South East Asians are pretty ingenius when it comes to working with what they have got. The Bamboo train is a great example of their ingenuity. The Bamboo Train (or Nori Train as its called by the locals) is a self porpelled carriage that runs along a railway line. There are two axles with wheels on either end, the wheels look like old drum brakes. On top of the axles sits a plank made of bamboo (hence bamboo train). At the back of the plank is a small engine that drives the rear axle via a rubber drive chain. The Nori trains run on old railway line which is still in use although they only run once a week each way between Phnom Penh and Battambang. The journey can take 19 hours, if it doesn't break down(its only 6 hours by bus). This is due to the decrepid trains and railway track. When you sit on the Nori train you can see how badly warped the rails are and how big the gaps between each rail are. It makes for a bumpy ride. The Nori train can get up to some pretty high speeds as it bumps its way along. The passengers sit just under a foot off the ground on the plank of bamboo and if you are a tourist a cushion. There are no sidings for the Bamboo trains so if two are approaching one another the one with the lightest has to get off the tracks. It is very easy to take apart as the only thing holding the plank on top of the axles is gravity. When I was on there we had to get out of the way of a nori train with a cow on it and one with twenty or so locals piled on with their luggage (click here to watch the video of the locals on the train). For a tourist trip you hire one for yourself with driver and it costs $6. I had some local kids join me on the trip, the youngest appeared to be an apprentice Nori train driver.
Battambang has a similar setup to the Mekong towns I passsed through in north-western Cambodia. There is a main central market and around that are old buildings. During the war the Americans didn't bomb Battambang. What makes Battambang a bit different is its surroundings. The suburbs have also managed to maintain some old buildings. On a moto tour north through town the buildings line very green streets. There are old French mansions. It is surprisingly clean. Rice paper on bamboo grids loes drying in the sun and the people are going about their daily lives. It feels very unspoilt and there are no tourists around (a major difference to Siem Reap). Wat Ek Phnom is a large Wat with very brightly coloured murals inside. Next door to the Wat is a huge seated Buddha. The ruins of an 11th century temple sit behind the Wat ($2 entry). I had two young 'guides' lead me around the ruins. I say guides but these kids just tried to stay one step ahead of me throughout while playing with each other. Once I got to the end of my look around they then announced they were my guides and thus required payment. This happens a fair bit in South-East Asia. These guys were quite charming and not demanding so I paid them though not as much as their original pitch. I can't say they were much help though, sometimes the child guides can be useful. When I visited the caves in Thaket (Laos) I had a boy lead me through one of the caves. I agreed a price beforehand and it proved to be money well spent as he hopped, skipped, and jumped along rocks and over the icy cold water.
I arrived in Battambang a bit battered and bruised after the journey on the road from hell. I made it through the scrum of moto drivers and headed for Royal Hotel. It was fine, a bit pricey (by that I mean a couple of dollars more expensive than normal, what I didn't like was the attitude of the staff. So to spite them I stayed at Golden Parrot, I'm not sure they took it to heart. I got a double ensuite cold shower with TV for $4. It was the dodgiest room I had stayed in up to that point in Cambodia. It wasn't that bad, but in reality Royal Hotel is probably a better bet. The tout outside Golden Parrot also took me on a tour of the local area to Wat Ek Phnom and the Bamboo Train. The journey on the moto cost $7. I caught the bus from Battambang to Phnom Penh. It was a much better journey due to there actually being a road covered in tarmac. It cost $4.50 and the monk sitting next to me paid the same. The monk was a very chatty young guy, who spoke excellent English.
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