phuketrichard wrote:could this be the possible future scenario ?


they will remove all the semi and permanent places on the beach side of the dirt track
than all the bungalow across the street will set up DAILY beach chairs and cater to the guest sitting on the beach ( why go to a beach unless ur going to sit on the beach)?

so its a big win for everyone. the bungalows make more $$, the beach is once again beautiful and the bungalows will be responsible for keeping it clean.

Or locals will get smart and rent chairs an umbrellas

Just thinking out loud

PhnomPenhPost.com wrote:The beach with two weeks left to party
Sat, 27 February 2016
Harriet Fitch Little and Vandy Muong

It’s late afternoon on Otres beach, and the tourists have turned their seats seaward to worship the sinking orange sun. They are here in droves every day, many relaxing with the cheap beer and liberally available marijuana joints that the beach can furnish. Shacks and bungalows stretch almost to the tide line.

It’s a peaceful scene, but only on the surface. Since a fateful eviction note arrived on February 13, life on Otres has been “same same”, but very different.

“Especially today, I came in and I could read it on everyone’s face. We have to do everything we do every day but with this on our back,” said Micky Drudi, who had poured himself a large glass of wine at the end of his shift at Papa Pippo – the popular Italian restaurant and bungalows he co-owns.

“People come and are like, ‘So what’s the news?’” he says, buzzing with anxious energy. “I’ve heard it already 100 times today.”

The news is that the bulldozers are moving in. The two strips of land in Sihanoukville province known as Otres 1 and Otres 2, which lie 1.5 kilometres apart, and a section of Ochheuteal beach (not yet clearly defined) slightly further west, have been given exactly one month to erase all construction within 50-metres of the sea.

The impact is significant. The 50-metre boundary will erase all buildings on the beach side of the red dirt road that runs through Otres – all in, roughly a kilometre’s worth of restaurants, bungalows and shops which provide – local officials estimate – about 1,000 jobs for the local economy.

“There will be 20 of us here with no jobs,” said Lev Dany on Monday, whose eponymous restaurant on Otres 1 employs all seven of her siblings in some capacity, and several other relatives. The family doesn’t know what will happen if they have to move, but they think it will involve seeking work abroad. Dany’s sister, Kim, is clear that she doesn’t want that to happen.



Content image - Phnom Penh Post
Lev Dany, third from left, and Lev Kim, second from right, with some of the siblings and children who are fighting to protect the family restaurant. Scott Rotzoll

“I have been a housemaid in Malaysia before, and it is a very hard life there,” she said. “We don’t want to have to leave our country.”

Since the fateful letter arrived two weeks ago, signed by Sihanoukville provincial governour Yun Min, Dany’s restaurant has become a hub for community resistance.

Petitions have been sent both to the local governor in Sihanoukville, and to Phnom Penh – where Dany and her siblings decamped en masse with fellow protesters last week to petition HE to either delay or reverse the decision.

They hope that an upcoming visit by HE to a hospital in the province will provide another opportunity to voice their grievances.

But speaking to Post Weekend on Thursday, Governor Min said that, while he couldn’t rule out slight delays to the March 13 deadline, the demolition would be going ahead in time for Khmer New Year.

“In general, the government’s policy is not to fight or take action against the people, but we have to practise the law,” he said.

phuketrichard wrote:could this be the possible future scenario ?


they will remove all the semi and permanent places on the beach side of the dirt track
than all the bungalow across the street will set up DAILY beach chairs and cater to the guest sitting on the beach ( why go to a beach unless ur going to sit on the beach)?

so its a big win for everyone. the bungalows make more $$, the beach is once again beautiful and the bungalows will be responsible for keeping it clean.

Or locals will get smart and rent chairs an umbrellas

Just thinking out loud

frank lee bent wrote:no, they ate it up

cptrelentless wrote:Did anyone go and protest at HE's visit today? Did HE care?

Development fears at Cambodia's most beautiful beach
3 MARCH 2016
Dozens of independent bungalows at one of Cambodia's most unspoiled beaches are to be bulldozed with weeks, raising fears that a "soulless" mega-resort will replace them.

The businesses on Otres beach, in Sihanoukville Province on Cambodia’s south coast, will be demolished within a fortnight, according to an eviction notice served by government officials. The beach is popular with Western tourists because it has so far been left alone by big developers, creating a laid back, independent atmosphere.

The vendors, some of whom have been running small bungalows and restaurants for 16 years, have been given until March 13 to leave. The government says it will not be responsible for any damage to property during the eviction.

“I don’t have the money to buy a new business,” said Sam, a Cambodian women and co-owner of Pappa Pippo, a restaurant and bungalow popular for its homemade pasta. “My daughter goes to school; what will she do? And our staff, they have no money, what will they do?”

The beach attracts a mix of backpackers and mature tourists who come for the warm, clear waters and the unbroken three-mile stretch of powdery sand.

“It’s awful,” says Ginelle, a backpacker from Alaska. “Are they just going to put up another soulless big development?”

Not necessarily, according to provincial governor, Yun Min. “The removal is in the public interest,” he said at a press conference last Saturday. He cited “environmental concerns” as the reason behind the eviction and stressed the need to “preserve the beach for future generations.” The governor said it wasn’t his policy to harm people’s businesses but they would still be evicted “because this is our law.”

Otres beach, along with most of the land on Cambodia’s south coast, was designated as “state public land” under the 1992 Land Law making it illegal to buy or sell. At that time, the kingdom was in the last throws of a civil war that had raged since the fall of the Maoist Khmer Rouge regime in 1979; tourists were giving the country a wide-berth and no-one wanted to invest in such an unstable region.

But long-term stability and incentives to attract foreign investors have created a recent boom in the Cambodian tourist industry. Tourist traffic has more than doubled since 2006 with 4.8 million tourists visiting the kingdom last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Tourism. The ministry is preparing to welcome eight million visitors by 2020.

All this has made coastline properties extremely valuable. Prime Minister HE changed the designation of the southern coast and it’s small, Thai-style islands in 2007 allowing for their sale. It prompted an all-islands-must-go rush. Fishing communities and independent tourist retreats built on what used to be public land were turfed out. Otres is the latest.

Despite purchasing leases and “soft deeds” from the local government – recent prices ranged from £35,000 - £70,000, according to a report in the Phnom Penh Post – vendors don’t have a legal leg to stand on. “There will be no compensation,” said Yun Min.

Many believe the construction of a large development on Otres, widely regarded as the most beautiful beach in Cambodia, is not so much as question of if, but when. In 2010, bulldozers cleared 1,500 metres in the middle of Otres. The land had been sold, two years previously, to provincial governer, Sbaung Sarath and Queenco, a casino company listed in London.

According to the Queenco website, “The company intends to develop an entertainment centerthat will include up to 3,000 hotel rooms and condominium units, a casino and an entertainment centre.” But the land remains empty, and has become a picnic spot for tourists and locals. It’s promoted speculation as to whether the company are waiting to acquire the rest of Otres or sell it on.

Investment is needed in Cambodia, a cash-strapped nation with a pressing need for the tourist pound but for the vendors and foreigners who love Otres for its unspoiled beauty the change is very difficult. “We can’t do anything about the eviction,” says one local vendor who requested anonymity out of fear of possible reprisals from officials. “We can’t fight them, we can only cry.”

Rutiger wrote:“It’s awful,” says Ginelle, a backpacker from Alaska. “Are they just going to put up another soulless big development?”