Ao Phang-Nga Marine National Park

Introducing Ao Phang-Nga Marine National Park

Established in 1981 and covering an area of 400 sq km, Ao Phang-Nga Marine National Park (admission 200B) is noted for its classic karst scenery, created by mainland fault movements that pushed massive limestone blocks into geometric patterns. As these blocks extend southward into Ao Phang-Nga, they form more than 40 islands with huge vertical cliffs. The bay itself is composed of large and small tidal channels that originally connected with the mainland fluvial system. The main tidal channels – Khlong Ko Phanyi, Khlong Phang-Nga, Khlong Bang Toi and Khlong Bo Saen – run through vast mangroves in a north–south direction and today are used by fisher folk and island inhabitants as aquatic highways. These mangroves are the largest remaining primary mangrove forest in Thailand. The Andaman Sea covers more than 80% of the area within the park boundaries.

The biggest tourist spot in the park is so-called James Bond Island, known to Thais as Ko Phing Kan (Leaning on Itself Island). Once used as a location setting for The Man with the Golden Gun, the island is now full of vendors hawking coral and shells that should have stayed in the sea, along with butterflies, scorpions and spiders encased in plastic.

The Thai name for the island refers to a flat limestone cliff that appears to have tumbled sideways to lean on a similar rock face, which is in the centre of the island. Off one side of the island, in a shallow bay, stands a tall slender limestone formation that looks like a big rock spike that has fallen from the sky. There are a couple of caves you can walk through and a couple of small sand beaches, often littered with rubbish from the tourist boats.

Please remember to take only pictures and leave only footprints, ie make sure to dispose of your used water bottles and other rubbish in bins – if you can't find a bin, wait until you return to your bungalow to get rid of it. Improve your trash karma and pick up someone else’s junk on the beach.

About the only positive development has been the addition of a concrete pier so that tourist boats don’t have to moor directly on the island’s beaches, but this still happens when the water level is high and the pier is crowded with other boats.

Two types of forest predominate in the park: limestone scrub forest and true evergreen forest. The marine limestone environment favours a long list of reptiles, including the Bengal monitor, flying lizard, banded sea snake, dogface water snake, shore pit viper and Malayan pit viper. Keep an eye out for the two-banded (or water) monitor (Varanus salvator), which looks like a crocodile when seen swimming in the mangrove swamp and can measure up to 2.2m in length (only slightly smaller than the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard in the Varanidae family). Like its Komodo cousin, the water monitor (called hîa by the Thais, who generally fear or hate the lizard) is a carnivore that prefers to feed on carrion but occasionally preys on live animals.

Amphibians in the Ao Phang-Nga area include the marsh frog, common bush frog and crab-eating frog. Avian residents of note are the helmeted hornbill (the largest of Thailand’s 12 hornbill species, with a body length of up to 127cm), the edible-nest swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus), osprey, white-bellied sea eagle and Pacific reef egret.

Over 200 species of mammal reside in the mangrove forests and on some of the larger islands, including the white-handed gibbon, serow, dusky langur and crab-eating macaque.

Last updated: Mar 2, 2009