The plan was to go from Siem Reap to Stung Treng to Ban Lung back to Stung Treng to get to Laos. The bus from Siem Reap to Stung Treng was US$15. The bus to Kratie was US$10 and it meant I got to see another place in Cambodia even if it cost me a extra day or two. I had the time on my visa plus, Kratie has some attractions; it is the best place in the region to see the rare freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins.
Flawless logic, right?
The bus ride from Siem Reap to Kratie was epic. The worst transport experience I have had so far and, it should be noted, even a bad experience by Southeast Asia transport standards. The ride was supposed to be 7-8 hours, which I have already learned means more than 8 hours, probably near 10. I had to transfer vehicles four or five times (I cannot remember). All were pretty miserable but the last legs were the worst.
In the second to last leg, in what is called a minibus, which is basically a big van designed to hold 11, we had 20, counting the two kids as halves. I was taking up more than my share of the room because I knew the locals did not pay what I paid for my ticket. It was crowded, hot (the "proper A/C" that was promised meant hot, dusty air from outside was blown through the vents), bumpy (no paved road in sight, northern Cambodia's "roads" are notoriously rough), and all around unpleasent. Yet, all this was OK, it was expected and, in truth, it is part of the experience of travelling in Southeast Asia so allow it is not superficially enjoyable it is in that it contributes to an authentic experience. Then I switched to another minibus.
In this other minibus, things got bad when there was smoke coming from under the driver's seat into the minibus. With a series of pointing and "OK?"'s we (at this point only foreigners were in the minibus, eight in total) asked if everything was alright and, of course, were told it was. About 30 seconds later the engine stopped and we could not move. We pulled over and the minibus was pushed to a nearby mechanic shop. The eight of us took to the side of the road and waited. Before long most of the people had a beverage at the stand on the side of the road. At some point we noticed out luggage being removed from the minibus. Unsure what was happening, we just went with it, lended and hand, and explained this to ourselves in various ways. It was getting dark. We got the feeling the stand was remaining open just for our benefit. We did not feel bad, it was dark otherwise and we had already spent a fair amount of money there. Then the lights in the mechanic shop went out. The French woman that was one of our eight went over to the shop, phrasebook in hand, to try to figure out what was happening. She returned with this news: the minibus was not being fixed today, the driver had gone home, and we were on our own to get to Kratie, which was, supposedly, 3km (about 2 miles) away, with all of our luggage. We were pissed. Literally abandon somewhere on the side of Highway 7, we were pissed to say the least.
We made it to Kratie pretty easily in the end. Six of us, myself included, walked for a bit then paid US$1 each for a motorbike to a guesthouse. The other two opted to walk the whole distance. It worked out well, considering everything, but it is something to be remembered. While walking we talked about how this could never happen in the Western world. The bus company would be torn to shreds, we would have out tickets reimbursed and probably a few free tickets or something, and whatever else. Here, there is nothing we can do; nobody to complain to, nothing to to report the bus company to. There are literally no repurcussions for abondoning eight foreigners on the side of the road. The worst thing we could do was report the incident and bus company to Lonley Planet and hope that LP has an unfavorable bit about the company. That is it.
Kratie's dolphins were disappointing. Not much was visable to the eye and what was visable was near impossible to capture with point-and-shoot camera. Getting to the viewing area was overpriced as was the boat to "see" the dolphins.
The best part of Kratie was the island the lies in the middle of the Mekong River just off shore from Kratie. Unfortunately my time here got cut off so that I go to the dolphins.
Kratie is my least favorite place in Cambodia.
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