Meeting the Mighty Mekong and it's inhabitants...


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Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié
March 4th 2009
Published: March 17th 2009
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Whilst in Penom Penh we were torn between which part of the country to go to next. Basially we wanted to do everything which just wasn't going to be possible in the time we had so in the end we decided to head to Kratie which is towards the east of the country and from here we could either go North to the Ratanakiri Province or far East to Mondolkiri Province.

The bus ride from Phnom Penh to Kratie was another uneventul journey with the only slight problem being that it took us 8 hours instead of the advertised 6. This was mainly due to the bus driver deciding to stop here there and everywhere to go for a wee or have a cigarette but no matter we got there in one piece and were left wondering yet again where all the rumoured terrible journeys were in this part of the world.. needless we were left eating our words a few days later...

Kratie (pronounced Kra-cheh) is a lovely little town set right alongside the mighty Mekong River, there isn't much to do in the town itself but the experiences of this area lie about 13km North in Kampi where a pod of the rare Irrawaddy dolphins can be found. That said, there are quite a few delapadated French colonial buildings around the town to try and spot and it was certainly not a bad experience watching the sun set a deep red over the river whilst enjoying beer from the hawker stalls either!

As per usual we stayed a little longer in this town than most people and the family of the guesthouse we stayed in couldn't believe it and even gave us free water as we left to show their appreciation (shame it didn't stretch to free beers the night before!). We think they were just so happy to have people stay more than one or two nights and made us feel right at home.. especially when they showed Sophie the litter of day old kittens under the bar which she had to check on every time she passed!

For 2 of our relaxing days there we hired our a moto and travelled North up the river not only to try to see the dolphins but also to take in the communities that line the river banks and try to get a feel for countryside life in this area. The houses along the road are amazing ranging from tiny one room bamboo huts on stilts to huge brick mansions that we have no idea who can afford to live there. We loved driving though as all the children rush to the road to scream hello and goodbye as we went past and it really is an eye opener to see how people in this part of the world live. This area is just gearing up for tourism with the recently intorduced Mekong Discovery Trail and we were glad that we have visited it now as we felt that should we come back in a year or so's time there will undoubtedly be a trail of guesthouses, restaurants and internet shops also dotted along the road which will take away a lot of the charm of these rough around the edges communities.

As well as visiting the villages and sampling the delights of the sticky rice that this area is famous for we did also venture to the river itself to do a little dolphin spotting. Of course we didn't opt for the group tour option given to us by the guesthouse and did this on our own and were so glad that we did. You can go out on a boat to spot the dolphins but when we found out that this would cost $9 each we decided that this was a little over the top and continued on along the river banks until we came to a grassy area that we pulled into to decide on our options. We were immediatley surrounded by friendly Cambodians who kept telling us that $1 would get us something and kept pointing to the river where there were a lot of bamboo platforms in the middle of the land and the central islands. At this point we had also been joined by a German man so we all decided to go in the direction they were shepherding us and went down the bank towards the bamboo platforms. As it turns out the $1 is the fee to cross the little plank bridge that gets you to the platforms and the islands beyond, of course for locals it is only 500reil but as they didn't think we fitted into this catagory as much as we tried to tell them we did so we paid up the $1 each and off we went.

The platforms are in place for those people who want to have a swim in the rapids and now get washed away downriver but we were keen to venture further onto the islands where we felt sure we'd be able to spot the elusive dolphin inhabitants. We had to part wade, part swim and part walk across to the furthest south sand island where the water was crystal clear in the shallower parts and we all enjoyed a nice cooling swim in the river. Whilst Sophie basked in the water Dale and the German went to explore and managed to spot 2 of the dolphins swimming about 100m off in the distance. At this point they were glad that we hadn't paid the $9 each to go in the boat because the boat was actually further away from the dolphins than they were and we'd only paid a fraction of the price and got to swim too! Sadly by the time Sophie had got to that island the dolphins had swum off into the distance and she could see nothing at all :o( After lazing around in the river for a few more hours we made our way back to the town where we got to enjoy another amazing sunset over a cold beer.

Whilst making the most of our relaxing day in Kratie we made our decision on where to go to next and had settled on the Ratanakiri Province in the far North but this plan was foiled when we went to get some $$'s from the one and only bank in Kratie and it wouldn't accept our card. This put us in a horrible position as there are no ATM's in the far North or East of Cambodia so we were left with one option and that was to backtrack on a 4 hour journey to Kompong Cham where they have international ATM's and continue on from there... Travellers in this part of the world remember this so you don't end up in the same position!!

So we booked our bus for the following day after spending 4 nights in this great friendly town and made our way back to Kompong Cham...


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Sophie and beerSophie and beer
Sophie and beer

enjoying the sunset
Kratie market in the town centreKratie market in the town centre
Kratie market in the town centre

outside our guesthouse


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