Kayaking, Koh Trong and killing time in Kratie

Kratie has been on our list of places to visit in Cambodia for a while but towards the end of last year we realised that we'd better get our skates on as two of our friends who live there were leaving at the end of the year. Sam and Gilly have kept a blog about their two years in Kratie, which you can read here, and have also featured in our blog.

The weekend we were debating going also turned out to be the opening weekend of Sorya Kayaking Adventures, a new company established by Suzanne, who had been our neighbour here in Phnom Penh. Suzanne had popped back to Phnom Penh and when she told us that weekend was the opening, we knew we had to go.

We arrived at our guesthouse and quickly ordered some food. Gordon's "proper meal" arrived within 10 minutes but I had to wait 50 minutes for pancakes (killing time #1 - okay, so it's not really killing time but I wanted another 'k' for the title and I couldn't figure out to make dolphins or sunsets start with 'k'). We'd been warned the food could sometimes take a while but that was taking the biscuit!

we're great actors

about to start

having a break on a sandbank

It turns out we're appalling. Truly appalling. The smiles above were completely faked for the camera and hide the fact that we fought nearly the whole way. Lesson learned. Solo kayaks next time! However, it was amazing to be out on the river at that time of day, watching the sunset on one side of us, and the clouds light up in a blaze of pink on our other side from the setting sun. Beautiful.

us and the sunset on the Mekong (thanks for the pic Suzanne)

That night a group of us went out for dinner - and waited nearly two hours for food to get to all of us (killing time #2). I was enjoying Kratie, but this was getting ridiculous. When we got back to the guesthouse I learned my second lesson of the day. Don't leave a mosquito coil burning for hours in a non-ventilated room... unless you want to suffocate yourself that is.

Next day, after breakfast with Sam and Gilly's bai sach chrook lady (bai sach chrook = pork and rice - a staple Khmer breakfast and some of my favourite Khmer food), we hopped on the boat over to Koh Trong island where we hired some bikes and went to explore!

lots of houses had these at the front -
to scare away bad spirits I think

 the big jars on the right hold water

big grins at a temple

cows getting a wash with fishing/house boats behind

Later that evening we joined Sam and Gilly, and their two friends who were visiting from home, for a trip to see arguably Kratie's biggest selling point - the dolphins. Kratie is one of the few places you can see the Irrawaddy dolphins and for a time the local community made a good living from the dolphins being close by. However, now the whole thing is government run, and the community don't benefit as much from the tourist money coming in.

I still have reservations about the damage tourists might be doing to the dolphins. We went out on motorboats and, while all the drivers kept a distance, when the dolphins moved off we followed after them. It felt a little like we were harassing them, however, if tourists weren't paying money (some of which does benefit the area) the dolphins wouldn't be protected as much by the fishermen, who would use more dolphin-harmful but bigger-fish-catch fishing methods. There are only an estimated 80-90 dolphins in this part of the river (which runs up to the border with Laos). I suppose as long as safe tourism is there, the community will do what they can to make sure the dolphins will be there too.

Sadly I didn't manage to get any pictures of the dolphins although we did see them. Unlike their bottlenose cousins, they're not show offs and you don't often see more than the top of their head and a glimpse of a fin. WWF has a very short video of the dolphins - I think by the fact that they only have 16 seconds of video footage it shows you how hard they are to catch on film. Here's a picture from t'interweb so you know what I'm talking about.

They're really lovely looking animals but, bizarrely, nearly all the pictures on the internet look like they've been photoshopped. I think it's something to do with their (naturally occurring) Mona Lisa smile.

We went on our dolphin cruise late in the afternoon so we could also be on the water for sunset again. It was another stunner of a sunset.

On the way to the dolphins we'd stopped off to see Wat Sambok, a hilltop pagoda with stunning views over the countryside.

monk statues line the staircase the whole way up

Dinner that evening was something we'd heard lots about from Gilly and Sam - cow on the hill. It's like a table top BBQ. You get a plate of meat with a raw egg (to coat the meat in), a plate of veg and a lump of lard. Lard goes on top of the "hill" ( the silver burner in the photo), meat goes on top of that to be cooked, and the veg goes round the bottom edge in water/fat/oil. It was tasty but definitely a dangerous way to eat. The hot fat spitting out was a bit nippy! Didn't put Gordon off obviously though.

The next day we had a wee cycle round town and visited Wat Roka Kandal, the oldest preserved pagoda in Cambodia and then killed time (#3) waiting on our minibus, which was nearly two hours late. If I'd known it was going to be that late, I'd have ordered some food...