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.

On the shore, I even played a little with the monks. They’re monks, but they are still children, and love to play once you break their shyness…

After that I took my tuk-tuk back to Kratie, where the Mekong gave me a beautiful sunset to close the day!

It was so nice to meet you Cambodia! Next stop: the Four Thousand Islands, in Laos!

The Wonders of Angkor Wat (and Siem Reap)

After spending a full 10 days in Bangkok, I finally left that great city, heading for mysterious Cambodia. My first destination was Siem Reap, a city known only for being close to the magnificent complex of ancient temples that includes Angkor Wat. I took a train from Bangkok’s Hualamphong station to the city o Aranyaprathed, 6km away from the Thai-Cambodian border. God, it was good to hit the road again.

During the 6-hour-long train ride, I had the pleasure of meeting some great new friends: Matt and Andrew from Canada, Ryan from the UK and Marlous from the Netherlands. We had a great time talking on the train, and decided to stick together until Siem Reap.

Andrew, Marlous and a curious monk

In Aranyaprathed we took tuk-tuks until the border. OF COURSE they tried to scam us leading us to fake visa offices. Luckily, we were aware of this age-old trick and demanded to be taken directly to the Thai immigration office. It was so incredibly hot, but after a little waiting and stamping, we crossed to Poipet, in Cambodia.

My first date with lady Cambodia - she is SURELY HOT!

Poipet has nothing but big casinos where Thai people go to gamble and people try to squeeze money out of tourists. We decided to avoid the “official” bus rides with “free” shuttles, and that earned us a nightmarish half-hour trying to find some transport. We finally found a minivan willing to take us all for a reasonable price. The catch: the driver had a table to deliver to somebody in Poipet and was still waiting for said somebody. His estimated 5 minutes quickly became 30, and we baked our souls to hell inside the van. Take a look at our misery:

The damn owner of the damn table finally arrived and we were on our way. Finally reaching Siem Reap, we had reservations in different hostels. The rest of the day was just about getting settled, having a well-deserved cold shower, meeting up for dinner, and planning the next day: next morning we were to watch sunrise at Angkor Wat, and I could barely hold my excitement. Visiting Angkor Wat was an old dream of mine, from history lessons and from playing Civilization. An hour before sunrise I met Matt, Andrew and Ryan (Marlous went with another friend) and we took our tuk-tuk to the temples.

Angkor Wat starts to impress you long before you first set sights on the ruins. For starters, the main temple is surrounded by a giant moat 1024 x 802 meters long and 190m wide. It’s mind-numbing just to imagine how much work and effort an ancient civilization had to build just that.

We entered the temple grounds and joined the hundreds of other tourists waiting for the sun. Although pretty, the sunrise was less impressive than I anticipated, a little too cloudy and too crowded. Still, beautiful pics.

As the day cleared, we got our first glimpse of the great structure itself:

This time, we decided NOT to join the crowds and go take a look at the rest of the complex first, and come back during a less crowded time to check Angkor Wat. Back to the tuk-tuk, we entered the magnificent complex.

Our first stop was a damn-expensive hut-restaurant. The great thing about this place is that you are surrounded by nature and ruins EVERYWHERE. So while waiting for the food we fooled around through some of them…

Levitating in 3... 2... 1...

After that we headed to Bayon, the biggest structure in the complex after Angkor Wat itself, known for its over 200 stone faces.

Front view of Bayon

Bayon’s carvings

Then we got close to the stone faces. They “officially” represent Lokesvara, one of the most famous bodhisattvas. However, the faces are said to rather resemble the king who ordered them built, to create the feeling that the king is always present, always watching. Indeed, there’s always one of them looking at you, wherever you may be in the temple.

Between a temple and another, a flash of the modern times we live in:

I don't have him on Facebook :(

After that, we checked the Baphuon temple, which has an interesting story. In the mid-20^th century, many of the 12^th century temples had collapsed. A massive archeological effort was launched to rebuild them in 1960s, which had categorized the original positions of the stones around the temple. When the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, these documents were lost. Many international teams work at the site today, literally trying to figure out the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle.

The walkway to Baphuon

The pieces of the puzzle

Our last stop was to be one of the temples used in the movie Tomb Raider movie. On the way there, we stopped from time to time to take pictures of impressive things around us.

The hall of elephants

The hall of elephants

Reaching that one required some walking in the jungle. That part of the complex has been badly damaged by the trees. One of the species here can reach up to more than 50m high. Its roots creep their way between the temple’s stones and literally crumble them from within.

It’s good to be considered small next to someone, sometimes…

The restoration work conducted there by the international teams is really, really impressive. Some signs show before-and-after pictures:

The reconstructed hall

And so, in the hottest of the day, it was time for the Gran Finale. Back we went to Angkor Wat. Seeing it in full light is every bit as astonishing as at dawn.

Climbing up the thing

The King of Angkor Wat

Me, Matt, Andrew and Ryan making four fools out of ourselves

And thus our exploration of the Angkor complex came to an end. Few places on Earth, if any, are capable of getting you utterly mind-boggled as this one. Even though I was glad to get out of the scorching heat, it was not without some grief that I looked at Angkor Wat for the last time. In my heart it entered the very exclusive hall of the things one has to see before dying, right there along with the Taj Mahal and the Himalayan mountains.

After getting back to Siem Reap and resting a bit, we met again for dinner and drinks in Pub Street, which well deserves its name.

Marlous was leaving the next morning, and I ended up not meeting any of my newfound friends anymore – Matt and Andrew turned back to Thailand and then headed to Laos, and I left for Phnom Penh before Ryan. We had a joint toast, however:

As if we hadn’t have enough for the day, we found a great place in Siem Reap lively nightlife. I was taught a great drinking game (Brazilians, brace yourselves) and we had a crazy and wild night! But that’s another tale…

Cheers!