Koh Chang, Thailand’s third-largest island, is known for its picture-book beaches, lush green jungle, and turquoise sea that’s warm as a bathtub all year round. As well as sun, sand and partying, the island also offers a host of activities and attractions. One of them is particularly bizarre: in the very south, on the edge of the jungle, a huge cruise ship is rotting. TRAVELBOOK tells the story behind it.
Most vacationers are drawn to the west coast of Koh Chang where gorgeous sandy beaches lined with coconut palms line up like pearls. Visitors rarely end up on the island’s more remote south coast around Klong Kloi Beach, although more and more hotels and resorts have established themselves here in the last 20 years. Here, at the very bottom of the bay, rises a sight that particularly fascinates fans of “Lost Places”: an abandoned cruise ship, also known as the ghost ship of Koh Chang.
Like the travel website”Explore Koh Chang” he writes, the ship called “The Galaxy” was parked in a lagoon of the bay there about 15 years ago to make it a floating hotel. For several years, in fact, it was part of a luxurious 5-star complex called Koh Chang Grand Lagoona Resort The ship itself had 70 rooms over 7 floors, and there were also a few houseboats and bungalows on the site, as well as a large swimming pool.
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The hotel ship closed in 2016
Although the resort still exists today, it is now called Koh Chang Boat Chalets. And since 2016 it is no longer possible to stay overnight on the cruise ship – it has been rotting like a ghost ship ever since. There are some speculations as to why the hotel ship was decommissioned. Some say the vessel was not licensed to operate as a hotel, as the online travel guide says”The sun of Thailandwrites. According to Explore Koh Chang, he was forced to close after a drunk Russian man fell from the top floor into the sea and died. Still others write that several people deliberately threw themselves off the ship to their deaths.
Weird: while the hotel ship has been out of service for seven years and other parts of the resort also lie idle and decaying, some of the houseboats are still regularly cleaned and maintained. And you will also meet the reception staff. However, it is currently not possible to book accommodation online. “Unfortunately, there are no more rooms available at this hotel at the moment,” says the booking site hotel-mix.de. However, on Tripadvisor, for example, there are also reviews from guests who have recently stayed there. How does it combine? In a post for the “Huffington PostTravel blogger Courtney Lambert solves the mystery, quoting a local who interviewed her: “It only opens in the high season when all other hotels on the island are booked.”
Where to find the ghost ship on Koh Chang
If you want to see Koh Chang’s ghost ship for yourself, you’ll find it at the eastern end of Klong Kloi Beach, directly adjacent to the jungle. For an entrance fee of 100 baht (equivalent to about 2.60 euros) you can enter the site and look around at your leisure, there is also a restaurant open. You can also use the beautiful beach of the resort.
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“Like in a horror movie!”
A German holidaymaker, who visited the Koh Chang ghost ship in 2019, writes in his Tripadvisor review: “The area is visibly aging and there was nobody there, except a hotel employee at the reception. But he didn’t speak English and unfortunately he couldn’t tell us more about the place. It was very lonely and deserted there. Many buildings were destroyed and damaged”. However, the visit was well worth it. Another said: “It was a bit like something out of a horror movie!”
Incidentally, it is now strictly forbidden to enter the abandoned cruise ship. Several signs warn of this. Anyone who does so risks a fine of 3,000 baht, the equivalent of almost 80 euros. But the ghost ship of Koh Chang is also impressive from the outside, despite or perhaps because of its desolate condition.
