On the Gulf of Thailand
Trip Start
Oct 08, 2008
1
4
22
Trip End
Dec 09, 2008
Sihanoukville, Cambodia
Friday, October 17, 2008
Affordable accommodation
.We have found Cambodia, for the most part, an interesting and unique place. The people are very friendly, always smiling and all want to learn English. Everywhere you go, little children jump out and holler "Hallo!" While there are signs everywhere of improving conditions, it is one of the poorest countries that we have visited. The squalid living conditions, beggars and the amputees do not make a person feel good about the place and very much helpless as to the situation.
Sihanoukville is a new city, established as a port only in 1947. It is anchored by three beaches and only twenty minutes from the entrance to a national park. With controlled and sustainable development it had the makings of phenomenal tourist destination, equal to those in Thailand or even better. Instead, it has become an ecological disaster. The beach on which we were anchored is completely lined with run-down shacks posing as bars and restaurants, totalling blocking the view and destroying the white sand beach. What is most distressing are the large pipes every 50 meters or so, spewing out raw sewage into the water where people swim in the now murky water. Local hawkers pushing food, trinkets, massages and pedicures outnumber the tourists by five to one. On the beach and almost everywhere in the city there are heaps of garbage
Children leaving school
. A system of waste disposal is an unknown concept here as is the use of a broom in public areas. Near the beach there are several new Chinese hotels and casinos. The downtown area is full of guest houses where you can find a room for $3 a night. It is popular with backpackers and older men, mostly from the UK, Australia, Germany and Canada who come here for the cheap booze and Khmer hookers.The garbage that is strewn all over this once beautiful place is unfortunately the same situation that we found in the other places we visited. Despite the garbage, litterand chaos, we will have fond memories of Cambodia. We will always remember the vast rice paddies, the magic of Angkor Wat and the magnificent Royal Palace. We will forever feel for those who died and suffered under the Khmer Regime. And we will always see the friendly smiling faces of the Khmer people, especially the children.
Comments
I need a beer.
Oh jeeez...
'The beach on which we were anchored is completely lined with run-down shacks posing as bars and restaurants, totalling blocking the view and destroying the white sand beach.'
...and it looks like you're Canadian too. Fuck!
Understanding and Accuracy
I feel it necessary to respond to your blog as a longtime resident of Sihanoukville. First, without a doubt, there are NO sewage pipes every 50 meters running out to sea at Ochhuteal Beach. There is a dry streambed that fills when it rains and emptys into the beach. I can say this with certainty as our sewer treatment plant is not hooked up yet and everyone has septic tanks, even those 'horrible' beach shacks. In fact I dont know of more than one pipe anywhere on Ochhuteal Beach and it is far down the strip near the Police Barracks. (Please note that the city of Victoria, British Columbia pumps its entire waste system into the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the eternal consternation of the residents of Washington state just across the strait and I am sure much of the sea life)
Secondly you state that garbage collection is an unknown concept here, yet CINTRI our garbage company collects garbage from many business and many homes here 7 days a week. (I wonder how you missed those big bright green trucks) As for sweeping, Cintri also sweeps the roads as they can. Most house and business owners keep their areas clean likewise. I also note that in the one photo you have showing any ground at all there is not a speck of garbage and the street is clean.
This of course is not to say that we do not have a problem with litter especially plastic bags just like most other developing nations. There is however a thriving recycling business in Sihnoukville and every street urchin in town and on the beach walks around with a giant bag grabbing any plastic container and aluminum can practically faster than it can hit the ground and sells them to the recycle company.
While Cambodia and Sihanoukville do suffer from many of the same problems as most developing nations/cities it is actively trying in many ways big and small to improve and upgrade it's services and infrastructure. Peoples habits will change with time and education.
We always appreciate visitors views on our city but it is much more appreciated when the facts are correct. Perhaps a bit more time spent here would have given you a greater appreciation of what a nice place this is to live and a greater understanding of what is going on around you.