On the bus ride from Phnom Penh up to Battambang, Lee got her first taste of music, Southeast Asia style. I tried to warn her about the crazy loud volume that every bus in Asia seems to play their music, but until you hear it, you wouldn't possibly believe. Lisa didn't. Now she does.
When we first pulled into Battambang, the entire city seemed to be outside for yet another political rally. For those who don't follow world news, Cambodia's presidential elections are on Sunday, and the entire country is VERY into it. Both parties--the incumbent for the last 30 years CPP and the challenger who just came back from self-imposed exile CNRP--have been parading around the country in huge caravans, playing music, banging drums, shouting slogans into bullhorns. No matter who you're talking to, every Khmer has something to say about the election (mostly about much they're hoping the CNRP gets the chance to fulfill their promise of ending current government corruption). One girl who isn't even old enough to vote spent an hour in Battambang with us, teaching us the Khmer slogans for the CNRP. It's really been a great time to be in Cambodia. Everyone is in that pre-electorate glow, basking in the hope of what could be.
But once we were finally able to get past the caravans, we had some lunch*, then hired a tuk-tuk to take us out to ride the infamous bamboo train.
*This lunch has thus far been the only time Lisa's had to send her meal back for some unidentifiable meat product's presence. Traveling with a vegetarian, always leave a little extra time for meals!
Historically, the bamboo train was an ingenious little invention of the people who lived along the train tracks that the Khmer Rouge systematically destroyed during the genocide of the late 1970s. The local people fixed for rail line, then built their own means of transportation on it, consisting of little more than four wheels, a bamboo pallet and a small motor. See that thing we're sitting on in the picture at the top? That's the entire train, folks.
It was used for local transportation purposes through the turn of the millennium, but now had become mostly a tourist destination. The "conductor" tells you to sit down and and then unceremoniously plows ahead at what seems like a breakneck pace, and you're left holding on for dear life while trying to keep the bugs from turning your face into the grill of a car after a ride through the Midwest. It's like a real-life roller coaster.
And THEN the rains came! I mean, welcome-to-the-wet-season-in-SE-Asia type rains. By the time we got to end of the line, we were both soaked through, Lisa's pants were completely see-through, and there was not much to do except sit back down and do it all over again. So we did. Turns out the bamboo train in the rain is even more fun than the bamboo train in the sunshine! Keeps the bugs out of your teeth anyway!