kratie. Cambodia. february 3rd – 5th. 2009

We catch and early morning bus to Kratie from the front of our hotel. The search for a hotel, setting in, food. It is far more ‘tourist’ orientated here, but small. We wander a market, catch sunset on the Mekong (across from our hotel!) and chill in our room. Stephen is still recovering from the later part of Laos, so we wait a day to venture out. I am excited about Krolan, a vegan ‘snack’ we read about in the Cambodian Mekong booklet we picked up in Laos. We decided to rent bikes and ride out to take our chances with spotting the dolphins again. It is a good choice, we have a really nice, if long and sweaty bike ride to see the dolphins even closer this time. We lounge in the shade afterwards, watching them from shore and enjoying a quiet afternoon together. I gave up on trying to catch a photo of the dolphins, and just simply watch them play. And for ‘Krolan’ Yummy! picked some up on our ride here and recognized the woman I bought it from as the woman picture selling it in our book! Unable to communicate, I pull out the booklet and show her the photo, which she had very obviously never seen before! Then she tries to offer us money for the book, which we picked up for free from the Cambodian embassy in Laos, (I of course give her the copy and refuse her money. It is sad that the government, who gives the booklet away never even showed her the book and her picture, much less provided her with even one copy) it would be interesting to know if my interference had any impact either positive or negative. We ride back to Kratie and do a quick ‘tour’ of town before catching sunset and returning the bikes. Tomorrow we head to Phnom Penh, the largest city we have been in since Kunming, not sure what to expect.

our kratie photos on flickr

w r i t t e n  b y  l a u r e l