Day 301 - Kratie

Dissentry and rubbish dolphins...



Kratie is a funny one. I'm kinda torn on how I feel about it. First glance, you get a cute TINY village, swinging its feet into the cool waters of the mekong river which looks SO NICE from here. Its hot and humid and lush and green. The soils are rusty brown and the locals are the most beautiful rich brown colour. Its so nice. BUT, it was a bit of a let down. Afraid to say it, but I don't have much to say about this place.



So, we arrive, dropped off outside the usual town market the size of a large blockbuster store supplying all the needs of the town. We wander round and buy more kiddy pyjamas (i love these) before spending the night chatting to new canadian friend chuck (thanks for the canada map mate - and solving the Quebec mystery).

And in the morning we're booked on a trip to go and see the famous kratie DOLPHINS! Freshwater, endangered, WWF sponsored, weird egg-head looking dolphins without the cute nose spike thing, very exciting. But first we pay an extra dollar each to go and swim in the mekong. Its so hot here, all I dream about is swimming.



So, we driving through the outback - flat, vegetated, rusty iron-swamped soils, houses on stilts and cute cambodian kids waving as we pass, and before long we're dropped off and pointed towards the river. "you can swim there?". REALLY? really? its the mekong. Its gross. I'm pretty sure I saw a dog vomiting in there the other day, and you want me to swim in it? OK.



So we wander down, pay some piss-taking little girl a dollar to cross a wooden (toll) bridge. and stand at the shore of the mekong, waiting to dive in. Its so gross. we didn't. we walked on to find somewhere cleaner. Not much luck. In the end I crawled into some small rapids (much to the amusement of the locals who were all diving around without fear of swallowing any of the sick-inducing fluids). Anyway, I had a dip - firmly keeping my head above water - then we wandered back to the car, scared of what diseases just crawled up my ass.



And the extra 4 dollars for the swimming was clearly worth it because our driver then drove 30seconds down the road to the dolphin drop-off point. this country knows how to rip its visitors off. so yeah, minutes later we're on a boat swanning across the mekong searching for these amazing dolphins. expecting some dolphin stroking action. expecting some good photos. expecting something wicked.



but it didn't deliver. the bastard dolphins are (a) scared of the boats so are (b) too far away to see and (c) its so hot we can't concentrate on them appearing randomly every 2 minutes for just a brief chug of air, so we lose interest, throw our feet of the side of the boat and dream of swimming in the vile puke that is the mekong.



Its a shame. I mean, it was nice being on a boat (i LOVE boat trips) but the dolphins were rubbish and the whole thing was overpriced. Gutted. And I'm so desperate to swim to rid myself of the evil sweat that is destroying all my clothes, I convince the driver to take us to a swimming spot and jump in regardless of whichever parasites are clawing their way under my flesh.







We're treated to a quick trip to a buddhist monastry, which is nice as well, although there's too many steps. steps everywhere. its like climbing everest. anyway, its kinda cute, although unfinished. some female monk (monkess?) tells me off for taking photos of a mural with naked women being eating out by dogs - she makes me delete the photo but I took another one. check this out...



and then we headed back to the hotel, watched zoolander, and sweated the night away in our un-air-conditioned bedroom. sick. ready for the morning, which would bring an exciting 10-hour journey to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat. 10 hours? that's nothing. i can do that in my sleep. in fact - i do do that in my sleep.