Sunday, January 01, 2012

Cambodia's splashing Sea Festival

(All photos: Cambodia Express News)

Sunday, January 01, 2012
BigPondNews

Swimming, water races and beach volleyball are some of the events featured at Sihanouk Ville's Sea Festival in Cambodia.

Locals and foreigners gathered together to welcome the New Year,

The government hopes the festival would also give a boost to tourism.

'What makes me happy is that there are many people from all over the country to watch the event and furthermore is that Cambodia has another new festival and it is the Sea Festival,' Kim Sereyrath from Phnom Penh told Reuters.


You Sophana, from Kompong Chnang Province told Reuters that when she arrives, she feels happier than anywhere else. 'I can see many Khmers and many foreigners from many different countries here at the beach of Sihanouk Ville,' she told Reuters.

According to the Phnom Penh post, on seventh General Assembly in Senegal, the Paris-based Les Plus Belles Baies Du Monde named Cambodia as the newest member of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World Club.

The Sea Festival was expected to draw crowds of at least 50,000 people, as it also includes a New Year's Eve fireworks display.

"This Sea Festival is aimed at promoting sea tourism because all other countries gain at least fifteen percent in tourist numbers after sea festivals. So through this Sea Festival we encourage people and institutions to join hands to protect and develop our sea area," Cambodia's Tourism Minister Thong Khon told Reuters.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

it's about time cambodia is letting the world know about our beaches and coastal destination. we welcome all europeans, americans, japanese tourists, etc to visit our beautiful beaches and coastal region for a change. we welcome all the world visitors to cambodia. god bless cambodia.

Anonymous said...

17 years ago, i had the pleasure of taking my family to Ochheuteal. we used to stay at the Seaside Hotel, the only one to open there at the time. it was pure bliss. now the beach is full of shops and vendors and the atmosphere has completely changed. sure a lot of people are making a good living and i know i shouldn't complain, but i still regret that 'development' of the beach was not done more sensibly, because at the end everyone loses out from pollution, and crass commercialisation. if truth be told, now it's downright filthy. well at least i knew how beautiful it was 17 years ago.

Anonymous said...

Watch out for sea monster. He may show up and spew out mega waves to drown all in attendant.

Anonymous said...

3:54PM
So true
You cannot have your cake and eat it too.

Anonymous said...

there's no tsunami in cambodia, only in viet/youn and siem country, you know!

cambodia is a very beautiful country with beautiful khmer people. please come visit cambodia. we have so many sites to offer our tourists, you know. enjoy my country cambodia.