Kratie - 13th and 14th November

Trip over to Cambodia wasn't too bad, although crossing the border was a bit of a joke and was massively corrupt as our guidebook had warned us.

Amazingly the visa cost had somehow gone up $3 since we were last in the country a few weeks ago and we had to have a bulls*** 'medical check' which involved a disinterested woman in a surgical mask pointing a temperature gun at you and trying to charge you a dollar.

I argued with her a bit and we paid only half price and Sarah got stuck into one of the blokes at the border meaning we didn't have to pay a mysterious additional surcharge of $2 each. Everyone else paid full price for the medical and the $2 surcharges - we are victorious.

Got to Kratie and bagged a hotel by the river (soon to be christened 'hotel roach') and booked a trip to see the famous Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong the next day which is why everyone comes here.

The town is unbelievably small and there's little else to do with only about two places to eat so we got bored pretty quickly. When we got back to our hotel that night we noticed a fair few cockroaches knocking around which was a bit grim, but not that surprising given the price. Once they were introduced to Mr Right Flipflop they didn't give us too much hassle anyway.

The dolphin trip the next day was pretty good and we spotted a fair few of the elusive b*****s. You're supposed to be quiet near them, but clearly the other boats of Cambodians/Japanese weren't told this as they were screaming every time they saw one. Half expected a Japanese whaler to turn up at any minute and get the harpoon going, but fortunately for our cerebral grey friends this didn't happen.

Managed to get a few photos before heading back to shore. Our tuk-tuk driver ('Lucky') insisted on dropping us at a 'great hill' to walk up on the way back so by the time we got back to Hotel Roach we were a bit b*****ed and spent the rest of the day chilling out. It rained most of the afternoon anyway so at least we could tell we were back in Cambodia.

Back to Phnom Penh tomorrow - hooray!