Friday, 30 October 2009 15:00 Peter Olszewski
Development in the air
Two wealthy Belgian developers flying into Siem Reap airport in their private jet on Wednesday had to wait in the air until a Cambodia Angkor Air plane carrying the prime minister, which was running late, arrived and landed.
Once cleared, the Belgians landed and immediately hightailed it, building plans in hand, to the site of their development – a proposed upmarket eco-lodge to be built on a large tract of land on the road from National Road 6 to the Angkor Golf Resort.
They were met at the development site by two key personnel from the FCC Group, giving rise to speculation of some sort of partnership, possibly a management deal, with FCC to run the eco-lodge.
Meanwhile, early on Monday morning, the Minister of Tourism, Thong Khon, officially announced details of this November’s Johnnie Walker Cambodia Open golf tournament during a press conference at Angkor Wat.
The Open will be held at Sofitel’s Phokeethra Country Club in November, but as soon as the press conference wound up, the minister for tourism headed over to a rival course, Angkor Golf Resort, to play a few rounds and improve his handicap.
Talkfest underway
A talkfest titled Angkor Seminar is underway in Siem Reap, sponsored by the Friends of the Freer and Sackler Smithsonian Institution.
The lectures, held at the École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) Siem Reap, are in English, a welcome relief for mono-lingual Anglos as talk nights at EFEO are usually held in French.
Im Sokrithy kicked off proceedings last night with a talk about the Angkorian Road Network.
Saturday presents a double-header, with Christophe Pottier lecturing on The Ancestors of Angkor, and Jean-Baptiste Chevance talking about Retracing the Sources of the Angkorian Empire, by the Phnom Kulen Archaeological Program.
The schedule for the following days is:
Sunday November 1:
Darryl Collins and Hok Sokol: From Khmer villages to cities: Preservation of wooden houses.
Monday November 2:
Olivier Cunin: From Ta Prohm to Bayon - Contribution to the architectural history of the Bayon Style Monuments.
Tuesday November 3:
Martin Polkinghorne: Ateliers in the Age of Angkor.
Wednesday November 4:
Dominique Soutif: The property of the gods in inscription K. 947: using epigraphy in archaeology.
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