Cambodia part 2: Kratie
Day 3: 24th Feb, 2014
Had to get up before the rooster did again today to catch the bus to Kratie. We got packed into a tiny van at first which was pretty scary as the journey was supposed to be about 8–10 hours!!
Thankfully it was only a feeder van and we were shuttled into a waiting bus. I was happy at first that the bus seemed empty but that turned out to be very naive of me. The driver made countless stops to pick up tourists and even locals (who obviously had not made any bookings).
Talking a bit to the other backpackers in the bus we found out that we were all heading in different directions. Some were headed to Kratie like I was but some were headed to Laos and Ho Chi Minh, so we gathered that there would be bus changes later on.
This happened at Kampong Cham where we changed from the dingy bus to a dingy van instead. Thankfully this part of the journey was only three hours and the roads from Kampong Cham to Kratie were surfaced, which meant a much smoother ride. The van didn’t have any air conditioning though (!)
Not a very good photo but I had to sit at the back with the baggage — I considered myself lucky though as one dude had to sit on a seat with no backrest!
I’d thought I’d had a good glimpse of rural Cambodian life yesterday but what I saw today was more “raw”.
Oh and Cambodians outside the urban areas don’t speak much English and they use their local currency the riel a lot more too.
Was very glad when we finally arrived in Kratie. There was a minor ruckus because some dude had left his ticket on the bus and we had not been told they would check the tickets again at the end of the trip. Tried to help him by translating his Aussie drawl into SEA-speak.
HE LEFT TICKET ON BUS. YOU NO TELL KEEP TICKET
Decided to treat myself to a private room instead of a shared one this time around. Since Kratie is pretty out of the way this only costed me $7 anyway when a shared dorm in SR had been $5. Rented a bike for $1 to explore the town a little as well.
Been getting a lot of followers after @timothytiah pimped me in his blog yesterday so felt pressures to write more today wtf! But very tired now so that’s all for today!
Day 4: 25th Feb, 2014
Phnom Sambok
Had nothing planned for the morning so I decided to head to Phnom Sambok which wikitravel said was “1 hrs cycling at a leisurely pace … Head north … Just look out for the hill”.
The hill is only 100m though — Phnom Sambok actually means “Mount Sambok” but apparently there is no word for “hill” in Cambodian.
I very nearly missed it though save for some serendipity. A tuktuk carrying tourists passed me JUST AS I was passing the turn to Phnom Sambok and the dude beckoned to me. “Temple!”
The place is actually a monastery. I found this sign funny
A whole lot of stairs up the hill. There wasn’t much to see though. I could see that there was a view that would have looked awesome during sunset and especially in wet season but at the time it was a scorching sun over paddy fields and dried up trees everywhere!
This is Ti, the tuktuk driver who pointed me in the right direction earlier. He could see I was a bit tired and sliced some mango for me and also tried to arm wrestle me wtf.
After I took this he whipped out his own old Nokia phone and took a pic framed exactly like this in one try. I could never do that without a front facing camera. He also mentioned he has Facebook but oklah too soon wtf
Next up was the highlight of my trip to Kratie — a kayaking tour to see the Mekong river and the rare Irrawaddy river dolphins.
It was a three and a half hour journey. It was the dry season so there weren’t many strong currents to help us along. It got easier as I settled into the rhythm though.
There were stone pillars like these all over the Mekong. The French planted them to mark the deepest parts of the channel for possible trade ship routes.
These are fig trees, which grow on top of other trees. You can see where the water reaches up to in wet season — the water can reach 15m higher in some parts!
The last part of the journey was spent drifting in the area where the Irrawaddy dolphins usually hang out.
It was still mid-afternoon which meant that the motorized boats taking tourists out to the area hadn’t come out yet, so we managed to “sneak up” on the dolphins and saw quite a few. One even obligingly did a backflip near me which my guide Suzanna commented was pretty rare. River dolphins are hipster so they don’t anyhow layan you like the mainstream dolphins.
I tried to take pics/vids but it was too hard to line up the shots so you’ll just have to believe my story!
Eh shit sidetrack a bit because I got my post order wrong and lazy to delete. We stopped here halfway through and had some Cambodian lemang (I can’t remember the exact name of this) as a snack.
This is Suzanna who operates Sorya Kayaking Adventures. I happened to be the only person on this tour today so I had her undivided attention!
She moved from Oklahoma to Cambodia a couple years back to try something new. Kayaking has always been a hobby for her so she figured a business in Kratie would lure travellers to stay more than a day here. She mapped out her routes (different depending on whether it is the dry or rainy season) and set up a kayaking business.
She says she rarely has Malaysian or Singaporean tourists, so pioneer points for me!
After two hours of cycling and more than three hours of kayaking I’m so hungry now I could eat a horse. I still rushed through my shower though so I could catch another sunset in Kratie. I doubt Phnom Penh will have views like this.
With its large riverside sidewalks, colonial buildings and laid back feel, Kratie reminds me a lot of Gurney Drive back before Gurney Plaza went up.
Day 5: 26th Feb, 2014
Would u rather take a 4.5hr crowded van ride that is uncomfortable or an 8hr bus ride that is more comfortable?
My logic was that I would be so sleepy at this hour that the 4h would pass by quickly anyway. And every other tourist would feel the same.
Here I am now tho in a cramped van with 18 other very animated Cambodians and I’m not so sleepy after all 😱
Got a welcome to Phnom Penh by getting a motorbike driver try to cheat me — he asked for $5 after a 10m trip!
Cabbies here seem to speak less English than their Siem Reap counterparts oddly. Gonna make it hard to get around if this keeps up
On the plus side the place where I’m staying seems nice (Camory Backpacker Hostel). $12 for a dorm bed sounds high at first but it comes with free breakfast and AC (I haven’t slept with AC since I got here!). Toilets look good too and the bunk beds are solid (important so you can clamber up/down easily and tossing and turning doesnt annoy others).
The main reason I chose it though is because the riverside is near the Palace , as well as many eateries and amenities. Traffic is bad here so I don’t think I’ll rent a bike.
Wat Phnom
This giant clock in front of Wat Phnom was pretty cool. The second hand revolves visibly.
This… Not so cool. So apparently there’s this Buddhist rite that says freeing a caged sparrow is a good thing.
Somewhere along the way this became “let’s capture hundreds of sparrows and keep them in tiny dirty cages so people can pay to free them for the novelty”. Barbaric!
KOed for most of the afternoon after that short walk as it was just too hot.
In the evening I walked out a but to explore the city and had dinner at a coffeeshop.
After that I met up with an old Sunday School teacher Uncle Joo Chong. He moved to Cambodia 5+ years ago to work with World Vision. He took me on a tour of the city. Was a nice chat but I forgot to take pics!
Happy Herb Pizza
Had the munchies before sleep so I decided to try this Happy Herb Pizza place I’d heard about. 😏😏😏😏😏😏
It definitely tasted different but I didn’t feel any happier. Maybe you need to order extra toppings instead but by the time you realize that there isn’t much to put it on.
Or maybe happiness is a choice after all but not a choice of food wtf. #lame
M is illegal to take in Cambodia but apparently theres nothing to stop it being added as a pizza topping…
Also I realized after checking my itinerary really closely that I’d paid for three nights at this hostel when I only needed two.
I mixed up the dates because I kept remembering that I have a friend’s wedding lunch to attend the day after I return from Cambodia.
Somehow in my mind I assumed that wedding lunches always take place on Sundays. Don’t ask me why. So I ended up thinking I fly on Saturday instead of Friday. The hostel refused to refund the money or offset it with fnb tho, fml
Quite an uneventful day today. Good to have some downtime tho!
