Sihanoukville (Khmer: - Krong Preah Sihanouk), also known as Kampong Som, is a province in southern Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand. This port city is a growing Cambodian urban center, located 185 kilometres (115 mi) southwest of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. The province is named after King Father Norodom Sihanouk and grew up around the construction of Sihanoukville Port. Construction on the port began in June 1955 and it was the only deep water port in Cambodia. The port was built in part due to the waning power of the French leading to the Vietnamese tightening their control over the Mekong Delta and hence restricting river access to Cambodia. Sihanoukville's beaches have made it a popular tourist destination.

The province is served by Sihanoukville International Airport, 18 kilometres (11 mi) from downtown, although it has a limited commercial operation. The planned flights between Sihanoukville and Siem Reap may encourage visitors to Angkor temples in Siem Reap to extend their stay, though the crash of a charter flight in Phnom Damrey on 25 June 2007 from Siem Riep, has caused concerns.

Sihanoukville attracts tourists with its laidback beach atmosphere when compared to Thailand's more developed ones. However, the city has attracted not only tourists, but several NGOs and foreign and national investors in the last years in order to develop not only the growing tourist industry, but its capacity as an international sea port and other sectors like textile and real estate. In Sihanoukville is also located the main factory of Angkor, the Cambodian national beer.

Sihanoukville was the place of the last official battle of the United States army in the Vietnam War, although the incident took place outside Vietnam. It is known as the Mayagüez incident on May 12–15, 1975 between the US forces and the Khmer Rouge. Currently, visitors dive in Koh Tang, one of the Sihanoukville islands where the major battle to free the SS Mayagüez took place. Divers can see two shipwrecks 40 metres (130 ft) down.

On 22 December 2008, King Norodom Sihamoni signed a Royal Decree that changed the municipalities of Kep, Pailin and Sihanoukville into provinces, as well as adjusting several provincial borders.

Origin of the name
The province honors the name of King Norodom Sihanouk. Internationally it is written in French as Sihanouk Ville or Sihanoukville (Literally "The City of Sihanouk" or "Sihanouk City").

King Norodom Sihanouk is known in Cambodia as the Father of the Nation because he was the main promoter of the independence of the country from France in 1953.

The name "Sihanouk" is formed from two Sanskrit words: Siha and Hanu. "Siha" means Lion. The word comes from Sanskrit "Simha". Another example is Singapore. "Hanouk" is from "Hanu" that means "Jaws". Therefore, Sihanouk is "The Jaws of the Lion".

The former name Kompong Som means "Agreeable Port" and som is derived from the Sanskrit word "samuya"

History
As the newest Cambodian city, Sihanoukville doesn't have a long history like Phnom Penh or Siem Reap. It was founded in 1960 after independence from France as a port, in order to communicate the city with international trade. The project was overseen by the government of Norodom Sihanouk.

The construction of the port began in 1955 and most of the families of the builders remained near the port, effectively becoming the first inhabitants.

During the Vietnam War, it became an intensive military port first in the service of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and after 1970, with the regime of General Lon Nol, at the service of the United States.

With the success of the Khmer Rouge guerrillas in April 1975, the port was the last place to be evacuated by the US army. The SS Mayagüez was captured by militants of the new regime on 12 May. The US claimed that the ship was on international sea lanes, but the Khmer Rouge said that it was on Cambodian territory. It is known as the Mayagüez incident.

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, the port of Sihanoukville recovered a great importance in the development of the country. With the opening of markets in 1999, the port became one of the main spots of economical growing of Cambodia.

In December 1999, Formosa Plastics bribed Cambodian officials and dumped 3000 tons of mercury laden waste into Sihanoukville, killing 3 people. Formosa Plastics also tried to dump the waste in the Nevada, USA

Geography
Sihanoukville is located in the south of Cambodia. It is 185 kilometres (115 mi) southwest of Phnom Penh in a small Peninsula and Bahia. Beaches are the main feature that attracts national and foreign visitors. A small archipelago is embedded by the Sihanoukville Bahia off its south and west coast. The commercial and international port is located at the north west. The limits of its territory: North and West Koh Kong province, East Kompot province and south Gulf of Thailand.

Beaches that line the west contour of the city from north to south are Victory Beach, Lamherkay Beach, Koh Pos Beach, Independence Beach, Sokha Beach, Serendipity Beach, Ochheuteal Beach and Otres Beach. The most popular beaches are Ochheuteal, Sokha, Independence and Victory. Tourists can take water taxis to the nearby islands for diving, snorkeling, and game fishing.

The peninsula is separated from the central plains of Cambodia by the Damrei Mountains, especially the Bouk Kou. The city is also besides the Ream National Park (210 km2) and it includes the islands of Koh Thmei and Koh Sei.

Being a rather small province, Sihanoukville has two main urban centers: the port itself and the Prey Nob District, 46 kilometers from Sihanoukville downtown to the north. The city is connected to Phnom Penh by National Road No. 4; to Kompot Province by NR 3 and to Koh Kong Province.

There are also sea routes to Koh Kong, Kompot, Vietnam and Thailand from the Sihanounville port.

Town centre
The town centre is located on a hill roughly in the centre of the peninsula and is seen as a distinct area for tourism promotion. It contains the banks, bus station and market, although the post office is some distance toward the port.

Beaches
Occheuteal Beach and Serendipity Beach: Occheuteal Beach is a long and narrow strip of beach lined with Casuarina trees, grass umbrellas, rental chairs and little drink huts. Many huts were bulldozed by the government to make way for a supposed new resort. This has raised concerns with human rights organizations. The northern section has become known as Serendipity Beach and is a popular beach with western tourists, noted for small guesthouse rooms right on the beach. Aside from these guest houses on the beach there are around 30 beach huts serving good value meals and a wide selection of drinks. Most popular huts along this stretch of beach are the Shore bar which hold regular beach parties. The sustainability of the Occheuteal beach was a primary consideration of various stakeholders, which brought about the development of a tourism development and management plan in 2005.

• Otres Beach: Beyond a small headland at the south end of Ochheuteal is the similar Otres Beach.
• Sokha Beach: Sokha Beach is located just west of Serendipity Beach. This beach is privately owned by Sokha Beach Hotel, the first five-star luxury beach hotel in Cambodia. It provides many facilities with a wide white sandy beach, but hotel guards may prevent visitors who are not guests from going on to the beach.
• Independence Beach: Independence Beach is located next to Sokha Beach on its west. The beach was named after the old Independence Hotel. This beach offers a good stretch of clean sand. Situated at the northern end of the beach is Independence Hotel and Koh Pos Beach with a tiny island only 800m off the coast. Koh Pos is known for its rock strewn shoreline.
• Victory Beach: Victory beach is situated at the furthest north of the peninsula of Sihanoukville. It was the original backpacker beach and is still popular with budget travelers. At the northern end of the beach is located the deep sea port. Apart from white sand and blue sea, this beach offers a good spot to enjoy the sunset.

At the south end of Victory Beach is another small strand of sand called Lamherkey Beach. It is the place where a French/ Cambodian construction team laid groundwork for the construction of the new Port of Kampong Som during the 1950s. At this beach, you can hire a boat to nearby islands

Islands
There are more than a dozen islands off the coast of Sihanoukville for tourists to hop around. Most of them are yet to be developed for an overnight stay with the exception of Bamboo Island or Koh Russei in Khmer. Many guesthouses, restaurants and cafes on Ochheuteal and Serendipity beaches offer trips and packages to these islands.

Soon Nail Island (also called Magic Island because it looks like a mushroom) will have a hotel run by the Russian owners of the Snake House. They already have a pier and most of the hotel and restaurant are finished.

• Koh Rong: It is situated west of the Sihanoukville coast. It offers the fantastic strand of beach on its southwest, stretching about 5 kilometres (3 mi). It has fresh water resources on the island and a bustling fishing community on the southeast with basic supplies including fresh water, fish and crab.
• Koh Rong Samlon: It is a bit smaller than Koh Rong and situated on its south. Beautiful beaches are on the east coast, where a large heart-shaped bay with some shellfish cultivation is located, and on the north shoreline facing Koh Rong. The marine life around Koh Rong Samloem is very diverse and offers some amazing diving.
• Koh Tang: It is located quite far from the main shoreline of Sihanoukville. Going there requires trippers to stay overnight on board. It offers interesting diving spots most of which are not frequently explored. The island is home to a military outpost and travelers should expect to be boarded by military personnel when out at the island.

Economy
The economy of Sihanoukville is based primarily in its port for import and exports to the national economy. It has also an oil container port and cargo facilities.

Other activities in the economy of the province include fishing, aquaculture, agriculture, mining, oil, factories (frozen shrimp processing, garment and Angkor Beer), real estate and tourism.

In the last years the increasing of tourism has improved the construction of hotels and tourism infrastructures in the province. Foreign and national investment has been proven by the presence of new comers to the city.

Transportation
Roads and streets:

• NR4: Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville are connected by the National Road 4. The road has been built especially for the transport of merchandise between the capital and the port by heavy trucks and containers. It has three toll stations along. However, it is considered the most dangerous road of Cambodia due to several traffic accidents and little control by authorities.
• NR41: It connects Sihanoukville with Kompot province. The road joins the province at Prey Nob district to NR4. It is in a good condition, but poor in traffic signs. Cambodia has not control over cattle and it walks freely over the roads.
• NR48: It connects Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh with Koh Kong Province, at the southwest of Cambodia. The road joins also the Thai-Cambodian border. It has two ferries: at Dang Peaeng and at Andoung Tuek.

Streets in Sihanoukville downtown are in good condition. However, the traffic in the city does not follow rules and the enforcement of international norms is poor. Cambodia follows the right-hand traffic. There is an over abundance of motorbikes due to the lack of bus urban transportation and taxis. The city is considered unsafe for driving: drivers of motorbikes do not use helmets, use any lane of the street, most of them do not use mirrors and it is used to see motorbikes with more than two passengers or drive by children and underage persons. In 2008 the government ordered the enforcement of the use of helmets wide the country, but the norm is not yet followed. The fine for not wearing a helmet is USD$1.00 (4000KHR) for tourists or USD$0.75(3000KHR) for locals. However you can freely ride between the hours of 11:00 and 14:00 as the police are either asleep or at lunch. You can only get fined once a day for not wearing a helmet.

The city has not an urban system of transportation (buses and taxis). Therefore, there is an informal urban transportation in motor-taxis (moto-dups) and tuk-tuks. That urban system of transportation has any control from authorities and anybody can become a motor-taxi or tuk-tuk driver in Sihanoukville. As a consequence, there is not a control in the prices for services. Foreign visitors are recommended to concert prices before any of those services and ask first advances from tourist agencies and hotels in order to avoid abuses.
The Kang Keng Airport is located 18 kilometres far from Sihanoukville downtown, along the NR4.

The bus station has different bus agencies giving service to Phnom Penh. There are some tourist agencies that organize trips to Ho Chi Minh City as well.

Demography
In 2008 there were 199,902 persons living in Sihanoukville province.

The main ethnic group is the Khmer ethnic group. There are many other groups like Vietnamese, Chinese, Cham, Thai, French, British, Korean and Americans, especially because of its status as a port.

Culture
The Cambodian culture is predominantly Khmer. But the presence of several human groups in Sihanoukville makes that the province has a lot cultural manifestations.

The people of Sihanoukville celebrate the traditional feasts of Cambodia and other festivities like Cambodian New Year (April), Chinese New Year (between January and February), Water Festival in Prey Nob (November), Pchum Ben (honor to the ancestors in October) and Kathen Ceremony (offerings to the bonzis).

The ethnic and minority religious groups celebrate the Christmas Day (25 December) and Holy Week for the Catholics, the Ramadan for the Muslims, the Valentine Day and the International New Year (31 December).

The inhabitants of Sihanoukville dedicate especially to commerce, fishing, agriculture and industry. It is used that families visit the beaches and waterfalls at the weekends. Generally people from Sihanoukville are friendly and they are used to visitors from other Cambodian provinces and foreigners.

Religion
As 2004, there were 27 pagodas in the province with a population of 1,918 bonzis.[23] Pagodas are important for the Cambodian culture as a center of villages and cities. In the port there are two important ones:

• Upper Pagoda: It is also known as "Wat Chotynieng". Located in a hill that overlooks Sihanoukville town is dedicated to Prince Chourn Nath, Cambodian Buddhist leader.
• Down Pagoda: It is also known as "Wat Krom". Located in Sihanoukville downtown. It is dedicated to Yeay Mao, a southern Cambodia divinity.
• Riem Pagoda: It is located in the Riem commune, near the airport.
  Sihanoukville has other important religious groups like Catholics, Muslims (Cham), Protestants and Animists. Other important places of worship:
• St. Michael's Church: It belongs to the Catholic communities. There is a celebration for faithful visitors to the port in English every Sunday evening. The church was built in 1960 by sailors and it is located in the same hill of Upper Pagoda, facing the port.
• Iber Bikhalifah Mosque: It belongs to the Muslim communities. It is located in downtown, just in the popular Leu Market.

Education
The city has not yet a big cover in education, but it is improving in the last decade. The 2004 statistics show the following centers of education: 33 pre-schools with 1,670 children, 52 primary schools with 34,863 students, 5 colleges with 4,794 students; 2 high schools with 1,449 students; 10 vocational training with 961 students and 13,728 private schools.

Some superior institutes have been opened in Sihanoukville: Life University, University of Management and Economics, Built Bright University, Khmer Technology and Management, Don Bosco Technical School and Don Bosco Hotel School.