Hester
Just a quick note about today, as I don't think we'll get a chance to get onto the net for the next 3 or 4 days...
Yesterday's 8 hour bus journey turned into over 10hours of an exploded tyre at top speed followed by over an hours roadside wait, deafeningly loud karaeoke music on the bus (my ears are still bleeding) and the most insane bus driver I have ever known, whose only safety precaution consisted of beeping his horn every few seconds as he drove at breakneck speed on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully we arrived in Kratie in one piece...
So, we booked to scooters plus drivers for today to take us to see the Irrawaddy dolphin, an endangered type of dolphin that is only found in the mekong river. I was a bit nervous about going on the bike, partl;y because all the drivers are mental, and partly because I didn't really fancy have to squish my thighs around some strange bloke. But I survived the experience, and seeing the dolphins made it worth it. We spent about an hour an a half on the river watching them - I've seen dolphins in the sea before, but this time seemed a bit more special, because of the amazing surroundings (the Mekong river is a beautiful muddy expanse lined with palms and banana trees), and knowing that these animals are rare and that seeing them is not always guaranteed. My poor attempt at taking pics has resulted in numerous pictures of splashes in the water, an video footasge that is not really close enough to see anything. But I made up for that in quantity.Delete delete delete.
After that dolphins we were driven to the local "mountain" - a nearby hill where monks live and people come for blessings. It was not really that special, just a lot of steps, which is not a good thing in this weather.
Following that, we went for a ride to through the countryside. We thought we were going to a village, and so exapected that it was some sort of thing set up for tourists. But no, basically my moto driver would drive past endless wooden houses, adn if he saw something that he thought we would like then he would stop and take us in. So at one point he noticed a family planting rice behind their house, so pulled in an got us to go and help them. We are now rice farmers! Bren was taking a picture of me planting, and this little kid started looking over his shoulder at the camera, so Bren took a picture of him and showed him, and he was amazed and smily. Brilliant! We also stoped off at a school, and played a bit with the children. Everywhere we went people woul;d smile and wave - and I felt like a bit of a celebrity - despite feeling pretty tanned at the moment, it seems that my pale, pasty, vitually translusent skin was a bit of a novelty - According to Bren, who followed my moto, every time we past groups of people they would all start nudging each other and pointing at me. Even my driver found it funny that all the women bent over planting in the rice paddies would stand up to stare at me as I went by. We stopped next to some of these women and they told my driver that they wanted my skin. I'd happily swap!!!
After driving round for a couple of hours we came to our guesthouse, and have been chilling for the rest of the day.
Tomorrow, we are riding a 6hour journey in the back of a pick up truck to our next destinantion, Sen Monorom.....
