.. But in a good way this time. The center bit of Otres beach that was closed down for development last year has been worked on during the season, and has been closed of during most of it. It has now been opened up, and even though the beach bit is far from finished, and even though the building on the land behind it (that is bound to become a very large resort) has not started, the government has started to build the road connecting the far side of the beach, past our part of the beach and around the corner continuing onwards on the official road, the not so good one that the tuktuk’s use to get to Otres.
This effects us in a couple of ways, first of it means that the proper road to town will be done by the start of next season, which will increase the amount of visitors to our beach by a huge lot, as cars and busses can then go down our way without breaking down all the time. It also means that development on the back plots will start to take off, and i would be surprised if there are any open plots behind the road that wont be built on by the end of next season.
The negative part is that the village that lies along the road, which is where most of are staff lives, will probably be removed, and that will probably not be pretty. We will do our part and have offered the villagers our assistance to move their belongings to the parts of the land that we currently don’t use for building. Though we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, hopefully they will be left in peace.
The local airport has now officially opened up, with a small 12 people airplane starting to scuttle between Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, with a seat costing roughly 80 dollars a person with a half full plane or so, hopefully the other airlines will catch on, and the airport will open for proper business with airlines like Air Asia. There is also a road being built between Ream (the location of the airport) and Otres beach, which is also good a brilliant sign for the future of Otres.
The beach shacks in front of us still keep their accommodation right, but that is bound to change very soon, maybe at the same time as the road is finished, but who knows, i mean, T.I.C right? (This Is Cambodia).
In other news the high season is going towards its end, though no one seems to have told the backpackers that, we can still boast the fact that our bungalows are still almost full, and most rooms have been taken, as we will be open through out off season we hope that the stream of guests will continue.
Building wise, we are continuing on a much smaller scale than before, currently we are remodeling the waterpower, strengthening it and making it into housing for western staff, and backpackers with small wallets, it should stand ready in a week, and will boast 6 beds, and its own bathroom. The next project that is scheduled is another square building, next to the present one, dubbed the sugar cube.
My next post will be regarding the last preparations that needs to be done before i leave, and entrust our beloved living room and guesthouse to Chris, a friend and former owner of one of the businesses that got evicted last year.
- Sam
