The highlight of this section of the trip was definitely our ''Bamboo Train" ride on the second day. I am not sure whether bamboo trains are unique to Cambodia, but i had definitely not seen one before. It is a pretty clever way to utilitize idle train tracks though (apparently the bamboo train drivers known the train schedule, so the tracks really are idle). Basically the train consists of two sets of train wheels on axles that sit on the track, a platform made of bamboo (and maybe some stiffer dimensional lumber it looked like as well) that settles into place on bearings on the wheel axles, and a little engine that attaches to the rear axle by something like a fan belt.
Meg had found that there was a set of tracks that ran in the same general direction as our second day of biking and that bamboo trains ran on the track. By getting off at the train at a small town called Svay Sa we would be able to rejoin up with the highway and continue our journey without having to waste any time doing an out and back which most travellers have to.
With that plan in mind we got on the road early in Pursat and made for the junction of the city and the railway system. When we arrived we were informed that the first train heading in our direction was not until 10 (it was then 8), this wasn't going to work for us if we were to get all the way to Kompong Chhnang by dark so we said no and made to leave. We didn't say anything about the exhorbitantly high price the train driver had suggested we pay. In a confusion of words and arm waving the train was suddenly leaving at 9 with us on it and we hadn't bargained the price down.
At about this point, a woman who would become my nemesis for the next few hours came into the picture. At this point she appeared to be making harmless jokes about how white Meg was and how tall I was.
Anyway, we hopped aboard the platform with our bikes and that's when we realized that another difference between us and most other foreign bamboo train travellers was that we were actually on a regular train run. After we had sat on the platform everyone else started crowding in as well. Mom's and Dad's with babies, old women with big bags of produce and an assortment of other people. The old jokester from earlier sat basically on my feet.
Very quickly something became apparent, because we were big spenders the driver had gone well ahead of any scheduled run. The amazing thing is how many people still managed to get on the train with us, the unfortunate thing was that after about 15 minutes the drivers cell phone rang and we had to put the train in reverse and go back to pick up some people who had missed the train. Another consequence of our early departure was that we met alot of oncoming (on schedule) traffic. This was actually kind of neat as we got to see (over and over again) one of the great convenienences of these trains; that is that they are very easy to dismantle. When one train meets another there is a weighing which takes place and basically the people who will be least inconvenienced have to get their train off the track. As it turns out we were probably 20 people, a bunch of groceries and two peddle bikes so we lost every contest. We would all get off the platform, pick up the stuff off the platform, help pick up the platform off the axles and then pick up the axles off the tracks. It was sort of fun. The amazing thing were the sorts of things we lost the contest to: one platform must have had 6 feet high by 5' by 8' of cut firewood, another was stacked with logs just like a logging truck back home and one had fewer people, less stuff, but a motorbike which trumped us. We also ran into a similarly populated train (people and produce) and that caused a bit of a stare down, but we still lost. This continued on for about an hour and half, stopping now and then to drop people off at their farms along the way. It was a really cool way to see the country, but maybe 30 minutes too much sitting on that platform with the sun beaming down.
The downpart of all this adventure was the old women who, no matter how many times we had to disembark and get back on, was always at my feet. She seemed to take a personal dislike to me (perhaps because the train left early on our account?) and spent a better part of the journey talking at me in Khmer. I could tell by the awkward expressions of the people around her that what she was saying was not pleasant. She also took it upon herself to grab my sunglasses and wear them for a time, try to take my shoes from me, mock my laugh, and at one point sneak away our bug spray when it fell from my backpack (while her back was turned, I later stole it back from beneath her flipflops where she had hid it). The only bright side was that she also cursed out the driver at one point when we had to let someone else pass on the track so I think she might have just been like that.
Anyway, we finally arrived at Svay Sa and that's when he had our second big adventure. A rather uncomfortable 25 kilometers of red dirt roads in pretty rough shape. The ride out took us two hours and by the time we got back to the highway our bodies just felt beat down. Fortunately at that point we only had 60km left to go to Kompong Chhnang.
Anyway, we finally arrived at Svay Sa and that's when he had our second big adventure. A rather uncomfortable 25 kilometers of red dirt roads in pretty rough shape. The ride out took us two hours and by the time we got back to the highway our bodies just felt beat down. Fortunately at that point we only had 60km left to go to Kompong Chhnang.
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