Due to the Khmer New Year, bus services were limited and so we had to leave Phnom Penh for Kratié a day earlier than we had meant to. We travelled by regular long distance bus as there were no VIP or minibuses running. It took 8 hours but we finally got there. 4 stops were made for bio breaks, 2 at service stations and 2 just in the fields! We passed lots of paddy fields but on the higher ground there were a lot of rubber plantations and pepper plants. By the side of the road you could see lots of pepper seeds on what looked like bedsheets drying in the sun.

It took us an hour to leave the city before the scene became more rural. There were fewer security compounds around properties, fences changed to simple ones designed to keep cows in or out.

As we went North, the houses looked more like traditional stilt houses. The mainly square stilts (harder for snakes to climb apparently) were 2-3m high so that the living quarters were a long way above the ground. We had read that when Pol Pot drove the city dwellers into the country and more village houses were needed, that these traditional stilt houses were frowned upon. New houses were built on the ground and set out in regular patterns. The traditional Khmer style of a twisty path to the front door of the  house to baffle evil spirits was frowned upon. We did see a variety of housing but only one area where they were laid out like a housing estate. Some of the houses were made of wood, beautifully polished inside. Little furniture was visible but then they don’t use dining room table and chairs; choosing to sit on the floor for their meals instead and only a very few use bed frames.

We wanted to be in Cambodia for Khmer New Year and thought that we may see celebrations if we stayed in a small town for the 3 day festival. Day 1 involves cleaning the house and religious events. Day 2 is about games and day 3 involves water guns. Most of the activities centre around the local pagodas.

We thought Kratié might just fit the bill: it was on our way North towards Laos and it was also an excellent site for trying to spot the rare Irrawaddy dolphin. The town is built on the bank of the enormous Mekong river. We had met the Mekong at its delta in Vietnam and in Phnom Penh. Here we were, 400 miles upstream and it didn’t seem to have got a lot smaller. (Admittedly at the delta we saw only 1 of the 5 Mekong branches flowing seawards).

Friday 13th proved a lucky day for us, for although there were no buses and we had to travel a day earlier it meant that we could do the last dolphin tour running before new year. This was a kayak trip down the Mekong of around 12km including a swim, a paddle through the flooded forest and an opportunity to glimpse the dolphins. The half day tour run by Soryakayaking.com started with coffee and hot pumpkin bread at a horrible 7am. We got the free River Dolphin hotel tuk tuk and arrived well on time to find that there would only be 3 of us on the tour. It was fantastic. Vanessa was relieved when she realised that we wouldn’t have to paddle back upstream. The kayaking on its own was a great trip but add to that we saw 10% of the worlds population of Irrawaddy dolphins (there are only 90 left, although there has been some successful births recently). How lucky we were. Phil though managed to mostly get lots of video footage and photos of river water!

Our hotel was one of only 2 in Kratié with a swimming pool. We retired there for the afternoon to catch up with our blogs (hope you’re enjoying them!) and found that the hotel suddenly filled up with English teachers! There were 2 work away places nearby and the staff were allowed to use the hotel facilities in return for helping the community learn English. One group worked with the monks (well, 8 year old boys in orange monk garb) and another helped a school set up by a local dad to help the children learn for free. Tash and Nathan have been using work away placements on their travels so it was interesting to talk to someone vetting and organising people to work in the school.

During the morning we had a wander around the village, sort of looking for the Dolphin School where the teachers we had met worked. We didn’t find the school but really enjoyed our wandering looking at all the different levels of living standards. Phil was trying to buy a Cambodian t-shirt but in the few shops we tried, they shook their heads, “too big for shirt in Cambodia”!

After Phil’s successful haircut in Siem Reap, Vanessa decided to risk it.  She had last had her hair cut in the USA, 4 months ago and it was getting pretty desperate. It wasn’t too bad and included a razor tidy of eye brows (scary!), all for the princely sum of $1.25!

The River Dolphin hotel is incredibly friendly. 2 of the staff offered to take all of us (work away youngsters and ourselves) to the island in the Mekong opposite the town. You cross by ferry and then you can hire a bike to pedal round the island. The girls looked after our group of 9 really well, when we stopped for a sugar cane drink they had even brought fried banana for us. The beach by the ferry had been set up as a resort swimming area with chill out huts and a variety of food and drink vendors. There was an armed police presence in case of trouble; “fights” the girls explained. We think this would be alcohol led as there were a lot of young locals celebrating the new year. It looked a fun family place at 5pm but it might get a bit rowdier later.

We did wander over to the local pagoda later in the evening to see what all the loud music was about. There was a lovely “Christmas” tree with lights on and a few 3 year olds dancing. We left them to it, perhaps more adults joined later in the evening but we felt sleep was more attractive!

The following morning, our lovely 17 year old waitress invited us to her house for New Year food when she had finished work at 2pm, a wonderful offer which we quickly accepted. That left the morning free to go to the market but there were still no shirts to fit Phil! Sapouna met us at the hotel with a tuk tuk, we had no real idea of what was planned. It was a lovely meal in the courtyard of her family complex of 4 houses. 5 or 6 other members of the hotel staff were there and a few cousins/sisters/ brothers (the extended family were so close that we couldn’t work out relationships) with her mother joining us later on. She also showed us around her house and her grandmother’s which was interesting.

Dancing was the order of the day and we think we provided the entertainment by joining in a form of  Cambodian line dancing (badly! 🤣🤣) and teaching them some sort of Macarena moves (remember that song? But we couldn’t remember the moves so we made up some new ones).  Plenty of beer was drunk, but very much diluted with ice, with each sip needing a “chull moy ” or cheers! A couple of her uncles joined us and one particularly enjoyed showing Phil the dance moves. A beautiful cake arrived, it was the first anniversary of a friend with her boyfriend – aah. The candles were lit, photos taken and then the cake shared out. (We had learnt though that in Cambodia the girl’s family requires the boy to pay money or goods to them if they want to marry so relationships may not always have a happy result).

Unfortunately we had just said that we should leave them to it when Sapouna said they were about to go to the pagoda. Her uncle had already offered to drive us back so that was the course we felt we had to follow. We would have liked to go on with the girls. However, we found out which was her pagoda so after a shower and a cool off (doing the Macarena at 40C all afternoon left us a trifle hot!) we made our way over there. The new year games and festivities are based in the pagodas; they have a large safe outdoor areas. We couldn’t find any of our party friends but we watched a bit of dancing and then a quite dangerous form of blind mans bluff: the blindfolded person was spun around, given a tough 2m long stick to swing with some force at clay pots suspended 3m above our heads – don’t get in the way 🤕!

Although Kratié seemed to have no more to offer, we told our waitress friends the following morning that we were going exploring. They all looked exhausted and we didn’t want them to feel that they had to take us anywhere. We did have to explain the word exploring, even then we don’t think they understood the concept! We persuaded them to rent us a motorbike, they weren’t very happy as the roads are in a bad state and they are particularly busy with whole families on trucks, pick up vans and motor bikes heading to the local resort at Kampi. We went as far as the dolphin pool (c 12km) and decided that we agreed with the hotel that it wasn’t a lot of fun. However we were able to spot some more Irrawaddy dolphins while drinking coffee with a river view.

We bounced our way back through Kratié to see what was at the other end of the town. There were more provincial government buildings but as they didn’t rock our boat we headed back to the hotel and the much needed refreshment of the pool. We returned the bike after having been out for a whole 3 hours! The rest of the day was mega lazy, lounging by the pool, chatting to people and reading.

This was the last day of the New Year and supposedly our last in Cambodia (read the next blog to understand that comment). The third day of New Year celebrations should be water fights and more games. We had felt though that this festival was the time that families got together more than just getting involved in organised games; though the youngsters were clearly enjoying themselves. In many regards it’s no different from our Christmas celebrations;  Christmas Eve maybe going to church, Christmas Day the family getting together and having some fun and Boxing Day all going out maybe to watch a game (football, rugby and so on) or to go for a walk.

Although there was apparently some things happening at the pagoda that night we decided that we had experienced the festivities and it was an evening for enjoying our last Cambodian food – the hotel chefs were very good!

We’re finishing the blog in the pool area of the River Dolphin Hotel. They tell us they have bought us a bus ticket to Don Det – here’s hoping! Our next adventure awaits us in Laos.