Place
Koh Tonsay
Koh Tonsay (កោះទន្សាយ), also called Rabbit Island, is a forested island in the sea off Kep (កែប).[1][2]
Name
Koh Tonsay means Rabbit Island, though no rabbits live on it.[3] The name is said to come from its outline, which local people say looks like a rabbit.[3][4]
Location
In 2021 the island measured 184 hectares and lay about 4.5 kilometers southeast of Kep town;[1] another report that year put it four kilometers off the coast.[5] It falls within Kep village, Kep commune, in Kep town, and the smaller Koh Tbal lies 1.3 kilometers to its southeast.[6]
History
A 2010 wire report said that Norodom Sihanouk (នរោត្តម សីហនុ) had reportedly used the island as a prison colony.[2] An undated magazine account says that it held a penal rehabilitation center under the Sangkum Reastr Niyum (1953 to 1970). Weather and decades of war, it adds, later wrecked nearly all the wooden houses built then.[3]
Life on the island
In 2010 thick forest kept most visitors to the north beach, with its wooden platforms, hammocks and thatched roofs. Half a dozen families ran open-air kitchens and shacks for tourists just behind the shore, and many let bare shacks, fitted with plank beds and mosquito nets, to overnight guests. Narrow fishing boats with outboard engines ferried visitors, and crab in peppercorn was served.[2]
Development
Kep's deputy governor said in 2021 that the government had given Try Pheap Koh Tunsay Resorts the right to develop the island for 50 years in 2019, and that the project carried $130 million in registered capital. Its 144-hectare project broke ground on September 27, 2021, with a Buddhist blessing. Plans covered a five-star hotel, bungalows, villages for tourists, roads and facilities for beach sports, and the company pledged to keep 60 percent of the island under forest.[1] In 2020 a planned tourism seaport on the island, backed by the Asian Development Bank, entered its environmental and social review.[7] A new pier in Kep town serving the island opened in January 2022.[8] By late 2022 no other island in Kep province had seen building start.[6]
References 8
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hin Pisei, "Ground breaks on project over most of Koh Tonsay", The Phnom Penh Post (September 27, 2021)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Mike Eckel, "Another piece of paradise", Taipei Times, from the Associated Press (October 2, 2010)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Christophe Gargiulo, "Destination & Tourism: Koh Tonsay and tropical serenity in Cambodia", CambodgeMag (undated)
- ↑ Lonely Planet, Koh Tonsay (undated)
- ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Rabbit Island resort investment project starts construction in Kep province (September 30, 2021, from Khmer Times)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Another Kep island set for development project: CDC notice", a Phnom Penh Post report reprinted by Vietstock (October 4, 2022)
- ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Tourism seaport project to be developed in Koh Tonsay, the Rabbit island (November 20, 2020, from Khmer Times)
- ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Kep-Koh Tonsay Tourism Port open (January 21, 2022, from The Phnom Penh Post)
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