Is it possible to go from Battambang to Phnom Penh by bamboo train?
Looking for some information about Cambodia, I have read this here:
Despite the lack of normal train services there are bamboo trains or noris running around Battambang, and you can also travel on a bamboo train from the outskirts of Phnom Penh to Battambang on demand.
This is very surprising because the distance is long (more than 200 km) and these bamboo trains don't seem too reliable.
If this is possible, what's the price for this trip?
Best Answer
[sources for most of what follows: lot of searches on Internet and a bit of common sense]
Your key here is the word "on demand". For example, the sentence
"you can travel from Oslo to Paris on someone shoulders on demand"
is entirely true: you just need to pay enough, and you'll certainly find a volunteer. In that it helps being Cambodia, where most people are poor enough to be more than willing to do lot of things for a relatively few bucks.
Bamboo train's wrecks tracks between Phnom Penh and Battambang are still there. Their condition, as someone wrote in a comment, is not a problem at all: in case you just dismantle the Nori and carry it on to the next good spot.
One not so small problem could be time: Nori average speed should be in the range of 30 km/h, so it will take you at least 10 hour to travel the entire route -even if I think 15 hours is a much more accurate guess if we want to foresee all possible problems and a few stop for fuel and/or take a break.
But, again, if you are more than willing to do it, and to pay for, you'll be able to do it: just don't expect it to be a walk in the park at the price tag of a banana. And maybe hurry, 'cause sooner or later the government will decide to remove part of those tracks.
Pictures about "Is it possible to go from Battambang to Phnom Penh by bamboo train?"
How much is the Bamboo Train Battambang?
The cost of $5 includes a return trip per person and takes you 25 minutes out of Battambang passing villages within a jungle and then out to an empty field placing you in the middle of nowhere. There's a small hut that's been built for tourists that include water and snacks.Is the bamboo train still running?
Fortunately the Bamboo train is still running, in spite of to reports that the line is being replaced to take commercial trains.Where is the bamboo train in Cambodia?
A norry or nori (Khmer: \u178e\u17bc\u179a\u17b8, Nori [nouri\u02d0], from the French word for lorry) was an improvised rail vehicle service from Cambodia. Lonely Planet describes it as "Cambodia's bamboo train". The trains ran at speeds of up to 50 km/h (31 mph) on the metre gauge tracks around Battambang and Poipet.Where can we find bamboo train?
Battambang Bamboo Train, mean norry or nori ( French word for lorry) is an improvised rail vehicle from Cambodia. Lonely Planet describes it as \u201cCambodia's bamboo train\u201d.Train from Battambang to Phnom Penh 24 April 2022
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Images: Karolina Grabowska, Karolina Grabowska, James Wheeler, Karolina Grabowska