This morning we docked at Kratie Town during breakfast. We were able to watch from the dining room as we were tied up to the rickety timber platform that serves as the dock here. The street on the riverbank was lined with tents and people and had a festive air about it. Leng explained that officially the Water Festival is celebrated in Phnom Penh between the 10th and 12thof November, however it is celebrated earlier in the provinces. I think as soon as the water recedes from their farming land they have reason to celebrate because they can plant their crops.
After breakfast we stepped down onto the dock and - keeping to the joists! – made our way over to the bouncy gangplank. After bouncing over the gangplank we climbed the uneven concrete steps up to street level where we met our coach and driver from yesterday. Heng will be our driver until we reach Siem Reap.
We drove a short way out of town to a bridge with a barrier over it. Leng had to retrieve a key to unlock the barrier on the bridge. Access to the small local road that would take us upriver is
restricted to vehicles under a certain height unless arrangements have been made. Leng told us that the journey would be many more miles if we took the alternative route so I am happy that the key was accessible for our group.
When we saw the boats that would take us out onto the river looking for the dolphins I think there was a collective sigh of relief. It seems I was not the only member of the group who was worried that the boats might be as small and low to the water as they were on Monday! Todays boats were long tail boats with their propellors mounted at the end of long drive shafts connected to their outboard motors. Although they were unsophisticated vessels we did have a fixed canopy over us which certainly helped to keep us providing shade from the sun. The best part though, our seats were more than 10 centimetres off the floor of the boat!!
I had deliberately kept my expectation level low for this excursion because you can never be certain that you will see the wildlife that you are hoping to. I figured if I anticipated a nice
cruise on the river in a long tail boat then, if we saw dolphins, it would be a bonus. Oh my goodness, we were hardly even out onto the river and there were dolphins all around us. It is estimated that there are only about 90 of these beautiful mammals left in the world and we had a pod of at least eight or nine skimming around our boats. The Irrawaddy/Mekong Dolphins certainly look like dolphins, but they are heavier set than the dolphin that we are all most familiar with. Broader in the body AND broader in the face.
After our very successful outing to see the dolphins we piled back onto the bus to be taken back to the boat for lunch. On the way, Leng had our driver stop so that he could buy sticky rice sticks from a roadside vendor to show us. The rice is cooked with soy beans in a bamboo tube about a foot long. Cambodian people buy it as a sweet snack. They just peel the bamboo tube away and eat the rice from inside. Because it is made with sticky rice the concoction holds together quite firmly.
chef on the boat spoiled us with yet another delicious lunch. All of the food on the boat has been excellent and plenty of it.
Then it was time to head out again on our afternoon excursion after a false start. The first leg of our journey was by ferry to Koh Trong Island sitting in the river opposite Kratie, but at our advertised starting time the ferry was on the other side of the river! Not to worry, 20 minutes later it was docked beside the R.V. Bassac Pandow and we transferred from boat to ferry.
On the island we were loaded into Cambodian limousines or Cambodian Mercedes, ha, ha, ha, we had to wallow on padded mats in the back of ox carts!! On of the oxen pairs were a bit flighty. When Leng tried to demonstrate how easy it is to climb into an ox cart they skittered around making it appear anything but easy.
