After arriving back in Phnom Penh we spent another day in town and took the chance to visit the central market which had been closed in the most part over the Tet period; it's a real giant, when you enter the domed roof resembles a church - a mecca of shopping and bartering. The four 'wings' branch out at diagonals and we took a good 2 hours to weave around the X shaped labyrinth. Also that evening was the night market, complete with a stage and pop-acts entertaining the shoppers.
Next day we loaded onto the bus early, uncertain of how long the journey ahead would take.. We assumed around 4-6 hours, how wrong we were. Ten full hours later we arrived in Kratie and avoiding the usual throng of tuk drivers offering to take us to their respective hotels and headed off to find the guesthouse we had found to appear least offensive. We didn't find it so went for a second choice and were met at reception by one of the drivers from the bus stop.
We spent the first day plodding around town and finding where to eat, plus beginning to plan for heading up river to see the Irawaddy dolphins.
Next day we went to the island in the middle of the Mekong 'Sala Koh Trong' which cost an admirable 50c for a return.. This was a real treat, Cambodia has been full of wonderfully bright and cheerful people so far, but here there's an incredible 'joie de vivre' captured and indistinguishable. We'd rented bikes for a dollar a piece to ride round, heading first to the southern tip where one of the islands three Wats was, and a fishing village out of sight from the mainland. As we left to head back up a local lady who had been on the boat over with us called out, telling us to wait while she ran in and collected her English text book to ask us a question, so we spent some time running over her weeks exercise before heading on. Next to take a tumble with the tourists was a bunch of 5 kids, some jumping on the backs of our bikes to go for a ride with us - soon after one lad jumped on a moving moped, don't know where he ended up!!
Transport on the island is mostly down to walking unless you're lucky enough to have a moped, but heavier transport relied upon either horse and cart or Oxon; with rice fields taking up the majority of the land behind the road this was a real rural community and a privilege to visit.
We woke early the next day to set off on our trip we'd booked the night before through a company offering some kind of benefit to the community rather than an individuals pocket. First stop was Sambor around 45km away, home to the 100 Pillar Pagoda and the Mekong Turtle Conservation Centre where they're encouraging the conservation of the Cantor giant soft shelled turtles - if a local finds a nest along the river they receive $200 and equipment to protect and encourage their survival. The numbers suggest this seems to be working so a positive future for them, which is cool as they were beautiful little things; the shells were so soft as to bend upon touch.. The building is in the grounds of the Pagoda which alone is beautiful, though by this time we were so hot that the shade was more important to us.
We soon set off back South toward Kampi to see the dolphins, it was a great journey both directions, getting to see the daily life of the various households and villages straddling the roads - from kids riding buffalo for herding to families swinging their children in hammocks or tending to their land, house or fire. When we arrived we got our ticket and set off almost straight away in a small boat and immediately we saw our first. A few odd ones popped up a number of times - one so close as to be able to see its whole face before disappearing again - before another boat joined us, it's initial motor use leaving us scanning the horizon. We went off on a 'route' which didn't really show us much bar the flow of the river, so we moved back to the start point. Here the dolphins were back and we got several more opportunities to see and attempt to photograph them.. There was a family of around 6-7 and two or three lone rangers and with two other boats floating round our driver cunningly stayed back as they shepherded them in our direction!! We were there well over our hour long ticket; it would appear everyone's taken in by them. Arriving back on the bank I took one last look back and saw one leaping out of the water and crashing down, they'd seemed quite subdued so to see that reassured me that these magnificent creatures were happy enough..
So, after a long day we got back and packed up ready to leave the next morning - the whole time avoiding the tuk driver who'd been determined enough to sell us a tour as to knock on our door very early one morning (not a sales pitch i'd advise anyone) and every evening after asking our plan for the following day.. Time for the 10 hour journey back.
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