Cambodia’s Bamboo Train is coming to the end of the line as infrastructure projects gather momentum
The site in northwestern Battambang province will soon be no more as a government project to refurbish the country’s dilapidated rail system inches closer
With a wooden platform jerry-rigged to a small engine, Cambodia’s one-of-a-kind “Bamboo Train” delights tourists as it clatters through bucolic countryside – but its days are numbered as the Southeast Asian nation plans a railways overhaul.
The bamboo-lined flat trolleys are a testament to Cambodian creativity and enterprise in an impoverished nation with little infrastructure.
They were first invented as part of a home-grown, unofficial transport system to make use of the country’s abandoned colonial-era train tracks but later morphed into a popular tourist attraction.
“It was good to finally have some breeze happening [on] my face,” exclaimed 25-year-old Swedish tourist Josefin Strang, after completing a ride on the rickety cart under a blazing tropical sun.
“I’m actually happy that it was the bamboo train and not an ordinary train, because that track was not in good shape.”
I’m actually happy that it was the bamboo train and not an ordinary train, because that track was not in good shape
But the hallowed site in northwestern Battambang province will soon be no more as a government project to refurbish the country’s dilapidated rail system inches closer.