Kratie & Kompong Cham

From Phnom Penh, we headed North East to a place called Kratie which is on the banks of the Mekong river. Our accommodation had an incredible outlook over the river and you could have dinner watching the sunset which was pretty cool – all this and it was the cheapest place we had stayed so far on the trip.

Kratie - Pavement hazards

We checked out the town which like most places we visited was centred round a market. Had an interesting stand-off with a herd of water buffalo that were roaming the street-this caused much hilarity among the locals who were watching. They seemed to be digging up most of Kratie to put drainage in, the central square with the market was a crazy place, pedestrians were not safe anywhere as moped riders did anything, including riding on the pavement, to avoid the trenches.
The main reason we came to Kratie was to go on a dolphin spotting trip. The rare Irrawaddy Dolphin inhabits the river – allegedly there are less than 100 left in the Mekong. Fortunately, they weren’t elusive as we spotted about 5 or 6 on our trip. Virtually impossible to get any photo’s though as you were never quite sure where they would pop up, in the end we gave up with the camera and just sat and watched them.
Next stop was Kampong Cham, we waited for the bus at the allotted time in Katie but it didn’t arrive. Instead two moped riders turned up and asked if we were waiting for the bus. It transpired that the bus had forgotten to pick us up and the moped riders would take as to the bus. Riding as a pillion passenger on the back of a moped is pretty interesting with a 20Kg rucksack on your back! Fortunately, we only had to ride about 2kms before we caught up with the bus.
Kampong Cham is one of the few places where there is a bridge that spans the width of the Mekong. Just down river from the very modern, western style concrete bridge is a bamboo bridge which links Kampong Cham to an island. The bamboo version is built every year at the start of the dry season and then washes away in the wet season. We hired a moped and went to check it out, Em was sceptical whether we should ride across it but we did (very slowly). Its about 300M in length and, in places the bamboo is very worn or non existent.

Kompong Cham - Immense Bamboo Bridge

The region is a major rubber producer and we had passed the plantations on the bus. I was keen to go and check it out so we went to the biggest, called Chup rubber. When we got there, it all looked pretty official, we had to sign in and we were given visitor passes. Thereafter, we were left entirely to our own devices and wandered around the processing plant unaccompanied which seemed odd. Workers just nodded to us as we went past. We saw the raw liquid rubber sap coming in by tanker at one end to large blocks of rubber being packed into crates the other end. It was fairly interesting although would have been even more so if there had been a guide to talk us through the various processes. One thing I will say is that rubber processing is an extremely smelly business! – never smelt anything like it and hopefully never again!

Kompong Cham - Chup Rubber factory

The following day we went to an old French lighthouse on the banks of the Mekong. Only the outer shell of the building remains but large steep steel steps have been erected inside so that you can get to the top.

Kompong Cham - French lighthouse (outside!)

What made this slightly more interesting than it sounds, is the resident mad guy who appears to live at the bottom. After a bit of gesticulating and the flash of some money, I left our crash helmets with him whilst we scaled the steps. I say we as by the first flight Em threw the towel in. I continued the climb on my own although I got concerned when I got to a wobbly section of steps. I realised that the steps were not bolted to the building at all, they merely rested against steel pins in the wall. I think this is when I had a slight dose of vertigo.
By now, the mad guy was far below me but I didn’t recognise him for a second because he had put one of our crash helmets on and appeared to be doing some kind of dance! I climbed to the top where you could get to onto a balcony outside. I took a few pictures and then could hear Em shouting at me so went back inside. She had started to shout because mad guy had a foot on the first step as though to head in Em’s direction. I started to climb down and fortunately mad guy didn’t go any further than the first step.

Kompong Cham - French lighthouse (inside!)

Kratie & Kompong Cham

Sambor, Cambodia