Chasing Cars, Cambodian Style, February 2 2008

• Not much on internet the last week, however yesterday's (Feb.1, 2008) Cambodian Daily had a couple of traffic related articles. The big news is that highway 32, the road connecting Bokor Mountain (to be, but currently in ruins) Resort, is off-limits while it is being reconstructed (and privatized (?) in the process). Sokha Hotel Group

  'estimates it will take around 2,5 years to complete'.

  Reportedly trekking up the mountain is becoming all the rage.

• 'Traffic Injuries deaths up 45% in November'.

  A yell from again yesterday's Cambodian Daily. However the article then points to the fact that the 45% rise, is in comparison to October, the year to year rise was 18%, which seems very much in line with the growth in traffic overall. The article also reports

  'that the number of motorbike drivers reporting that they wear safety helmets increased from 3% to 7% from October to November'.

  A not so trueful statement, as it concerns victims of accidents. In general a look on today's roads (in Phnom Penh) would reveal that this percentage is 25-40%; it implies that helmet wearers are also safer drivers.

• Only if you are important, does an accident make the newspaper. An executive's car overtaking while a car is coming from the other side ...

• China will invest a packet (55 million $US) in a road to Ratanakiri; no strings attached?

• And now for something completly different:

  'Motor taxi driver injures a robber. ... The robber used a cleaver to rob the motor taxi driver. They scuffled each other. Meanwhile, the motorbike owner took the cleaver from the robber and attacked him back, police said. The victim known as Trei Sopheak, 35, got severe injured seven times in his neck, head and stomach. While both were fighting, police intervened on time and sent them to the hospital.'

• Motorcycle touring Cambodia? 'Don't look back in Angkor'. A pity the Chinese and private companies will ruin the future for these tourists. Which kind? The kind that like this:

  'The two boys and their bikes are totally covered in mud and I suspect, as I try to kick-start my Honda XR250, that I will be soon, given the road ahead is a barely passable series of potholed broken tracks'.

International Press

Yesterday's Bangkok Post (September 27, 2007) includes the weekly Horizons travel section. Included in it are a lot of promotional reportage's about either boring places or places where no one has ever (wanted ?) to venture. That aside there is the excellent Traveller's Tales, the weekly column by Don Ross who tries to expose Thai travel rip-offs as well as those perpetrated by airlines.


This week, Don is fixing his sights on Cambodia's national highways 5 and 6, arguably some of the worst stretches of road you'll encounter, while sticking to national highways in South East Asia. Crossing Cambodia has reported on this section of highway previously, on May 26, March 19, January 18 of this year as well as November 10, 2006. And the Tales of Asia site maintains up to date information on this stretch, so clearly something must be happening on this stretch of road.



Well, that's what's the problem, nothing seems to be happening. Despite this being the preferred and shortest route between Bangkok and Cambodia's number 1 attraction Angkor Wat. With the policies in place to attract tourists to Cambodia, one would suspect that upgrading this section of the national highway grid would be high on the agenda. PM Hun Sen, while using a short stretch of the highway on his way to inspect Cambodia's number 1 golf course, complained that it almost broke his back! That from someone who is used to breaking backs! Anyway he did not come with any immediate solutions, that's Cambodia's politics for you.

Well, Don does not come with any new revelations, simply because there are none. He does mention:

' ... drivers prepared to tackle the bone-jarring road.'

' ... you will ultimately end up in Siem Reap dreaming of a hot bath to wash off the layers of persistent red dust.'

' ... a hotchpotch of potholed and seriously damaged roads.'

'Highways five and six are literally falling apart.'

He then goes on to try to establish (an unproven?) link why airlines are interested in the non-improvement of these roads. Surprisingly in this, is that he does mention these interests and not discuss Bangkok Airways at the same time. Bangkok Airways, which has a monopoly on flights between Siem Reap and Bangkok.


All in all an interesting read, if not complete. And a way to plug a cycling holiday in South-East Asia!

‘Life on the Khmer Railways’

'Life on the Khmer Railways'
Drawings and Paintings Nov 20 - Feb 15, 2006'
by
Srey Bandole@ The Art House in Siem Reap

Srey Bandole was born in 1972 in Battambang province. From 1982 until 1990 he studied painting with a French woman named Veronique Decrop at ‘Site II’ camp along the Khmer-Thai border. Decrop was the founder of Phare Ponleu Selapak (Phare art school). This school moved to Battambang in 1995 and Srey Bandole has taught drawing and painting from 1995 to the present day.
During the period 1990 – 1995 Bandole worked as a military doctor in Thmor Pouk district, Banteay Meanchey province.
'I live in Battambang province, a place where the trains go through from Poipet to Phnom Penh. This railway was built during the French colonial occupation. The bamboo trains are now in such poor condition and it keeps running so slowly that it seems like a snake crawling. To help their miserable lives, the disadvantaged, including women and hundreds of families have used the train compartments as their permanent shelters. Some people have lived in the railway stations for 25 years. Nowadays they seem to be increasingly lonely as most passengers prefer to go by bus. Sooner or later the government will start a renovation project for this means of transport. Only through these 10 drawings can the shadow of the past be brought back and remind us and the younger generations about the railways and the people that live by their tracks, otherwise they will be abandoned and forgotten forever'.


Srey Bandole

(The Art House is situated upstairs at The Warehouse in the centre of Siem Reap)

Costs of crossing Cambodia

Well, most long-distance transportation in Cambodia seems to be somehow regulated. The case of which buses are allowed to ply the city centre for instance, a Crossing Cambodia blog of a few days back. Another case in mind refers to the Tales of Asia blog of January 12:

'I think I mentioned a month or two ago that the transport situation out of Poipet had gone completely to crap. It's still going on. I'm hearing continued reports of tourists being followed, hassled, and bullied by the taxi touts in Poipet into paying $60 to $70 for a taxi to Siem Reap, with every dollar over $40 going into these guy's pockets'.

Poipet is the border crossing between Bangkok and Siem Reap, home of the Angkor Wat. Public transport from Bangkok to the border is widely available and price-worthy. However cross over into Cambodia and the situation changes. No alternatives to taxi's which ply this stretch of 'highway', one sometimes doubt weather the highway has potholes or the potholes has a highway going through. The normal charge is 20-25 US$, but since the latest rainy season charges for foreigners have been adjusted. Where is the money going?

At the same time you could fly which with these prices is increasingly becoming a bargain. However due to some unmentioned deal there is just 1 airline flying between Bangkok and Phnom Penh ultimately leading to over pricing. The current one way price is 110 $US, the same airline offers prices of 70 $US for the longer distance to Phnom Penh, where it is 1 of the 3 airlines flying this stretch.

Well, coastal resort Sihanoukville has now received an upgraded airport, open to business, according to the Cambodia Daily (16-01-2007), the full article is with KI Media. PMT a local airline will start operations:

PMT Air will operate three flights a week between Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, though a final decision has not yet been made on ticket prices, Sar Sareth (PMT director) said.

PMT Air is best known for its flights from Phnom Penh to Ratanakkiri province, a route on which the company has had occasional mishaps.

But what is even more striking is :

'(PMT) announced a significant ticket hike and two-tier pricing, which saw non-Cambodian passengers charged significantly more than locals.

Officially this has not be sanctioned by the government so how can they get away with it? Lack of competion.

Further on in the article something that might interest readers:

'SCA (the company running the new airport) hopes that runway expansion will also make it possible to land much larger Boeing 737s'.

Crossing Cambodia always thought that the air business was an exact science! So why the 'hope'?

National highway?

Despite Siem Reap being the major tourist attraction of Cambodia and Thai being one of the most avid visitors the road between Siem Reap and the border, a national highway, continues to be a huge eyesore. Here's a report via KI from Pattaya News.