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Cambodia is a country in Indochina surrounded by Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. It\'s mostly known in past for it\'s civil war during the 70\'s. Most foreigners would not have dared until 2005 to enter the country but it had not much to offer for foreigners anyway. Most have been scared about Malarya and Landmines. Tourism started first with a couple backpackers and Pattaya style older men in Phonm Penh and Sihanoukville. Big mass tourism started in Siem Reap with it\'s Angkor temples after 2012. The country got recently in the news by it\'s national parks and big style logging of Try Pheap and APP Indonesia/Malaysia and as well always because of extreme corruption issues of the leading government lead by Hun Sen. The actual prime minister, an ancient S-21 regiment Khmer Rouge leader which has been operating from Me Mut Vietnam border and Kampong Cham northern province during the civil war is by 2015 now 30 years in power. Cambodia got plenty of islands in front of Sihanoukville\'s coast which have been mostly untouched or with few basic accommodation. Those wanted to see once such untouched islands better hurry up, as the big machines of the speculators and investors are on the start and it\'s just a matter of very few years until it will look like anywhere else as plenty of Masterplans show what future will be Some plan their disney world, some their Mick Jagger 5 star islands and ideas go the way that beaches convert to a Dubai or Singapore like skyscraper beach towns as at Sihanoukville\'s Otres. Don\'t underestimate chinese as they show what they are able to at Botum Sakor national park. They just log whole national parks down over a size of 100 square kilometers and build casino cities instead within a very few years. 45% of the countries whole land mass and all islands have been secretly sold by the ruling government (Economic Land Concessions) to foreign investors within the last few years with deals of leases to 30..99 and twice 99 years. By 2013/14 Cambodia got once more in the news by demonstrations against the ruling government when poeple got told by Sam Rainsy, an in French exile living Khmer, how the country has been bleeded out within a few years by the small hungry elite of Hun Sen which is responsible for often violent evictions of 100\'000s of people within the last few years.
Imagine just 10 years ago you won\'t have seen any foreign people in Cambodia,most cities have been run down, Phnom Penh had dusty streets with very few cars and if someone could afford a vehicle he had a Daelim Motobike used as MotoDup taxi or a Tuk Tuk. You won\'t have seen any tourist more than a backpacker at Angkor temples and Siem Reap was a sleepy little town. Koh Kong was separated from the rest of the country, when coming from Thailand the only way to get into Cambodia was a ferry operating from Koh Kong to Sihanoukville over Smuggler Island in a 4 hours trip. Then Thailand has been running low on wood and organized a street connecting Koh Kong to the rest and of course the wood has been travelling to Thailand where all hotel builders have been celbrating the cheap tropical lxuury wood to build their bungalows, at least in Koh Chang.
When coming from Laos Don Deth 4000 Islands from a forest path into Cambodia it was a dusy road and it took 20 hours to get down to Phnom Penh crossing several times the river by floats. Phnom Penh a few lights at nights and very few places to go beside the ancient Walkabout and Heart of Darkness. You had no internet and were lucky to get a 128kbit connection which was shared with all other hotel customer and the best hotel in Sihanoukville called a 5 star was Sokha which offered a 512 kbit internet connection. Not for every hotel customer. A 512 kbit connection for a hotel with 176 rooms shared, then you can imagine how slow your internet got just until 2012 where people in the western world had in the meantime 6 Megabit connection for a single household. So it was annoying and almost impossible to do any kind of work with internte until 2012. Without internet, no business people would have ever stayed in Cambodia and Khmers started to learn about computers when Smartphones came up in 2013 when as well internet connections got better and the AAG glass fibre seacable connecting the country to the rest of the world over Malaysia have been set. So since now 2 years you could say Cambodia is kind of integrated in the world, but everysince they go with turbo speed. Most foreigners knew about Cambodia before it\'s the land of legless people, beggars, landmines and Malarya. Those backpackers entering the country in before 2008 have been stuck somewhere at rundown shacks at Sihanoukville\'s beaches because there was no boat transfer to any island. This means, most of those islands have rarely seen any people until 2008 and have been completely untouched.
2008 rich Khmer people started to run around the country to buy land. They took the last dollar they had somewhere and collected all they could get. Everywhere walls around land have been built and no one really knew what\'s going on. Sometimes a story where people on beaches or other good land or on the islands have been evicted, their homes have been burnt down and caterpillars made the rest followed by military police battled civilians down. Backpacker island resorts grew up and disappeared again by order of government. Prospering island resorts with booming tourism disappeared again after investors bought islands just for speculation reasons and left it empty over years. Facilities on beaches have been built and soon afterwards taken and burnt down again by the government. There were always just rumors, nobody serious reporting, no news papers, no journalism other than in Phnom Penh, nobody was on sources but a few years later everyone found out about. 45% of Cambodia\'s landmass has been secretly sold to foreign investors. Some of them bought 10\'000 hectares, another ones up to 200\'000 hectares ( 2000sq km ) in a row. It\'s called Economic Land Concessions and means a free playground for government to log whole nationalparks down, evict 100\'000s of people and battle those buy military police down which wanted not to leave. Some imvestors bought whole islands and gave the fisher families a couple dollars to leave. An Austrian couple sailing in front of Sihanoukville found the 2 SongSaa twin islands and was just amazed how cheap it was to get rid of the locals and to buy those islands. They made a Mick Jagger class luxury resort on it and charge those flying in by helicopters up to 6000 dollar for an overnight stay. Russian billion dollar guys as Polonsky and Trofimov have been buying whole islands and wanted to make their private homes and disney land on it. From one day to another masses of new luxury cars on streets in Phnom Penh beside of all other run down facilities as well as all hospitals where people still struggled by the lack of a couple dollars. Khmers bought just the biggest vehicle Lexus 570LX with 5.7 liter engine for 80 grand which cost with a 100% import tax 160\'000 dollars. Everybody wondering how people could afford such cars in a country having econmoy or industry more than NGO\'s and donators money. Southern of Phnom Penh kilometer long walls around land have been built and years later big companies started to settle where 100000s of people started to work in garment insdustry. When China payd salaries of 500 monthly dollars, workers made 70 dollar in Cambodia, so plenty of companies expanded or relocated over to Cambodia. Siem Reap got from a sleepy town overnight to a mass tourism crowded city with 2 mio visitors a year and everyone having tried before somewhere else as in Sihanoukvilleto make any mostly low income business has been running to the Angkor town to make his fortune. Cambodia has been rebuilt by foreigners with a dream in their head. They made it ready for tourism with ancient cheap land leases. All sort of stories exist with inicially cheap land leases which got horrible expensive over 10 years and doubles i\'s prices every year. Some of those foreigners built infrastructure are still there, another ones started to get troubles and headaches by Khmers and officials which have been land owners and have seen their opportunities after things have been built. Chinese and Khmer companies started to build or are still building whole casino resorts having golf courts inside nationalparks as at Bokor or Botum Sakor. A good reason to build infrastructure inside national parks as rosewood is payd by 5000 dollar in Cambodia for a cubic meter but 25000 dollar in China. So Cambodia got the country of loggers. On top of it Try Pheap, a local caino and logging magnate with a good handshake to the Prime Minister and likely others as Okhna Sok Kong, the Sokha luxury resort, casino, Angkor and petroleum businesss man. Okhna means in Cambodia a donation to CPP and likely another into the pocket of the prime minister. You call them excellencies, but they are mostly not that excellent and just another crowd bleeding out whole systems and make fortunes into their pockets just because they have been at the right place at the right time and not because of special skills. It\'s estimated that in just a few years Cambodia will not have any national parks anymore and if no one tried to prevent the whole thing it\'s estimated Cambodia had almost not a single tree within just 6 month. It\'s the open playground of a highly corrupt government lead by the CPP prime minister Hun Sen, bleeding out a whole country together with his selected people set in power in police, military, government and ministries. And most Khmers had no idea about all this until 2013.
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