Irrawaddy Dolphins

The boat to Kratie was our first express boat. We had booked them before but they were never express. This even looked like the boat on the ticket. The ride was fast, smooth and relaxing.

At Kratie we were immediately hassled by hotel staff, before we were off of the boat. They were relentless and all had the same spiel. Kel almost lost it as they were physically pulling her arm to get her attention. We looked at a couple and then decided on the blsadcnafcb hotel (we still don't know the name). We had some lunch and then bargained with some moto drivers to take us 15kms up the Mekong river to see the Irrawaddy dolphins. It was a nice ride out there following the river and riding through villages and farmland.

A guide greeted us and led us to the desk where we filled out our names and country in their record book. He tried to sell his services as a guide. He said the money goes towards cleaning up the area and educating the locals about the conservation of the dolphins but we still didn't need to pay for him to point out dolphins. We went down to the boat and met the captain who was about 13. We had the boat to ourselves and motored about 50 meters to the middle of the river where there is a sectioned off area to protect the dolphins. We dropped anchor and floated around for 40 minutes. The dolphins are an endangered fresh water species found in small numbers along the Mekong in maybe 4 countries. They look like small Pilot Whales with a rounded head and a small dorsal fin and are grey in colour. We watched a few small groups of Dolphins swim back and forth across the river about 30 metres from our boat. One or two were flipping fish around with their tails but they were pretty docile most of the time. One group of about 4 looked to have a baby amongst them. Another boat pulled up next to us and the even younger captain tied his boat to ours and the captains chatted for a bit. We watched in horror as the young captain cleaned his boat and threw a few plastic water bottles into the river. I said to them to get the bottles, they said no and signalled that the river will wash them away. We were mad but the blame could only be extended so far because this is what they know. Heading back to shore we had our closest encounter with a dolphin that was about 10 metres away. We mentioned to the guide that he needs to start with the boat drivers to clean up the area. We were disappointed that he just laughed and we were glad that we hadn't paid him any money.

After a few beers back in Kratie we showered, and had some more beer watching a beautiful sunset over the river. We had some dinner and went to bed for an early start in the morning to catch the bus to Phnom Penh.