Blogs from Kratié, East, Cambodia, Asia - page 9

Advertisement

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié November 5th 2006

Said goodbye to my cosy bungalow, crosseed the river to be packed in a minibus, which drove deep down a mud track into a large forest, it was all a bit Hansel and Gretel, but without the breadcrumbs, or the witch. No it was the way to cross out of Laos, and into Cambodia, despite fears of major rip off the ''admin fees' from the guards were only one dollar (bargained down in a rare moment of bravery) on the Laos side, and 2 dollars getting into Cambodia, fairs fair, you have less bargaining power trying to enter a country. Then a car to some ferry, a dodgy ferry crossing, it had a big crane on it which they had to keep moving back and forth to prevent us toppling over, then waded to shore which ... read more
Irrawady Dolphin
Great River

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié October 13th 2006

Denk dat Dan meelij heeft gekregen met mij want we zijn met de bus gekomen, reden: serieuze kou opgedaan, merci airco! maar dus geen spin gegeten... Vanochtend vertrokken met de locale bus richting Kompomg Cham, Oost- Cambodia. Een goeie 5 uur later komen we er dus toe en volgen we een groep andere backpackers naar hun hotel, inchecken, en dan direct naar het Mekong Crossing Restaurant voor een curry. Superaangenaam madammeke! Erna dodo... 's avonds ontmoeten we Antoine, nen franstalige brusseleer, die met een tuc-tuc de omgeving heeft verkend en het heel mooi vond. Kompomg Cham is de grootste stad in het noordoosten en de hoofdstad van de provincie met dezelfde naam. Het is een klein stadje, met een relaxte atmosfeer, maar zodanig relaxed dat het doods is... De koloniale gebouwen hier zijn er slecht aan ... read more
Sunset
Sunset

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié September 7th 2006

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 ... read more
Hey, Hey were the monkeys !
Wish I was a fisherman!
Mekong express

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié July 8th 2006

So 8am the 4 of us are on the little boat back to the mainland. From there we are hearded onto a sawngthaew for our trip across the border to Cambodia. From reading other peoples stories we are sceptical about all these organised buses, but we booked it anyway. Got to what we thought was the border so we were all off and out of the truck where we had to walk (a long way) to the tour agents office. Why? we weren't sure. After sitting around for half an hour all looking at each other asking the same questions we finally established that we were only there so they could tell us about their tours and hotels in Kratie. So after time wasting for too long the guy finally said we had to pay him ... read more
Melissa bordering on the brink of tightness.
Andy, bored o'  the border
On the minibus

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié July 7th 2006

Again, a bit of backtracking... We took a bus from Phnom Penh north to Kratie (pronounced Kra-chae), about halfway towards the Laos border. The six hour drive was pretty uneventful other than the stops in the local towns where we enjoyed watching the locals eat funny foods and climb off the tops of the local buses (we were on a "VIP" bus). Kratie itself is just a small town that sits on the Mekong River. It's usually just a stopping point on the backpacker track up to Laos, but we went there to get out of the city. The 5 of us westerners were mobbed by the touts as we climbed down from the bus. We had all agreed we'd try to go to the same place, and even though we claimed to know where we ... read more
Kratie, near the market
School kids heading home
Boating on the Mekong

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié June 23rd 2006

Kim and me have talked about going for a holiday in Cambodia for ages now, and since my contract ended now we decided it would have to be now or never. So, off we went. Our first leg would be the North-East of Cambodia to see the mountains, and then back to Phnom Penh for a night, and then on down south to see the sea. First stop would be Kratie, which is a pretty boring town with 30 000 citizens, but because one can see the infamous Mekong Dolphins there we decided to stay the night. The busride up there was pretty uneventful an quite long, seven hours for 300km. We met a rather nice chap from Austria on the bus, and the three of us decided to find a guest house together. One of ... read more
Oudom Sambath Guesthouse
On our way to see dolphins
Mekong Dolphin

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié May 6th 2006

After a quick overnight in Phnom Penh (enough time to know there's a whole lot more I need to see and do there!) Johanne and I headed for Kratie, which is a small town situated on the Mekong River. It's super mellow with not a whole lot to do but explore the outskirts and relax... fine by me! That afternoon we rented a couple of bikes and went for a ride around the area and were greeted by every single child in the area!! They all wave and yell hellooooo... They are incredibly cute, as I'm sure I've already mentioned. We got bombarded by a bunch of younger boys also on bikes and one in particular was SO keen to practice his english he just kept asking question after question. Johanne's an elementary school teacher back ... read more
Stilt house in the country
damn cute kids
Country Road

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié March 9th 2006

A day of travelling took us North East to Kompong Cham via Sukon famous for its tasty Tarantulas. Sara, who had been bragging about her intention to try one, chickened out and didn't even go for a peeled frog. I gallantly decided not to show her up by refraining also. From Kompong Cham we hoped to get a boat to the town of Kratie. Unfortunately it turns out that the boat doesn't run any more so the next day we continued the rest of the way by bus. Kratie is probably most famous for being one of the last hideouts of irrawaddy ( or flat-nosed ) freshwater dolphins. They live in a very localised deep bit of the Mekong here and are very easy to see by boat or even from the shore. They look pretty ... read more
The dolphin is the pair of grey pixels near the middle
Sara's driver demonstrates his best stunt
No matter how many times the cows climbed into the tree, they always fell out.

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié March 5th 2006

Hello and welcome to Cambodia, my third country of this south-east asian tour! After 2 weeks in laos, we felt it proper to move on, and our visas were running out! Post our 10hour bifter bus ride to pakse, we eventually caught a small truck further south close to thge Laos-Cambodia border. This truck was only small, yet 32 people were either sat down, squashed in, or hanging off the back of this truck (about the size of your car dennis!). Sweat was felt in abundance! Our destination was the area known as Si Phan Don (or 4000 islands) and basically is a massive region on the Mekong River of thousands of islands, varying in size from small to mahusive!! We stayed on the relatively small island of Khome, which was the least touristy of the ... read more

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié March 5th 2006

Early start again this morning, set the alarm for 6.20am (Need not have bothered due to the roosters being as reliable as ever and waking us up with plenty of time to spare) Got a quick boat ride back to mainland Laos, and set off in a truck with a few other tourists to the border. Firstly we had to "Depart" Laos, which incurred a $2 administration fee (Aka paying for the border workers beer Laos tonight), after that we headed to the Cambodian border and passed through without any problems. When we were in Cambodia we decided it would be best to get a minibus to Kratie, and from there hopefully head for the capital, Phnom Penh tommorrow. The minibus journey was another experience, the "roads" in Cambodia were dirt tracks at best, apparently the ... read more




Tot: 0.152s; Tpl: 0.006s; cc: 9; qc: 96; dbt: 0.0962s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb