History of Deituneap beach, Trapeang Roung Eco Tourism site, Koh Kong district, Koh Kong province

(Written by Ty Theavy, edited by Louisa Lopez from England)

This beach is about 10,000 meters squared, and has lovely fresh air. It is the place where we celebrate the local water festival ceremony.  Here, in 2010 we had the first boat race, with many boats and racers from the surrounding 4 villages joining the competition. There were over 500 people watching the boat racing. The local youths especially enjoyed it.

Many local villagers were able to join in the celebrations, especially during the night time.  Lots of people were there selling various things. There was lots of different music playing, from traditional Cambodian music to modern music, and many dancers.  People did traditional Cambodian dancing, and showed the foreign visitors how to do it. Many sat by the river, relaxing and chatting, others made a fire to sit around and drink and sing, some made the sand into a heart shape to vow love to each other.

Here you can only see the sand when the water goes down. This beach belongs to the villagers nearby. The land owner told me that the sand was stolen at night by a pump ship, so now there is not very much sand visible.

Tourists like to have a barbeque here around sunset time, and some enjoy playing volleyball. If you would like to play here, just let us know and we can arrange it. In 2010 there were many visitors from the United Nations Population Fund (an international development agency) and the Lutheran World Federation (a Christian development organisation) who all played volleyball here together.  This beach is a great place for swimming. I remember 2 German volunteers who were swimming here until 1 in the morning. 

Deitumneap is the name of the village which owns the beach, the actual name of the beach is Lem Dan, because Lem Dan is the name of the land spirit who lives here.  However, some people call the beach of Dom Nakhos, this is because of a story about some bad words spoken by someone who visited here.

The land owner told me that one day his son visited here and spoke impolite words that caused the spirit to be angry with him.  His son’s eyes became completely blind, and this continued for several months.  He was sent to a hospital in neighboring Thailand, but the doctor was not able to cure him and so he was sent back home. After that, he started to make offerings to the land spirit, such as chickens, bananas and especially local rice wine! Amazingly, his eyes started to get better, until he was completely cured. Therefore, you should not speak swear words while visiting here!