Wanderlust Bug: Kratie and the Irrawaddy dolphins

During my time in Phnom Penh, I’ve changed my travel plans – my initial intention was to go south to the famous beach of Sihanoukville, maybe hit an island or two, and then visit Kampot and Kep. However, I had received several reports from other travelers that said the beaches were nice but nothing special, and there was not much to see beyond them anyway. I was moderately interested in checking out the old French hill station on the Bokor mountain near Kampot, but it was a 2-star destination at the best. I still had all of Laos and north Thailand to check in the 20 days I had left before having to return to Bangkok to catch my flight to Myanmar, so I decided to skip the beaches altogether and head north to Kratie and then continue to Laos. I figured out I would have many more fantastic beaches ahead of me in south Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam anyway.

So I arranged my bus to Kratie, a city that is famous only for being at the margins of the Mekong, and on the best location to spot the rare Irrawady freshwater dolphins – a cousin of our pink-colored Amazon river dolphins in Brazil. Only around 100 of them remain in the Mekong, and the species is highly endangered.

After 8 hours on the bus, I arrived in Kratie (pronounced Kra-cheh). I was AMAZED! This such a beautiful, modern, fantastic, heavenly city and… just kidding – there’s nothing to see in Kratie but the dolphins, and those are 15km away. At least there’s a pretty riverside.

I intended to stay in Kratie as little time as possible. Luckily, I found a guesthouse with a helpful receptionist, and within 10 minutes of arriving I had arranged my bus to Laos next morning and was on my way to see the dolphins.

Never got to know his name - he'll always be Michael Jackson to me.

Happy tuk-tuk riding

Upon arriving to the spot I got into my boat and went hunting for the animals, camera in hand. Despite the fact that I was already past 4 pm, the sun was high and the heat was extreme.

Within a shorter time than I expected, we started seeing the dolphins all around us. They are really beautiful creatures – you usually hear their sprays when they surface to breathe, and some seconds later you can see them going up and diving again. I only got two mentionable pics of them – they are very fast, and my camera doesn’t have an instant shooting function anyway. Here are my pics, and also some good photos of what they look like from the internet:

You can also see other things but dolphins in the Mekong – what about a boat full of boy-monks? They were avidly taking pictures with their cell phones. All in all, it was a pleasant afternoon, with a little bit of lazing on the river after the dolphins got tired of us.