Battambang and the Bamboo Train


Advertisement
Cambodia's flag
Asia » Cambodia » North » Battambang
October 24th 2010
Published: October 27th 2010
Edit Blog Post

BuddhaBuddhaBuddha

At a roundabout in Battambang which is a bustling tourist attraction in its own right.
Having spent yesterday spectacularly achieving nothing, we resolved that we would carpe diem today. Unfortunately, when it comes to arising from slumber, my resolve is never particularly bullet proof. In truth, it’s somewhat woolly.

Whilst travelling, we have discovered that one becomes subject to an ongoing internal battle between “I am free to do what I want when I want including doing nothing” and “ this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I really shouldn’t waste it seeing the same four walls of my hotel room hour after hour”. That battle results in days spent luxuriating in moving no more than 100m from the hotel and others spent trying to cram in as much as humanly possible. Having now spent two months on the road, we are starting to feel slightly less guilty about simply doing nothing. Although, the very fact that I am telling you about it, stinks of guilt if you ask me.

Malaise was yesterday, today was another day.

23 October 2010

It is remarkably easy to turn a day into an “admin day” when overtaken by the urge to procrastinate. Today was at risk of turning into one of those days, even though we didn’t want it to be. We made it out for breakfast by around 10:30am and were looking towards only 7 ½ more hours of daylight. Sounds plenty? In a world of dual carriage ways and 70mph plus traffic it is. In the land of Tuk Tuk’s it is not.

We found ourselves dining next to a German guy who (I think) had just moved to Cambodia for a year to work for an NGO and was visiting Battambang for the weekend. We exchanged polite chit chat and ideas about what we planned to do with the rest of the day. As we began to think about summoning the energy to negotiate a price with a Tuk Tuk driver, the restaurant owner came over and asked us what we were planning to do with the day. We explained that we wanted to go out to the Bamboo train to which his response was “have you got a Tuk Tuk?”. Unusually for us, we took the bait, and admitted that we hadn’t. Surprise, surprise, the restaurant owner could arrange a Tuk Tuk for us. Had the price not been considerably less than the price we had been offered by the Tuk Tuk driver who had taken us to our hotel on our arrival in Battambang, we would have politely declined. This however seemed to be a good price and we therefore agreed.

Less than 15 minutes later, Mr T arrived. That wasn’t actually his name but it began with ‘T’ and will do for present purposes.

Mr T was probably in his mid to late 40’s and, it transpired, had been a refugee in Thailand during the days of the Khmer Rouge. He took it upon himself to act as our informal tour guide as well as our driver. The difficulty with this arrangement was that we struggled to hear him over the noise of the motorbike engine. The face mask (worn to prevent dust inhalation) didn’t help our ears much either.

First stop was a petrol station. Unless our conversion calculations are completely cranky, petrol is virtually equivalent in price to what we would pay in the UK. For a country that is home to so many seriously impoverished, we found this quite surprising.

The next stop was the Bamboo Train. This train has been running since the early 1990’s. It is, as the name suggests, made of bamboo and runs on train tracks. What makes it unique is that the entire track is single and there are no passing places. What happens when two trains meet? Well, it is quite simple, the train with the lightest load is disassembled to the side of the track to allow the more laden to pass. Oh, should have said, the bamboo train is only one carriage long. Whilst I think about it, the carriage isn’t really a carriage - more a 20-30 bamboo poles strung together and placed over two sets of wheels that look like elongated dumbbells.

According to the guide book, we travelled at a maximum of 15mph. With nothing above our heads and only our sunglasses to protect our eyes, it seemed that we were moving at a significantly greater pace than that. It was truly exhilarating. The most peculiar thing for me tho was that, but for the presence of the odd palm tree, the landscape could have just as easily have been fenland as Cambodian farmland.

We stopped at a length of platform holding numerous drinks stalls which backed on to a brick factory. Our driver showed us around the factory, which was empty due to the water festival back in town, and then we sat on the platform for a while watching life go by.

Finally, it was time to return to Mr T. The bamboo trains only run in one direction so we watched as ours was disassembled, turned through 180 degrees and put back on the track. Truly magical.

Sadly, the days of the bamboo train are numbered. A high speed passenger route is due to be commissioned along the route next year and, so Mr T told us, this means that the bamboo trains are likely to be no more by Februarary/March 2011. Sad.

‘Sad’ was a word that we heard a lot of today. Mr T told us a number of stories about the Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot regime and frequently shook his head as his eyes and his mouth made out the word ‘sad’.

Next stop was in front of a Temple to see Fruit Bats. Mr T explained that Fruit Bats are protected by law in certain areas, including around this particular temple. It’s all in the name - the reason that they need to be protected is that they feast of fruit which the locals can ill afford to lose, so they shoot them. The Fruit Bats hang in the trees around this particular temple and, when they choose to fly, their wing span is enormous. We hung around under the tree for a while but were unable to actually snap one in flight.

Between the temple and the main road was a bridge spanning a river. Mr T stopped there and explained to us that the river is particularly dry at the moment because we are coming towards the end of the rainy season. In fact, he said, by the end of the dry season there will be no river and the lush landscape that we have come to associate with Cambodia will be replaced by brown.

We set off from the Fruit Bats towards a temple called Phnom Banan. We had to climb 358 narrow stone steps up to the temple. I don’t even want to think about how much we sweated. We were rewarded for our climb by amazing views across the flat lands below and then headed back towards Mr T and our final destination.

We drew up in a village - little more than a street of shacks - which lay in the shade of a limestone outcrop atop which were the golden roofs of temples. Mr T stopped and suggested that, since we were tired, we might like to take motorbikes to the top. We gratefully accepted. Of course there was a fee, but as the daylight was fading, it seemed sensible to make our lives easier.

Two young men on motorbikes arrived and we each got on the back of one. My driver seemed to have a need for speed and the short ride to our first stop passed in the same blur as one might expect from a rollercoaster.

This stop was the most sobering of the day as we had been taken to the Killing Caves. There are two entrances to the caves, the first being a staircase and the second being a cliff like hole 50-100m above the cave floor. This was the entrance that the Khmer Rouge favoured for its executions. Today the cave is home to a large golden Buddha and a wood and Perspex box contained the skulls of some of those unlucky enough to end
Fruit BatsFruit BatsFruit Bats

The black leaves are not leaves but enormous fruit bats
their days here.

Back with Mr T, he told us of his own story. He comes from the Battambang area but fled to Thailand during the days of the Khmer Rouge. The Thai border is 150 km away however it took him 100 days to reach it because it was too dangerous to use the road. It was in the refugee camp that Mr T learnt English - taught by three female British doctors. He still has a photograph of each of them in his home.

Later, when back in Battambang, we invited Mr T to have a drink with us. At some point, I asked him if he has children. He explained that he has four but that one of them is ill. We think that she has epilepsy. Whatever her malady, she no longer goes to school because of it. She is 14. Mr T cannot get the drugs which will help his daughter because of the difficulty in obtaining bona fide medication in Cambodia. Again, he shook his head as he said the word ‘sad’.

24 October 2010

In transit. This time from Battambang back to Phnom Penh on the other side of
On the road to Phnom BananOn the road to Phnom BananOn the road to Phnom Banan

Everyone else is on their way in to Battambang for the boat racing - it's finals day
the Tonle Sap river and lake. Most of today was seen through the windows of our bus and the fog of a good read. There is therefore very little to say save that, in the absence of P’chum Benh, Phnom Penh is very much awake. Where as, two weeks ago, we sat in restaurants by the river with barely a soul passing by, now the roads are grid locked and people stream by. Phnom Penh is barely recognisable.




Additional photos below
Photos: 17, Displayed: 17


Advertisement

Phnom BananPhnom Banan
Phnom Banan

HALF of the steps - the others are hidden
On the way up the 358 stepsOn the way up the 358 steps
On the way up the 358 steps

...that's me told - no messing about for us
Our little GuideOur little Guide
Our little Guide

At the killing cave. He is being taught English by a monk and if he doesn't understand he smiles, repeats your question, nods and says 'yes'.


25th April 2011

Bamboo train
This is really a new & surprising scenary "Bamboo train in cambodia". but now question is where is rail train??? Is train abolished in cambodia???

Tot: 0.2s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0982s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb