The Bamboo Train (A Letter to Uncle Jeff)

Dear Uncle Jeff,

Greetings from Battambang, Cambodia. We came here after 3 days of exhausting temple-clambering in Siem Reap with an eye towards relaxation and rest. However, yesterday we found the coolest thing on two rails that we’ve ever seen: The Bamboo Train.

The French left a network of single track lines around the country. The Bamboo Train runs on a length of single track that could take you all the way to Phnom Penh, if you were brave or dumb enough to try. These tracks are in the worst condition that I have ever seen for an active line. The rails meet with centimeter wide gaps, they bend and curve without any parallel bending or curving from their partners.

In the 80’s, after the Khmer Rouge was forced into the jungle, the people around Battambang, without any steam or diesel or electric engines at their disposal, started using the rails as follows. Two axles with small wheels (each axle can be lifted by one man) are dropped onto the track. On top of them, a wood frame, maybe 1.5 meters by 2.5 meters, with bamboo slats is set down (attached solely through the magic of gravity). A 6 HP engine sits on the back of this platform and a belt runs from the rear axle to the engine.

The passengers, mainly tourists now, sit up at the front of the platform. The driver sits at the rear controlling the speed of the engine. I think we got up to around 30 km/h traveling on this bamboo raft bumping down the tunnel of jungle. Well, not jungle exactly, more like overgrown tropical foliage.

If either Kate or I were an entomologist, we would have had an awesome collection to study in the petri dishes that were our mouths. Apparently, the combination of smiling like you’re a 2 year old in a stadium full of chocolate and toys, taking that smile and moving it at 30 km/h, and speeding that smile along in the tropics, is a wonderful way for getting all of your daily recommended protein.

The coolest part, unless you’re a 5 year old and you actually like the bugs, is when two bamboo trains meet each other on this single track. Both drivers stop their trains, and then the two of them disassemble the less loaded train. The more loaded train is rolled past by hand, and then the two drivers reassemble the now broken down train. All of this takes 2 minutes at the most. And then, you’re off again.

We mainly saw tourists using this wonderful contraption. However, while we were stopped at the “far station”, having a beer and chatting up the local kids, a train rumbled past loaded to the gills with local folk and freight. The proprietor of the small station shop mentioned that they were headed to Phnom ??, about 30 km down the line. Apparently this town is only accessible by bamboo train. While we were riding back to the main station, we stopped to pick up a mother and her two daughters from the side of the rice fields. Kate and I made space for the 6 year old girl to sit in the front, and I believe that she too got her fill of insects.

Give our love to Aunt Nancy, Adam & family, Ian, Courtnay & Donato,

Love,

Andrew and Kate