Shortcut to Kratie, a bit of mud...
We picked up a local character (brother of cafe owner’s girlfriend) in Kompong Cham and made our way north to Kratie. The owner of the cafe (Lazy Mekong Daze) is worth a mention. A frenchman, who true to the name of his business – had no idea why he decided to lie on the couch all day in a particularly slow paced town. His typical answer to our questions was “I don’t know because I don’t care”. He did show great enthusiasm for computer ping pong though – oh the life!
A truck get's stuck on the soft road side
And another one bites the dust...
Our local passenger was able to show us the shortcut to Kratie (which the Frenchman had strongly advised us against: “It’s very muddy and you don’t want to get stuck there”). The short cut veered off the main highway onto a secondary road, then a dirt road for 25 km, at the worst points, the locals had their shovels out trying to make it passable. The passing traffic pay a voluntary fee for this service – an unofficial toll for the back roads. The van had no trouble with the mud, however some 2wd vans did get bogged down a few times and had to get pulled out by an oncoming truck.
No pics of dolphins but this was pretty too...
We booked into a hotel on the Mekong River in Kratie for the night and then drove a few kms north to try and spot the Irawaddy dolphins. Reports have the dolphins only numbering 100 and decreasing every year. We headed out in one of the official longboats for viewing. The area where the dolphins hang out has been closed off to local boat traffic. We waited a short time before seeing our first dolphin come up for air. It was brief but great to see the wee river dwellers up close. Let’s hope they have a burst of breeding and we see more !
The Cambodian trucks can be pretty basic...
Crockery is sold by mobile shops like this
The road to the border with Laos was well signposted and we arrived at some surprisingly small wooden sheds on either side of the barrier poles (weighted down with a few rocks). US$1 secured our passage through to the next hut where the officials were snoozing in hammocks out the back. The right fellow was found to stamp the Carnet and we were through, this in-spite of the fact that the carnet isn’t officially recognised by Laos.
And that ended our journey through Cambodia – where the locals either live in makeshift huts or drive a Lexus. There doesn’t seem to be much in between.
Floating houses on the Mekong
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A frenchman, who true to the name of his business – had no idea why he decided to lie on the couch […….