Ochheurteal beach in Sihanoukville

During 3 days of Chinese New Year 2011, the number of local visitors travelling to beaches in Preah Sihanouk province doubled, compared with the previous year. The number of visitors increased more than 50,000 visitors.

Most of Cambodian people who visited beaches raised 53,800 visitors, especially domestic visitors and it increased more than 60 percent, compared with last year, according to local Khmer language newspapers.

The firm behind the Morakot Island resort put 36 forthcoming sea-front villas on the market this month, according to Marina Khrisanova, director of sales and marketing for Koh Puos (Cambodia) Investment Group.

With a square metre starting at $2,000, the homes will range from 450 to 570 square metres each – making each property worth at least $900,000.

An official from the company confirmed the villas are part of phase one of construction, set to begin early next year.

“Our clients are Cambodian and foreigners, from middle and high classes,” Marina Khrisanova told The Post.

“A few villas have been reserved by high net-worth individual clients.”

The company is confident they will attract interest and is backing Sihanoukville’s potential as a destination.

“We strongly believe in Cambodia’s economic potential. Sihanoukville is also rapidly becoming the next hot tourist destination nowadays,” she said.

The development of Sihanoukville has hit headlines in recent months, with developers and real estate agents along the coastal region, including Song Saa island resort developer Rory Hunter, calling for action to create regular flights to the coastal hub’s airport – or risk the tourist development on the coast. Nevertheless, KPIG is confident about the future.

“We’re going to build 140 villas as part of the project,” said Saing Heng, assistant to Koh Puos project director Andrew Halturint, yesterday.

Construction of low-rise apartment buildings, as well as island utilities, infrastructure and a ring road are also due as part of phase one, due to start next year. A $31 million bridge linking the island to the mainland is also 70 percent complete and is due to finished in June.

Sung Bonna, president of Bonna Realty Group, said yesterday that the island had potential, but warned marketing the homes may have come early.

“It is the best location. In term of timing, it seems early. If they started sales next year, it would be best,” he said.

The massive development has been planned since 2007. Future phases will see hotels and a casino build, according to the project’s plans.

Source: the phnom penh post

Preah Vihear Tourism Department chief Kong Vibol said yesterday that from January to June this year 46,400 tourists visited the Preah Vihear temple complex.

The figure is a dramatic leap from the 5,940 tourists recorded over the same period last year. Foreign visitors were also being drawn to the site – they increased by 85 percent to 480 from 260.

“Most tourists are local, and the temple has attracted more of them due to good roads and infrastructure. It is easy to travel to, guesthouses and restaurants are available, and local security is strengthening while tensions with Thailand are diminished,” he said.

The Preah Vihear temple complex has been the subject of a long-running dispute between Thailand and Cambodia. Although the International Court of Justice awarded Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia in 1962, the ruling did not determine the ownership of a 4.6-square-kilometre area of scrub next to the ruins, leaving considerable scope for disagreement.

Tensions have flared since July 2008, when UNESCO approved Cambodia’s bid to have the Preah Vihear temple named a World Heritage Site.

Hang Soth, director general of the Preah Vihear National Authority (PVNA), highlighted the effect on tourism last year when poor relations intensified, culminating in a fatal clash last April, which saw troops die and the local market burn down.

“There were fewer visitors due to escalating confrontation with the Thais,” he said.

But officials hope that as the situation cools, Preah Vihear’s temples draw more international visitors.

Last week, the PVNA set up new working groups to promote the temple to tourists and attract investors to the site in order to preserve historic buildings and develop the area.

“We have created the groups of technicians, researchers, document compilers, media communicators and investor-attractors,” said Hang Soth.

“In the future, Preah Vihear Temple will become the second-largest tourist destination after Siem Reap’s Angkor Wat – as roads and infrastructures around the temple have been developed.”

However, he added that some visitors still hesitate to visit the temple complex, where admission is free, because of security concerns.

In the first half of 2010, the province as a whole received 80,700 tourists, more than double the 34,553 during the same period of last year.

Source: The Phnom Penh Post

Right now, you should travel to visit Hawaii Beach which is the kind of beautiful and good-looking beach of other most popular beaches in the area. Even though, tourists still approach this beach. Generally, we know that Hawaii Beach is also known as ‘King’s Beach,’ ‘South Channel Beach’ and ‘Lamherkay Beach.’

Commonly, when you go to beaches, you will see umbrellas, folded chairs and small shacks built along the beach like other popular beaches.

Presently, there less visitors travel to Hawaii beach than other beaches such as O’Chheutel beach. If you want to access this beach, you have to go through the small road at the southern end. By the way, there are no so much beachfront vendors like other popular beaches.

This beach sites at the base of the very popular Weather Station Hill near the Vietnam-Cambodia Monument (Victory Monument). At time of printing, the section of Victory Beach immediately at the base of the Hill was still undergoing a development project including a beachside restaurants/ bar and the installation of a full-size retired Antonov AN-24 to be converted into an internet café.

Currently, the beach is still open beachgoers and just 50 meters up the beach from the dock area are several little beachside seafood restaurants offering beach chairs and umbrellas, inner tubes, cold drinks and snacks including seafood barbeque. A bit further north along Victory Beach, there is couple of upscale Oceanside seafood restaurants and the Holiday Palace Casino and Resort on the opposite side of the road.

O'Chheuteal Beach

Beach of O’cheuteal is the most popular beach in Preah Sihanouk province, which is known as UNTAC beach in the early 1990s when UN peacekeepers came to Cambodia in order to organize the first national election in Cambodia.

Along the beautiful beach, you will see a little-style seafood bars, restaurants, budget guesthouses, all-night party and bungalows lining almost 2 km of the white sand’s edge from ‘Serendipity Beach’ to the development area at the south end.

The beach is long, sandy and narrow, with ‘Serendipity Bache’ at the northern end, a development project at the southern half, and a cluster of mid-range hotels and restaurants near the middle.

The mid-section of O’cheuteal Beach is one of the busiest beach areas in Preah Sihanouk. The area offers a pretty even mix of mid-range as well as budget hotels and guesthouses.

Over the weekend, this beach is the destination for local and international travelers who like visiting there with their friends, families, relatives and co-workers. When they go to beach where they like eating seafood such as grilled shrimps, octopus, shrimp soup and so on.

When you arrive in Cambodian, you do not forget to visit more beautiful and popular beach in Preah Sihanouk province.

Independence Beach

Local and foreign tourists rarely visited Independence Beach, also known as Seven-story Hotel, where sits atop the rocky points at the north end of the beach.

Independence Beach is, in general, less frequented than other beaches, and sees comparatively few foreign visitors, though it still can get pretty busy on weekends and holidays.Independence is a good beach to escape some of the hustle and bustle of more tourist beaches like Ocheuteal while still having access to a selection of little beach bars and seafood shacks.

Independence Beach is more than a kilometer long, but the sandy area is a bit narrow, making the beach best when the tide is lower. Grass umbrellas, seafood shacks and drink vendors dot the beach from end to end with a greater concentration toward the southern end where the beach is widest. At the northern end of the beach is the Independence Resort on the hill, and source of the Preah Sihanouk’s fresh water and is rumored to contain crocodiles.

The striking landscape is both beautiful and productive- wooded hills ring the site, shielding visitors from the worst of the rainy season’s deluges, though not from the insistent vendors who accost visitors upon arrival.

Visitors can swim and bathe in the cool, still waters, although the dark depths at the lake’s center are a reminder of the lives lost here during the Pol Pot regime (1975-79).

Mom Krath, Deputy Head of the Battambang provincial culture Department, explained today’s reservoir is the result of a dam constructed by Pol Pot’s forces, who forced thousands of starving people to toil for four years with no modern equipment and little food. Countless thousands died in the struggle to complete the 6 km long and 1.9km wide cubic meters of water, now an invaluable resource for local communities, Krath said.

“[Ang Teuk Kamping Puoy] lake irrigates rice fields covering thirteen thousand-five-hundred hectares in three districts: Banon, Battambang and Thmar Kol. In rainy season, the lake fills up and supplies water for farmers to grow rice in the city season,” he explained.

Useful and pleasant though the lake though the lake may be, the benefits of Ang Teuk Kamping Puoy came at a high human cost. Stranding at the water’s edge Savuth, 52, gazes wistfully across the water.

“This is not the place to enjoy swimming,” said the US resident, his voice trembling. “It makes me cry because this lake was made by Cambodian people including me. I worked so hard here; my knees were bigger than my head because I was starving and my wife died here because of an illness she got through overwork.”

“I do not want to swim, I merely want to see this bitter place,” Savuth continued ater a long pause. “Now it has become a tourism resort, but I am happy I am here because I can remember everything I went through. I don’t want to forget.”

For most visitors, however, clean water, boat rides, and fishing are the main draw. Ang Teuk Kamping Puoy began to receive visitors in 1999, although there is still no entrance fee. The lake’s cool air and charming environs attracts foreign and domestic tourists alike.

Rottana, a food vendor, said, whatever the reason for their visit, tourists come every day although “on Saturday and Sunday there are a lot. Some come to swim or to eat something with their family. Some want to remember their time during the Pol Pot regime when they were working here. Most of [the ex-Pol Pot regime laborers] now live in the USA, France, and Australia. It is comfortable here even in the dry season because the authorities keep water here for the rice farmers.”

Lake of Kayak in Koh Kong

Cambodian people is the target of this tourism destination for making profit to support the national resort- Lake of Kayak in Koh Kong province- where has been created by community under support from provincial governor, partial budget of commune council, and international organizations in 2007. The creation of this natural resort is because of deforestation of Mangrove forests and the decline of sea fish.

Visiting this community-based resort, you will walk cross 1,000 long cement bridge and then you will hear the voice of birds’ songs, and see sea fish swimming within the stream. Visitors will be able to take a rest at the hatch-roofed huts in order to take fresh airs.  At the bridge’s end, you will see the hanging bridge, which is 15 meter high.

The local tourists who visit the Lake of Kayak are at least ranging from 60 to 70 visitors per normal day and the number is doubling over the weekend. The increasing number of visitors is during the Khmer New Year and special events.

Kep resort

Tourism developments in Kep are transforming the quiet seaside town back into a premier beach getaway, due to greater investment by developers and the Cambodian government.

A seaport in Kampot province is due to be completed in 2013 and will connect the area with surrounding countries. The government is also upgrading the Phnom Penh-Kep road and Sihanoukville Airport.

So Mara, secretary of state at the Tourism Ministry, said the mountain and beach made Kep attractive to Khmer families and foreign tourists.

He said the new seaport, which will provide a ferry service for tourists travelling to and from Vietnam and Thailand, will also boost visitor numbers to the area.

“It is a preferred destination because it has a clean beach and Bokor Mountain,” he said. “[Visitors] come with families. This type of tourist … will go back home, talk to friends and they all come back.”

A 12-storey resort and casino are also under development on Bokor Hill, an abandoned French resort built in 1922.
And investments companies like Devenco are taking advantage of Kep’s development potential.

Christophe Forsinetti, vice president of Devenco, said their company was working on a number of projects in the area, including restoring a pre-colonial mansion and building 32 four-star bungalows, due to be completed later this year.

Devenco also plans to develop a luxury resort on the island of Koh Pou, 10 kilometres off the coast of Kep.

Forsinetti said the area could see the same scale of development as Sihanoukville in a few years’ time, but with a greater focus on luxury and residential developments.

“There will be tremendous growth, we know a lot of people moving from Sihanoukville to Kep,” he said.
“They come for the atmosphere, the forest … the treks they can do.”

The new seaport and airport and road upgrade will mean Kep will eventually be just two hours from Phnom Penh, one hour from an airport and 20 kilometres from Vietnam, he said.

Colonial homes left vacant since the Khmer Rouge would not be viable economic options for developers but may appeal to private buyers, he said.

Kep is struggling to keep up with weekend tourist numbers.Lily Luu, who owns Veranda Resort in Kep, said it was common for the hotel to fill up over the weekend with expats and international travellers.

She said her high-end retreat had been operating since 2002, and in the past seven years she had seen an increase in developments.

“We get couples, families and people from all over the world,” she said, adding the shorter trip to Kep made it more accessible than Sihanoukville for expats travelling down from Phnom Penh for the weekend.

The town’s appeal was its “charm”, including its history, nature and peacefulness, she said.

(Original article is from the Phnom  Penh Post)