Edited by: Giorgos Pallikaris
This bamboo bridge is seasonal: it is built every dry season, when the waters of the Mekong River recede and become too shallow for ships to pass. Then, at the beginning of each rainy season (before the rivers swell), the bridge is dismantled by hand and the bamboos are stored. This is because during the wet season the river currents become too strong for the bridge to survive and so ships take over the transport.
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Its length is 914 m. and consists of 50,000 bamboos.
The bridge is strong and wide enough to support the weight of light vehicles, and because the bamboos bend rather than break when stressed, driving a vehicle on the bridge causes them to continuously bend, giving riders the experience of riding a wave alongside with a loud rattle.
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Despite this, thousands of tourists come to Cambodia every year to cross this unique bridge. Locals are charged 100 riel, or about 2 euro cents, to use the bridge, but foreign tourists are charged forty times more.
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Cambodia’s bamboo bridge has been built and rebuilt for decades. But this year may be the bridge’s last. About two kilometers south of the bamboo bridge, a new concrete bridge was opened in March this year. The 800-meter-long bridge is capable of carrying vehicles of up to 30 tons, as opposed to the bamboo bridge’s 4 tons, and has an expected lifespan of at least 50 years.
Some villagers on the island of Koh Pen, to which the bridge leads, are happy with the new cement bridge, as it is more convenient and saves time and is certainly safer. But losing the bamboo bridge will mean losing tourists, which many fear will negatively affect the entire island’s economy.
Source: www.zougla.gr
