Where is the old plane?
Its inevitable that business come and go in a market economy. One such business, the Airport Bar and Disco has completely dissipated, vanished, I mean everything has gone, all bar a few piles of rubble. It was located on Victory Beach and was was a little bit of uniqueness in Sihanoukville in that the building was based on the shape of a blister hanger and centrepiece was a large old Russian passenger plane - needless to say the place was owned by Russians. Now there is a void, wasteland with garbage building - yep, khmers don't yet have that concept of taking their garbage home with them. No more are there aged, overweight European men flouncing up and down the beach in their tiny trunks. Equally their Cambodian partners are nowhere to be seen - the beach is empty with everyone moving on, not a single Russian to be seen! well, actually Victory Beach isn't completely since a few cows have taken up residence. Personally I wasn't impressed by the Russian monopoly on sunbeds and seats by the sea but the old plane was quite a unique feature and for that reason Victory beach Airport Bar will be fondly remembered - visit 2012, travel season 2.
Not only has the Airport Bar gone but so have the beach shacks that were located towards the port end of the beach - and its only just happened by the looks of things as all that remains are charred bamboos, some thatch and ashes. The fire still going strong creating plenty of smoke right through the doors and windows of the hotel opposite. The Jetty remains intact though with a few tourist boats coming and going but that's the only activity going on around here, for now anyway.
The Old Plane - Photo here
