Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

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Sir_Quality_U_Feel
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by Sir_Quality_U_Feel »

LaudJohn wrote:FWIW I agree with hotdigr.

My first business in SHV over a decade ago was a whoremongers bar which then had wall to wall freelancers, located in town. There were few bars in town apart from Victory Hill (before Mssr Rudolph opened the first of his 5 girlie bars) which was then a backpacker haven, there was practically nothing at occhheteal and serendipity. That business has died.

My next business/development was a bar complex aimed (when devised in 2005) as beer bars to be packed with girls for the whoremonger market. During the extended construction period of the Plaza the raids on the brothels took place and the girl scene was destroyed. Over that period the number of expats had increased and most were not sexpats, By the time the bars opened few had any girls, but there were still not too many bars near the beach so they did ok as just normal bars, many attracting a decent expat following.

Now I am finalising the purchase of an established business. It will be repositioned and marketed primarily/solely at the family market both expats and tourists.

I too have seen what hotdigr has seen. I agree with his comments about CPN more reflecting the PP of today than K440. YEs K440 accurately reflected the majority of expats in Cambodia in 2003 and for a while afterwards, but now it does not. In 2003, the Soyra centre was the tallest building in PP there were no apartment blocks, no office towers, traffic was a breeze. Who do you think is filling all these apartment complexes??

The future of SHV is not the same as the past neither too is the make up and mindset and needs of the majority of the visitors.
Interesting. While I am no expert and haven't traveled the world- I think everywhere is changing, even places that for the past few generations or even the past few hundreds of years have been cultured and untouched are being turned upside down and shaken a bit. Change is inevitable around the world, but we argue about how stagnant or how rapidly it does occur. I think that in the past 20 years, change ( mostly in our population on Earth) has been pretty rapid.

Thanks for the share LaudJohn. It is interesting to read about how different things were somewhere not to long ago in the past. To be honest, I've only been to S'Ville I think 4 times in my life, once with the mother and father tagging along, and not once did I/we ever bother to go into town. Our loss, perhaps, but sitting on the beach, eating sea food, doing nothing was high on the agenda.

I also pointed out to a friend how it is a bit strange that we always head left down Occheteal ( spelling) Beach and not right at the boardwalk down whatever that one is. Independence???

We have a few bars picked out that are foreign owned and a few Khmer ran places for both eating, evening and late night shenanigans.( Khin's Shack , end of Ocheteal is one of my favorite of the entire beach scene)

I love Sihanoukville, but I haven't visited enough over the past 2 years to get burned out. I always just stay for 3 or 4 days and just stay along the hill by Ocheteal beach. I actually want to go back there for a few days of R&R on the beach. Rain Rain , go away. :)
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vladimir
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by vladimir »

I think 2 things will happen:

1. The backpacker market will slowly move east, further from the town than Otres. They will have no option, everything close to town/with decent infrastructure will simply be too expensive.

2. The Russian contingent will continue to grow, and i agree 100% with Hotdigr, they will need somewhere to spend cash, be open.

I also see an amazing opportunity for someone with real money to open a genuinely International School, from kindergarten to grade 12: the kids will have to go to school somewhere. Russians know about decent education.

I'm just truly amazed that someone hasn't seen this and done something about it. Cambridge IGCSE, it's staring you in the face!

Why a TEFLer has to tell smart people with money...?
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ryoon
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by ryoon »

Concerning the local market I agree with hotdigr, I had occasion to work with a business targeting wealthy local and expat.
The English speaking expat are fare to be the dominant market. The few they had were of the same type as the none native English speaking community family with stable and well paying job.
The opening of AEON is also a big indication of the apparition of a market such a describe hotidgr. Family oriented, working, stable expat with quite an amount of cash to spend.

I am do not know PP so well but for what I saw of the riverside the amount of money invested in the night life market is not so important. I mean you have many bar but the amount of investment and the cash generated by each seems to be pretty low.

Where I disagree strongly to Hotdigr is that SK is the place to invest right know, there is not real benefit in being the first in this type of business to my knowledge, once the market is definitely there and can be analyzed you can go in. Before it is simply too risky IMO. This ways you avoid bad surprises of the type another place is developed and not the one you are in.
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by wackyjacky »

Until you get a real highway to PP, SHV won't do shit. 4.5-5 hrs to go 200km ? There's no reason it should take much > 2. It's the road from the country's only port to it's capital & population center. It should be a main priority. How popular do you think Pattaya or Hua Hin would be if it took 5 hrs from BKK ?
Last edited by wackyjacky on Tue Jul 08, 2014 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by OrangeDragon »

Sir_Quality_U_Feel wrote: I also pointed out to a friend how it is a bit strange that we always head left down Occheteal ( spelling) Beach and not right at the boardwalk down whatever that one is. Independence???

We have a few bars picked out that are foreign owned and a few Khmer ran places for both eating, evening and late night shenanigans.( Khin's Shack , end of Ocheteal is one of my favorite of the entire beach scene)

I love Sihanoukville, but I haven't visited enough over the past 2 years to get burned out. I always just stay for 3 or 4 days and just stay along the hill by Ocheteal beach. I actually want to go back there for a few days of R&R on the beach. Rain Rain , go away. :)
That's "Serendipity" beach.. and more rock than beach, independance is on the other side of town. Khin's Shack rocks, but Martini's is also pretty kick ass if you like italian food. The roasted pork ("porkchetta") falls apart in your mouth. Heavenly.

What's REALLY a bit strange though it why you'd hang on that beach at all when it comes to the actual beach aspect. it's pretty much the nastiest one in the area unless you're WAY down by Queens Hill. Otres is only a few dollars more by tuktuk and 100% better. Better food (O.C. Club on Otres has a salmon pasta in cream sauce that makes it worth the trip alone... they also provide really nice beach lounges, towels and hot and cold showers for rinsing off after a swim), cleaner, etc. Same with Independance. Victory gets a bit of rubbish from the port when the tide comes in, so I'm not a big fan of the water there.

As for the people crying about the road... have you driven it lately? I have. They've expanded it to 4 lanes for about half of the trip. It only takes 5 hours because 2-3 of them are spent in Phnom Penh getting a bus through the god awful traffic.
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by LaudJohn »

I did it in 2 hrs 14 mins once, now I take a leisurely 3 to 3 1/2 hours to do the trip.

It is still the best road in the country.

Flights will increase and will be used more.
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by OrangeDragon »

Really they already are. When I went to pick up my friend flying in from the airport I was shocked at how many people were on the plane with him.
wackyjacky
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by wackyjacky »

OrangeDragon wrote:
Sir_Quality_U_Feel wrote: I also pointed out to a friend how it is a bit strange that we always head left down Occheteal ( spelling) Beach and not right at the boardwalk down whatever that one is. Independence???

We have a few bars picked out that are foreign owned and a few Khmer ran places for both eating, evening and late night shenanigans.( Khin's Shack , end of Ocheteal is one of my favorite of the entire beach scene)

I love Sihanoukville, but I haven't visited enough over the past 2 years to get burned out. I always just stay for 3 or 4 days and just stay along the hill by Ocheteal beach. I actually want to go back there for a few days of R&R on the beach. Rain Rain , go away. :)
That's "Serendipity" beach.. and more rock than beach, independance is on the other side of town. Khin's Shack rocks, but Martini's is also pretty kick ass if you like italian food. The roasted pork ("porkchetta") falls apart in your mouth. Heavenly.

What's REALLY a bit strange though it why you'd hang on that beach at all when it comes to the actual beach aspect. it's pretty much the nastiest one in the area unless you're WAY down by Queens Hill. Otres is only a few dollars more by tuktuk and 100% better. Better food (O.C. Club on Otres has a salmon pasta in cream sauce that makes it worth the trip alone... they also provide really nice beach lounges, towels and hot and cold showers for rinsing off after a swim), cleaner, etc. Same with Independance. Victory gets a bit of rubbish from the port when the tide comes in, so I'm not a big fan of the water there.

As for the people crying about the road... have you driven it lately? I have. They've expanded it to 4 lanes for about half of the trip. It only takes 5 hours because 2-3 of them are spent in Phnom Penh getting a bus through the god awful traffic.
++++ ! I agree with most everything. Try Tamu and the end of Otres 2 - great food, beautiful views on the sand, high end vibe, and a nice pool to get the salt off. As far as Martinis, I've never had even an acceptable meal there. Inferior ingredients, ill prepared, by guys with a bad attitude. I was in the restaurant biz all my life & I know good food & Martini's aint it. There's no reason to go there, unless you're looking for a girl late night. L'osteria Di Gino, Marco Polo, Olive & Olive, & Mediterraneo are much much better. Even Barbarella is better. At least he's trying to put out a decent product. As far as the road, I don't drive it. I rode the bike up and back once, but never again. It's just fucking dangerous. I do go to PP about 2X a month though. I'm in a cab or Giant Ibis. From PNH to town is usually 30 mins. If during evening clusterfuck, it can be 60. The road is a little better, but too much of the ride you're stuck behind a truck going 20 mph. The average for near head-ons /trip is about 4.
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Satiated Parrot
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by Satiated Parrot »

wackyjacky wrote:Until you get a real highway to PP, SHV won't do shit. 4.5-5 hrs to go 200km ? There's no reason it should take much > 2. It's the road from the country's only port to it's capital & population center. It should be a main priority. How popular do you think Pattaya or Hua Hin would be if it took 5 hrs from BKK ?
As someone who has limited holiday time, and who does not live in Cambodia, this is bang on the money.

I would love to spend the odd 4-day weekend in Sihanoukville. However, to get there, I have to take a 2.5 hour flight to Phnom Penh and then it's another long drive to Sihanoukville. I don't bother; instead, I take a (cheaper, visa-free) flight to Phuket, for which I can leave my office in Singapore at 4 and be fully checked in to my hotel and in a bar in Phuket by 8 (local time). If I want peace and quiet I can stay in phi phi, or nearby kata; if I get bored I can take a one-hour flight to Bangkok.

Realistically, unless someone significantly improves the travel time from Phnom Penh, or better yet, tee up direct flights from the major airport hubs, most people will continue to do what I do, and choose Thailand over Sihanoukville.

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frank lee bent
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by frank lee bent »

Teh unabated construction boom suggest that the optimists here are right.
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