The coastal city of Sihanoukville is fast becoming an entertainment hotspot – but is it ready, asks
June-Ann Russell.
ook,’’ says Kathy from Idaho, pointing to wild lotus in a murky pond on the side of the road. ‘‘Beauty can grow in ugly places.’’
We’re in Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s largest seaport, a place Lonely Planet admits would never win a pretty-town competition.
It has only been around since the 1950s, when it was carved out of the jungle to create a base camp and deepwater port so, unsurprisingly, it lacks the temples, pagodas, ruins and snippets of French charm that parts of war-ravaged Cambodia have managed to retain.
Nevertheless the cruise ship tenders have just spat 1500 tourists on shore and we’re eager to explore ‘‘Snooky’’. Taxi drivers and tour operators hustle hard for our attention on the wharf. ‘‘Thanks guys, but we’ve booked a private excursion,’’ I say to the group of men. ‘‘Ha! But I do cheaper,’’ one of them calls out as we climb aboard our small shuttle bus. As we drive away, I see an old man with no eyes motionless on the pavement, almost as if he was watching us.
A few days earlier, Aunty in Vietnam had used her nimble fingers to swiftly exchange our dollars for dong.
‘‘Here, all westerners are millionaires!’’ she’d said gleefully. ‘‘But when you go to Cambodia maybe you will be Riel billionaires!’’
Fisherman’s blues
It’s been raining for days and the unsealed road we’re driving on is sludgy red mud pockmarked with puddles. We make our way through the town’s fishing village towards the wharves lined with green and blue trawlers. As we pass houses on stilts, children sing out high-pitched greetings in perfect English.
‘‘Hello! How are you?’’ Their parents, pausing between chores, simply stare. But they do laugh (along with the rest of us) at Stephanie from LA’s squeals when a rather healthy rat hotfoots it over her feet.
Business time
It’s a blur of colour and chaos at the market, and a true showcase for entrepreneurial foodie skills. Down the centre of the wide walkway, a woman dishes out fast pho-to-go, served right there from the filthy pavement.
Another uses deft Jenga-style moves to dislodge perfect wedges of vegetables, rice and meat from a carefully curated food tower. Even the beggars position themselves centrestage to maximise the foot traffic.
Gold jewellery, cheap plastic shoes, rip-off watches and clothing are sold either side: ‘‘Hey, the elephant pants are super cheap here!’’ an Australian tourist exclaims with delight. It seems no market visit in Asia is complete without seeing a rack of those haremstyle pants, in the familiar print that comes in 100 variations...
Wheel of fortune
Californian punk band The Dead Kennedys’ Holiday In Cambodia laments the tragic politics of a country that saw between one and three million people killed during the brutal regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge during the 1970s.
There’s no Holiday Inn Sihanoukville but who cares about American developers? The town and its stretches of pristine white beaches overlooking the Gulf of Thailand are firmly on China’s radar.
The Nikkei Asian Review recently reported on the construction boom engulfing Sihanoukville – new factories, hotels and condo towers dot an increasingly crowded skyline – and how the flow of Chinese cash is transforming the once backpacker retreat into a bustling Chinatown.
Gambling venues breed like bunnies because in Cambodia licensed, landbased casinos are allowed to have dealers or croupiers playing live on the floor, with remote customers participating via webcams, — something not permitted in Macau and other gambling hotspots in Asia. Official figures put Sihanoukville as having 16 ‘‘operational’’ casinos, with nine more expected to open in the next 11 months. The current population of Sihanoukville is 89,000.
But for now infrastructure remains basic, at least 20 years behind Vietnam, we’re told. In the meantime, the Sihanoukville people are choking on 100 per cent rent increases – land prices in some prime spots have doubled from a year ago as Chinese investors snap up plots – and they worry about the effects the gambling boom is having.
Class action
Tour guide Seng has a kind, open face and wears his passion for his country on the sleeve of his carefully pressed