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Reasons to check out Cambodia’s Bamboo Trains

A cool thing to check out in Cambodia if you are visiting within the Battambang Area(info) are the Bamboo Trains.

What exactly are the bamboo trains?

Well they been around since the 80s and originally had a wheel barrel look to them.  The wheels were wooden and had to be manually pushed. Today the locals know them as “Funny Trains” or Norry(Local word). Bamboo trains are little wagon structure powered by water pumps that can travel between 30-60 km on rails. It lacks brakes and every once a while, small bumps will occur.  Slight derailment is common because the of gaps and warpage of the tracks .

Bamboo Trains

By Isderion (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0-de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

Villagers from around Pursat, Battambang and Ou Dambang(Main Departure) use them regularly as mode of transportation. Each transportation can carry up to 15 -20 people.

Sometimes you will see locals using them to transport Cows, Chickens, Pigs and scooters/motorcycle.

Bamboo Train by Benecee, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License by Benecee

For 5 bucks USD, many tourists can ride the long route which is 30 km.  They are many shorter routes with several stops along the way. It’s a great way to see the local lifestyle.

Check them out soon as Cambodia’s railway system have been improving and Bamboo Trains will be a thing of the past.