Saturday, February 5, 2011

Seeing irrawaddy dolphins in Kratie, Biking on Koh Trong

On the way back from Rattanakiri we stopped in Kratie for a bit and found it to be so charming and cute. A very typical Cambodian town with a beautiful waterfront, great restaurants, and a short ferry ride to Koh Trong!

We first took the ferry to Koh Trong (which takes about five minutes). We walked up the sand and were able to rent bikes there for $1 US for the whole day! We were told there was a basic loop around the island and set off. It was idyllic and sleepy and quaint and totally Khmer- many kids, cows, chickens, older people hanging out. Though Khmer children get very excited to see foreigners in any town, these ones were particularly amazed by seeing barang on their tiny island! We stopped at a cute new guesthouse to buy a bottle of water and wished we had known it was there so we could stay there. A sign pointed us to a local wat and we were led inside by a group of monks who seemed honored to share it with us and encouraged us to take many pictures.
The very last part of the bike loop was through various rice paddies and with the sun shining and the sky so quintessentially blue, I felt like I was in a Khmer music video! ;)

Boat on Koh Trong


Sand up to Koh Trong. Motos use this bamboo walk-way to make deliveries.

Cute and curious kids on Koh Trong!


Beautiful wat on Koh Trong

Bike path through the trees

After biking all afternoon, we took the ferry back to Kratie and hopped on a tuk-tuk to go upstream to where the Irrawaddy dophins are in the river. We got on a small boat and went out into the water and immediately saw quite a few dolphins popping their heads  out of the water. My pictures all all very unimpressive as the dolphins look like dots in the river but it was beautiful to see in person. The sunset was also beautiful on the mekong! After awhile of that we floated up to the "rapids"... not quite what I would call rapids, but nonetheless, you can stand in a sandbar in the middle of the mekong to watch the sunset. Can't beat that!


The "rapids"

No comments:

Post a Comment