Wanna Feed Crocodiles Live Chickens or Ducks, Only in Cambodia
WAKING up one morning to find your crocodile farm has been dubbed “Cambodia’s sickest tourist attraction” by the British tabloid press is not the best way to start the day.
That’s according to Vincent Lim, whose crocodile farm in Siem Reap was hit by a wave of bad publicity last week, prompted by an article in the UK red top The Mirror which reported that tourists can pay to throw live chickens and ducks to his menagerie of over 1,000 crocodiles.
Lim awoke on August 15 to headlines blaring “British holidaymakers throw chickens to be eaten alive by crocodiles at sick tourist attraction” and “ghoulish entertainment sees live birds thrown to their death by shameful, bloodthirsty Brits”.
And he's totally unrepentant.
“Have you ever been to a tiger zoo in China?” he asked, as we walked across a gantry suspended over six pools full of adult crocs, heaped atop one another in the baking mid-afternoon sun.
“They throw cows in there. They feed live cows to tigers. Cows. Now people say: ‘Don’t kill animals by feeding them to other animals live’, but in Cambodia we don’t have that law yet.”
Lim told 7Days he is unperturbed by an undercover report in British tabloid The Mirror that included footage of tourists tossing a chicken over the rails to a pit of crocodiles, as well as a breathless description of the horrors to be found inside his crocodile farm.
Walking past signs posted along the railings of his crocodile pits which offer visitors the option of paying $10 to throw in a live chicken or $6 to throw a duck, Lim said the offer is there to provide extra entertainment to visitors, few of whom actually take him up on the deal.
“It’s just for tourists. They like to see more action from the crocodiles. When you throw in something live the crocodiles have more action, they go and bite the thing. There is no law in Cambodia against it; if they come out with one, then we will have to follow it.”
Tourists paying the $3 entry fee to visit the farm, plus extra to chuck chickens to their deaths, are only a small part of the overall business, Lim told 7Days. His farm is primarily concerned with raising and selling baby crocodiles to overseas buyers.
“We have 600 adult crocodiles and 400 aged between one year and eight years. We sell the young crocodiles to China, Vietnam and Singapore, where they breed them for between one to three years and then kill them for their skin and meat. All those countries buy from the Cambodian breeders because it’s cheaper. In other countries they can’t afford to grow crocodiles big, because they don’t have the food for them to eat.”
While Lim’s crocodiles may occasionally dine on duck if a bloodthirsty backpacker wants to shell out $6, their primary dietary staple is fish, and a lot of it.
“An adult crocodile doesn’t eat every day, and even if you throw them food they don’t necessarily eat. They eat once every 10 days. This month it’s been very expensive because they don’t have much fish in the market.”
Pointing to a particularly large specimen sunning itself by the pool, Lim continued: “Like this big one, one of them eats four to five kilograms each, every 10 days. All up, they eat around 2,500 kilograms of fish. A kilogram of fish costs 70 cents so each time I have to spend around $1,700 to $1,800 to feed them. This month is more expensive than usual, but I think in October the price of fish will go down a little bit.”
Lim’s crocodile farm is unusual in that its land and buildings, as well as the crocodiles themselves, are all owned by the government, which leased the business to his father in 1998.
“We’ve heard the Khmer Rouge used to throw people in for the crocodiles to eat, it’s something we’ve heard many times,” he explained during a leisurely stroll around the crocodile pens.
What if the farm’s rumoured history ever repeated itself, I asked Lim. What would happen if someone actually did fall in?
“Lets say there’s an accident, and you fall over there,” Lim explained, pointing to a small patch of grey concrete surrounded by a mass of snoozing crocodiles.
“They’re not going to do anything. But just make sure you don’t fall into the water. If you do, there’s a 99 percent chance they’ll eat you. And if they bite anything that’s bigger than their mouth, something which they cannot swallow, then they’re going to spin. They’re going to spin you around underwater, and if they spin you, you’re dead.”
“But,” he added reassuringly, “in Cambodia it happens very rarely. This year I heard about an accident at a farm in Kampong Chhnang or Kampong Thom, where the crocodiles bit a man on the head and hands. But that man’s still alive, and that’s the only accident this year.”
The farm employs seven workers who venture into the crocodile pits as part of their job. Lim explained their safety precautions.
“You just need a big stick to hit them on the head and make them run into the water. But make sure you don’t go in the water. Sometimes the crocodiles will spin and kill each other in there. They fight sometimes, and sometimes they eat each other too. Of the 600 big ones, each year at least five to 10 die from fighting.
“Most of them die between January and April because that’s [mating] season. In those months … there’s a lot of dead [crocodiles].”
It is a practice he tries to discourage: “If one is dead from fighting you cannot do anything with it,” he said.
Apart from being dismembered by their mates, farm crocodiles are also at risk of disease, which Lim told 7Days he tries to prevent by feeding his animals more regularly than other breeders.
With his family’s 15-year lease on the farm set to expire in 2016, Lim said he’s not sure whether he will bid for the government to extend it.
Having taken over management of the farm from his father three years ago, Lim has since used the experience to set up a private crocodile farming business of his own, and said that breeding crocodiles is in his family’s blood.
“This crocodile farm is unusual because it’s government-owned and the only one open to tourists. I have another farm of my own but you have to have a licence from the government to open for tourists. The government doesn’t allow anyone else to do it. In Siem Reap we have 500 families with crocodiles, but they can’t open for tours. They only grow them as a family business.”
(Source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011082651300/Siem-Reap-Insider/croc-farm-owner-snaps-at-critics.html)
Amazing Precision Marching!
For once, I think military has the ultimate marching discipline but this has proved that nothing is the ultimate superior, except only when the competitor has not yet found.
Ninja Does Exist In Japan
Ninja doesn't just exist in comic book or fiction story like mermaid. In Japan, there is a Ninja festival celebrated every year in a small town called Iga about 450km from Tokyo. No wonder why such a small town of only 100,000 people attracts Ninja lovers well over 30,000 every year.
During the festival, this town turns into Ninja town. Most people wear Ninja costumes even kids. And if you happen to be there, you would enjoy live Ninja warriors performance, Ninja dances and see Ninja's real skills.
In the myths, Ninja can be invisible, and has ability to kill you with one strike which sound scary. But in reality, Ninjas can be cute. Whether or not you hate or are scared of Ninja, you gotta love Ninja when you see this.
A New Way To Remove Mines From Lands
The truth of underwear!
Google Map of Cambodia
Google announced on the 13 of Jan, 2010 that its google map makers have lauched driving direction in 18 new countries, Eastern Europe and Asia including Cambodia and Vietnam.
There is also another web based competitor to google map called OpenStreetMap. Based on the same service, however, OpenStreetMap has done a better job by providing better details information than its rival. For example, in a small city, it has arrow to focus on so that you wouldn't get lost when you zoom out.
Behind Camko City scene
Cambodia people are eager to know the developement of new buildings and investments in the country such as Golden Tower 42 and the coming project is Camko city which are all Korean Company's investment.But the question is 'is Korean Company really doing investment in Cambodia or sucking blood from Cambodia people'?
“A [South] Korean company, which announced to invest approximately $2 billion in Cambodia, giving the image that this will be foreign investment, finally will use the money of Khmer citizens to build a city. An economic analyst said that such kind of an investment game would not be accepted by any country except Cambodia.
“At the Council for the Development of Cambodia, capital of approximately $2 billion had been announced, and this figure was used to be included in the development report, describing it as part of Cambodia’s economic growth, but finally this development company makes cake without flour, because it conducts the development of a sister city by starting to announce the sale of houses and land to Khmer citizens to get money to construct the buildings. Thus, it now advertises the sale of flats and of condominiums to start on 25 June, and those who visit the scheme of the sister city would sign contracts to buy such condominiums, and the company would later provide them. However, the condominiums do not yet exist; therefore, money has to be deposited so that the company uses the money to construct the condominiums.
“The plan of the sister city looks to be real, as Khmer citizens assume that the Korean company really brings $2 billion to build a city in Cambodia; in fact, the plan is just empty of any capital, the real money is the money of domestic Khmer citizens. The announcement is for the sale of houses that do not yet exist to Khmer citizens, so they will deposit money that will be used to build houses for them. Hence, the company comes to develop Cambodia using Khmer land, collecting money from Khmer citizens, to build houses and then sell them to Khmer citizens. Such kind of development cannot be accepted by other countries, but for Cambodia it is made available.
“According to the scheme and the model of the houses which look even more luxurious than buildings in America and France, it is announced that the sister city will cost $2 billion. However, the Korean investor does not bring $2 billion to construct the buildings, but they collect the money from Khmer citizens to construct the buildings, by selling houses that do not yet exist to Khmer citizens.
“So far, Khmer businesspeople or local companies also announce the sale of houses, or to build houses for sale, but they make such announcements after the constructions are 70% completed; they do not sell only the plan and demand Khmer citizens or customers to deposit money, so as to use the money from their customers to build houses. Therefore, the Korean company that announces the construction of a sister city should at least invest half of the capital to build the city, so the construction of houses is 50% completed before it advertises the sale of houses and collects deposits from the citizens who are their customers.
“However, it is funny that while not one flat has been constructed, the company announces the sale of flats to collect money; this is equal to making cake without flour, because it just shows the plan to the customers, and it announces the sale of houses and collects money. However, the government likes such kind of investors and allows them to enter the country, because they know how to go along with the way in which things flow in Cambodia, as long as Khmer officials and Khmer leaders get money or benefits from them.
“As for Japanese investors, if they come to invest that means they really come, they really bring money to do business; therefore, Khmer officials do not benefit from them, therefore Japanese investors did not come to Cambodia. For that reason it is difficult for Cambodia to attract Japanese investors, because they do not want to make cake without flour, or to farm on Khmer citizens’ backs like Chinese and Korean investors do.
“An economic analyst said that the Korean company which plans to constructs Camko City also opens a bank with the name Camko. The bank is located in [National Police Director-General] Hok Lundy’s villa on Norodom Boulevard. It is not known whether Hok Lundy holds shares of the bank, or whether he sold or rents the house to the Korean company, but Hok Lundy and the company are very close to each other.
“The economic analyst said that in other countries, the buying and selling of immovable property is very carefully monitored for fear of money laundering through such transactions. Also in Cambodia, it is easy to use much money for money laundering. Consequently, it is also necessary to be cautious about the Camko Bank, because this bank is for collecting the money from the sale of immovable property in the Camko Sister City; different images can be used to conduct money laundering under the pretext of trade in immovable property.” Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.14, #3193, 25.6.2007
(Source: http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/monday-2662007-camko-city-announces-2-billion-capital-for-sister-city-development-but-it-uses-khmer-citizens-money/ )
