It gets bigger every day.
Founded in 1958, as the best location in the country to build a deep-water port, and the best water for making Angkor Beer. Also, the friendliest place in Cambodia to name a town after the King, King Sihanouk. The French (and Cambodians) cleared the forest and built us a port. This is also when they built a big beer brewery at the top of the hill. Then, someone realized that we needed a road to get out of the jungle, and deliver goods to and from the port, so some Americans (and Cambodians) built a road to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After realizing there was a road from Phnom Penh to SihanoukVille, (and all other roads in the country lead to Phnom Penh), someone thought it might be nice to go to the seashore and go swimming. Now, there's a New new road to Phnom Penh. You gotta pay to go on it, but it's 2 hours to the outskirts of Phnom Penh from SihanoukVille. The rest is history! Now, SihanoukVille is the largest seaside town in Cambodia. SihanoukVille has the biggest port, a large agricultural community, biggest tourist attraction (after Angkor Wat in Siem Reap) main port for visiting the islands of Cambodia, largest collection of casinos in the world, the biggest Chinatown in the world (outside China), the first modern seaside resorts and first island resorts. The second biggest factory base in the country, the main base for offshore oil drilling (if it ever happens), more casinos than Macau, (still as of 2024) and a Chinese style construction boom and bust all over the city. And reBOOM again. |
SihanoukVille, also known locally as Kampong Som, is in Kampong Som province. The actual unofficial city limits cover approximately 31.272 square kilometers. Shoreline, counting the islands, is 3,223 kilometers (approximately.) We rule most of the Cambodian islands too! The city's population is approximately unknown. It went up 5% a year for years, up 100% per year for a couple years, then down 80% in a month. Then stayed exactly the same during quarantine for a couple months. Now it's slowly rising. 363,291.7 people best guess.... T The price for baby delivery in the public hospital was 29,000 Cambodian Riel for a normal delivery ($7.36 at current exchange rates). No extra charge for twins, but it's probably higher now. There is about 1 telephone landline for every 832 people, 2 cell phones for every 1.22 people, 11 TVs for every 31 people (not including karaoke TV's), 1 karaoke bar for every 35 people. 1 out of 3.2 people are classified as students. Some of the main not-government occupations of SihanoukVille's residents:
(old info, unknown what's going on now) |
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The town of SihanoukVille is supported by public water and sewer systems sometimes, a whole lot of police, teachers, and military defense, lots and lots of government agencies and ministries from the country, province, city, town, and villages and blocks. One main Post Office. Paved major public roads, (and lots of unpaved smaller roads), 62 banking and financial institutions, and over 100 ATM machines, (with more on the way), 23 official gas stations, (and 263 roadside gas mini stations), 255 stop lights, some working, one prison, one court, 3+ Wats (Buddhist Temples), one port, a few dozen Christian churches, two muslim mosques, one public hospital, a few dozen medical clinics and a several dozen pharmacies, an airport, 1,833 bars and restaurants, 24,263 hotel and guesthouse rooms. A few non government organizations (NGOs) also provide services to the population. We use US Dollars here for most purchases over a few dollars, and Cambodian Riel for most small purchases. (1 US Dollar = 4,082 Riel). Many of the new Chinese places take Chinese Yuan. Electricity, ranges around 220 Volts. Weather is warm to hot; coolest times of year are the Winter (November to February) and the rainy season (July to October). The main language is Khmer, with lots of English and Chinese speakers. The new unofficial language in Westport (SihanoukVille) is Chinese. Buddhism is the main religion and the official religion of the country, but you can find some Christians and many Muslims here also. There's about 19 public holidays, (we get off about 25 days for these), and when a holiday falls on a weekend, the first available non-holiday weekday is usually a public holiday. The time here is 12:55pm, or the same time as in Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Jakarta and Krasnoyarsk, according to the time zone settings in Windows (a trademark of Microsoft of course). There is no daylight savings time here. Sunrise is around early morning, about 6 am, and sunset is of course when night starts. About 5:28 - 6:23pm. Because we're near the damned equator, sunrise and sunset don't vary too much during the year. |
Tourism in SihanoukVille, Cambodia Tourist come to SihanoukVille from all over the country, and all over the world. Even China. Tourist arrive here by ship, road, airplane or helicopter flight. (many chartered casino flights come here now.) Most of the tourism here is from Chinese gamblers and people from Phnom Penh going to the Beach. The only deep sea port in the country brings a steady flow of container ships, and cruise ships with one day tourists to town. Also, local weddings draw many visitors from other provinces. Both Government and NGO "meetings", corporate getaways, and business "seminars" along the sunny beach side of SihanoukVille also contribute many tourists to our fine seaside town. And of course, our 90+ casinos bring a few tourists as well. Foreign tourists usually arrive by car or bus from Phnom Penh, Kampot, Koh Kong or Kep Cambodia. From sea, they come on cruise ships leaving from Saigon, Vietnam, as their previous port, or they come from warships from several different countries. Occasional visits from private yachts. By air, tourists come from Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and China. The lucky come by helicopter. There are 177,265 foreigners living in SihanoukVille, with the bulk coming from China. Well, mostly China. These are mainly factory managers, factory workers and supervisors, construction managers and workers, store owners, entertainment workers, and casino and hotel staff. And now Chinese restaurant and food market workers. Tourism has increased since Covid, (thank God). the population plummeted more than 50% in a couple months, when on-line gambling was banned. An additional 13,612 rooms should maybe come on-line in 2024, and many more rooms are planned for 2025. Lots of Asian gambling tour groups have found our seaside town just fine for a few days of R&R. Accommodations range from $20 rooms, to an island resort priced over $5,000 for one night (but it's really nice). $35 typically gets you a basic room with a bathroom, TV, bed, fan and not much else. $50 and up gets all the above with maybe a nicer room, air-conditioning, hot water, and a fridge. Several resorts in town charge $100 and up per night. Prices right on or near the ocean cost more. Local cable TV gets channels in Khmer (the language of Cambodia), Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, French, Italian, German, Australian, and of course, English. We also have satellite TV. But now, most people use Wi-Fi, free in most all hotels, casinos, restaurants, to watch on their digital devices. Favorite sports in SihanoukVille are: Gambling with playing cards, gambling on European Football (if you consider England to be part of Europe..... Soccer for Americans), gambling on BINGO, casino gambling, kick the shoe, badminton, and volleyball. Most of the Football pitches have had to close to make way for casinos or related buildings. Finally, a local form of hackysack, where a feather anchored in plastic is kicked around in a circle. You can find more information about SihanoukVille and Cambodia at... SihanoukVille Holidays and Events List of Hotels in SihanoukVille |
