Shaken not stirred

The Bamboo Railway
Wow, a train made out of bamboo!. It is true. Sounds exciting huh? And, you can all see it coming I am sure, there is a catch. The bamboo railway is not so much a train as a motorised bamboo platform on wheels. Now, some of you will remember the advertisements in the 1970s for weight loss vibration machines. A person stood on the machine and attached the belt around the "problem areas" and the fat was shaken loose. Well, the train experience was about the same as I imagine that to be, with the added pleasure of little thistles whipping you every few metres and the comfort of sitting on broken bamboo slats. Just to make sure the experience is complete, there are great jumps where one piece of track ends and the next starts. So every few metres there is a sharp bone-shaking jolt. Some people were air-bound. Never have I been so happy for my rear-end padding. Genevieve worried that some of her fillings would be shaken loose, others were slightly awakened by the shaking in their nether regions.

The bamboo train takes 11 hours to get from Battambang to Phnom Penh. This is just slightly longer than the amount of time it would take if you walked. Here is the curious thing: people take their motor bikes on the bamboo train. Now, if I had a motor bike and I wanted to get from Phnom Penh to Battambang, I would put on my helmet and spend three hours on the road. There has to be a reason for the carting of one very efficient and cheap means of transport on a very slow and uncomfortable means of transport, I just don't know what it is.

Curiouser and curiouser, the bamboo train track is a single line and the real train, known by the Fat Controller (who in Cambodia is actually probably pretty slim) as "The Big Train" also uses the same line. The Big Train takes 24 hours to do the same trip, hence the popularity of the bamboo train, I suppose. Here is the problem: when one bamboo train meets another coming in the opposite direction, or when it meets The Big Train, they cannot pass. Here is the solution: the platform of the bamboo train is simply lifted up by the driver and the passengers, and the wheels are removed from the tracks. The train is disassembled then re-assembled. This happened.

Mr Magoo and Fearless Fly
My friends are expecting me to report on the latest stupid thing that I did. Since there was an audience of three and they will corroborate, I shall get in first and confess. For the second time in a week, I have dived into a swimming pool with my glasses on. This time instead of a nice little hotel pool, it was a 25 metre public swimming pool, and it was deep. The pool had dark blue tiles, it was late and getting dark. Twenty minutes of duck diving and searching the bottom of the pool and my glasses were back on my face. So, it seems I am indeed a slow learner.