In search of dolphins

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Unlike Lance Armstrong, the only thing we had running through our veins when heading out on our bikes yesterday was excitement about seeing the freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins. We found the bike route through the Mekong Discovery Trail, which is basically just a series of maps outlining different routes that you can bike around the Kratie/Stung Treng area, promoting local tourism.

There are two places where you can easily see dolphins around this area - Kampi Rapids, 15km out of town, and the island of Koh Phdao, 35km away. We thought that Koh Phdao would be less busy with tourists than Kampi, and both wanted the chance to get a bit further out into the countryside, so Koh Phdao it was.

I was a bit nervous about the bike ride up there, seeing as I tend to struggle with anything involving fitness and/or coordination, and also the fact that I've been on a bike about twice since I was at high school, but it worked out fine. The route follows "Highway no. 7", which conjures up images of high speed trucks and buses, but in fact it's a rural, quiet road. The traffic really melts away once you get out of Kratie, and particularly once you pass Kampi Rapids; for a lot of the trip we found that we only shared the road with a few motos and bicycles from the families that live alongside the road.

It is an epic bike ride, you don't get much better than biking alongside the mighty Mekong River, surrounded by idyllic Cambodian countryside and constantly (and I mean constantly) greeted by the always adorable Cambodian kids, who all rushed out from their houses to wave and shout 'HELLOOOOOOOOO' at us as we went past. Actually, I take that back, it would have been better if we had had some magical bike seats that mean your bum doesn't hurt after the first 5km. Other than that, it's a really lovely ride.

We stopped for lunch in a local cafe, where we met a Kiwi couple on their travels, Caitlin and Sanji. It's been 2 1/2 years since I left New Zealand, so it was so nice to hang out with some Kiwis after such a long time. We got to chatting over lunch and ended up taking the ferry over to Koh Phdao together.

Our next task was to find somewhere to stay for the night - Koh Phdao offers homestays, and when you arrive on the island there are signs pointing which direction you'll find them in. We followed the one which said "There are 11 homestays this way, the last homestay is 5km away", which we've now decided must have been written wrong and must have meant to say "The first homestay is 5km away", as we biked for another few km without seeing anything. We were about to turn back, thinking we must have missed the homestay signs when we finally saw a house on the right, "Seng Kim Homestay", and were greeted by two smiling faces who invited us in to their home.

Meanwhile, Sanji and Caitlin, who have their own tent, had found a spot next to the river. They were both swimming, and though I'd left my togs at the homestay, I couldn't resist getting in the water as well, going on the theory that it's hot enough for my clothes to dry pretty quickly (which turned out to be right). We all headed back to the homestay, where Mong (Seng Kim's daughter) had arranged for a local fisherman to take us out on the river to see the dolphins. Turns out we were right about Koh Phdao being less crowded by tourists. In fact, we were the only ones out on the river except for a couple of other fishing boats. We hadn't gone far when our driver stopped the engine and started paddling. Then - a splash! Two dolphins surfacing and diving again, about 50m from our boat. I don't know what it is about dolphins but even if you just get a glimpse of them it's just magical. We were lucky enough to have more than a glimpse though, for the next 45 minutes the dolphins circled around our boat, and every time they'd surface all four of us were mesmerised, sitting there oohing and aahing which must have amused our driver. I loved how they'd surface in pairs, or even three or four at a time, we saw them playing with each other and convinced ourselves that they were smiling at us as well. I think we all could have watched them for hours, but eventually the sun started to set and we had to head back to shore, where we said goodnight to Sanji and Caitlin and headed in to our homestay.

I loved this homestay. Seng Kim and his family regularly host homestays, and his daughter Mong speaks a little bit of English, and with the help of some elaborate gesturing and the bits of Khmer that we have picked up along the way, we managed to chat about family and work while learning a little bit more Khmer at the same time

Early in the morning (to escape the heat) we waved goodbye to our host family, and began our ride back to Kratie. Along the way we stopped to buy water and the lovely lady who owns the shop began talking with me. This time I managed to understand a little of what she was saying, and hopefully she could understand what I was saying (which went along the lines of "We are going to Kratie by bike", "Yes, it is very hot", and "I only speak a little Khmer"). I was delighted when as we were saying goodbye she grabbed hold of my hands and gave me a big hug.

We sadly said goodbye to Koh Phdao and got on the ferry with our bikes, followed by 9 motorbikes and about 45 other people, packed onto this little wooden boat about 3m by 1.5m (health and safety isn't really a thing over here). Despite the over-crowdedness we managed to make it across without sinking, and 35 km later we finish our ride back to Kratie, absolutely exhausted but absolutely stoked that we got to experience everything that we have over the past couple of days.

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Extra Info

CRDTours are a good source of information for the Mekong Discovery Trail, and other things to do in and around Kratie. They are linked with a local charity, the Cambodian Rural Development Team. We emailed them just to find out a bit of information about the homestays, but if you like they help you arrange the whole trip and I think you just pay a small donation, which goes towards the community.

If you don't fancy biking 35km+ with your backpacks, most guesthouses will keep them for you - just take anything important with you.

Bikes can be hired for $1 (without gears) and $2 (with gears). You can either get them from your guesthouse or from the local bike shop, which is just down the road from the market.



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