You can often also take a moto or even a car on the train if pre-arranged. There is a Facebook Group — Trains and Railways Cambodia — which has excellent up to date information on the services and railways in the Kingdom. There is a real possibility of a direct rail line between Phnom Penh and Bangkok in the future with the Cambodian government repeating its goal in to have a the northern rail link connecting Cambodia and Thailand starting at Phnom Penh and travelling to Poipet on the Thai border, a distance of kilometres.
What relocation services are available in Cambodia? A professional relocation service can help you navigate the administrative burden when moving your business, home and possessions to Cambodia.
And relocating to the Kingdom of Cambodia is increasingly easier, thanks to improved services and shorter waiting periods for goods to be delivered. With the right easily obtained documents, as well as for NGO and government workers, it has never been easier to bring your home and personal effects with you when you relocate to the Kingdom.
Moving personal items in or out of Cambodia is simple thanks to a range of relocation services that are operating in the country. Tax and duty-free privileges are available for personal shippers. Complete freight services CFS are offered by various forwarders that include all parts of the relocation service within a single package deal.
When utilising these services, it is important to obtain the right documents in advance and to purchase insurance against theft or damage. There is an increasing number of cargo flights operating to Cambodia too which should increase competitiveness.
In some major cities like Phnom Penh, there are some specialised domestic moving companies like a man with a van , but most expats hire a flatbed tuk tuk for local house moves. Are there pet relocation services in Cambodia? Permission from the local authority in Cambodia must be attained before the arrival of your pet to any Cambodian airport.
Therefore, documentation of clearance is required before your pet is sent to Cambodia. This is available from the Ministry of Agriculture. Exporting a pet from Cambodia to another destination will also require proactive permissions such as this. Pets may require to have the proper vaccinations, to be chipped, documentation, veterinarian tests and checkups and other documentation before they are allowed to travel.
Another popular expatriate Facebook group for pet owners is called Expets Cambodia. Are freight forwarding services available in Cambodia? Yes there are freight forwarders in Cambodia- freight forwarders work with three types of transport companies in Cambodia: land, sea and air. They also handle port handlers and customs service providers.
Many of these firms are members of Cambodia Freight Forwarders Association CAMFFA , an association whose mission includes bringing local freight forwarding activities towards international standards. How do freight forwarding services work in Cambodia?
Businesses needing to transport goods into or out of Cambodia are well served, as Cambodia has a well-developed logistics and freight forwarding industry. Nevertheless, such businesses have operated in Cambodia since at least Initially the industry was focused on the garment and footwear industries, and continues to be mainly export-oriented to this day. Freight forwarders historically dealt with just one of three types of transport companies land, sea or air but nowadays tend to work with all three.
They will purchase services from these companies, as well as the port handlers and customs service providers, and will combine these into a package and provide a quote to the end user. Shipping containers come in two main sizes, 20ft approx. The feeder vessels typically take three days to reach Singapore from Sihanoukville, and the ships take around 21 days to reach Europe.
Shipments from Phnom Penh are typically trucked by road to the port in Sihanoukville about km , though in some cases they can be put on a barge to Caimep in Vietnam from where they are transferred to a container ship and shipped onward to the final destination. Whenever considering shipping out goods and cargo through the Phnom Penh Port, remember it will require some forward planning.
Shipments to and from neighbouring countries can be made by road, entering and leaving via the borders with Vietnam or Thailand. Products made in factories in the Special Economic Zone SEZ in Bavet on the Vietnamese border are often trucked across the border to Ho Chi Minh City, where they are transferred to a mother vessel for shipment to their final destination.
Businesses requiring chilled transport should note that cold storage containers are typically not readily available in Cambodia. Customers may need to make special arrangements with the shipping line to bring in empty containers, adding to the overall shipping cost. Most goods moved around Cambodia, in large quantities, are transported with lorries, given the limited reach of barges, trains and aircraft.
Smaller quantities of goods are moved by small trucks or vans, cars and even motorcycles. Many firms are available to help with local deliveries, and they range in size from family run operations with one or two vehicles to sizable firms with larger fleets. Many of the freight forwarders engaged in international transport also offer domestic transport services, which is a worthwhile consideration especially if you have larger quantities of goods to transport.
Many import and export businesses have set up in Cambodia in recent years because of the duty-free offered on export from the country to Europe and the US. What are customs, export and import taxes like in Cambodia? Most freight forwarders operating in Cambodia will take care of customs duties in the case of large freight shipments.
Many Special Economic Zones also have built-in customs stations, meaning checks and duties can be handled before the goods arrive at ports of export. It is important that the company or agent you use is able to walk you through the details, regardless of the size of your shipment. Each type of port has its own procedures that must be followed, though they will require the following: a customs declaration, invoice, packing list, and possibly other forms. It is important these documents are all in good order to avoid any of the difficulties mentioned previously.
The process is quite likely to include the following steps: the submission of import documents, registration of manifest and customs declaration, verifying of documents and declaration, calculation and payment of duties, and a random inspection.
Fees for ocean freight, air freight and origin charges are dependent on the terms of shipping—this is the same for any destination charges. The enforcement of import and export tax collection has become more stringent following anti-corruption reforms and online systems being implemented. This tightening has led to a clampdown on illegal trading at all national entry points. Nevertheless, this should represent no issues for companies who operate legitimately. It is suggested that the growth has come about due to reforms carried out by the Government demanding compliance.
Local tip: The bus service now operates eight routes, covering major swathes of central Phnom Penh , extending to the outskirts, so this option can be a fun way to take a day trip out of the city.
Bear in mind that these range from the downright unsafe, to more comfortable affairs that boast WiFi and AC. CamboTicket is a relatively recent addition to the market and enables users to see reviews based on safety, reliability and service, and they can book online. The service also only runs on weekends. While more private taxis for hire can be seen floating around the capital, private cars are another option for getting around the country. These can be arranged through your hotel or any of the many travel agents that dot tourist hubs.
These are quicker than the buses but, of course, more expensive. The past few years have seen ride-hailing apps start to rule the roads, to the detriment of struggling tuk tuk drivers.
Costing a fraction of the price of tuk tuks, without the hassle of haggling, these are quickly becoming the number one option for many. Local tip: International giant Uber entered the market in but was recently taken over by Grab , offering taxi transport. Another local player is Exnet Taxi Cambodia , which also offers transport in the form of cars and vans.
We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements. To allow us to provide a better and more tailored experience please click "OK". Sign Up. According to Seat Previously running every second day, in it went down to once a week, and in early it stopped running altogether.
There are now no regular passenger trains in Cambodia, only buses. Although there have been a few problems recently, a company called Toll Royal Railway www. Indeed, I have witnessed the new ballast and sleepers being laid between Sisophon and Poipet myself in late Thai and Cambodian governments have agreed to link their rail systems again for the first time since , and we could see Bangkok to Phnom Penh passenger trains in See the official Toll site, www.
In , three Westerners and 11 people were pulled off the train, near Kampot, and killed. The Westerners were abducted and held for ransom before being executed. For several years after that employees at train offices were forbidden from selling tickets to foreigners. Beginning in , articles began appearing in magazines by travelers who took the train and lived to tell about it.
And for quite some time before that, there had been only one train a week, taking about 16 hours to cover a route that took only five hours by bus; at speeds just faster than a jog, the train tended to break down or derail.
At the train yard in Phnom Penh, I saw rows of derelict cars, some with interiors overgrown with plants, others whose floors had entirely rotted out. All that was left was the norry. The government plans to revamp the nation's two modest state-owned rail lines -- a mile stretch from Phnom Penh to the border with Thailand and a mile stretch from the capital to the southwestern Sihanoukville port.
Government officials envision turning the system over to private operators by early In the s, the French started work on a railroad that would eventually run kilometers across Cambodia in two major sections: the first from the Thai border, via Battambang, to Phnom Penh; the second from Phnom Penh to the coastal city of Sihanoukville to the south.
The rail was a single line of meter-wide track. The kilometer from Phnom Penh to the border with Thailand was completed by the French in The kilometer railway line between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville was completed with help from China and Germany in , a year before the Cambodian civil war began. The rail link between Thailand and Cambodia was cut in in a dispute over a Buddhist temple and was never restored.
Many of the bridges on the route have been destroyed or are too old to use and the bed has long since been relieved of it gravel and rails. To restore the rail would cost tens of millions dollars. During the Khmer Rouge days, there were no trains, only endless walking by starving people, One man who lives beside the tracks told the Los Angeles Times year-old wife was hacked with a machete by a Khmer Rouge fighter for taking a few bananas.
From to the late s, when a guerrilla war simmered in the country, remnants of the Khmer Rouge mined the railroad and frequently ambushed trains. In the post-Khmer Rouge era travel was regarded as so dangerous that trains were led by flat cars mounted with machine guns and weighted down with railroad ties to deactivate mines damage to a flat car was better than damage to a locomotive.
They liked to execute train drivers. On July 26, , Khmer Rouge guerrillas ambushed the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville train with mines in southern Cambodian countryside, near the of Kampot, where the railway winds along the sea at the edge of the Elephant mountains.
The guerillas gunned down 11 Cambodian and three Vietnamese passengers and abducted scores of people, including three young Western backpackers—David Wilson of Australia, Mark Slater of Britain and Jean-Michel Braquet of France, all tourists in their late 20s. The three backpackers were held for ransom for two months while the government attempted to negotiate their release.
Ultimately the negotiations amounted to nothing and the backpackers were killed by blows to their heads the orders of Gen. Sam Bith, a Khmer Rouge leader. Their bodies were found in October in a shallow grave after the government raided a Khmer Rouge camp in the Vine Mountains mile south of Phnom Penh.
In , Sam Bith defected to the government and was made a general in the Cambodian army. In , Nuon Paet was captured when he was lured to the Phnom Penh with the promise of a lucrative business deal. The move was seen an effort by Hun Sen to earn legitimacy in the eyes of western nations. Then, rather unceremoniously, it runs out of gas and dies. And you find yourself stranded in the middle of Cambodia on a handmade "norry" train, feeling a bit exposed on a square-foot platform made of bamboo and scrap metal attached to wheels salvaged from old tanks.
Picture one of those hand-pump rail cars depicted in old Westerns, and you're close. It's powered when it has gas by a converted outboard engine. The brakes when it has gas and you need brakes are a wooden board pushed against the wheels.
No seats. Another norry approaches from the opposite direction, every inch of its platform covered by a dozen people headed for a festival.
With a single track to ride on, etiquette dictates that the norry with the lighter load be taken apart so the other can pass. So Chanthorn and his assistant quickly dismantle their vehicle and let the other one by, then put theirs back together again, all within minutes. The norry, a name some say is derived from a mispronunciation of "lorry," was born. After a few years, small gas engines were added. Drivers said that at the peak, thousands of norries operated throughout Cambodia, charging villagers only a few cents for a ride but still making a decent living with so many people and possessions jammed aboard.
To accelerate, the driver slides the motor backward, using a stick as a lever, to create enough tension in the rubber belt to rotate the rear axle. Though no two norries are identical, a failing part can be swapped with a replacement in a few seconds. Norries are technically illegal but nonetheless vital and, if you know where to look, ubiquitous. He gave his name as Sean Seurm and his age as He said he was a norry driver but complained that the local travelers used his services less often these days, having been replaced by foreign tourists looking for a minute jaunt into the countryside.
Shaking down a norry driver ferrying locals at 50 cents a ride had probably not been worth the trouble, but tourists pay ten times that. Our driver, standing near the back, used a headlamp as a signaling device for road crossings and upcoming stations, turning the rails to silver streaks darting into the undergrowth. I was mesmerized—until a shrub smacked me in the face. When another took a small chunk out of my right sleeve, I felt like a tyro for riding too close to the edge.
In some places, there were breaches in the rail more than four inches wide. With nothing to distract me, I focused meditatively on the click-CLANK-jolt, click-CLANK-jolt, click-CLANK-jolt of the ride, barely reacting when the norry hit a particularly bad gap in the track and the platform jumped the front axle and slid down the rail with all of us still seated. When Rithea and I arrived, there were chickens, dogs and children scampering about and two cops lounging in the shade, chatting with the locals.
Bamboo platforms, disembodied engines and old tank wheels welded in pairs to heavy axles were stacked near the tracks.
None of the locals was forthcoming when Rithea asked about our chances of catching one to Phnum Thippadei, about 18 miles away. Most of the produce was dropped off, and before we pulled away, I saw nylon mats being unrolled and vegetables being set up by the rail—an impromptu market.
At each stop, always where a dirt road intersected the rail, I heard voices droning in the distance. Rithea said they were monks chanting morning prayers or intoning the mournful words of a funeral or singing Buddhist poetry. The sun was low in the sky when we pulled into Phnum Thippadei. A few dozen people squatted by the track or sat in plastic chairs eating a breakfast of ka tieu, a noodle soup. After some searching, we found a norry driver named Yan Baem and his sidekick, La Vanda, who dressed like a Miami bon vivant in a patterned white shirt with a wide collar, white pants and flip-flops.
After a quick inspection, Baem and Vanda reassembled the norry and pressed on, a bit slower than before. We were a few miles from the nearest village when we ran out of gas. The motor, a small thing perched on the back of a queen-size bamboo platform, spat out a few tubercular-sounding coughs and gave up. As the norry rolled to a slow stop, sweat bloomed on the skin almost instantly. Rithea pushed until he was ready to collapse, and the old man mumbled again. The old man told me to walk on one of the rails to avoid snakes sunning on the metal ties.
I slowed down as we approached a lone wooden train car converted to a house near where the old man had pointed. My head spun with heat and exhaustion. The conductor filled our tank with a light-green liquid he kept in one-liter Coke bottles, and we were on our way, headed toward the capital, Phnom Penh. The driver told us that the big norry was used to carry lumber from Pursat to Moung Roessei, Phnum Thippadei and Battambang, but that it was cheaper to transport the big norry back to Pursat on the smaller one.
Fortunately, norry crews have developed an etiquette for dealing with such situations: the crew from the more heavily laden norry is obliged to help disassemble the lighter one, and, after passing it, reassemble it on the track. The whole process usually takes about a minute, since two people can carry a typical bamboo norry.
But the big two-by-four platform required six of us lifting with all our strength. Aside from narrowly missing a few cows foraging around the tracks, we made it to Pursat without incident.
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