Kratié is a small riverside town, sometimes written Kracheh and pronounced like Kratchay. There is not a whole lot that this city offers, because it is so small, but we liked it there and made the most of it. It has a little indoor/outdoor market selling all the regular items (fried roaches, maggots & crickets, meat & fish on sticks, fruits, veggies, household items made of bamboo and straw, etc). And there is one restaurant that we went to for breakfast, lunch and dinner on most of the days. Not only because it was very good, but because there were limited options. We could have eaten German food, burgers, or grilled meat on a stick, but we were very happy with this place.
One thing this part of Cambodia is known for is the rare “river” dolphin species that only lives in this part of the world. We scootered up the coastal road about 20minutes to where the boats take you out to try and spot them. We found a ticket booth and then hopped in a boat with a guy who could speak no English and drove the boat with his foot like that in the picture below the whole time.
Irrawaddy dolphins are not like your average Florida dolphin. They are darker and smaller and have shorter snouts and fins. They are more similar to beluga whales in appearance. There are only less than 100 left in the Mekong River. We felt very lucky to have seen what appeared to be the whole tribe (herd, group, school?) of them swimming around our boat and coming up for breaths and a splash.
Once we finished our time on the boat and drove back to the dock, we got back on the scooter and went further up the coastal road to what we understood to be some kind of water rapids. We were curious and it paid off.
We went down some steps from the road and across this wooden path in the picture above and then paid about 3000 Riel (0.75€) for us both to go in further. We walked down the wooden pathways and got a iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk and I convinced Johannes to pay an additional 2000 Riel for a covered living room on stilts, complete with floor mat and hammocks. Click through the images/videos below to hear a musical treat.
So that was all in one day. We had only 2 full days here. On the other day, we took bikes across the river on a little ferry boat to the “island” in the middle of the river, called Kaoh Trong.
When you make it across the river and get to the beach, there is still a long stretch of sand to walk through before reaching the shade of trees. It felt like the Sahara. We pushed our bikes through the hot soft sand and up hill to where the street begins. There is a narrow paved road for bikes and scooters that goes around the whole circumference of the island and criss-crosses through the middle twice as well. If you click through the pictures below, you will also see a video I took while biking past the houses (sorry it’s shakey).
On the road, we saw a Vietnamese temple up on a hill, a Vietnamese floating village (see pictures in Insta post above), banana trees, lots of traditional Cambodian wooden houses, huge stalks of bamboo, roosters, dogs, cats, cows, naked children, scooters, a horse or two and only a few other tourists!
Kratié is a lovely little town and we are happy to have been there for a few days. Next on to Kampot!
Stories of Exploration and Travel 
Nice idea With the Lokal relaxation Stopp!
We should have it in our cities too!
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Agreed! Auf jeden Fall zumindest die Hängematte!!
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