At the station in Battambang. Sadly the railway line is closed and is a reminder of the hundreds of kilometres of track we’ve seen both discarded in Cambodia and Australia.
Temples and ancient ruins seem to last for ever but the recent industrial past is seemingly easily discarded as roads become ever filled with more polluting vehicles.
Our guide book summaries the French colonial legacy in Cambodia as the construction of roads and railways. The latter is now disappearing.
Hi William.
You don’t know me but I met your dad on a writing course and he forwarded me a link to your blog (it’s very inspiring to me – love cycling touring and would love to do a big trip like this).
Your pictures of Battambang reminded me of when I was there in 1986 during a trip to Cambodia.
I wrote a poem a few years after the trip looking back on it.
The road to Battambang
Pedals creak apart the night,
a three-legged dog reels by.
Still birds sleep on the wire,
against a lightening sky.
Stacato sound of Khmer chatter
bites the dark like crossfire
Soft red riels and a box of smokes
Buys a seat for the highest buyer.
Ten sleepy cargo in the back of a truck,
Shaking itself awake from tail to nose,
Forward we bolt, with a snort and a shudder,
warm pigswill running back beneath our toes.
I catch a flash, white teeth and a shrug
from a girl with the jiggling pail –
beaming as her dress turns slowly brown,
she leans into the only shade.
We pitch and toss on the ‘highway’,
to the slip-slop in the paddies,
backs bent beneath the side-eyed gaze
of silent soldier boys.
A red-checked scarf whip-cracks
like an ensign at our prow.
He sends the girl a smile
past the Falang with the brolly.
Together we face
the road ahead.
Beyond a leafless lone tree
amid flat green monotony
Hollow cows graze
in now-empty graves.
——-
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Thank you so much for both the poem and your comments. I think much will have changed in Cambodia since 1986. Cycling is always good and here too. Traveling slowly we see much and get to see and stay in all the in between places.
Please keep in touch!
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Hi William. Glad to see you are still going strong! I am a big fan of NZ, the Remarkables really are remarkable!
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Hi William.
You don’t know me but I met your dad on a writing course and he forwarded me a link to your blog (it’s very inspiring to me – love cycling touring and would love to do a big trip like this).
Your pictures of Battambang reminded me of when I was there in 1986 during a trip to Cambodia.
I wrote a poem a few years after the trip looking back on it.
The road to Battambang
Pedals creak apart the night,
a three-legged dog reels by.
Still birds sleep on the wire,
against a lightening sky.
Stacato sound of Khmer chatter
bites the dark like crossfire
Soft red riels and a box of smokes
Buys a seat for the highest buyer.
Ten sleepy cargo in the back of a truck,
Shaking itself awake from tail to nose,
Forward we bolt, with a snort and a shudder,
warm pigswill running back beneath our toes.
I catch a flash, white teeth and a shrug
from a girl with the jiggling pail –
beaming as her dress turns slowly brown,
she leans into the only shade.
We pitch and toss on the ‘highway’,
to the slip-slop in the paddies,
backs bent beneath the side-eyed gaze
of silent soldier boys.
A red-checked scarf whip-cracks
like an ensign at our prow.
He sends the girl a smile
past the Falang with the brolly.
Together we face
the road ahead.
Beyond a leafless lone tree
amid flat green monotony
Hollow cows graze
in now-empty graves.
——-
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looking good in your hats! ;-0 I thought of you two when I stumbled across this today https://www.facebook.com/longrodehome These crazy people are riding though Tibet .. in Winter! I think I would much prefer your warm weather adventures
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Will check it out!
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