Further up the Mekong- day 11 of cambodia cycle

Sean:  Hi Everyone

We have now reached Stung Treng, a town in northern Cambodia at the junction of the Mekong and Sekong rivers.  Since our last post we cycled from Kampong Cham to Chhlong, Kratie, then to here. 

While in Kratie we did a 35km day cycle out to a place where you can view the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins from a boat in the river.  We saw a few different pods. They seem to surface and dive like regular bottlenose dolphins, but have a distinctive snub nose.  Anyway it was a peaceful hour or so out on the river. I can see why so many people are into boats, its so relaxing.

This is an irrawaddy dolphin statue, they are hard to catch on camera.
If you look closely you can see that this project is ssponsored by
Oxfam Australia, which has a big presence in this area.

Sunset on the Mekong at Kratie.

We tried to cycle up to Steng Trung along the riverside 'road less travelled'. What we didn't know was that after about 35 km the road turned to gravel, then to dirt, later it narrowed to the width of one person walking and finally got so overgrown that you needed a guy with a machete walking in front to clear the path (which we didn't have) and also someone who knew the way, as by this time the river was well out of sight and we hadn't seen any people houses for quite a while.

Anyway, we managed to back track to the last village and managed to scrounge up a lift in a ute back to the main highway and onward. So it was a bit of a relief making it to Stung Treng, where we have a nice guest house right on the river front. Today we did a 4 hour circuit cycle without our bags to the other side of the Sekong River and around some small villages on narrow bush tracks. It was the best cycle we've done so far, beautiful views, friendly village folks and very shady.

The track got a bit overgrown in places.

Local kids are very friendly, always calling out 'hello'.

This has been a sad week in Cambodia, with a major disaster in Phnom Penh in which hundreds of people were trampled to death at a crowded festival when a wobbling bridge led to a stampede. People here have been very moved by the whole event and there are flags lining the roads of every village and town flying at half mast.

Local villagers returning from the water festival carrying their boat.

Sean buys some coconut sticky rice cooked in bamboo.

Lying around in hammocks is something of a national pastime
in Cambodia.  They have them in petrol stations, in the backs
of trucks, everywhere, even hammock restaurants with no tables
and chairs.

From here we will head a little further north for the last days of our cycle tour.

Thanks to those of you who have added comments or sent emails. We'll reply individually soon. That's all for now.
Sean :)