A weekend in Kratie

Friday was Cambodian Liberation Day, celebrating the Vietnamese-backed invasion which began on 7^th January 1979, and which within two weeks had liberated most of Cambodia from the Pol Pot regime. As it was another public holiday, Dave, Ingran and I went to see Gilly and Sam in Kratie. It was the first time the five of us had been together since we finished training, so it was really good to catch up. We also did lots of the touristy things that we hadn’t got round to doing during Christmas.

First of all, on Saturday morning, we took a boat to Koh Trong, a large island in the Mekong river, and hired bikes to cycle round. Gilly works with the school there so she knows the island well. It seems like a really well-organised community – Gilly says, for example, that the islanders have decided that children who want to attend secondary school in Kratie are exempt from boat charges. It was also very beautiful, with clean white sand and empty beaches almost all the way round. We even went swimming, after a Baywatch-style run to the shore which became quite a struggle after about ten minutes when it became clear that the water was a lot further than it looked. It was lovely swimming in the water, though, especially as the beach was completely empty and the water was fresh-water rather than salty.

We cut across the centre of the island on the way back to make it in time for the last boat before lunch, and saw some traditional rural Cambodian scenes. (Tak asked me last week when we were in Kampong Cham whether Cambodia seemed like England fifty years ago; he was a but surprised when I said it’s more like four hundred years ago.)

After lunch and a siesta, we went out to see the dolphins which are about fifteen kilometres north of Kratie. While the others paid $7 to go out on the boats, I sat on the shore and saw some for free. Even better, three monks came and sat next to me while I was waiting for the others. One was drinking Coke, one was smoking a cigarette, and the third had his orange robe slung below his nipple, so I think these might have been bad boy monks. I texted Gilly and told her to forget about the dolphins and take photos of me next to the monks as the boat came in. As she did so, the nearest monk asked who that strange woman taking photos of us was; I said I didn’t know and left.  

We then went to see some nearby rapids, a group of islands with fast flowing water and lots of swimming places. We waded across to a sandy bank to leave our stuff there, and had a lovely evening swim.

All in all it was another nice weekend but it’ll be a while before I go anywhere else as I’ve already spent most of my allowance for January.