9 - 11 January 2015
We woke up in Phnom Penh and Tim was feeling fine...good thing since it is a 7 hour bus ride from here to Kratie. We arrive in Kratie just in time for dinner so before even checking into our hotel we stopped and ate at a street-side restaurant. By the time we got to our hotel, The Mekong Dolphin Hotel, it was dark, so we just went to our room and watched TV until we fell asleep. The next morning we woke to a view of the Mekong River off our balcony...beautiful!
View of the Mekong River from Mekong Dolphin Hotel balcony.
We went downstairs, had breakfast, and hired a tuk-tuk to show us the sites. First he took us to a picnic area on the Mekong. We had just eaten breakfast, but it was fun to walk around the boardwalk and see how the locals spend their Saturdays:
 |  Someone's lunch. About a 24 inch long fish! |
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Next we got on a boat and went Irrawaddy Dolphin Watching on the Mekong. The Irrawaddy Dolphin is listed as an endangered species. In Cambodia and Laos they are found in a 190-km (118-mi) freshwater stretch of the Mekong River.
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We traveled on a road along the Mekong north of Kratie. This stretch of road had some of the nicest wooden homes we have seen in Cambodia:
Along the road we stopped for a local treat, bamboo stuffed with sticky rice:
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And, of course, what is a day out without a stop at a temple. This one is called Phnom Sambok and was at the top of 361 steps.
  Baby Buddha. |   |
Even after all that got back to our hotel with plenty of time to check out the rest of Kratie including the market:
Finally, to end the day, a beautiful sunset over the Mekong River and a new beer, Black Panther:
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The next morning we took a ferry across the Mekong (5 minutes) to the island of Koh Trong. There we rented a couple of bicycles and rode the 8.5 miles around the island. It was nice since there were no cars and we only passed a few motorbikes during the entire ride...but we did have to look out for the animals:
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There was also a really cool floating village on the other side of the island:
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Then back to our room to watch the sunset from our balcony:
Tomorrow we leave Kratie and head north to Stung Treng to position ourselves closer to the border of Laos.
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