A return to Cambodia's Koh Russey island
Rosemary Behan returns to the country and finds that much has changed in the decade since her last visit
February 21, 2019
Despite being one of the first stops on China’s new Belt and Road Initiative, the roads in southern Cambodia still leave a lot to be desired. Driving from the capital Phnom Penh to the southern town of Kampot and across to Sihanoukville, the potholes and clouds of dust remind me of the challenges I encountered when I first travelled around the country 13 years ago.

I catch charming glimpses of that old Cambodia – oxen in rice paddies under moody skies, traditional wooden farmhouses on stilts amid tall, slender palms, kind, positive, hard-working people who don’t mind tourists, families riding four-to-a-motorbike and tuk-tuks piled with goods. But there is also change afoot here, and it’s not always pretty.

Re-visiting Sihanoukville
Connecting Vietnam and Thailand by road and sea – Sihanoukville has Cambodia’s only deepwater port – billions of dollars of Chinese investment is under way in the form of huge industrial zones. The Chinese have also invested in new resorts and casinos, some in existing resorts and others in vulnerable and previously protected national parks, along with power plants and shopping malls. Perhaps after all the investment is secured, the roads will finally arrive.

All of this, of course, is happening with the blessing of the Cambodian government and its prime minister HE. All over the capital and southern provinces, development rights have been given, enabling the clearing of land at breakneck speed in destinations including Ream National Park, which I first visited in 2006.

Now, when I fly over, what I’d heard about is confirmed: a huge and previously protected beachside tract has been gouged out for yet more hotel rooms; wildlife has disappeared and some tour operators have stopped offering trips there

Then, it was one of the last wild refuges for sun bears, fishing cats and birds of prey. I landed on a long-tail boat on what felt like a desert island. Now, when I fly over, what I’d heard about is confirmed: a huge and previously protected beachside tract has been gouged out for yet more hotel rooms; wildlife has disappeared and some tour operators have stopped offering trips there.

Back in January 2006, I was staying at a lovely guesthouse on Sihanoukville’s Serendipity Beach, though there was already more than a whiff of shady deals and, around the corner, some horrible hotels were just beginning to be built. Today, Sihanoukville is a garish strip of overdevelopment – with hundreds of ­hotels, casinos and towering apartment blocks, overpriced restaurants, a beach full of rubbish and seas filled with dead coral.
https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/tr ... d-1.828437

Much must have been changing indeed, apart from that, it looks more like an Alila informercial than what i was expecting to read.

the chinese should do a belt of high rise casinos & floating high rise casinos to join the landmasses to create a high rise casino belt around the planet.
of course only the most pristine environments will do so the upper level apartments will have remnant views of the now manicured remnants replete with high speed rail networks belting around the planet beside the global casino belt.