Kratie

After a day of chilling out in Siem Reap, getting foot massages and recovering from our extensive exploration of the temples of Angkor, we decided that it was time to move on. The original plan had been to get the bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok but as we had enjoyed Cambodia so much we decided to discover more. We consulted the guidebook and caught a bus from Siem Reap to Kampong Cham, a long bus ride of 6 hours with Cambodian pop songs blasting in our ears. At the end of this bus ride we jumped into a tuktuk to the nearest place where a bus ticket to Kratie could be booked. The ticket was surprisingly expensive but we paid anyway (we didn´t have much choice) and awaited the bus which of course was late. While we were waiting Al nipped off to buy a couple of baguettes to share as we hadn´t eaten breakfast. The bus agent kindly offered to take our money and go to the local market to buy us some food but we politely declined. "Do we look like complete mugs!" we said to ourselves "here, take our money... no no infact take our credit card and pin number at the same time!" (as mentioned earlier - never pay for anything in advance!). Eventually the bus came so we bought some monkey nuts from a local sales woman and sat back in our seats munching away and watching a comedy show involving a midget castrati and actors dressed as European peasants - don´t ask.

We eventually arrived in Kratie and headed to a budget hotel recommended in the guidebook. Kratie is pretty small but a number of guesthouses have sprung up to cater for tourists visiting the famous Irawaddy Dolphins. We settled into the You Hong guesthouse and ordered some food, only to discover how dirty the hotel actually was - ants crawling everywhere, dirty sauce bottles, a kitchen where dishes were washed on the dirty floor and a squat toilet (used by the staff) which didn´t have loo roll or soap (work that one out yourself). Not nice! We did however have a great view of the market from our window:

The next day we arose early and explored the town. We investigated the mighty Mekong river and the busy market area outside our hotel.

While in the market we were approached by a tuktuk driver offering to take us to the river to see the dolphins. After some light haggling we agreed on a price and hit the road, 14 kms, upriver. We arrived, bought a ticket and were directed to a boat for our own private boat ride. Irrawaddy dolphins are incredibly rare, there are only about 70 remaining in the Mekong River and the small port of Kampi, near Kratie is the best place to see them. We were lucky. The dolphins are incredibly shy, unlike their show-off, Sea World counterparts, and don´t hang around much for photos. Through sheer patience we got some spectacular shots:



It was a lovely opportunity to relax on the river and soak up some rays too
Our driver was a funny one. Life can´t be too hard when all you do is sit around all day, waiting for tourists to be brought to your boat and taking the odd nap between rides... however we never met anyone lazier and more unwilling to do their job. We stayed in the same area for ages, which was good while the dolphins were there, but when they moved on we wanted to explore some more. "You want to go to the waterfall?" our guide asked. When we replied in the affirmative we were told "two dollar". Feeling a bit hard done by we declined but asked him to go further afield so we could see more dolphins. He revved up the engine, surely scaring the dolphins away, and headed a little up river. We circled around a small island and came back to the port. "No no no!" we called, "we paid for an hour not 40 minutes!" He didn´t look too happy but nevertheless turned off the engine and drifted us back to the middle of the river. He really didn´t look happy though and we soon found out why as he suddenly threw his head over the side of the boat and started vomitting. Eeewww!! We were sympathetic of course and told him he could go back to the port. We were also a bit worried, if the locals get sick from the food here what hope is there for us?!

We sat for 15 minutes by the side of the river watching the dolphins playing and the odd boat heading out into the river. As we waited we came across a rather bizarre sign stuck to a notice board - we couldn´t make out what it was trying to warn but if any of our readers have any ideas then please please comment and let us know!

On the way back the driver pointed out a famous ´mountain´with a temple on top. I wanted to have a closer inspection - mainly for comedy value as this truly was a mountain for the very flat Cambodian countryside, but by our European standards it was more like a small hillock. We climbed the mountain to the temple at the top. There wasn´t too much to see but we did come across this toilet which should definately win a prize for the world´s worst toilet competition!

We headed back to our dirty hotel where the staff were lazing around in hammocks in their pyjamas watching wrestling on TV. It´s a fact of Cambodia that everyone here wears bright coloured pyjamas during the day - they are that laid back here! I actually think it may be because pyjamas are cheaper than normal clothes... either way it certainly reflects the relaxed and happy attitude of the people here. But the people who ran our hotel... they were just lazy!
We whiled away the rest of the day in a cafe by the market
We also wondered through the inside of the market, a maze of clothes/shoe/food stalls - although with flies buzzing over the meat and vegetables being cut on the floor it didn´t look like the most hygenic place to eat!
and sat with a cool beer watching the sun setting over the banks of the Mekong.