The town has had too many hotels for at least 10 years, you can see hotels along the highway and other locations that have been closed for over 10 years, now just abandoned eyesores, then add in all the new hotels that are now closed and it is not a pretty sight, if and its a big if, they get the roads finished before they "run out of money" it will be a miracle, Cambodians, like most Asians, do not do well when developing cities because they do not have a master plan, the beautiful old hotel near the river roundabout should have been restored into the town hall and a tourist info center, Now it is being demolished, a combination of short term thinking, greed, and too much wealth concentration makes for a bad outcome. Rents will be low for years to come that is one positive, the number of closed ships gives the place the feel of a ghost town, hope to see a recovery but as others have said the place peaked about 15 years ago.

Mostcurious wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 1:43 am

MaxNormal wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 9:34 pm
But if one is seeking a developing country vibe, with lax (compared to the west) pace of life, attitude and availability of various pleasures, old school cultures brushing up alongside modernising attitudes and a deep sense of time (temples), not too much overdevelopment and concrete everywhere, smaller scale and traditional buildings mixed with small scale modern builds, little mom n pop shops, some no more than sheds, older colonial style stone buildings on the larger roads, cheap (again compared to the west) daily amenities, dusty streets with old cars and bikes on them, a world away from 'normal Western life' is this pocket of the KOW (SR) not still an amazing place to live for a while. I don't care for lots of tourists personally, but if they are there in the city centre that's fine too (Bali for example is awash in the main cities, but a few miles out and its richly old school and hardly a trustafarian in sight.)

Edits for phrasing

What on earth are you talking about ?
Seeking a developing country vibe ???
Availability of various pleasures ???
Deep sense of time ???
Little mom and pop shops ???
Colonial buildings on large roads ???
Dusty streets with old cars and bikes ???
You have completely lost me.

Developing country vibe - the atmosphere and culture in a developing country.

Availability of pleasures - affordable (compared to western standard pricing) food, drink, cigarettes etc...

Deep sense of time - One of the oldest and largest architectural wonders of the world

Little shops - small shops owned and ran by the same people, small building, small stock, few shelves, wooden buildings etc.

http://www.minisuitcase.co.uk/wp-conten ... C02172.jpg

Colonial buildings -
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/A9JA6K/the-ci ... A9JA6K.jpg

Dusty streets old cars etc - pretty straightforward no?

https://www.visit-angkor.org/wp-content ... m-reap.jpg

Im not sure why you didn't get at least the thrust of my imagery.

ExPenhMan wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 11:47 am

Multipox wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 8:20 am

lagrange wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 7:35 pm I first traveled to Siem Reap in 2013, I thought it was a pleasant little town. So I came back here last September to live, I enjoyed the lack of tourists, the river walks were nice and peaceful, the minimal traffic made getting around so easy. And all the bars and cafes, struggling but still going. But today? The town is a f**king third world shithole. And I have lived in some shitholes. The worst part is to fix up the bloody mess will take more money and engineering expertise than can possibly exist in the whole country. Such a shame, it should have been a showcase, now it's just an outdoor toilet.

got pix?

Just go to SR-Infrastructure page on YouTube. New videos almost every day showing the godawful mess. All you have to do is look at the freeze frame on each video and weep.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLONee ... FuloSR-3bg

I have been using these videos to see more modern footage of areas near to where we are going as the Google car photos are from 2013.

It does indeed look like alot of crazy work, but even in time I'm sure the mayhem will sooner or later come to an end finished, unfinished or left to the elemtns. The finished areas don't look that bad from what I can see, and time/nature has a way of softening the edges of the efforts of man.

As i say, even through this whole thread, I have not been to Cambodia let alone SR before and will reserve judgment on the ground for when we arrive in a few weeks. But we are still both very excited and looking forward to the adventure.

Judgment reserved and I will feed back on my thoughts and opinions once we arrive proper, but I remain optimistic.

Not sure why people are complaining m yes it sucks and it's a hit disorganized mess, but would you have rather they done it all the height of tourist season or something? At least they're doing it while things are quiet.

Google Street View is so frustrating. 2013 is an eternity ago in such a rapidly developing country. Areas that were green fields then are now highly built up. You can see from the satellite images how it looks from above as that is updated frequently, but it's no substitute for Street View. Apparently they have been doing Central and Northern Thailand so far this year. Hopefully they will come back to Cambodia.

Very difficult to scout out Cambodian neighbourhoods from a distance.

This latest video from the aforementioned SR-Infrastructure channel shows things progressing.



From what I can see it all looks pretty good. Obviously the noise from construction and knock on effect to traffic during the phase of building the road is unfortunate, but the completed sections look pretty good. Some have already settled somewhat into the sides/surroundings and it only takes a year for nature to reclaim soil/areas of cleared brush, especially in that sort of climate.

The area of Sala Kamreuk Road is sort of in the vicinity of where we will be headed initially whilst we find our feet and look for a more permanent residence. It looks bloody amazing if you ask me.

Coming from this style of living/environment for the last year or so:

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/jm ... 214006.jpg

The scene set for me in that newest video looks like heaven on earth...

I have been using these videos to see more modern footage of areas near to where we are going as the Google car photos are from 2013.

It does indeed look like alot of crazy work, but even in time I'm sure the mayhem will sooner or later come to an end finished, unfinished or left to the elemtns. The finished areas don't look that bad from what I can see, and time/nature has a way of softening the edges of the efforts of man.

As i say, even through this whole thread, I have not been to Cambodia let alone SR before and will reserve judgment on the ground for when we arrive in a few weeks. But we are still both very excited and looking forward to the adventure.

Judgment reserved and I will feed back on my thoughts and opinions once we arrive proper, but I remain optimistic.
[/quote]

I think it will grow on you if you want it to , there are alot of young optimistic people around ,
Eventually us old negative bassturds will die off , and hopefully the young will take over for thier own good if the ( never mind )