Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of my blog, this week from Kratie (pronounced Kracheh), Cambodia. I am currently over in the east of Cambodia near its borders with Laos and Vietnam. Being out east is a relief from the heat and bustle of Phnom Penh. Life progresses at a slow speed here. As I write I can look across the road to see the waters of the Mekong river flowing by, more on that later. This past week I have been kayaking, hiking and swimming in beautiful natural surroundings- it can be a hard life sometimes(!). As an update to last week, all technical issues seem to be resolved, hopefully that is that for the time being. So, without further delay, here is what I have been up to over the past week.
Travelling up from Phnom Penh took a winding seven hours, winding because the bus seemed to stop everywhere! The journey entailed a mix of sealed and unsealed roads, wooden bridges and vicious potholes. Something I have noticed since my last visit is improvements in infrastructure. At many sites along the route there were new surfaces being laid, bridges upgraded and potholes being filled. Much in the news at the moment here is the creation of a rail link across the Cambodian/Thai border. Cambodia’s trade deficit is very high, so anything to help that has got to be a good thing. Once I had arrived in Kratie I could begin to plan my time here. Visiting in the wet season means the river is in flood. This sometimes means activities are changed or different to those in other seasons. The river currently covers a lot of islands in it’s channel which, obviosuly, I wasn’t able to visit. On the plus side, there were other experiences to be had.
One of the stand-out experiences of this week, and possibly a highlight of the entire trip was kayaking with Irrawaddy River Dolphins. I set off on a morning tour hoping for a glimpse of these rare animals. Whilst floating in some slack water, a pod of five dolphins came within a metre or so of the kayak. I was so close I could almost reach out and touch them! Being without an engine must have relaxed them enough to approach us. I don’t think the tour boats on the other side of river got that close. Even the guide with me said that being so close was unusual. Just to sit and watch them was an experience I won’t forget. There were calves in the pod too which I particularly enjoyed seeing. My camera being very much not waterproof, I decided to not take it just in case of capsize. As a result I did not record the river dolphins but sometimes just to have the memory is good enough. I think, in this situation, you will just have to imagine!
After that experience, I headed further north-east to the town of Banlung. Although a provincial capital the town is pretty small, the previous capital being chosen by the Khmer Rouge. This area is the non-tourist, unsanitised part of Cambodia. Most tourists visiting the country stay within a relatively narrow corridor which includes Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Tonle Sap (a freshwater lake). I enjoyed having fewer foreigners around too, just to take a break from that for awhile. Often a staging post for people heading across the border to Vietnam, the Banlung has plenty to offer. Lakes, waterfalls and the jungles of Virachey National Park offer lots of natural beauty. Lake Yeak Laom formed in the cone of an extinct volcano, producing a circular shape. Due to the work of the reserve, unlike many bodies of water in Cambodia, the water is clean(ish) and litter-free. I enjoyed a swim in the waters of the lake, a good antidote to the heat of the afternoon. Hiring a motorbike, I also visited a good number of waterfalls on the tributaries of the Mekong.
After spending a couple of days in Banlung, I headed back to Kratie to break up the westward journey into two sections. The journey was much as I described above, with the addition of heavy rain to the mix. I will be heading soon to Kampong Cham, before heading north-west to Siem Reap. Back to the land of tourists again. I have enjoyed my time in the south-east of the country very much and would recommend anyone to visit. Next week, as mentioned, I will be in Siem Reap with history, temples and lakes on the mind. Until then you can follow my Twitter feed, and my black pudding cravings, with the handle @mrlukeniktravel. Similarly, for photos my account on Instagram is @mrlukeniktravels. For an email of each and every blog post, sign up to the mailing list using the subscribe button below. From now until next time, as always, stay safe and travel on!
P.S. The title for this week’s blog comes from the proliferation of Ed Sheeran songs on mixtapes in Cambodia. Also popular are Shawn mendes and Justin Bieber…who knew?! Yet another difference from my visit here in 2013.