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Published: September 7th 2006
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We travelled to Kratie on the tour bus, but this time we insisted on getting good seats after being shafted a couple of times previously with seats beside smelly toilets and seats at the back of the bus under the mercy of bumpy roads.
So we sat at the very top of the coach and this lead to a very interesting and frighteningly journey as the coach bombed through the countryside. The scenery was very beautiful as we passed through small villages complimented by green fields and galvinised roof-tops on shanty huts, with the villagers farm animals grazing close at hand.
The bus stopped twice at small villages, where we were greeted by local kids flogging tiny bananas and pineapples, but we're not too trustful yet, to chance tasting them, not too mention the giant platters of spiders yet again ! It's difficult to say no at times, another couple from Belgium joined us at our table on one of our stops for protection against the local vendors. The topic of converation usually ranges from where have you travelled to?, where you from?, and how long are you travelling ?, till you jump back on the bus.
Five and
a half hours later, we arrived in Kratie, weary. We decided to stay in the first hostel we viewed. The room was grand but the staff were very weird. I sensed something was wrong when Amy was filling in our details on their registration forms. She had an audience of four lads staring at her details, even more disturbingly when we used the internet, they used to come and stand over us while we read or wrote our mails. We decided to head out of the hostel to get away from the freaks. We lobbed on a local restaurant which served amazing Khmer food. We're trying to break away from the hostel food which serves alot of Western dishes (no more burgers and greasy chips please!) and we were delighted on this occassion. Sometimes it is worth taking the chance.
The village in Kratie is surrounded by the Mekong which is one of the worlds great rivers, it flows 2600 miles from the Himalayas to South China sea. Kratie is famous for the Irrawady dolphin. It is classified among the world's most endangered mammals.
We travelled by moto to the Mekong riverside in order to see the dolphins.
Again disaster struck as my moto broke down. I'm begining to think that we're cursed as that's the third time in the space of a week that our moto has broken-down, either that or else I have to lose a few pounds. So we all had to transfer onto the one moto. So we arrived at the Mekong with the driver, myself and Amy all sharing a moto. Amy unluckily so got the raw deal as she was left hanging on the back with little or no room.
We jumped on a boat resembling a currach with a motor. Our fellow passengers were an American couple who kept me fattened up with banana in a batter sambo, quite tasty too ! Amy probably rightly so declined. The scenery along the Mekong was fantastic with sightings of local fishermen dropping in large nets and scooping out fish against the backdrop of the calm Mekong river. We only caught a glimpse of the dolphins for around four seconds to be precise. Someone shouted there it is !, by the time I looked around the dolphins were gone. I was tempted to make a sighting up for devilment.
The trip rekindled memories
of going to Dingle with my folks to see Fungi the local dolphin. The dingle fishermen had a policy of no fee unless you see!, on that occassion we only saw Fungi's head before the captain shouted, yee saw him didn't yee!, and then returning back to the harbour for another load off gullible tourists. So we returned from the Mekong without a picture, our guide saying that the dolphins were very shy!
The following day we travelled back to Phnom Penh and met up with our American friends in the same hostel. This time, the conversation developed as if we were war vets swapping travelling stories. To our horror they spotted us later in an Irish bar that same day having a scoop. Our credability was shot after that.
Our last day in Phnom Penh after gorging on bagels with cream cheese and hummus for Amy in Cafe Java (such delight) was spent travelling around the city.
We ventured into the markets where we haggled with the traders over prices for shorts and t-shirts. I added a pair of red adidas shorts to my fake label collection with Amy wearing down the saleswoman into a great deal
Lets play Darts!
On the Ochey. No luck, only burst 4 out of 6 ballons, no cuddly toy. for a baseball cap.
We were both quite sad on our last day to leave beautiful Cambodia and the warm smiling faces of the locals.
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