This writeup is in two pieces. The first from Eric, the second Elise...
Then you have Sihanoukville. Perhaps it's a few years behind (development wise) similar locations in Thailand and Vietnam, but it's current development trajectory doesn't inspire me with much confidence. At present it's a shocking place that is very interesting to visit simply because it's a fair dinkum third world city that you don't see very often anymore in Asia. Key roads (even highways) are dirt tracks which seems to be a result of rapid development in action with growth of transport infrastructure lagging behind. The traffic is completely chaotic (even by Asian standards) and sanitation and utilities etc are appalling. Apparently crime and corruption are rampant.
A lot of Chinese money is flowing into the area to grow tourism and other industries (oil, logistics/transport, fishing etc), presumably as part of the "Belt and Road" initiative. However it appears to be money with few controls or regulations. The result is extreme capital gains for the few - mainly immigrant Chinese and a few local politicians and entrepreneurs, and extreme poverty for the rest. Ugly casinos and luxury hotels are springing up for the tourists that bar locals from entering (as if they could afford to!). The beaches have always been a highlight in this area and they seemed quite nice according to Bruce and Barbara who visited one on their tour (we didn't) but I suspect that pollution will have a major impact soon.
It will be interesting to see how the city and surrounds develop in the next few years. Apparently the education system isn't quite as bad as some of the other public services so there's hope.
So for mine, it was an interesting location that was worth a short visit to see the craziness of it all but I'm glad we didn't stay for any length of time.
Elise
Eric
and I travelled into Sihanoukville today. Samuel refused to go so we enrolled
him in kids club and left him in the ship.
I was interested in seeing just what the town was like. It had been billed as a 'third world city' and there were warnings as to its ‘roughness’ including not to expect to walk as there were no sidewalks and lots of construction. As Eric mentioned, the Chinese are investing a lot in this beach town and there is so much construction.
We decided on a trip to the market. Getting off the boat we boarded a bus to take us the few hundred metres to the port gate, just before we arrived the bus was accosted by men running alongside holding placards with their names and taxi or tuk tuk alongside pictures of where they could take us. Getting off the bus we were totally swamped by people trying to offer us lifts. Eric took some pictures and three or so people followed asking where we were from and did we want a lift. Negotiation followed and we arrived at a price and boarded a tuk tuk into town.
Wow it was certainly different. There is garbage in the streets, mostly dirt roads, ruts and pot holes, bumps everywhere. There are shacks at the side of the road housing people and businesses, then you come across large modern buildings either in construction or just constructed, but out the front is not finished, large graded areas if you’re lucky but mostly junk and rubbish surrounding the entrances. One road had a busted pipe gushing water all over the road, forming pools of mud. The electricity cables were strung overhead in a complicated mess. And there were certainly no sidewalks.
Driving the roads, it was organised chaos. Cars, bikes, trucks, bikes, tuk tuks and bikes everywhere weaving in and out. Apparently they drive on the right but you’d never guess it, generally the traffic does but for example our tuk tuk driver took us on a short cut and entered the main road however there was a concrete barrier in the middle of the road and so he turned against the flow of traffic (along with many others). Along we travelled cars etc coming straight for us, building traffic (large trucks) pulling out in front and weaving round. Crazy. Finally we went onto the correct side of the road, not that it changed much! Still the cars and bikes swarmed round beeping here and there but never touching. Such an art to driving there.
At one time I saw a police man stepping out in the traffic, whistling and stopping the flow of traffic so a stream of cars could turn onto the main road. I’m not quite sure why he bothered. Our tuk tuk stopped for a matter of seconds before continuing on, just missing drivers crossing the traffic in front.
Most travel on bikes. Whole families, people carrying stuff, swarms of them.
The markets were amazing. They sold everything and then some. Fresh and dried food, services, jewellery, clothing, shoes, souvenirs. We walked the many rows for about an hour or so. Eric could not stand the smell of the meat which was being cut up and hung in the humid heat uncooked, and certainly not refrigerated in any way. Seafood sat in buckets on the ground, not much cooler than the meat. Some shellfish were still alive and wandering about within the confines of the buckets. We wandered out of the market to be accosted by a large rubbish dump right across the road. The shops nearby held nothing much of interest so we rejoined our tuk tuk driver who had offered to wait for us and began the crazy drive back to port.
This was my first experience of a so called third world country. It was interesting but I expected to be accosted a lot more and pressured to buy. Instead a few beggars held out their hats to us and a couple of boys asked for money but more for a laugh than with any degree of pressure.
Bruce and mum took a guided tour which they thoroughly enjoyed, they reported that the life expectancy is 65, with diabetes being the greatest cause of death for the aged (basically if you do not die of aids then you can expect to suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer). Seems like it is live hard die young. But that must be how it is in these countries. It does seem sad. Awful for people to step through garbage and sewerage to get to work. Kids go to school either for a morning session or afternoon. The average wage is pitiful. Such a tough lottery for a child to be born into. I’m not sure if the Chinese investment trickles down to the populous of the town? I suspect not given that the lifestyle appears so awful and Russell and Ro’s taxi driver, whom they got to know a bit, hated the Chinese.
Eric
Sihanoukville is a city in Cambodia that was discovered as a tourist destination by backpackers in the 80s and 90s and in the current world seems well located on the small section of Cambodian coastline to become an economic and transport hub. My observation is that once the tourist circuit and the capitalists "discover" a south east Asian city with potential, generally rapid development follows that can lift local living standards with some impact on environment and culture but generally with a strong overall benefit. These positive effects of tourism and industrial development were certainly on display at several of our stops on the cruise where quite prosperous and reasonably clean (for the third world) cities are growing along the coast of the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea.Then you have Sihanoukville. Perhaps it's a few years behind (development wise) similar locations in Thailand and Vietnam, but it's current development trajectory doesn't inspire me with much confidence. At present it's a shocking place that is very interesting to visit simply because it's a fair dinkum third world city that you don't see very often anymore in Asia. Key roads (even highways) are dirt tracks which seems to be a result of rapid development in action with growth of transport infrastructure lagging behind. The traffic is completely chaotic (even by Asian standards) and sanitation and utilities etc are appalling. Apparently crime and corruption are rampant.
A lot of Chinese money is flowing into the area to grow tourism and other industries (oil, logistics/transport, fishing etc), presumably as part of the "Belt and Road" initiative. However it appears to be money with few controls or regulations. The result is extreme capital gains for the few - mainly immigrant Chinese and a few local politicians and entrepreneurs, and extreme poverty for the rest. Ugly casinos and luxury hotels are springing up for the tourists that bar locals from entering (as if they could afford to!). The beaches have always been a highlight in this area and they seemed quite nice according to Bruce and Barbara who visited one on their tour (we didn't) but I suspect that pollution will have a major impact soon.
It will be interesting to see how the city and surrounds develop in the next few years. Apparently the education system isn't quite as bad as some of the other public services so there's hope.
So for mine, it was an interesting location that was worth a short visit to see the craziness of it all but I'm glad we didn't stay for any length of time.
 |
| Global warming could also be an issue... |
Elise
Eric
and I travelled into Sihanoukville today. Samuel refused to go so we enrolled
him in kids club and left him in the ship.
I was interested in seeing just what the town was like. It had been billed as a 'third world city' and there were warnings as to its ‘roughness’ including not to expect to walk as there were no sidewalks and lots of construction. As Eric mentioned, the Chinese are investing a lot in this beach town and there is so much construction.
We decided on a trip to the market. Getting off the boat we boarded a bus to take us the few hundred metres to the port gate, just before we arrived the bus was accosted by men running alongside holding placards with their names and taxi or tuk tuk alongside pictures of where they could take us. Getting off the bus we were totally swamped by people trying to offer us lifts. Eric took some pictures and three or so people followed asking where we were from and did we want a lift. Negotiation followed and we arrived at a price and boarded a tuk tuk into town.
Wow it was certainly different. There is garbage in the streets, mostly dirt roads, ruts and pot holes, bumps everywhere. There are shacks at the side of the road housing people and businesses, then you come across large modern buildings either in construction or just constructed, but out the front is not finished, large graded areas if you’re lucky but mostly junk and rubbish surrounding the entrances. One road had a busted pipe gushing water all over the road, forming pools of mud. The electricity cables were strung overhead in a complicated mess. And there were certainly no sidewalks.
Driving the roads, it was organised chaos. Cars, bikes, trucks, bikes, tuk tuks and bikes everywhere weaving in and out. Apparently they drive on the right but you’d never guess it, generally the traffic does but for example our tuk tuk driver took us on a short cut and entered the main road however there was a concrete barrier in the middle of the road and so he turned against the flow of traffic (along with many others). Along we travelled cars etc coming straight for us, building traffic (large trucks) pulling out in front and weaving round. Crazy. Finally we went onto the correct side of the road, not that it changed much! Still the cars and bikes swarmed round beeping here and there but never touching. Such an art to driving there.
At one time I saw a police man stepping out in the traffic, whistling and stopping the flow of traffic so a stream of cars could turn onto the main road. I’m not quite sure why he bothered. Our tuk tuk stopped for a matter of seconds before continuing on, just missing drivers crossing the traffic in front.
Most travel on bikes. Whole families, people carrying stuff, swarms of them.
The markets were amazing. They sold everything and then some. Fresh and dried food, services, jewellery, clothing, shoes, souvenirs. We walked the many rows for about an hour or so. Eric could not stand the smell of the meat which was being cut up and hung in the humid heat uncooked, and certainly not refrigerated in any way. Seafood sat in buckets on the ground, not much cooler than the meat. Some shellfish were still alive and wandering about within the confines of the buckets. We wandered out of the market to be accosted by a large rubbish dump right across the road. The shops nearby held nothing much of interest so we rejoined our tuk tuk driver who had offered to wait for us and began the crazy drive back to port.
This was my first experience of a so called third world country. It was interesting but I expected to be accosted a lot more and pressured to buy. Instead a few beggars held out their hats to us and a couple of boys asked for money but more for a laugh than with any degree of pressure.
Bruce and mum took a guided tour which they thoroughly enjoyed, they reported that the life expectancy is 65, with diabetes being the greatest cause of death for the aged (basically if you do not die of aids then you can expect to suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer). Seems like it is live hard die young. But that must be how it is in these countries. It does seem sad. Awful for people to step through garbage and sewerage to get to work. Kids go to school either for a morning session or afternoon. The average wage is pitiful. Such a tough lottery for a child to be born into. I’m not sure if the Chinese investment trickles down to the populous of the town? I suspect not given that the lifestyle appears so awful and Russell and Ro’s taxi driver, whom they got to know a bit, hated the Chinese.
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