The World's First Floating Hotel Abandoned In North Korea

in October 20 19 North Korean leader Kim jong-un ordered the demolition of the world's first floating Hotel docked in North Korea the hotel is currently owned by a South Korean company that bought it from a Japanese one it was a major hit in Vietnam but it was originally made for Australia designed in Sweden and built in Singapore traveling over 14,000 kilometers around the world the hotel has experienced cyclones fire world war two ammunition and a murder this may all sound confusing to you so let's start at the beginning in the 1980s Doug Tarka the town developer of Townsville and his son Peter Tarka wanted something unusual and innovative to attract tourists to their city Townsville is a city in Australia located near the famous Great Barrier Reef hailed as a natural wonder the Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system the unmatched beauty of the life under the sea water brings millions of tourists from around the world to this area the original plan of duck Tarka was to permanently more three cruise ships along the city coast to create a safe Anchorage on the reef but this plan was later rejected as being too impractical they then came up with another brilliant idea they would build the world's first floating hotel now I know what you're thinking we already have floating hotels they're called ships and they've been around for centuries but Doug Tarka didn't want a ship he wanted a floating hotel he believed that you could tell the difference when you see one the floating hotel would be seven stories high 90 meters long and its width would be shorter than that of a typical cruise ship unlike a ship it would not propel on its own rather it would sit still on the sea water and could occasionally be moved from one place to another using a carrier ship a Swedish company designed the hotel and the construction began in Singapore at a company that built offshore living quarters at oil rigs the hotel building costs came with a hefty price tag estimated to be up to 20 million US dollars and adjusted for inflation around 42 million in 2020 upon completion the innovative hotel was towed all the way from Singapore to Australia for its grand unveiling a massive heavy lift ship carried the hotel more than four thousand kilometers to its destination off the Australian coast after arriving it was connected to a number of anchors to stop it from floating away the floating hotel was named the Four Seasons Great Barrier Reef Resort after the names of two stakeholders Four Seasons and the Great Barrier Reef holdings limited the hotel sat over the John brewer reef in the open sea some 70 kilometers off the coast of Townsville from a distance it looked like a seven story building was resting on endless sea water as he come closer you could see that the hotel was much more than just a giant building it was a world first attempt to have people staying on the reef in a floating hotel the hotel building was decked out with all of the typical in hotel luxuries including 200 lavishly furnished rooms along with a glowing neon nightclub discos bars a gym a sauna a library a hundred seat theater a conference centre and a helipad want to play tennis on the surface of an ocean the hotel has a floating tennis court fancy swimming in fresh water while surrounded by the endless sea water the hotel even has a freshwater swimming pool the hotel was the perfect place for diving fishing and other underwater exploration guests could also submerge themselves in underwater adventures with the use of the hotel's submarine other fish spotting opportunities came in many forms guests could jump straight from a platform into the sea for a casual mid-ocean swim while glass-bottom boats allowed for low stress views of the oceans residents the hotel also had an underwater viewing area where visitors could feast their eyes on fish without ever leaving the hotel the hotel was surrounded by colorful coral which the area is famous for other creatures and critters in the area included giant clams reef sharks blue starfish and a whole range of fish for those interested in tasting the delectable delights of the seven seas there were two restaurants in the hotel with plenty of fish on the menu diners had the opportunity at tasting some of the freshest fish around from the look of it the hotel was one of the best things that happened to coral reef tourism in the area but only on paper in reality the hotel was a disaster to say the least the Great Barrier Reef Resort looked good on paper but it had gotten into hot water right from the very beginning first a contract dispute with the Singapore ship builder delayed the delivery of the hotel for over six months and when it did finally arrived in Australia cyclone charlie struck and 62 mile an hour winds buffeted the seven story luxury hotel the damage was minor but the hotel couldn't be opened until March of 1988 the delay cost the owners millions of dollars in lost revenue and canceled tickets as the hotel missed the lucrative north hemisphere winter tourist market with reduced prices and the hype around the novel concept of a floating paradise the hotel opened with a good eighty-five percent occupancy even then all these unusual attractions came at a hefty fee one night in the hotel could cost anywhere from five hundred and fifty dollars to $1,100 per room a major reason for the high prices was the unusually high operating cost of the hotel a typical cruise ship travels from one place to another exploiting local laws and loopholes to keep the operating cost low this wasn't possible in the case of the floating hotel situated in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park this hotel had to measure up to these strict environmental standards to protect the sea life surrounding the complex there was no toxic paint on the hall and no waste was discharged into the surrounding water instead all sewage and liquid waste were treated before then being dumped many miles outside the reef trash was all incinerated before being transported back to the mainland below the main deck of the hotel a watertight apartment housed sewage treatment machinery incinerators diesel generators a huge air-conditioning system a desalination plant that could produce up to 152 tons of fresh water a day and a repair shop the repair shop was capable of repairing anything from generators to handbags the hotel even had a lab where marine researchers studied sea bird droppings to make sure the hotel wasn't feeding scraps to local birds because of these measures the hotel was thought to be completely unharmed 'fl to the environment surrounding it the hotel was anchored some 70 kilometers away from the coast of Townsville and the only way that access to the hotel was via water taxis which would ferry guests from the shore all the way to the hotel's entrance in a journey which took 90 minutes and cost 120 dollars alternatively richer guests could take the quicker and more luxurious 20-minute helicopter jaunt that cost three hundred and twenty-five dollars rough weather often disrupted these journeys if choppy water high winds or bad weather struck it often would become difficult for boats and helicopters to undertake their trips visitors would often cancel their trips because of bad weather and even those who could make it complained about high turbulence and sea sickness in August of 1988 one of the taxis caught fire and the passengers were seriously injured the main selling point of the hotel the coral reef site was also a little strange between 90 to 95 percent of the coral in the John Brewer reef had already been eaten up in the preceding five years two invasions of the crown-of-thorns starfish had gobbled up the vast majority of the coral furthermore guests who didn't do scuba diving or snorkeling often complained about the lack of live entertainment in the hotel the widely marketed swimming pool was long gone in a cyclone attack the final nail in the coffin came in the form of world war ii ammunition in September 1988 some scuba-diving gas found 100 tons of World War 2 ammunition including anti-tank missiles only three kilometers away from the hotel the Navy investigated and claimed that the ammunition was just far away enough not to pose a threat apparently until around 1950 it was legal to dump live ammunition offshore such news put a permanent dent on the reputation of the resort who would want to spend their vacation floating over a huge arsenal of World War 2 ammunition to hold visitors the hotel reduced prices even further to only 130 dollars per night for a double room the enterprise also suffered from a bitter feud between the owners and the operators poor management hapless marketing and eventually bookings began to dry up during the final few months the hotel registered only twenty to twenty-five percent occupancy due to this loss of money the hotel needed to sail to more affordable waters the hotel owners sold the hotel to a Japanese company in 1989 only a year after the hotel had opened its doors in Australia these new owners transported the hotel to Ho Chi Minh City in the south of Vietnam at that time Vietnam was experiencing a post-war tourism boom Ho Chi Minh City was flooded with foreign visitors but the city didn't have many high-class accommodations for rich people as an already packaged ready-to-go facility the floating hotels seemed perfect so the new owners were willing to take the gamble the journey from its Australian port to Ho Chi Minh City was another epic adventure of over five thousand kilometers upon its arrival the hotel was moored in the Saigon River renovated to give it a local look and renamed the Saigon floating hotel the place was ready for its second life in Vietnam the Saigon floating hotel became an instant hit the country's first foreign invested hotel offered a range of luxurious facilities services and 400 highly trained staff in 1995 the hotel charged up to three hundred and thirty five US dollars per room per night in a country where the average person earned less than three hundred and fifty dollars per year in its stay of more than nine years the Saigon floating Hotel became a widely celebrated icon of the rise of tourism in Vietnam locals affectionately knew the hotel as the floater its appeal began to wither in 1997 however when Viet Nam's existing hotels were renovated and many other foreign companies joined the lucrative market once more the hotel owners decided to uproot they sold the hotel to South Korean asan the tourism arm of Hyundai who again decided to move elsewhere in an attempt to pick up profits this time the hotel set sail for the unusual location of North Korea renamed to hotel hey Gong Gong the world's first floating hotel was anchored at the Mount Kumgang tourist region near the heavily guarded DMZ border which opened in 1998 as a north-south experiment in tourism at the time relations between North Korea and South Korea were improving it was hoped that the hotel might attract tourists from South Korea and helped to ease these relations even further between 1998 and 2008 the floating hotel was the official venue for the emotional reunion of families divided by the 1950 to 1953 Korean War where South Korean families could meet their relatives in the north many of which had not seen their loved ones for over six decades but in 2008 yet another bad hand was dealt for the aging vessel when a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist at the resort Seoul quickly ceased all tours in the region since then the once celebrated floating hotel has been eerily silent and rusting at the edge of North Korea without maintenance however it remains open to local tourists and I found a few google reviews of the hotel that were made recently in 2019 kim jong-un visited the site and criticized the facilities he claimed that the were quote not only very backward in terms of architecture but looked so shabby as they are not properly cared for the buildings are just a hodgepodge with no national character at all he then demanded the demolition of unpleasant facilities and the building of new modern ones that has yet to happen the hotel remains in North Korea in Kumgang port using Google Maps you can still see it so that was the story of the world's first floating hotel and I'd love to hear your thoughts if you haven't subscribed to this channel yet please consider subscribing and if you want to support this channel I've created a page on patreon with exclusive content arriving soon thanks for watching until next time stay safe hi my name is Alec Bellmore and I narrate videos for sidenote I've got a channel of my own and it's called history and intrigue you can check that out using the link in the description

Channel: SideNote

Views: 5,722,259

Rating: 4.8938971 out of 5

Keywords: sidenote, first floating hotel, barrier reef resort, hotel haegumgang, saigon floating hotel, four seasons barrier reef resort, townsville, great reef barrier, abondoned, four season hotel, four season resort, resort, saigon luxury hotel, luxury hotel, 5 star hotel

Id: bzVEnC5LZpc

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/LuciferBiscuit]

TIL

Thanks.

[u/kcinc82]

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[u/Evange31]

Wow really interesting.

[u/players02]

Cool!

[u/QzSG]

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