Irrawaddy Dolphins

Hi all

Today we travelled up from PP to Kratie (pronounced kra-cheh) which is a lovely riverside town in the northern part of Cambodia and it is alleged some of the best Mekong sunsets in Cambodia. There is a rich legacy of French-era architecture, as it was spared the war-time bombing that destroyed so many other provincial centres. It was one of the first towns to be ‘liberated’ by the Khmer Rouge (actually it was the North Vietnamese, but the Khmer Rouge later took the credit) in the summer of 1970.

The journey up was uneventful, but proved to us that Khmers  are all deaf and have to be entertained at the highest volume... Even with my earplugs in my eardrums still hurt! Thankfully this torture was over within 7 hours and we gratefully found our hotel for some R&R. Oh no that was to not to be. Our friendly guesthouse owner had all our activities planned and actioned before we had even finished registering!. So within 20 mins of arriving we were off to Kampi about 16km north of Kratie to see one of the small remaining pods of Fresh Irrawaddy Dolphins left on the Mekong.
Unlike the more common dolphins this critically endangered species have no snouts, so they look more like Orca's than dolphins. The number of Irrawaddy has decreased dramatically in the last few decades because they were hunted for their oil during the Pol Pot regime and locals used dynamite fishing (throwing grenades - how charming) to catch them. We went out to the middle of the mighty Mekong river where the boat drivers switched off their engines and before long the dolphins appeared on the surface of their feeding ground. Now, these dolphins were not the kind that jump out of the water in high loops as you would find at Disney world. They simply came up every now and then for a quick intake of air. Too short and far away to take good pictures, but long and close enough to clearly see them.The photo above is a cheat from the www as we really struggled to catch them on camera  The closest ones were less than  20 feet from the boat, but the whole experience was magical and finished off with the Tuk Tuk driver taking us to Sambok Wat which is perched on top of a hill and we watched the ruby red sun descend over the Mekong just as we got to the top. It has to be the best sunset to date. Although we haven't seem many due to the fact we are in rainy season.

We also had a a great local Khmer meal of spicy curry (me) and Dean had a Loc Lac a local dish which is a spicy beef casserole with Lemongrass & Chips!!!

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara