Kratie Dolphins

I'm a little behind on my journeling so I figure I'll give you an update on the past few days then post the rest of my Angkor stuff tomorrow! Speaking of tomorrow we are heading to Laos! We took a bus yesterday to Kratie and saw the Irrawaddy dolphins of the Mekong.  We are thinking we'll use our British passports to enter Laos as the visas are much cheaper!

Nov 22 - The bus to Kratie
This morning we caught a bus from Siem Reap to Kratie. The shuttle bus picked us up at 7am and took us to the bus station. It was a long uneventful day on a bus. We had to change buses at one point and they second bus was not as nice as the first. We arrived in Kratie around 5:30pm. We set off looking for a hotel and actually had a little trouble between guesthouses being full, lack of wifi and mosquitoes it was dark before we found one acceptable. After check in we went in search of food and ate at a decent restaurant.  At the end of my dinner a large fat grasshopper type bug jumped from the bushes onto my plate and scared the bejesus out of me.  It then ended up under the table hopping around and on my leg till it was flicked back into the bushes. I may have squawked once or twice. We booked a trip for tomorrow morning to go see the Irrawaddy dolphins.

Nov 23 - Irrawaddy Dolphins
We had another early morning this morning with a tuk tuk pick up at 7:30am. Before heading out we booked our bus and boat for our Laos boarder crossing tomorrow to the 4000 Islands. Our tuk tuk ride took about 30min to get to the dolphin site. Once there we waited around for a little bit in hopes another couple might turn up to split the boat cost with, the price dropped two dollars per person with one more person. No one turned up so off we went just the two of us and our driver. We went up the river a litle ways in hopes of spotting the dolphins. And we did!  They seemed to stay in the area, called Kampi pool.  They are interesting looking with short dorsal fins and more of a beluga whale type head. A couple of them were playing together splashing about. We spent an hour on the water, I probably could have sat there all day trying to get the perfect picture. We were taken back to our hotel with a small side trip an ATM. Once back our hotel suggested we take a ferry across the river to Koh Trong and bicycle around the island. It seemed like a good idea so after lunch we did just that. It was a 9 km bike ride around the island. Its suggested to do this in the morning or late afternoon but  being the fools we are we did it at 1pm. Fortunately it was pretty shady and we has quite the breeze to keep us cool. Our ferry ride back was interesting. The boat was quite full and the wind very strong and we got stuck on a sandbar!  The driver and a tour guide jumped in and tried to dislodge the boat with no luck. Another local guy jumped in too and still no luck. Then they asked for all the guys on the boat to help so Beau and 4 other guys all jumped into the Mekong to get us unstuck. And they did Yay!  It was pretty funny.  Before they asked for help Beau had seen it coming and started emptying his pockets. Fortunately the rest of our day was relatively uneventful. Although we did buy 8 small bananas for $0.25.

The Irrawaddy Dolphin

Dolphins playing

A tail!!

Bike riding on Koh Trong

Beau in the Mekong pushing the ferry!