“Hellooooo! Hellooooo – what is your name??!” As we cycle down a dusty path, we are greeted a hundred times. “Hello – hello – how are yoooou?” The novelty of seeing western travellers doesn’t seem to have worn off on the children of Koh Paen island quite yet. Some would line up, expecting Hi-5s as we cycled by. Obviously the Americans had got here first. Its only a small patch of land in the middle of the Mekong, which you reach on a bamboo raft ferry. Most of the houses here are wooden shacks on stilts – but some are just mud huts. Nearly all have an ox tied up outside – while horses pulling carts are used to move things around.
After the experience of Angkor, we wanted to go somewhere a little more rural – and so a long bus journey brought us to Kompong Cham. The trip to the island was just a way to waste away an afternoon, but turned into something far more memorable. As was the next morning’s breakfast – noodle soup in the market with flowers to add flavour. Sounds strange, but they were very tasty.
After yet another long bus journey we arrived in Kratie – hopeful of seeing its main attraction, the Irrawaddy dolphins. There are only a hundred or so in the Mekong, and they are apparently pretty shy. Thankfully they put in an appearance for us, showing their short fins for a second or two before plummeting back into the brown water. Almost as exciting was seeing an enormous pelican, which took up half a tree.
Later in the afternoon we went for a stroll with some Dutch doctors we’d befriended on our trip – once again attracting bountiful “helloooooos” from the local children, and joining in with a game of volleyball. The kids also tried to teach us how to count to ten in Cambodian. It starts with “mui”, then comes “pii” and then I seem to remember “bram” is five, and six is just “bram mui”... What happens inbetween is a little hazy, so a bit more practice is probably in order before we unleash our counting skills on the Khmer public.
After the experience of Angkor, we wanted to go somewhere a little more rural – and so a long bus journey brought us to Kompong Cham. The trip to the island was just a way to waste away an afternoon, but turned into something far more memorable. As was the next morning’s breakfast – noodle soup in the market with flowers to add flavour. Sounds strange, but they were very tasty.
After yet another long bus journey we arrived in Kratie – hopeful of seeing its main attraction, the Irrawaddy dolphins. There are only a hundred or so in the Mekong, and they are apparently pretty shy. Thankfully they put in an appearance for us, showing their short fins for a second or two before plummeting back into the brown water. Almost as exciting was seeing an enormous pelican, which took up half a tree.
Later in the afternoon we went for a stroll with some Dutch doctors we’d befriended on our trip – once again attracting bountiful “helloooooos” from the local children, and joining in with a game of volleyball. The kids also tried to teach us how to count to ten in Cambodian. It starts with “mui”, then comes “pii” and then I seem to remember “bram” is five, and six is just “bram mui”... What happens inbetween is a little hazy, so a bit more practice is probably in order before we unleash our counting skills on the Khmer public.
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