Asia Adventures Cambodia Blog

People may not know it yet, but Cambodia’s capital is geared towards cyclists.

Phnom Penh is one of those cities that people either love or hate. I, for one, love it – but there are things about it that get to me. The availability and variety of food, the relaxed feel to the people, the character of the architecture and a charm that is hard to put a finger on are all things that endear this city to me. The over-abundance of girlie bars, noise pollution, traffic and the lack of good public open spaces are things that at times tip my feelings in the other direction.
One thing I love is that I can get on a bicycle, and after 15 minutes of pedaling, be out of the city. In some directions, after 30 minutes of pedaling, I can be in the countryside. The city is also, in some respects, cyclist-friendly. It’s flat, there are usually security guards to watch your bike when you go into a supermarket or bank, and the weather is generally quite predictable.

If we ignore for a minute the fact that the majority of Cambodians regard bicycles as transport for the poor, the “cyclistisation” of Phnom Penh is a shoe-in because you have to travel at least 60km to find a hill. Also, there isn’t much of an issue with parking and a quality lock will deter most thieves.

So what would be the biggest barrier preventing this city from claiming its cyclist-friendly credentials? One word: traffic. As the majority of newcomers to the capital will tell you, cycling takes some getting used to because of the “do whatever you like, but if you crash into someone you have to cough up some cash” system.

People arriving here from developed countries stare in disbelief at the chaos of motos, cyclos, tuk-tuks, cars, coaches and lorries that narrowly miss pile-ups at just about every intersection. One-way streets become two-way, pavements are regarded as short cuts and traffic lights are ignored. In the middle of this mayhem is the cyclist, who is regarded – if at all – as a third-class citizen by many – and a target by some.

Recreational cycling was an alien concept only a few years ago. It has now started to take hold in a small way in the capital. For example, when the first Angkor Bike Race was held a few years ago, there were only a few Cambodian competitors. In 2009, the fourth annual race was held and at least one-third of the participants were Cambodian.

Another good sign for the future is the way the wealthier section of the Khmer community is taking on cycling as a pastime activity. What starts as a health kick could grow into a trend and become an everyday fact of life in next to no time.

A public bike hire scheme or free bike loan system similar to the Green Bangkok concept is possibly a little far-fetched at present, but given the availability of motorcycle parking that can double as bike parking, Phnom Penh is already set up for cyclists, it just doesn’t know it.

For cycling tours of Cambodia contact: info@asia-adventures.com

Edited from SE Asia Globle (24-6-10)

Direct flights should be established to facilitate tourists travelling between Siem Reap and Da Lat, in the southern part of Vietnam’s Central Highlands, Cambodia’s Minister of Tourism Thong Khon has said. Urging Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation to investigate the issue, he said flights between the tourism hubs could lure an additional half a million tourists per year.

During the Mekong Tourism Forum in Siem Reap last May, Ministry of Tourism officials highlighted Vietnam as a potential source of more flights to the Kingdom following Thailand’s recent political unrest. “Before, Bangkok was the main gateway for tourists from Europe and from America. But because it has big problems, maybe tourists will use other gateways such as Vietnam or Kuala Lumpur or Singapore,” Ministry of Tourism Secretary of State Kousom Saroeuth said previously.

For tours of Cambodia contact: info@asia-adventures.com

Edited from Phnom Penh Post 24-6-10

France has committed over half a million euros to projects aimed at restoring Baphuon temple in the Angkor temple complex. France will give USD 588,619 for the continued renovation of Baphuon temple. Renovation work at the temple began in 1995 with assistance from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in the past 15 years has cost around Euro 7.8 million.

For tours of the magnificent Angkor temples contact: info@asia-adventures.com

Edited from Phnom Penh Post 24-6-10

The developer behind a US$6 million ecotourism project at Bou Sra waterfall in Mondulkiri province has pulled the plug on the scheme. Sar Lar Investment Co was set to develop the Bou Sra Waterfall Resort, a complex of 40 hotels, restaurants, and shops surrounding the well-known attraction. It was hoped the development would sell souvenirs produced by Mondulkiri’s ethnic minorities, benefiting them economically.

The company owns a 99-year lease on the Mondulkiri site and has already spent $2 million clearing forest and constructing a road. The project was due to be complete in 2013. “We have already completed a garden and a set of stairs down to the Bou Sra waterfall from the top,” a representative said.

The Mondulkiri Tourism Department confirmed Sunday that it is temporarily taking care of the site.
“We expected that when this ecotourism project was finished it would meet tourist demand for accommodation and would be of the great benefit to the indigenous people in the area. But now everything will not come true because the project has stopped,” Representatives from the tourism body say they hope the resort will be developed, in time, by another investor.

For tours of Mondolkiri contact Asia Adventures at: info@asia-adventures.com

Edited from the Phnom Penh Post (26-4-10)

It rattles along at 20 miles an hour, swaying back and forth on uneven rails, the engine so loud it makes your teeth hurt. Then, rather unceremoniously, it runs out of gas and dies. You find yourself stranded in the middle of Cambodia on a handmade “norry” train, feeling a bit exposed on a 25-square-foot platform made of bamboo and scrap metal attached to wheels salvaged from old tanks.

Picture one of those hand-pump rail cars depicted in old Westerns, and you’re close. It’s powered (when it has gas) by a converted outboard engine. The brakes (when it has gas and you need brakes) are a wooden board pushed against the wheels. No seats. All this bamboo and scrap metal give it a makeshift appearance, and appearances do not deceive. Pretty soon, driver Path Chanthorn starts pushing the disabled norry with hands that are missing a few fingers from a run-in with a water buffalo — “a strong cow,” he mutters. Another norry approaches from the opposite direction, every inch of its platform covered by a dozen people headed for a festival. With a single track to ride on, etiquette dictates that the norry with the lighter load be taken apart so the other can pass. So Chanthorn and his assistant quickly dismantle their vehicle and let the other one by, then put theirs back together again, all within minutes - and you are on your way.

Now a government plan to upgrade the country’s rail system may end up forever stranding the norry, an ingenious response to the decades of war, destruction and dire poverty that have afflicted Cambodia. Under the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1970s, as the country descended into civil war and mass murder, 2 million people perished. And in leader Pol Pot’s quest to reach “Year Zero,” Cambodia also saw most of its roads destroyed, its trucks blown up, its locomotives charred. By the early 1980s, as Cambodia started to emerge from the nightmare, people remembered the small vehicles used by rail workers in the 1960s to repair the tracks and started building their own. The norry, a name some say is derived from a mispronunciation of “lorry,” was born.

The unique mode of transportation saw its heyday in the 1980s when other vehicles were scarce. “There were bombs and mines everywhere, roads were destroyed and rail cars a shambles,” says Kot Sareurn, 50, a union leader for 23 norry drivers in Battambang, a picturesque provincial capital along the tranquil Sangker River. “Norries helped a lot of people survive, get to hospitals, get food.”
Initially operators “rowed” the norries with poles, gondola-style, carrying loads of up to 40 people, eight cows or three tons of rice. After a few years, small gasoline engines were added.

Drivers said that at the peak, thousands of norries operated throughout Cambodia, charging villagers only a few cents for a ride but still making a decent living with so many people and possessions jammed aboard. These days, the few hundred remaining norries are relegated to short distances in a few provinces, more an oddity for tourists than the lifeblood they once represented, as trucks, public buses and motorbikes fill the gap. They’re still privately owned, but nowadays companies sometimes own several of them, splitting the profits with drivers.

They’ve clung to life thanks to the tourists and Cambodia’s catatonic rail system. The last train anyone saw around Battambang’s Odombang station lumbered through more than a year ago. The norry drivers have since taken over the tiny station, sleeping in hammocks on the platform, littering its dirt floor with their cigarette wrappers. But there’s movement down the line. The government plans to revamp the nation’s two modest state-owned rail lines — a 230-mile stretch from Phnom Penh to the border with Thailand completed by the French in 1942, and a 150-mile stretch from the capital to the southwestern Sihanoukville port finished with help from China and Germany in 1969. Government officials envision turning the system over to private operators by early 2012.

This would almost certainly see the go-cart-like norries muscled aside by “real” trains.

Edited from The Los Angeles Times (27-4-10)

For a trip on a ‘norry’ contact Asia Adventures: info@asia-adventures.com