Kratie

4.6.
It doesn't look very far on the map, but there was no possibility to make it in one day: the stretch Siem Reap - Kratie. As I knew that before, I took a noon-bus that was leaving Siem Reap, heading east. In the afternoon I arrived in Khompong Thom, where I spend the night. Nothing fancy this city, but its Mekong-location makes it interesting for a stopover, besides that I managed to find a guest house with a room overlooking the river... not bad, eh?

Next morning I continued to Kratie, and this is a town I really enjoyed. It's also a river port, a nice little place to wander around and to get to know Cambodia (which you don't necessarily get to know that well in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap). Travel guides call it an outpost, and that's not a bad word. It's a bit the end of the world, but a really pleasant one... a small town center, just two or three blocks around the market, besides that wide empty streets, sometimes unpaved, lots of palmtrees, dust whirled around by the wind, not a lot of traffic, a very quiet small town. From its jetty longboats depart to other places somewhere along the river... as everyone knows, I'm fascinated by anything connected to big rivers and the sea...
Kratie is one of these towns where a lot of people ask what to do there... in fact, there is a lot to do, often nothing spectacular, but enough to get a glimpse of the country you are travelling in. It reminded me a bit of Savannakhet in Laos... in Kratie there are also lots of old broken down colonial buildings which emanate a fascinating atmoshere of decay.

In its neighbourhood one can find within a very short distance interesting pagodas, Khmer ruins, terrific landscape and the habitat of the only sweetwater dolphins worldwide. I planned to rent a small motorcycle for one day, but had to discover that I was running out of cash... in Cambodia the US-$ is accepted throughout the country (exchange rate 1 $ = 4000 riel), but you run into problems when you have to exchange travellers cheques in smaller towns... it simply might not be possible... So I counted the cash dollars I had left, thought that it would be enough to bring me across the border, and decided to discover the region around Kratie on my next trip... three weeks are simply not enough for this country...