Into Cambodia

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The Cambodian border was a little wooden hut about 100m further down the road than the Lao hut that stamped us out. We were left standing on the roadside with our backpacks for ages while visas were issued to everyone. Luckily a lovely Cambodian lady has seized the opportunity and arrived with a cool box full of drinks for sale at the bargain price of US$1. They seem to prefer US$ to their own currency here, not sure why, perhaps they think America is cooler but anyway they only have the notes so any small change is given in Real which means a wallet full of notes totalling about 10p.

Eventually the bus is on the move and headed for Strung Treng where we swapped onto another one. I wasn’t sure we were all going to fit into the minibus that was to take us onto Kratie but we did and we even managed to fit in a large Cambodian family we picked up on the way! Ok so there were about five of them in the front seat and one on the roof but they fitted in.

Kratie

They all wear pyjamas here, the women that is. And not particularly pretty pyjamas, I’m talking the £4, long sleeves, button down the front, patterned ones you get in Primark - I had some, loved them but never wore them shopping.

Perhaps this ‘trend’ will head north into Laos where they seem to spend the day sleeping in hammocks - we had to leave our cafe bill and tip lying beside our waitress who was sound asleep when we left! What a nice relaxed job.

Anyway back to Kratie. It’s a pretty dirty little town. Not filthy dirty just messy with rubble and dust. The main attraction here are the very rare Irrawaddy dolphins that live in the Mekong (bit of a coincidence that they are on the BBC World news as I write this!) and the spectacular sunsets. We are equally impressed and honoured to have been lucky enough to witness both over the next couple of days. Some guys from the hotel took Joel and I on the back of their bikes out to the dolphin watching point where we hopped onto a boat for the next hour and tried and failed to photograph the elusive dolphins. We saw many though as they breached the water in twos and threes. Later locals gathered for the sunset along the banks of the river which is lined with cafes and people making and selling fresh sugar cane juice, creating a very special atmosphere as we took in the panorama.
Next stop Phnom Penh.

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