Kratie

Today, I did a Meekong river kayak tour in hopes of seeing some dolphins. The dolphins we were looking for are called Irrawaddy river dolphins. They're only found in three rivers: the Irrawaddy, the Mahakam and the Mekong in Myanmar, Indonesia and Cambodia. There's thought to be as little as 300 left, making them critically endangered. Approximately 90-100 individuals live in Cambodia, most of which reside in the section of the river we were heading to this afternoon.
I met up with the Aussie guy and a German guy at the hostel they were staying at. We met our guide, then hopped into the back of a pickup truck. We sat on a bench pushed to one side of the trailer, the other side was stacked up with kayaks. The road safety here is next to nothing, which is always very entertaining.
We drove for about 25 minutes along bumpy dirt roads, following the river for the majority of the way before getting into our kayaks and making our way across the river. Luckily I was in a two-person kayak so it wasn't too much hard work. We paddled for about 45 minutes before stopping on a sand island in the middle of an off-section of the river. We were told we go swimming here. The two boys jumped straight in, however I was a bit hesitant as the water was mud brown. But I was reminded 'how often are you going to get a chance to swim in the Meekong', and cautiously got in, making sure not to put my head under or swallow any water 😅 it was so warm, almost like bath water which was surprisingly for such a large body of moving water. We were a bit sheltered by the island so the current wasn't too strong, but I still didn't expect it to be so nice.
Our guide Ben, gave us snacks called Kralan, which were big shoots of bamboo that you had to break into, then peel the bamboo like a banana. Inside was slightly sweet sticky rice and soy beans. It wasn't particularly flavourful, but a good refuelling snack. There's different varieties of it across parts of southeast Asia, but I hadn't tried any before, and this was a version particular to Kratie.
With a spring in our step, we clambered back into our kayaks and paddled another 40 or so minutes through a floating forest, into a very wide section of the river. Along the way, we passed quite a few fishermen in tiny slender boats, tossing out nets and waving as they zoomed past us.
We finally reached a stretch of river maybe 200m wide. Ben told us to listen out for a puff of air, like air escaping from a tire really quickly. This was the sound of the dolphins resurfacing for air and water from the blowhole. It wasn't long before I spotted some in the distance, and we paddled over. They're known for being very shy animals, unlike some dolphins who jump besides boats and play around, these guys are much more introverted.
We didn't want to paddle too frantically and scare them, but at the same time, they moved so fast it was hard to keep up or predict their movements. At some points it felt like they were playing with us and swimming around us in circles which was funny. You would hear a burst of air and turn around, but by then the dolphin had disappeared!
We did have one surface 2m infront of our boat. These dolphins are so funny looking, they don't have a long nose like other dolphins, instead a very round face and they look like they're constantly smiling.
We mostly saw fins and tails and backs, normally 5m at the closest. It didn't really matter that we didn't get very close though, it was so calm out on the river, the sun was starting to set so the water was dappled in golden light, and was just a really lovely experience. Also pretty amazing to see such an interesting animal, which unfortunately there are so few of!
After maybe an hour of paddling around after the dolphins, we went back to shore and back on the pickup for a longer ride back to the hostel.
After some beers and food, headed for an early-ish night. Turns out even in a two-person kayak, 4 hours of paddling is pretty tiring 🤣Les mer