Google Maps Has a New Addition

Google Maps has a new addition to its virtual world. The new addition is Angkor Wat.

The new addition to Google Maps is due to the Google Cultural Institute. The goal of the institute is to turn cultural icons like ancient ruins, museums and historic landmarks into 3-D digital versions that people can talk tours of on their computers.

Angkor Wat, the new Google Maps addition, is an ancient temple complex that is located in located in Cambodia. It was built in the 12th century by a Cambodian king to be a Buddhist temple. When they finished the temple, it was actually dedicated to Vishnu, a Hindu god. This means that it is actually a Hindu temple, not Buddhist. Today, millions of people from around the world come to see this temple as tourists.

There were three ways that Google Maps turned Angor Wat into 3-D computer imagery. There was a camera and computer that were mounted on the top of a car. The second was to use a camera mounted on a tripod. The third was to use a backpack with a camera and computer that Google calls a trekker. Google believes that the trekkers were mostly used to turn Angkor Wat into virtual imagery.

This virtual project began July of 2014 and is being shown to the world soon. Google Maps wants to be thorough when it does 3-D virtual tours of cultural icons.

The Google’s equipment recorded about 90,000 3-D views of 100 Angkor Wat temples. Google thinks that this is the most digital images that they have ever done of a world heritage location. When they made Mt. Fuji digital, it was only about 14,000 landscape views.

Google is grateful that local organizations like the ASPARA Authority and the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia were very cooperative. Google believes that they owe a debt to some locals who wore the heavy digital cameras.

If a person can’t go to Angkor Wat in Cambodia by plane, he or she can go to this ancient temple complex by computer. A person can walk through temple without being bitten by mosquitos. He or she can also closely the bas-relief carvings at the temple. The most famous carving is called “Churning of the Ocean Milk.,” a depiction of a struggle to get a liquid that could make a person immortal. Google feels that their digital versions of these carvings are better because a person can zoom to see the little details that make up the carving. A person could spend hours, even day, on the computer as no one will tell him or her to leave due to the temple closing for the day.

Another advantage of being made virtual by Google Maps is that it made help the ancient temple complex for future generations. Preservationists have been concerned that the many visitors to this Hindu temple have been hurting the many old buildings at this complex. The increase of monsoon rains and tropical vegetation have not helped, either. Some want to go so far as limiting the amount of tourists to the site. Angkor Wat is considered by a World Heritage Site so anything can be done to preserve it.

The new addition to Google Maps, Angkor Wat, should be greatly helped by becoming digital. It can be preserved for future generations now.

Sourced: Cambodia News

Luxury resort looks for new lease of life with redesigned blueprint

A new blueprint for the long-delayed Snake Island (Koh Pos) resort development off the coast of Sihanoukville will soon be completed, and investment of up to $1 billion is hoped to kick-start the project, which has a planned completion date of 2018, according to the developer.

Kheam Kolneath, public relations manager of the Koh Pous (Cambodia) Investment Group (KPIG), said recently that the group’s director was overseeing the finalisation of a revised resort blueprint with an architect from US-based Interstate Hotels and Resorts.

According to KPIG’s website, the group has entered into a long-term strategic development agreement, with Interstate acting as the island resort’s property manager.

Plans to redesign the blueprint for the 116-hectare luxury residential and resort complex come amid poor sales and a host of other setbacks.

In 2006, the Cambodian government signed a 99-year lease for the land on Koh Pos – also known as Morakot Island – to Russian KPIG.

The Post reported late last year that the company had already invested $100 million on a 1-kilometre bridge to the island, as well as other infrastructure, including an unfinished 5-kilometre road circling the island.

According to Kolneath, the blueprint is not yet complete, with the group director seeking changes to some aspects of the design from Interstate before an official launch and a proposal aimed at gaining permission to initiate the new project from the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

KPIG’s director has said that the new plan will increase the project budget from $276 million to $1 billion.

“I think the blueprint will be finished by the middle of this year because the director wants to push project ahead after it was put on hold following the 2008 financial crisis,” Kolneath said. “The project originally had a planned completion date of 2016, but it has now been delayed to 2018.”

The project comprises two 4-star hotels, one 5-star hotel, one “6-star” hotel, a casino, bungalows, villas for private residents, and further infrastructure to serve the resort, he said.

Kolneath added that the group had already spent $100 million so far on island infrastructure, including the bridge and the perimeter road.

“Construction of 20 villas is under way, but progress is slow,” Kolneath said, who suggested that off-plan sales had been deterred by the high price tags of $1.5 to $1.6 million.

According to Noun Rithy, general manager of Bunna Realty Group, even if the group changed the development plan, the resort development needs to have specific goals and a strategy. He said that construction delays had led to a loss of confidence, and that the developer would need to show strong commitment to win back market confidence.

Comparing Kho Pos and Ko Pich – better known as Diamond Island – in Phnom Penh, Rithy noted that Koh Pich is open for people to visit, but Koh Pos is closed to the public despite the construction of the bridge, making for a lost marketing opportunity.

Koh Pos covers a large area, and if the owner leased some parts of the island to short-term investors they could generate income, which would be better than leaving the island deserted, Rithy said.

Sourced: The Phnom Penh Post

History of Cambodia

History of Cambodia

People have been living within the area covered by the present-day country of Cambodia at least since the 5th millennium BC.The ancient Kingdom of Funan occupied a wider area, and it was during that period that the culture became heavily influenced by Hinduism. The state of CHENLA then arose. The Khmer Empire had its golden age in the 9th to the 13th centuries, when huge temple complexes were built, most notably Angkor Wat.
 Spanish and Portuguese missionaries visited from the 16th century, and Cambodia became a protectorate of France in the 19th century, being ruled as part of French Indochina. Cambodia became an independent kingdom in 1953 under Norodom Sihanouk. The Vietnam War extended into Cambodia, giving rise to the Khmer Rouge, which took Phnom Penh in 1975 and carried out a campaign of mass killing. Following an invasion by Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge were deposed and the People's Republic of Kampuchea was established. After years of isolation, the war-ravaged nation was reunited under the monarchy in 1993 and has seen rapid economic progress while rebuilding from decades of civil war.