Dolphin watching

Girl in pjs- Cambodias favorite dress!
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Kratie is a town that’s about half way between Phnom Penh and the Laos border, it sits on the Mekong River and from here you can go to see Irrawaddy Dolphins. You’ll see me mention the Mekong River again – it’s a huge river that travels from China through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, which is the next country I will be visiting.

These dolphins are very rare making them an endangered species. We travelled to see them by Tuk-Tuk through a local village and a bit of jungle where we picked up a long boat out to the part of the river where sometimes the dolphins can be seen.

Yummy fried bugs!
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Usually when you see dolphins in the sea they love to play and surf the waves near the boat that you are in, but these dolphins are very shy and timid and spotting them is very difficult so we had to switch the engine off so that we didn’t make any noise and disturb them.

The Irrawaddy Dolphins are very clever and can live in rivers where the water is known as fresh water and in the sea where the water is salty.

Sunset for Ben
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We were very lucky and managed to spot several when they came to the surface to breathe; they need to breathe every two to three minutes. It was very tricky to get their photos because they only put their head up for a little while but I promise the photos on the blog aren’t logs!

Lots of people want to see the dolphins because they are so rare, this has made the local people realise that the dolphins are endangered so now they are more careful and are beginning to help the dolphins survive. They have realised that people like to see them, so this means that the local people can earn money by taking people to see them and by making wooden ornaments to take home with them.

It really is a dolphin - honest!
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On the way back we were very hungry so stopped to get some food, but didn’t buy any because it was all fried bugs. Thankfully our hostel only had bugs on the floor so I ordered chips and beans, the first time I’ve had beans in 3 months – what a treat!!