Bamboo Train - Battambang

The main reason the people go to Battambang, city south of Siem Reap, is to ride on the bamboo train. After the Khmer Rouge lots of Cambodia's railways were abandoned. Over time the local people have begun using them for their own transport.

The bamboo train or "Norry" is a rickety bamboo platform on 2 axles powered by a motorcycle engine and a belt drive.

As you can see there is only one track and the trains go both ways.

When two trains meet the one with less people on it gets off and the disassemble the norry and take it off the rails to let the other one pass and then they put it back on again.

It was some really nice views in the surrounding farmland

At the end of the rail there is a brick factory.

A bunch of kids run around trying to give you a tour around the factory, but its really small and kinda self explanatory. They use the by products of rice to fuel the kilns which are made of the same bricks they produce.

Comments

Chiang Mai to Huay Xai

I've decided that I'm done with Thailand for now. From the hostel we signed up for a mini van to take us to Chiang Kong, the border town for Laos, and see what we could get up to there. We lucked out on the van and got the seats right at the front so we got a whole bunch of leg room. So it was Nisha, Selena, & I and then the rest of the van was filled with 8 other guys from the UK and the driver. This was one of the best road travel trips I have had so far. The driver let one of the guys plug in his ipod so we were listening to more western tunes and we had the most random conversations the whole time. Along the way the first rest stop we went to was part of a cashew nut factory. I was really surprised how big the fruit was and how small the nut you got was. Inside there was a huge room with samples of all different flavours of cashew nuts and of course i tried them all and didnt buy anything. The next stop we made was at the white temple. More in the next blog post.

Huay Xai -Laos

Huay Xai is the small town just on the other side of the Mekong from Thailand. Only 1 street of shops and 2 ports. Many homes along the water when you walk way to the right but we didnt head too far that direction. Like I said just a small tourist town where you catch your mode of transportation to the next place in Laos. All the shops sold pretty much exactly the same things. Snacks and sandwiches. Everywhere you went they were offering to sell you sandwiches for the slow boat or the bus the next day. And they all had pretty much the same 10 to choose from. We chose one that a couple owned just as you come up from the border crossing. They had about 6 different signs saying "We have sandwiches for slow boat" and "we have sandwiches for Gibbon experience". All sorts of other clever ones as well. Plus they were really nice and funny. Another thing all the shops sold was whiskey. They have lots of whiskey in Laos, special whiskey with snakes and scorpions inside the

Pai - Updated with pictures

I like Pai. (pronounced "bpai", say the b and the p together) Its a quiet little town, not very big, which is good cause I seem to get lost here a lot. It's a really interesting dynamic here. Everyone is super chill. all the locals just mozy around or hangout at their shops. There are lots of westerners (hippies) that seem to have just moved here. And then there are the tourists. Only the good ones though, none of the people who are just in Thailand to party (everyone in Bangkok). About every other store/stand that you see here is a T-shirt shop. They all have various shirts saying things like "Love is Pai" and "762 turns to Pai". Basically everything here celebrates that you made it to and are in Pai. All the restaurants and guesthouses have "Pai" in their name. "Pai Country" "Pai Love" "Pai Cabana". its really fun and everyone here jokes around. There's all the cheap hostels in the city but then in

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