We left Siem Reap for Kompong Cham on a 8hr bus trip but being suckers for punishment as soon as we arrived we arranged a share taxi with 3 Swedes to Kratie. The car was supposed to take 4 hrs but our driver was driving so fast we made the trip in just over 2 hrs, and this was on some of the worst roads we’ve seen since Africa.

Kratie is known as one of the best places to see the Irrawaddy dolphins. These rare fresh water dolphins are very shy and only live in a few places on the Mekong. There are over 200 in this part of the river alone and we saw at least 20 different ones normally in groups of two fishing by spitting out water and herding the fish one way and then another. It was quite spectacular to watch but unfortunately we were not able to get any good pictures of them since they only surface for a second or two and then disappear again. We did get plenty of close up pictures of the Mekong but you’ll just have to take our word that there are these fresh water dolphins there. Our trip was set up by a guy named Mr. Nap, a kid who spoke pretty good English but is rather on the seedy side and I would advise giving him a wide berth if you happen to pass through here. He wanted us to allow him to make our onward travel arrangements to Laos but was trying to charge us $50 each, which is 3 times what it cost us to do the trip on our own.

After 2 days in Kratie, we decided it was time to leave so we got the boat for Strung Treng. It was a large covered boat similar to the one we got to Sihanoukville but even though it could hold more than 50 people there were just 10 of us onboard. Every couple of miles a local boat would flag us down and we would pick up a few more passengers. I started out inside the boat but the surrounding scenery was so spectacular that I, along with nearly everyone else on the boat, spent a considerable amount of time on the roof but had to finally retreat inside because of the sun. We arrived in Stung Treng @ 4.30 pm and decided to spend the night because we were warned that the border closed at 5 pm and the locals would bring you to the border and then charge you double to return if you were unable to get into Laos.

After checking out a few run down hotels in Strung Treng we decided to stay at the Sok Sanbath which was the nicest hotel in town. We even had a fridge in our room so I went and bought a few beers, and after a nice dinner we sat on the balcony with our cold brews and watched life unfold in Strung Treng. It was very relaxing and left us with a very pleasant feeling of Cambodia. After a nice sleep, we were all set for our onward journey to Laos.

Final thoughts on Cambodia

Overall we were very impressed with Cambodia, maybe because we didn’t know what to expect and were looking forward to the unknown, but it met and exceeded whatever expectations we had. We had heard from some travelers that Cambodia was a depressing place but we did not see that at all. I can highly recommend Cambodia as a safe and comfortable place to travel.

We felt we went through Cambodia too quickly but if we have the time when we end up in Saigon we might travel back through Cambodia to Thailand rather than fly as previously planned.

I had heard all these horror stories of how bad the roads were but that was in the past and now the roads are actually pretty good except around Kratie but even those roads are improving all the time.

The overall cost of everything is pretty low and you can travel pretty cheap maybe as little as $10 a day per person. We agreed that we wanted certain things like a private bathroom so we averaged closer to $40 a day but this included the entrance fee to Angkor Wat which was $40 each for a 3 day pass.