaria was eradicated, the area became a national park (and began charging entry fees). |
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| The island now receives 655,000 visitors annually, about two thirds of them Thai. Koh Chang is one of the few places with virgin forest, but the mad rush to cash in on tourism has had a heavy toll on its virgin forests. Land prices have skyrocketed, there are also beautiful if not high end resorts now popping up all over the island. |
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History: Prior to World War II, Ko Chang was little known by anyone. During this period, the few families there made a living growing coconuts and fruit on the mainland. In January 1941, during the Japanese occupation, the Thai Navy fought the French in a battle in the waters to the south-east of Koh Chang. It was the French who were the victors after the Thai naval ship was sunk. |
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| Nothing else happened to Koh Chang until the first backpacker foreigners started arriving on the back of local fishing boats in the mid-1970s. In 1982, Koh Chang along with surrounding area became part of the protected Mu Chang Marine. Only very recently, in less than ten years, Koh Chang has turned itself into a major tourist destination, both for foreigners and local Thais. |
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The recent success of Koh Chang as a serious tourist destination has been quite phenomenal. But it remains a lot more peaceful and less developed than islands like Samui and Phuket. It’s some 5 hours from Bangkok by bus and there’s no airport on the island yet so it should remain more tranquil than Samui or Phuket. |
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| Koh Chang too is one of Thailand most beautiful islands with some white sandy beaches, some half deserted. Some of the beaches are rocky in parts though so it doesn’t have ideal swimming beaches like Phuket. The island is also home to a wide range of wildlife, including a good selection of birds, snakes, deer and a number of elephants. The island and its vicinity are great places for snorkeling, diving and jungle hiking. |
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| Some critics however, worry that the Koh Chang tourism boom won’t survive as they believe that ‘gross over-development will only, over time, frighten off tourists to one of the other more unspoilt islands nearby. |
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Investors though, claim that what they are now doing in Koh Chang is nothing on the scale of the likes of Samui. With the development of Koh Kong in Cambodia as a casino resort, it makes Koh Chang even more of an ideal place for a stop-over between the two islands. This so called tourism boom is relative to a small base. Tourist numbers are a lot less than Samui or Phuket and approx 2/3 of the visitors are Thai. |
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