Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville (Khmer: ក្រុងព្រះសីហនុ, romanized: Krŏng Preăh Seihănŭ [kroŋ prĕəh səjhanuʔ]), also known as Kampong Saom (កំពង់សោម, Kâmpóng Saôm [kɑmpɔŋ saom]) or Preah Sihanouk (ព្រះសីហនុ, Preăh Seihănŭ [prĕəh səjhanuʔ]), is a coastal port city in Cambodia and the capital of Preah Sihanouk Province, at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west on the Gulf of Thailand. The city has a string of beaches along its coastline and coastal marshlands bordering Ream National Park in the east. It has one navigable river, the mangrove-lined Ou Trojak Jet, running from Otres Pagoda to the sea at Otres. Several sparsely inhabited islands under Sihanoukville's administration are near the city. The city was named in honor of the former king Norodom Sihanouk and as of 2008 had a population of around 89,800 and approximately 66,700 in its urban center. It encompasses the greater part of six communes (Sangkats) in Sihanoukville Province. It has evolved parallel to the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which commenced in 1955, as the country's gateway to direct and unrestricted international sea trade. Cambodia's only deep-water port, it includes an oil terminal and a transport logistics facility. The city has grown into Cambodia's main centre for coastal tourism and gambling, but it has also gained notoriety as a base for organized crime, including human trafficking, scams (particularly jobs, romance and pig butchering scams), among other illicit activities.