Irrawaddy dolphins

After a brief stop back in Phnom Penh (most journeys in Cambodia have to be done via the capital) we were on the road again headed to the town of Kratie on the Mekong river. Our purpose, to search out dolphins.

All though by this far into the trip we have seen more than our fair share of marine dolphins, these are different. Found only in the Mekong river these small and exceedingly rare river dolphins (approx 86 left in the wild) are well worth the 14 hour round trip by bus.

We arrived in Krati late in the afternoon to find a typical, dusty and dirty, Cambodian town. Rather tired we booked in to the first guest house we found (having fooled the touts waiting for the bus by hiding in a restaurant). The room was cheap but looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the last guest (that night we slept in our sleepsheets just in case) and instead of a window had a painting of one, who said foreign travel was glamourous?

We set out to explore the town but I had just enough time to stop for a haircut (costing $1) before the heavens opened and we dived in to the nearest bar. What we didn't know was the bar was still under construction and had not yet been opened, due to the weather the Canadian owner took pity on us and we became his first ever customers (fortunatley the beer fridge was up and running). With it being the start of the rainy season we were stuck in the bar for many hours so his business got off to a flying start.

The next day was warm and bright and we shook off our hangovers to hire some pedal bikes and head of on the 15km journey to get to the part of the river where the dolphins lived, we arrived sore and sweating about an hour and a half later but highly amused by the sights we had seen along the way including pigs the size of cows and every small child along the way poking their heads around doorways to shout "hello" and wave at us.

We borded the boat and the captain pushed off from shore, just as we were expecting him to start the engine he shouted something and pointed over our shoulders, the dolphins were all around. The next hour or so was spent watching as the swam around ignoring us, chasing fish and surfacing to breathe, they sometimes came within meters of the boat and we had a great view. the whole experience was much more than I had hoped for.

as soon as we got back to Krati we changed hostels!

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