Cambodia Day 6 – The long train to Phnom Penh

Monday 17th October 2022

Today we had a long journey ahead of us, so this morning went into town to get supplies for the train – bakery, then supermarket, then Lan Chov Khorko Miteanh for lunch. We had dumplings and pork noodles to share. It was tasty enough, but the hygiene wasn’t the best – we saw owner drop a dumpling on the floor, pick it up and put it in the counter, then just add it to the plate he was serving. Luckily not the one we received!

We went back to the hotel to pick up our bags, and messaged DJ, who had kindly offered to take us to the station. We still had a bit of time to kill, so relaxed outside with a couple of Cambodian beers.

The train station itself was pretty deserted. We sat in the waiting room until we could board the train, which left promptly at its scheduled departure time of 3pm.

The train itself was comfortable enough, and very empty so a lot of room.

We travelling very slowly and it wasn’t the smoothest of journeys – a lot of jerking from side to side. It also loved the sound of its own voice, with long blasts of the horn a regular occurrence. This is because the train line runs straight through the middle of quite a lot of towns, roads, and even busy markets – so I guess they need the horn to warn people to get out of the way.

The scenery we passed was stunning, and we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

I was slightly suprised though that there were no lights on the train during the night. We were sitting in pitch black for a lot of the journey. The plus side of this was that we had an incredible view of the stars, and Pete pointed out the Milky Way to me. We were also lucky to catch a lightning storm, way out in the distance beyond the mountains. It was impressive the way the whole sky would light up, just beautiful to watch.

The main disadvantage of the train was how incredibly long it took! I was expecting it to arrive at 10pm (a 7hr journey), but it was actually after 1am when it finally pulled up at Phonm Penh station. By the time we got to the Eco boutique hotel, where we were staying, I was very glad to go to bed!