Cambodia is certainly not one of the world’s great railway nations but it does have trains nonetheless. However, they are among the slowest in the world, averaging about 15mph. For this reason, just about everyone who can afford to takes the bus instead. So I thought a train journey to Battambang would be an interesting way to get away from the tourist masses, meet some of the natives and “keep it real”, also giving me the chance to take in some countryside at a leisurely pace – it’s exactly what Paul Theroux would have done. In addition to this, the British Foreign Office advises against taking trains in Cambodia, so what more encouragement could I possible need?
Two of my fellow passengers wrapped up against sub-25-degree temperatures early in the morning
I chatted to some of my fellow passengers and was treated to some of the snacks carried onto the train by food vendors. These included hard-boiled quails eggs (I think), sugar-palm fruits, little frogs on a stick (mostly just salty) and sugar-cane to chew on, all very tasty. Everyone throws their rubbish on the floor, so it soon got filthy. There were three passenger carriages with wooden bench seats (I think I'm developing calluses on my butt cheeks), and they were all pretty basic, with no glass in the windows (you had to watch out for tree branches coming through) and not in a very good state of repair. In some places there were holes in the floor and it looked like it could easily give way if you stood in the wrong place. There were some cattle trucks as well, in which people also seemed to be travelling. The train toilet was one of the most disgusting sights I’ve ever seen. I was prepared for a squat toilet with a hole through which the track would be visible. But they had positioned it so that rather than emptying straight onto the track, its outflow was blocked by part of the chassis of the carriage. As a result, this part was encrusted in months of accumulated excreta, and stank like hell.
Train snacks
Cardamom Mountains
The scenery wasn't the lush green I remembered from last time as it was now mid-February and the dry season was well under way. The rice harvest was almost over, the yellow stubble was being burned in places and the whole landscape was looking very arid. The Cardamom Mountains were visible to the west, including what I think was Mt. Aoral, the nation’s highest peak. The roof was a popular place from which to take it all in and I sat up there with some of the more adventurous Cambodians who tried on my sunglasses and wanted to play with my camera.
It took seven hours to get to Pursat, a distance of about 100 miles. I checked into the New Thansour Hotel and got a massive room with fan, bathroom and cable TV, all immaculately clean, for $5 per night. I thought it would be a nice quiet place and I could have a good kip after lunch, but almost as soon as I went to bed some really loud music started up and carried on for the rest of the day. It was awful, awful Khmer pop music, hours of synthesiser-backed wailing and I think some of it was karaoke too. It turned out there was a wedding just a couple of doors down the road. I had a wander round town and was befriended by several people wanting to practise their English, which I was really not in the mood for by then. I also went into a temple, where one of the orange-robed monks gave me advice on how to hire a local prostitute, but I didn't take it, especially not when he told me how diseased they all were. Not quite sure how he knows all that stuff.
Completing the journey the next day, it got dark before we arrived in Battambang at around 7:30pm. This was quite eerie as there were no lights on the train. But we had heavily-armed security guards on board just in case there was any bother, though on second thoughts I wasn’t sure if this made me feel safer or not.
Pursat River