DAYS 45-46 KRATIE, CAMBODIA IN SEARCH OF THE IRRAWADY DOLPHIN

It was the crack of dawn when I set out to the next destination on my travels: Kratie. Kratie is not an obvious stop on the traveller circuit. Other than the Irrawaddy dolphin, and the Lonely Planet claim of being home to the ‘best Mekong sunsets in Cambodia’, there was not much, apparently, going for Kratie. That being said, anything which followed Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples would inevitably be an anti-climax. So it may as well be Kratie.

Kratie is as far away as it is possible to be from any major city in Cambodia. The main reason I was going to Kratie was that it formed a convenient break between Cambodia’s Siem Reap and Four Thousand Islands in Laos.

But because Kratie is off the beaten track, and less frequented by tourists, I was really hoping that this little excursion would give me the opportunity to meet Cambodians in their element. Maybe I would finally get that authentic traveller experience I was searching for?

I arrived at the U-Hong II Guesthouse in the dead of night, accompanied by intense rain. Luckily I had access to Google Maps on my iPad and was able to get the local minibus driver to stop at just the right location. The wonders of technology.At $4/night (£2.35/night) this was probably the cheapest place I had stayed at on my travels, one of the perks of visiting off-the-beaten-track places. And I was given a spacious room, not a dorm.The following day, the rain having abated slightly, I rented a scooter and explored the area.

It made sense to begin with Kratie’s number one tourist draw: irrawaddy dolphin spotting. On the way up I came across an old man enjoying a spliff under a tree. He seemed relaxed as he peered at the river and its many islands.

I could only guess that he was waiting for his wife who would be one of a dozen ladies, some topless, having their hair shaven only metres away. At least I thought they were women. At that age, and without hair, gender was purely a label.

After absorbing the scenery here and thanking my new spliff-smoking friend for the chance to take his photograph, I moved on to the dolphin spotting port. I was put on a boat straight away. Unfortunately as this is generally a less touristy town I was the only one on this little vessel. To top it off, the boatman was unable to present a smile or any English.

What was meant to be the most interesting part of Kratie was in the end a bit of a damp squib. Although the dolphins were spotted, they were mostly at a distance and rarely surfaced beyond a few inches. In truth I wasn’t expecting to see much, but it was fun being so close.

On finishing the tour it started raining very heavily, and I sheltered with a group of old Cambodian ladies. As we waited, the Cambodian women couldn’t help noticing that our skin colour was the same. How magical, how rare a treat for me not to feel like a minority. As they looked at me, smiling, I said “I am a Cambodian”. They didn’t believe me of course, but we shared in the mirth of that joke. At least I think they were laughing with me.

Once the rain had cleared I visited the 100 Pillar Temple (Wat Sor Sor Mouy Roy), previously destroyed by Pol Pot, subsequently rebuilt in 1997 with 116 pillars. The internal paintings were tremendously detailed and contained friezes blending Hindu and Buddhist mythology.

The most interesting image I took at the temples however was of a group of young monks, one with a cigarette in his hands. In Cambodia children are expected at some point in their life to become monks, so it is perhaps not unusual for them to carry on their ‘sinful’ habits.

On the way back from the temple, which was further way then I was expecting, I got to spend some time travelling through the unique houses of the Kratie people. Set on stilts, to avoid the floods, these looked like fun places to grow up.

I eventually stopped at one of the road side food stalls. The Lonely Planet guide recommended buying one of Kratie’s specialities Krolan, a mixture of sticky white rice and coconut milk punctuated by a few black beans, all inside a bamboo stalk. It was a great little snack, and I got my second genuine interaction with a Cambodian. Here I am making an unflattering attempt to eat Krolan:

Before I finished my touring for the day I visited Wat Phnom Sambok, another temple, this one positioned on a steep hill. The staircase was lined with replica monks along the entirety of the 358 steps.

It should have had a nice panoramic view of the surrounding area, but the pesky trees thwarted that. I have only come to know now that I missed what would have been the highlight of that visit, scenes of hell painted like some vision of Dante’s inferno on the interior walls of the temple. Here’s another tourists’ photograph:

And there ended my journey to Kratie. I was pleased to have got some local interaction and seen some nice sights along the way. The next day I would make my way to 4000 Islands and begin my Laos adventure.
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