I Rode the Bamboo Train

Cambodia has just one long railway line left in operation. It’s narrow too: the rickety rails are just one meter apart. I visited the Phnom Penh railway station and found the schedule had changed from trains on every second day to one a week. Now one up-train leaves on Saturdays, and it turns into the down-train which returns on Sundays.

I didn’t want to wait in Phnom Penh til Saturday, especially when I learned that the train often takes hours longer than the scheduled sixteen hours to Battambang. So I chickened out and made a five-hour bus journey along a newly surfaced road.

There have been so few useable roads in Cambodia that people make full use of the rivers and railways, and - with almost no official services - the railway is a resource to be used: hence the norry or bamboo train. This is local rolling stock made to be light a maneuverable, which can be assembled and disassembled in less than one minute. It has two axels with small metal wheels attached. One has a rubber band that connects to the engine. The largest part is a metal and bamboo platform with a simple petrol engine in the centre.

Three children took me and my companions, Margaret and Liz, for a ride. They placed the axels and wheels on the tracks and then lifted the platform on top of them. They placed a clean mat on top and invited us aboard. See video here.

Since there is only one track, we soon met oncoming traffic. The lighter load has to be dismantled to allow the heavier load to pass. There was a lot of firewood being transported between villages. See video here.

The same rule applies with people. There were six on our norry. So when we met four people going the other way they had to get off to allow us to pass. See video here.

Besides firewood and people we saw a man and his loaded motorbike taking a ride, and we stopped to pick up some cooked food that we transported to a food stall further along the line. When it was time to go back they turned the norry around, changed the order of the axels, and attached the drive belt to the back axel again. See video here.

Travel Notes

I took the

Phnom Penh
From the outside the railway station appeared promisiing ...

bus from Kampot to Phnom Penh for US$6.00. I stayed at the King Guest House, which is in a cheaper area, but not on the lakeside, for US$7.00. If I had realized it was a cold water room I would have paid a little more. The folks in the guest house were helpful; they also ran a restaurant and a travel service. They even returned lost books. The bus to Battambang the next day was also US$6.00. The Kampot road was bumpy, despite being newly constructed; the road to Battembang was much better.

How I’ve been

Di, Mani, Barbara … it’s been good to hear from you.
Ali … I thought of you and the sunset when I was in Sihanoukville, but it was a cold and overcast afternoon; I don’t think it augered well for that particular evening.

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