Cambodia is somewhere on the edge of worldwide media focus this week, what with the upcoming international golf classic getting almost hourly hype on CNN.

There is, of course, more going on in Cambodia than golf ... and just writing that sentence shows how much the country has changed recently.

For a look at how fast things are changing, this video from the BBC shows the down-side of the construction boom in Phnom Penh as the last open spaces in the area are swallowed up by development while the people in the way are chewed up and spat out.

Prime Minister Hun Sen had reportedly ordered all lake fillings for development to stop, and says he plans to tear down all illegally constructed buildings and "take public lakes back".

Eighteen villas and flats built on Beong Kob Srov Lake, already partially filled in for the purpose, have been ordered to be dismantled. The Long Chhin Resort Company has apparently "violated the investment agreement", and the PM insists that the company's bank account will be frozen.

Interesting, and I'm wondering if there will be follow-up to this story ...

Prime city real estate isn't the only property to go, of course, as this report proves as it points to five Cambodian islands in the Gulf of Thailand that are going on long-term leases to investors.

The price tag is $627 million, and the islands are to be developed for tourism. I have no doubt that it will soon be the case that it will be very difficult for people to tell if they're in Cambodia, Seychelles or Vanuatu, and island holidays will be about as generic as possible. Shame.

For better lake-related news, this story, although sounding strange is really about something positive.

The article starts out by reporting on some 30,000 baby fish freed in Phreah Kom Peng Lake in the Cardamom Mountains, Pursat Province, which has to sound like a good environmental move to anyone, but takes a surprising twist when one learns that baby fish aren't baby fish at all, but "baby fish", the local name for the giant salamander, a highly endangered animal.

These largest of all known amphibians ... they can reach lengths of five and a half feet ... are apparently and unfortunately tasty, and that's taken a toll on their populations.

Not only are these amazing animals amazing, they do their job keeping ecosystems in balance, and they have some interesting human history, or so it was thought.

When biologists working in China in 1735 found a strange, metre-long fossil, they thought they had discovered a proto-human. They named it Andrias diluvii testis, "man witness to the flood," and it became known as "Diluvian Man." It was not until 80 years later that naturalist Georges Cuvier convinced his peers that the fossil was actually a giant salamander.

Okay.

Now, for why this "gigantic, extremely slimy, incredibly rare, and dwelling in foul, dark, moist places" critter is called a "baby fish".

The call of the males is said to sound just like a human baby crying.

Wow. Live and learn.