Mekong Cruise - Day 7

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This morning we docked at Kratie Town during breakfast. We were able to watch from the dining room as we were tied up to the rickety timber platform that serves as the dock here. The street on the riverbank was lined with tents and people and had a festive air about it. Leng explained that officially the Water Festival is celebrated in Phnom Penh between the 10^th and 12^thof November, however it is celebrated earlier in the provinces. I think as soon as the water recedes from their farming land they have reason to celebrate because they can plant their crops.

After breakfast we stepped down onto the dock and - keeping to the joists! – made our way over to the bouncy gangplank. After bouncing over the gangplank we climbed the uneven concrete steps up to street level where we met our coach and driver from yesterday. Heng will be our driver until we reach Siem Reap.

We drove a short way out of town to a bridge with a barrier over it. Leng had to retrieve a key to unlock the barrier on the bridge. Access to the small local road that would take us upriver is restricted to vehicles under a certain height unless arrangements have been made. Leng told us that the journey would be many more miles if we took the alternative route so I am happy that the key was accessible for our group.

When we saw the boats that would take us out onto the river looking for the dolphins I think there was a collective sigh of relief. It seems I was not the only member of the group who was worried that the boats might be as small and low to the water as they were on Monday! Today’s boats were long tail boats with their propellors mounted at the end of long drive shafts connected to their outboard motors. Although they were unsophisticated vessels we did have a fixed canopy over us which certainly helped to keep us more comfortable providing shade from the sun. The best part though, our seats were more than 10 centimetres off the floor of the boat!!

I had deliberately kept my expectation level low for this excursion because you can never be certain that you will see the wildlife that you are hoping to. I figured if I anticipated a nice cruise on the river in a long tail boat then, if we saw dolphins, it would be a bonus. Oh my goodness, we were hardly even out onto the river and there were dolphins all around us. It is estimated that there are only about 90 of these beautiful mammals left in the world and we had a pod of at least eight or nine skimming around our boats. The Irrawaddy/Mekong Dolphins certainly look like dolphins, but they are heavier set than the bottle-nosed dolphin that we are all most familiar with. Broader in the body AND broader in the face.

After our very successful outing to see the dolphins we piled back onto the bus to be taken back to the boat for lunch. On the way, Leng had our driver stop so that he could buy sticky rice sticks from a roadside vendor to show us. The rice is cooked with soy beans in a bamboo tube about a foot long. Cambodian people buy it as a sweet snack. They just peel the bamboo tube away and eat the rice from inside. Because it is made with sticky rice the concoction holds together quite firmly.

Our chef on the boat spoiled us with yet another delicious lunch. All of the food on the boat has been excellent … and plenty of it.

Then it was time to head out again on our afternoon excursion … after a false start. The first leg of our journey was by ferry to Koh Trong Island sitting in the river opposite Kratie, but at our advertised starting time the ferry was on the other side of the river! Not to worry, 20 minutes later it was docked beside the R.V. Bassac Pandow and we transferred from boat to ferry.

On the island we were loaded into Cambodian limousines or Cambodian Mercedes, ha, ha, ha, we had to wallow on padded mats in the back of ox carts!! On of the oxen pairs were a bit flighty. When Leng tried to demonstrate how easy it is to climb into an ox cart they skittered around making it appear anything but easy. And then one of them pooped so there was a big pile of ox dung right in the loading zone. When we were given the go ahead to load up two per ox cart NO ONE wanted to get in that cart so, of course, that’s the one we ended up in!! On the plus side they did move it slightly away from the ox land mine.

Thank goodness we only had to endure about a kilometre by ox cart. It really wasn’t comfortable! When we reached the island’s school we were able to extricate ourselves from our ‘limousines’. The island’s leader (roughly equivalent to mayor?) welcomed us to the school and told us, via Leng, about the island’s community-based ecotourism venture that they commenced in 2008.

Which led us to the next part of this afternoon’s excursion, a tuk tuk ride to the land set aside for the reforestation project where we planted a tree. I think we planted rosewood trees although Leng was a bit vague about the exact species. A long-lived rainforest tree anyway. The plot was already prepared with the holes dug and our names on a stake beside each hole. All we had to do was pop the seedling in the hole and scrape some dirt back in around it before giving it a dipper full of water. We were told we didn’t need to give them too much water as it is still rainy season and they should be wet enough in coming days. Fingers crossed.

Our next stop was at the pagoda where we tried pomelos (basically HUGE grapefruits) that are grown locally in the fruit orchards on the island. We were also able to taste coconut water straight from the coconut. Hmmn, not a huge fan. I didn’t hate it, but I can’t say I loved it either. Possibly it would be better chilled??? Fussy westerner. I also remain a bit dubious about trying too many weird and wonderful things that could upset my stomach again.

Back on board after our outing it was time for our last Cocktail Hour. Tonight’s cocktail offering, Blue Hawaiians. After we met and thanked all of the crew who have done a fabulous job looking after us this week, they were (somewhat) coerced into providing us with a demonstration of Khmer dancing. Fortunately a couple of the younger sailers were quite keen and put on quite a show for us. When the music changed to The Twist by Chubby Checker they really started to cut loose and even Stewart and Phil jumped up to join them.

Muang provided us with our final briefing explaining the procedures for settling our accounts, disembarking tomorrow and being transferred to Siem Reap. During dinner we realised that for the coming week we are going to have to take responsibility for our own meals and make decisions about when, where and what to eat! It has been so delightfully easy on the boat to just sit at a table and have food presented to us. Although at breakfast each day we did have to order from three options what we would like to have for lunch and then again at lunch we had to decide which of three mains we wanted for dinner.

After dinner we attempted to watch the movie ‘History of Angkor Wat’. I spent the first half jabbing Bernie in the ribs to keep him awake only to doze of myself at some point. Steve had a bit of a sleep too BUT … Cathy claims to have watched the whole film!?



Steps for the day: 5,839 (3.69km)

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Comments

[Joy Woolston]

Hi Tracey Since retiring I have only travelled within Aus. Mainly due to a couple of health setbacks and Covid as well. I think I have left my run too late now. I love to hear about other peoples’ travels though and enjoy some of the great documentaries on tv. Your current trip sounds really adventurous: especially the risky infrastructure, food and transport! The photos are great. Cheers, Joy