Travelling from Battambang through Poipet to Bangkok

Well, I am moving countries again. Needing a visa for Myanmar, after a little research, Bangkok seemed to pop up as the easiest way to get one. But how to get from Battambang to Bangkok. Travel to Siem Reap and fly? Why do things the normal way? After all, life is about the journey.

The planned route I decided on was Battambang via Bus to the Poipet border. Cross over to Aranyapretet (or broken down to be able to say it better Aranya Pretet). Then tuk tuk to the Aranyapretet Railway Station for the afternoon departure of the train bound for Hua Lamphong railway station in Bangkok for a mere 48 Baht.

Sounds easy right? Well, yes and no. I purchased a ticket for the Sunday morning bus from one of the few companies that actually advertise that there bus goes to the border. Kampuchea Angkor Express Co. if you are interest. An early morning departure at 7 am giving me plenty of time to waste at the train station at Aranyapretet, all for the princely sum of $5. Conventional wisdom would probably tell you to take a taxi to the border, but hey, that hardly makes for an interesting story.

With my bags packed the night before I arrived at the bus station with a good 15 minutes to spare. But, Cambodian buses seldom run to schedule. I was told that it would not be departing to 8:30 am. Doing a quick calculation in my head, I was still safe for the train through to Bangkok. So we sat down and waited while drinking coffee.

Boredom set in waiting for the bus

But, you really can't take the word of the people in the ticketing offices. They don't really know what is going on. 8:30 came and went with no bus. Two tuk tuks arrived to ferry us to a new bus station for some more waiting. This one located outside of Battambang near a small supermarket called jokingly the night market.

Finally our bus arrived, but by this time is was 9:15 am, which I am still working out, well if the border crossing is quick then I will still be in luck. Climbing aboard the bus I discovered it was the sleeper variety, but with no allocated beds. You just simply climb in next to whoever is there. Oh well, I have done worse in the past.

View inside the bus

Finally, we are on the road, it is 9:30 am and I am leaving Battambang about 2 1/2 hours late! I was planning to be almost at Poipet by now! Realizing there is nothing to do but consider a Plan B for the Thai side of the border.

About an hour into my trip problems start again. This time in the form of the bus hitting a car. This caused another hour of delays, as the traffic police were called and people argued over who is at fault and who will pay. It was only a slight shunt in the bus but the car looked a bit of a mess afterwards.

Damage to the bus

Damage to the car

Arrrgh! Now my plan is falling apart more than just a little bit. Oh well, we will just have to see how this pans out. I may still get to the station on time.

The damaged bus finally made it to the Poipet border at 12:15. Quick border crossing I am thinking and this may still work. Grabbing my bags and making a dash for departures ummmm errrr shack. I wish the Cambodian would get there act together on their side of the border.

My departure card filled in and the minutes are ticking by. I keep glancing at my watch as I haul my 30+ kg suitcase that contain all that I will need for the immediate future down the road under the welcome arch.

A small map of the border for those that aren't familiar with it

Sailing though customs, the sun beating down on me on a clear 38 degree Celsius day, I hurry to find the Thai immigration building. I quickly fill in the arrival card and go to locate my next challenge, this day being particular good at putting them before me.

Finally my final hurdle. A flight of stair and about 10 minutes before the train leaves. I can do this!

All foreign visitors must haul there luggage up these babies!

I grab the my stuff and wrestle it up the stairs. This is no time for dawdling! A race up the steps only to find the immigration hall quite crowded. Oh well, I have finally admitted defeat on catching the train. Plan B time, a bus or minivan through to Bangkok.

After slowly making my way through Immigration I secure my minibus through to Bangkok and that is were all the problems end. As per usual, the Cambodian part of the journey is always the problem part of the journey. Once you arrive in the ''Land of Smiles'' you are not only in another country, you are in another universe. A one with things that are organised, reliable and cost effective. 

Building concrete water storage jars

Ever wondered how they make the large concrete water storage jars? Well here's the video for you!

This is a video of water storage jars being made in Cambodia, SE Asia. The video features a time lapse at the start of the video and more detailed video close ups at different times through the process. The material used for manufacture is concrete.The people in the video make four storage jars a day and sell them for around $US17 each to support their family. Just to give you some idea of working conditions in Cambodia. The type in this video are 750 liters in capacity.

The process is relatively simple with very little needed in way of construction materials. It is quite hypnotic to watch.

Enjoy!

Battambang Railway Station

I often wonder what the Expats in Cambodia think. Usually they just sit in bars getting drunk or smoking weed in ever increasing frequency or quantity because their bodies have become accustomed to the drugs. But occasionally they do spout off some rubbish. Sometimes about something interesting, like the railway being connected through to Thailand from Cambodia. I ask them where they heard that and they usually site some online publication. I usually don't rely on such fictitious pieces of work and go out and look at infrastructure myself. Go out and find the answers. Who, what, where, how, and when. Or stay in the bar for another drink I guess and do your reporting of facts from your laptop.

The picture that was the choice for the start of the blog is not random. It has real meaning. The clock at Battambang's railway station always says 8:02. It is obviously high noon, you can tell by the shadow cast from the clock. But not at Battambang's railway station, it is now and I am certain will always be 8:02.

Way back in 2008 the Asia development bank, AusAID and Toll thought it would be a splendid idea to refurbish the rail system in Cambodia and immediately opened the money faucet. It was due for completion in 2009. So lets see what progress has been made I guess, after all some random Expat had read it in some bogus online article somewhere. I grabbed my trusty camera and headed down to the local station. After all, one of the things that you would refurbish would be those old relics of railway stations located around Cambodia. People could then buy tickets to go on the train. A full fledged passenger railway station if you will. And there is even locomotive sheds here. Great for housing equipment and as repair shops. Clear away the vegetation from the tracks and make it recognizable as an operating railway station again. The date is late 2014 after all.

The above photos were taken at the railway station in late 2014. I think they show the stunning lack of progress that has been made in the area of rail transport in Cambodia. The last photo shows the 6 track wide entrance to the station, the tracks are under that grass somewhere I assure you. 

One of the problems that Cambodia has is that it fails to export high value goods. This would earn more in valuable foreign currency that would lift this country out of the economic mire that has been the case for the last 40 years. A true manufacturing base would be great to see in this, which you have to term, the basket case economy of ASEAN. But there is no real impetuous to actually do any of this. There is aid money pouring in from overseas. The graduates from local Universities will probably go into the family business of bringing in cheap products from overseas and selling them at a marked up price. Their symbol of pride, the certificate for a Bachelor of Masters in some odd discipline hanging on the wall gathering dust. The social gap between the have and have not's rapidly turning into an insurmountable chasm. 

Khmer owned and operated businesses employing both skilled and unskilled workers alike. Profits and wages staying in the country to be spent and support other businesses here. It sounds like a grand dream, and as I type this I realize that is still, and will probably always be 8:02 at the Battambang Railway Station. 

 

Phnom Sampeou - Killing cave, grand view and millions of bats

Phnom Sampeou is a natural site located just 12 kilometers from Battambang city on National Road number 57. This is the road to Pailin, and in the not to distant past was called Road number 10. The French not being particularly inventive when it came to making up the names for the streets in this part of the world.
Phnom in Khmer means mountain and the Sampeou (Sampov) part of the name means a type of ship. I guess if you squint a little and use your imagination than the resemblance to a ship works. Just not a type of ship that I am familiar with. But atop this 100 meter high hill, which starts with a journey of 700 steps, stands a pagoda and three natural caves, Pkasla, Lakhaon and Aksopheak. You can of course cheat and take a moto taxi, or bring your own bike for a journey up the concrete road.

Pkasla cave is full of uprooted stones and is considered important because it is where Phnom Sampeou come to celebrate their weddings. Some of these caves were used by the Khmer Rouge. The mountain was an important site for the battles between the Khmer Rouge and military forces in the 1980's. The legacy can be seen it the anti aircraft guns staged around the top of the mountain and in the fact that there are human remains. This being a product of the Khmer Rouge's murderous campaigns against their own Khmer people. There are shrines to the people that died here in the caves. These are the killing caves. Similar to many sites around Cambodia where the intelligent, artistic, scholars or just people that disagreed with the establishment ended up. Bullets being expensive, in this case they simply threw them down the cave to their deaths. In other parts of Cambodia, it was hammers, shovels or various other farming implements that dispatched there victims.

I seem to make references to the Khmer Rouge in many of my posts. Unfortunately in Cambodia their legacy still lives on in the country today. The mass killing of millions of people was devastating for this small SE Asian country. All families in this land were effected.

Phnom Sampeou rests on the northern end of the Dtam Rai (elephant) Mountains, which fall into the Gulf of Thailand. To the east you can see the Cardamon Mountains. In fact, from the top of this hill you get the sense of how flat the region is, but with these Rocky outcrops there comes the chance of mineral deposits.

A good time to visit this attraction is around 2 in the afternoon. Pay your tourist tax and hire a moto to take you up the mountain. I have explored the mountain on my own motor scooter, but always seem to end up getting slightly lost. After taking in the Killing caves, the pagoda and giant Buddha, where you have the chance to feed the wild monkeys, you can make your way down to the bat caves at the bottom. At dusk, millions of small bats come streaming out of the cave here in a steady stream towards the surrounding countryside. There they have a night of stuffing themselves with the local insects to look forward too.

Phnom Sampeou is a name that every Khmer will be familiar with, largely due to the legend of Rumsay Sok.
Pro tip if you decide to visit this lovely place. Don't stand under the stream of bats. You will think that is starting to rain ..... but the rain is of a more golden colour. A gift from the bats.

Bamboo Train - Battambang

It is hard to write about some tourist attractions without going into a little bit of the history about why they actually exist. This is the case with the Bamboo train of Battambang. So you will have to bear with me as I go over the history of the railway service in Cambodia before getting around the star of this blog.

One of the things the French actually did in Cambodia when it was part of French Indo China was to build a Railway. Other great legacies include roads, though most are in a poor state of repair, baguettes and of course coffee! There are many fine examples of railway stations around Cambodia that hark back to an era when this service was actually a thing. These are impressive buildings with surprising architecture and a common theme of being totally disused and covered in dirt and the signs of neglect.

What happened to the rail service? In short, WAR! The Khmer Rouge did a fine job of destroying this system during their reign in the mid 70's, though fighting continued on into the 90's in some parts of Cambodia. Actually, some of the reasons why the bamboo train was brought into existence hark back to these times. The trains of the time were headed by flat trolley like carriages which effectively acted as mine sweepers on the tracks. To ride on the front carriage was free! The second carriage was half price. What are bargain, the only downside being something like not being alive at the end of your journey.

But with the railways being bombed, mined, shelled and not maintained the rail system soon fell into disuse. But small sections of track were still serviceable and light weight vehicles could be constructed to ferry freight and passengers to villages for little cost. After all, the operators were not paying for line maintenance and other inconveniences like that. The light weight bed of the cart could be woven out of bamboo and dropped on to the top of some make shift railway wheels set for the meter gauge that is used here and you are in business! The originals of these carts were hand powered, but it is bloody hot here and they were soon converted to small gasoline engines. But even these modest engines could push the little carts along at up to 50 km/r, or 31 MPH if you are from one of THOSE countries. It was a successful system. But all railways need to be maintained and there is many problem like warped and uneven track on the journey.

Fast forward several years and in 2008 the Asia development bank, AusAID and Toll thought it would be a splendid idea to refurbish the rail system in Cambodia and immediately opened the money faucet. It was due for completion in 2009. So far it is still not completed in 2014. There are different rumours of completion dates with the whole rail system linking Singapore completely through to Kunming, Yaunan Province in China in 2015. I am optimistic about the completion time from Phnom Penh through to Ho Chi Minh. This is being undertaken by a Chinese company and they want steel from Cambodia, so there is a hidden agenda there. But the other completion dates, only Buddha knows!

Anyway, back to the main subject. The Bamboo train. Going from Battambang city you head toward the Dambong Statue. After going through the roundabout on the road to Phnom Penh take one of the roads to the right. Look lost and there will plenty of people pointing your way, or alternately, stop and say "Norr EE". Norry or Nori being an adopted word into the Khmer language from the French word for lorry. The easiest possible way is to catch a tuk tuk and say take me to the Bamboo Train.

The station is overseen by the local tourist police and there is no fixed schedule. Just turn up, pay your $5 per person ticket fee and there will be a train to take you out to the brick factory. The train station at the other end is full of vendors trying to sell you everything from Coke, tourist t-shirts and various carvings. A pretty standard tourist money extraction place.

As stated before, the nori consists of a bamboo flat truck with makeshift wheels and a small gasoline engine. The top is covered with a mat which adds zero comfort to the ride. Tearing down the track, there is plenty of opportunity for photographs and video of Khmer rural countryside. But the seating position and general discomfort of the vehicle make you grateful for the shortness of the ride. If you meet another nori coming the other way then one must be disassembled, removed from the track and then reassembled after the other vehicle has past. Thankfully this is a pretty easy procedure. I am not sure which nori gives way though. Possibly it is like many of the road rules in Cambodia where the heavier of the 2 vehicles has right of way, no matter what the actual law says about the matter.

Zipping down the tracks at about 50 km/r you will notice that the nori does not have some of the refinements in life. Like suspension, a windscreen, or even brakes. But think that it is far from the hair raising ride that some tourist purport it to be. Just go for the fun and buy the t-shirt!

It is a great little tourist outing for a couple of hours. While you are over that part of town you can check out Pshar Thmey, one of the biggest markets in town. Stop for soup, rice and a great ice coffee for maybe a little over a buck. 

Komping Pouy - The lake without a lake

Reading the description of Komping Pouy made it sound delightful. Promises of boating excursions, swimming, impressive countryside and food and drink. What more could one ask for? My colleagues had made it sound wonderful too. Talking of celebrations and outings with friends and families. I was looking forward to the trip. So with the destination set for the day we headed out. This time past Phnom Sampov, then off to the right and into the countryside. It was relatively slow going. Mostly because my motor scooter is in need of being driven on the open road, and more notably because of the built in speed limiter that I have when Marady is on the back. She elbows me when the speed approaches 60 km/h. The fact is that few Khmer are used to travelling quickly, so I acquiesce to this peculiar form of speed restriction.

After about 40 minutes of travel at our snails pace we came to Komping Pouy! Expecting the stunning vista of a large lake we were greeted with a rather over sized mud puddle. I was not sure whether to be amused or disappointed. But good humour gained the day and I accepted that I was going to have to make the best of a bad situation.

Initially I thought this can't be it! We must have to travel further and continued the ride. Suddenly 2 people were running alongside the scooter desperately trying to hand us menus from their restaurants and make us turn in and park. Judging by their eagerness and the speed at which they were running gave me a sense that delivery of service would be excellent. Unfortunately is retrospect these hopes were unfounded, but more on that later.

I made a brief excursion around the dam works and took a few pictures before returning to those eager people in the restaurant. It is an interesting place this Komping Pouy. It was once part of a dam to provide downstream irrigation to farming and agriculture. Battambang is a huge food producer in SE Asia and it is little wonder why wars have been fought over this region for thousands of years. Now it is becoming part of a far greater plan. The Monkol Borey Dam development project. This is another of the funded projects in Cambodia, this time by the good people of Korea. Cambodia is small and poor, with a troubled past. I guess the countries in SE Asia really want a stable Cambodia on the doorstep.

This particular project revolves around expanding and reworking the reservoir of Komping Pouy to feed a the new Ta Haen dam. This new dam will have a height of 13.5 meters and a width of 75.5 meters, but more importantly it will provide 190 kW of electricity for a country that currently imports most of it power from Thailand and Vietnam. Power prices being set at a rate to promote economic growth in Cambodia, but at a rate that doesn't promote too much growth and thus not harm these neighbours. But the dam is also set to provide additional irrigation to farming and agriculture concerns downstream. When it is completed it will be back to situation normal. So really, we being greeted with a mud puddle is a timing issue. The project is set for completion in early 2015. I will have to revisit this area when everything is finished and the reservoir is once more fill. But for now, no water but also no shortage of earth moving machinery and trucks. 

One truck that I found particularly amusing was one emblazoned with the word KILLYOU above the windscreen!

These projects do come with a social cost though. People and businesses will be relocated away from the effected areas. I hope that the people, that do have a strong tie to the land and are proud of the fact that many generations have lived in an area cope with their move.

Sitting down in the restaurant we ordered food and some drinks. For me I felt like a coke to wash away the dust of the journey and then a beer or two for relaxation. These seemed to take forever to arrive and the beer was not cold. Oh well, Khmer style, put some ice in the glass and sup away. Sitting overlooking the lake I was intrigued by the small boats and fisherman hard at work in the water. Busying themselves casting and retrieving nets, cleaning out any fish that this method of fishing yielded. In fact it was a pleasant to sit idly chatting and drinking while watching the world go slowly by. This was indeed the countryside and the air was fresh and clean and beyond the puddle was mountains. I could image with the lake once more returned to it's former state this would be quite beautiful. 

With the relax vibe of the area it wasn't till much later that I realised that our food had not yet come. Maybe they were off catching the chicken or something? Then it dawned on me that the Khmer around us have come here for the day. Food turning up quickly is not what they want. They want a slow supply of food and drinks to pass the time with and that my insistence on the quick arrival of food was not actually what the customer base want. Oh well, you can take the foreigner out of the country ....... One of the many ethnic differences that you learn to live with here. There is much that you would love to change and at the same time stay the same in this unusual country.

Our food eventually arrived. A fine assortment of roasted chicken with BBQ pork kebabs and quail. People not used to Khmer style chicken will probably note that it is tougher than the average bird that you would get elsewhere, but is plenty flavorful. It was a good spread and after eating our fill, bagging up some bones to take back for Benji, our dog, we were ready to pay the bill and head back home. Oddly enough inside the hut area that was our dining area was the cell phone number you dial when you want more food and drink, or in this case, pay the bill. Don't forget to take your cell phone apparently.

The bill I thought was somewhat expensive for the the type of food we received, but Marady seemed happy enough. So paid and back on the road to Battambang. Quite an interesting day out really. Disappointed that the place was not what I was expecting, but had a nice time anyway. Looking forward to a return visit in Mid 2015 to see what this area normally looks like. I am sure it will be spectacular and will take the Quadcopter next time.