Kratie

     Our second stop on our trip to Laos was Kratie (still in Cambodia pronounced Gra-chay).  It's a smaller town where we spent an afternoon.  We stayed in a bed and breakfast called the Tonle which is really cool because it's also a training center for young adults.  It trains them in different aspects of the hospitality business and also helps them learn English so that they can get better jobs in the future.
    We spent the afternoon on a river dolphin boat tour.  We took tuktuks in a horrendous storm for almost an hour to get to the boat tour driving through a lot of really cool villages.

(photo credit to Kelsey Rock for taking great pictures on a speeding tuktuk)

     By the time we got out to the boats the storm had stopped and we got right out into the river.  It was gorgeous, wide and fast moving.  We motored upstream until we found the dolphins.  They weren't the most exuberant dolphins I'd ever seen, they didn't show off too much, but they jumped a bit and were really cool to follow.  Our boat driver followed them around to get us the best views (although my pictures won't show that).  And they were unique dolphins; they actually looked more like manatees than bottle nose dolphins, but they were really fun to watch!  All in all a pretty good way to spend an afternoon in Kratie!

Sunset over the Mekong after the storm

Boat 26!  

I promise this IS a dolphin!