Flipper

Day 86: Kratie (K). The continuing celebrations of Chaul Chnam Khmer (Khmer New Year) had the normally quiet riverside town of Kratie filled to overflowing. In fact, so many Khmer had descended on this peaceful little town that Karen and I had found it very difficult to get a bed for the night: Settling as we must, for the for the very last room in a dingy guest house opposite the ferry terminal, for the exorbitantly inflated price of $10 a night.

We however, had not been attracted to Kratie because of the quality of its hotels. We had come to get a glimpse of the incredibly rare irrawaddy dolphin, a native of the upper Mekong. Capable of living in both fresh and salt water, these dark grey cetaceans grow to about 10 feet long and are recognisable by their bulging foreheads and small dorsal fins. They are now an endangered species throughout Asia with shrinking numbers inhabiting this mighty river in Cambodia and Laos and isolated pockets in Burma and Bangladesh. Indeed such is the dolphin's plight that experts now believe there are as few as 75 of these magnificent mammals left in this remote stretch of the Mekong.

Jumping on board a couple of moto's we joined the melee of local traffic on the road north to Kampi. In traffic this congested, cars and bikes constantly brushed against my arms and legs as I clung on for dear life to the grab rail of our aged motorcycle. But our hair-raising journey was well worth it: Reaching our destination we transferred to a long-tail boat and were instantly rewarded by the sight of half a dozen dolphins playing in the deep water pools upstream of the Kampi rapids. Seemingly as curious of us as we were of them they continually criss-crossed in front of our boat, taking deep gulps of air before diving to the depths of the riverbed in their quest for food. Fifty or so photographs of an empty river later, one of the animals was kind enough to pose just long enough for us to get one decent shot. Remarkable.