The Bamboo Train From Battambang to O Sra Lav

The Bamboo Train From Battambang to O Sra Lav

A quick check of Google indicates that there have been over 1000 songs written that can be called train songs. Trains have been a favourite subject for musicians and composers everywhere. You might recognize some of them and the recording artist on this tiny list:

The train they call the City of New Orleans…Arlo Guthrie

Chattanooga Choo Choo…Glen Miller

When that midnight special leaves for Alabam…Leadbelly

The wreck of the old 97…Johnny Cash

This train is bound for glory…Woody Guthrie

Freight train, freight train…Peter, Paul and Mary

Take the last train to Clarksville…The Monkees

Take that midnight train to Georgia…Gladys Knight

This lengthy preamble is to get you prepared for one of the next great train songs that should be hitting the market soon, “The Bamboo Train From Battambang to O Sra Lav”.

You are probably now shaking your head, if you have not already deleted this blog, and wondering if I am suffering from sunstroke or dementia. Probably a little of both, but the story of the Bamboo Train has to be told.

A ride on the Bamboo Train was on our itinerary during our Cambodian adventure so we were anxious to ride it through the rural countryside. I was imagining a cool adventure with fantasies of the Orient Express or the Trans Siberian Train as a starting place. I was envisioning plush seats, gilded passenger cars and a dining car for the ages. What we got fell a little short of my expectations.

The Bamboo Train departs from the outskirts of Battambang.The ride only takes about 30 minutes, but they are 30 exciting minutes. The local people have created their own rail service using little more than pieces of bamboo. The locals call the vehicles a "norry", or "lorry", but overseas visitors know them as "bamboo trains". 

The passenger accommodation is a bamboo platform that rests on top of two sets of wheels. Each bamboo train consists of a 3m-long wood frame, covered lengthwise with slats made of ultra-light bamboo, that rests on two barbell-like bogies, the aft one connected by fan belts to a 6HP gasoline engine. A dried-grass mat to sit on counts as luxury seating.

Each train carries two to four passengers, all seated Buddha style, and when the engine is fired up, down the track it sails. It travels about 30 - 35 kph down a railway track that does not have a straight rail on it! The rails are bent, buckled and often barely touch each other so the ride is more bouncy and twisty than a condemned roller coaster.

If they come head-to-head with another train, they both have to stop. The two operators will simply disassemble one of the trains, lifting the car off its little wheels, and they will set the whole mess along the trackside. Then the train that remains on the track will pass the other, stop again, and the “engineers” will work together again to re-assemble the train back onto the tracks. Then each train will head off in its intended direction as though taking a train apart was no big deal!

The turnaround point is a tiny village amidst the trees, O Sra Lav. There is a shop selling refreshments and some bamboo train souvenirs. (I was going to mention the roasted rat, but didn’t want to upset the vegans among you.) I am guessing that once one of you has composed the lyrics and music to “The Bamboo Train from Battambang to O Sra Lav” we will be on the threshold of a platinum album in a matter of weeks. 

This song might just be a natural for Ian Tyson. I’ll give him a call as soon as I get home!