Dolphins ?!!

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Geo: 12.4924, 106.025

Our sole reason for coming to this part of the country was to see some dolphins. I have been promising Jai for a number of years now to take her somewhere she can see dolphins and fingers crossed today will be the day.
The fresh water Irrawaddy dolphin used to be found here in profusion but good old Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge had them hunted for their oils and although they are now recognised as an endangered species with protection measures of sorts in place, their numbers continue to fall. There may now be as few as 60-70 between here and the Lao border to the north. I have read that the best place to spot them is in the small town of Kampi some 15-20km north of Kratie so that is our destination this morning.
We are up for a 07:00 breakfast that is OK but not as good as the last few days in Phnom Penh … no real bread and no cereals.
At 07:30 we leave the hotel and take a remork about 15km north to the village of Kampi. The road is mainly tarmac but anything but even with huge potholes everywhere and we are well and truly shaken up upon our arrival. The road wends alongside the Mekong and there is building work in progress at nearly every house in nearly every village transforming old wooden houses with character into block and concrete cells. The roofs are nearly all decorated with ornaments along with the year that I guess they were last updated. The oldest I see is 1995 but the majority are dated in the last two years so money must have arrived here recently from somewhere … the dolphins ?
Leaving the remork we walk the last few hundred yards to the river and pick up a boat. There is only one other boat on the river at this time of the morning and it is a lovely peaceful spot. We leave the bank and only seconds later get our first spotting of a dolphin so I needn't have worried about not seeing any. We stay on the water for about 1 ½ hours and have more than 30 sightings although I guess mostly the same dolphins. A few came quite close to the boat but fleeting glimpses made photos almost impossible. Unfortunately the dolphins didn't feel like jumping out of the water next to us this morning. A very enjoyable way to spend the morning.
Remork back into town and a coffee and snack in the room.
About 11:00 we walk into town for some noodles at Red Sun Falling restaurant. This place was described as the centre of activity in one article I read but we were the only people there !! Worse still, we were served packet 'just add hot water' noodles which were poor to say the least.
It was our plan to take a ferry across the river here to the small sandbank island of Koh Trong but it is now 12:30 and baking hot so we decide to return to the hotel for a while.
A couple of hours later we walk back into town and take the ferry across the Mekong to Koh Trong island. With the river levels low at this time of year it was quite a trudge through soft sand to reach the first village. We had thought about hiring bicycles for a trip around the 6km island but Jai wasn't confident enough. From the moment we arrived on the island she has been uncomfortable about something and after a quick visit to the nearby temple and a short walk it is back to the riverside to wait for the ferry to come back and get us. Did see another couple of rotei ses horse carts on the island and the horses are really tiny. Getting on and off the boat on the island side of the trip was a bit exciting as well !
Back in Kratie we walk to Tokae Restaurant for a spaghetti Bolognese for something different to eat and it wasn't too bad at all especially washed down with an Angkor beer.
We stop for a large baguette at the evening market to take with us on the bus tomorrow morning. Adding a big bottle of water and a can of Cambodia beer to our shopping list we walk back to the hotel watching the sun set across the river and over Koh Trong. We sit by the river opposite our hotel for a while whilst I drink my beer before turning in for the night.

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