We woke up at 06:00am to get ready for a day of adventure. We walked down through the restaurant of the hotel and there were a big group of hench americans, Dan reckons they're military but apparently theyre archeologists. We sat outside and Mr Sa pulled up in his slow tuktuk to pick us up. We began driving to the boat area to see the dolphins. We passed a food market and drove through a small village and mr Sa pointed out different fruit trees as we drove passed. He showed us an alo vera looking plant which had a pinkish spiky fruit in the middle which was a pineapple- i had no idea they grew like that! He also showed us a cashew nut tree, the nuts are attached to a flower on the tree, you could see now why they were some of the most expensive nuts. As we drove through the village we passed a wedding. There were bright colours and there were two bunches of bananas, one bunch painted silver and the other gold which is a Cambodian wedding tradition. The bride and groom looked so young but were dressed so beautifully. We continued driving where mr Sa showed us lemongrass and papaya plants. We pulled into the dock where we would get on the boat. We walked down the concrete steps and onto our own boat. Mr Sa chose not to come with us as he's seen the dolhins many times before so me and Dan clambered onto the boat and set off to the area where the Irrawaddy dolphins were.
Mr Sa said they have two brains, one brain sleeps while the other works and vice versa. The Irrawaddy dolphins are known for having no noses and are slowly becoming extinct but scientists don't know why the baby dolphins keep dying. There was another boat with two tourists also out to look at the dolphins. They come to the surface every five minutes to breathe so we only saw flashes of them as they never really came too close to the boat but it was still a great experience to see the dolphins as they may become instinct in a matter of years. Our boat man took us to a small sand dune island where we stripped down to our swimwear to swim. The current was pretty strong so we didn't go out too far. The water was really quite warm considering it was still so early in the day. After a nice dip in the mekong river we got back on the boat and drive back to the port where we met mr Sa and got back in his tuktuk.
We continued through the village passing loads of children who would always smile, wave and say "hello!"- too cute. We parked up at the rapids and walked down on the wooden planks on the water and onto the bamboo shacks they had built. They rebuild them every year for dry season because in the wet season the water rises considerably. Its more of a spot for locals as its not in any tourist books. We passed loads of hammocks until we got to our spot and all chilled in hammocks by the rapid water of the mekong river. Mr Sa said for us to go swimming before lunch so we walked up a sand dune through loads of plants, up and down until we got to the shore of the small island. Dan and I stripped into our swimwear and got in. The water was quite shallow unless you walked out far and there were a frw rocks on the sea bed. There was also a very small crab which scared us a little! After a quick dip in the river we headed back to our spot on the rapids and awaited lunch. Dan went to get us all a beer to drink. Lunch arrived and ut was a big plate of noodles with vegetables and a fried egg on top, it was tasty but i wasn't really hungry so couldn't finish it all. Mr Sa taught us games using a cigarette butt, one where you have to blow it into a water bottle and the other where you lay it on the ground and use a flip flop to kick it into a certain area; a game popular with the children of Cambodia.
After chilling for a while in the hammock and playing cards we headed back through the bamboo shacks and passed all the hammocks back onto the tuktuk. Mr Sa stopped off by a papaya tree and took off one of the leaves. He got a razor blade out of his wallet and made a small incision on the stem and blew into it. It made a weird sound like a trumpet, he said his grandfather had taught him a lot of fun things to do with nature when he was growing up nwe got back on the tuktuk and drove down a small side road where we got out. He wanted to show us a star fruit but there were none on the ground so he climbed up the tree and brought one down for us. It wasn't ripe yet but we ate it anyway and it was still delicious! He then picked loads of seeds out of these small plants and placed them into our palms. He then poured water over them and they began exploding! Just like those fire crackers that we would play with as a kid. Simple things in life to play with but they could keep you entertained for hours! We hoes back onto the tuktuk to head back to the hotel. I stopped off at an ATM to withdraw some cash. When we arrived at the hotel we went online for a while messaging home and what not until it was dinner time so we went up to shower and change and headed left of our hotel to find a spot to eat. We came across a restaurant with outdoor seating called red star falling which was mentioned in the lonely planet so we sat down at the table outside. We both ordered a veggie breakfast (for dinner) which was eggs, chips and beans which was yummy with generous portions. Because of the heat my appetite wasn't very big so i could only eat around half of it. We headed back to the hotel to pack ready for our 6:30am mini bus to Pnom Penh.