Battambang

Battambang (pronounced Battambong) is Cambodia's second largest city (with a population of approx. 150 000), but it still has a very local, un-touristy, small-town feel to it.

And how did I get here you ask?  By local public bus.  Now whereas I had visions of a mini-bus scenario with the 12 of us in the tour group and all our luggage, hanging out the windows and being crammed into the bus with far too many locals and perhaps various livestock.  Good news is I was wrong.  It was more like Cambodia's version of the greyhound bus between Toronto and London.

So what were the differences? Cambodia's version doesn't have a washroom so that meant two stops along the way.  No flush toilets but there were at least squat toilets so that was good.  Cambodia's version also means taking nearly 6 hours to travels 250 odd kms.   And I have now learned that driving in the country is not all that dissimilar to driving in Phnom Penh in that there are very few traffic rules and the horn is used all the time - usually to warn whatever is in front of you to get out of your way.  And when you're travelling on a bus I found that motor bikes do usually try and get out of the way when it's a bus about to run them over.

 The bus schedule at the bus station in Phnom Penh

I'm not really sure exactly where I was - but I took these through the bus window as we were travelling today.  The scenery was amazing.

Battambang province has a large border with Thailand and is said to produce Cambodia's finest rice and oranges.  And this afternoon I got a chance to sight see in some of the rice fields in a rather unusual way - on a bamboo train.

They call them norries and they are built exclusively in track-side villages.  Each norry is a small motorcycle powered engine on a bamboo cart, and they travel on the now disused rail track from Phnom Penh to Battambang.  To make the entire journey between those two cities takes about 4 days, but tourists can ride for shorter sections.
Norries are very popular with locals because they are a cheap and easy way to get from place to place and to transport their rice harvests.

And when two norries meet head-on the rule is that the lighter of the two is simply lifted out of the way until the other has passed and then places back on the track again.

Our norry voyage took us from one local village to another - what an amazing experience!!  And yes it was the kids who really stole the show.