Batambang and the Bamboo Train

Well, I'm still in Cambodia, and I have the strong feeling I probably shouldn't be, as I am not making fast enough progress to make use of my Mongolian Visa.

The trouble is, apart from the Tuk Tuk drivers, which from an anthropological view point probably qualify as their own unique sub-tribe (or cartel) with their own special extortionate customs, Cambodians are such lovely people.

I am in Batangbang currently, and yesterday I had a ride on the Bamboo Train. The Bamboo Train is ingenious. There are railway lines here, built by the French about 100 years ago, that are completely useless for all intents and purposes because they are so bent and buckled. However the locals have been able to make use of the lines by taking matters into their own hands, and have built bamboo platforms that run on top of a couple of bar bell type wheels, connected by a belt to something akin to a lawn mower engine (or whatever engine they've been able to get their hands on).

This person here sums it up pretty well, so I'm not going to say too much more about the bamboo train, apart from the really cool part comes when two trains meet heading in opposite directions. When two trains need to pass, the train with less cargo is completely disassembled and placed on the side of the tracks. Once the heavier train passes, the lighter train and its cargo are reassembled onto the tracks, and the lighter train continues on its way again.

Batambang is far less touristy than Siem Reap (serving Angkor Wat) and Phnom Penh the capital and it seems tourism has only started to take off here in the last couple of years. I met a British girl called Anya at the bus station in Phnom Penh who is a medical student, and was back here to visit after volunteering here for 12 months earlier in her course. She was able to handle booking the bus, ordering in restaurants, accommodation bookings, and resolve any confusions I created all in the Cambodian language, which seemed to surprise many of the Cambodians we met.

When she went to take a ride on the Bamboo train a couple of years ago, she explained that the locals could not understand why she wanted to travel on the Bamboo Train as she had no specific destination in mind, no cargo with her, and was only concerned about going somewhere (anywhere) and then returning to her original destination, which a Cambodian would never do.

Within two years however, with the assistance of the Lonely Planet, the locals seem to have figured out they have something of a tourist attraction, fares for foreigners have risen from $2 to $20, and the Tuk Tuk cartel has got involved, advertising Bamboo Train rides. Still though, when we stopped at a Bamboo train station out of town, all the kids wanted to say hello, they completely adorned us in palm leaf jewelry (insects, rings and necklaces), showed us around the local brick factory, and shared some music with me (I had my bamboo flute) purely because they seemed to want to hang out with some European English speaking tourists.

I asked the kids if they had any special music requests and to my surprise they really wanted to hear the Macarina. We asked if they knew the actions, and sure enough, they'd all learned them somewhere, so in the middle of nowhere, on the outskirts of Batambang Cambodia, dirt roads and rice paddies for miles, I've got a video of me playing the Macarina on my bamboo flute with a whole tribe of Cambodian children performing the actions.

The other song that seems really big here at the moment is 'My heart will go on' from the movie Titanic, and I have heard it played in a few bars and on the radio during my time here. The Cambodians who have heard me do it, have been most impressed with my flute playing Karaoked against the soundtrack. I have not yet succumbed to repeat requests.