Advertisement
Published: October 14th 2009
Bamboo train
hurtling along wonkiy tracks Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia after Phnom Penh, but it still only has around 140,000 people as 80% of the population lives in the rural areas. We road the ''bamboo train'' which is the obligatory tourist attraction, a bit hairy at times especially crossing a rickety bridge. I don't know how the thing stays on the tracks as you hurtle along at breakneck speeds, but it was fun. Our tuk tuk driver took us to a temple about an hour away that had 259 steep steps to climb in the midday sun. Sensibly we decided to have a coconut drink before the climb but it sat in my stomach and with all the exertion (obviously i haven't been working hard enough at the gym) i vomited it all up, about 200 steps from the base. To add insult to injury I had a couple of Cambodians watching me, probably reinforcing their idea of us westerners being well... pretty soft. Needless to say can't remember the name of the temple and I really don't care.
Some disturbing sights of Battambang were the young boys, probably ranging from 7 to 17 years of age sniffing glue on the streets.
On the same track
3 bamboo trains with tourists coming in the opposite direction I was told by an Australian guy who has been living there for 4 years that they start sniffing as a hunger suppressant as they live on the street, either because they are orphaned or have been returned from Thailand as part of the people trafficking trade, apparently a big problem here. Very sad to see but some encouraging signs are the amount of NGO's (non government organisations) set up for very worthy causes. Especially around Siem Reap, they have an organisation called CONTACT that provides information and can put you in touch with the "good NGO.s". Yesterday we visited the Angkor Childrens Hospital which was established by a Japanese photographer, a great setup that provides free medical treatment for poor children and training for Cambodians. There were only 40 doctors out of 4,000 in the country to survive the Pol Pot regime, shocking really.
Today we visited Anjali House which provides an education for street kids as well as two meals a day, I'm hoping to do some volunteer work here next year.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0386s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Lisya
non-member comment
weather in siem reap
hi, im planning to go to siem reap in december. was wondering if u could help me with some information. - how is the weather like now in siem reap? - how is the flood? - i plan to go to angkor wat in december, would the flood affect my trip there? thanks!