Having alot of time I was able to stay in some Cambodian towns on the Mekong. I stopped in Stung Treng, Kratie, and Kompong Chom on my way to Siem Reap. In many respects they are very similar. They are all based around a central market (Psar) and they all have architecture that has survived the ravages of the Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese Army, American B-52 bombers, and the more peaceful though no less destructive modern development. Of the three I would suggest Kratie is the best one to visit. Stung Treng is the least attractive of the three and has the fewest western visitors. When I arrived on the minibus from Laos there seemed to be something of a hostile atmosphere. The Psar is dirty and piles of rubbish litter the streets. All in all I was wondering whether it was a great decision to rile against the masses and stay in Stung Treng. I found a nice guesthouse to stay in for $5 (double bed and hot shower ensuite). I can't remember the name of the place but there are a number of faceless cake tower guesthouses. I looked in the ones mentioned in the Lonely Planet, they were more expensive and falling apart. In the afternoon I wandered around the town and along the riverbanks and other than stepping over the rubbish it seemed much more pleasant than during my arrival. I caught the bus to Kratie in the morning which only took a couple of hours and cost $5.
Kratie is the prettiest of the three towns. It had the most well preserved French buildings which sat charmingly around the Psar. There was still plenty of rubbish around but not as much as Stung Treng. Of the three Kratie is the most touristy, this is due to the Irrawaddy Dolphin. For $5 ($7 on your own) you can take a boat out into the Mekong to watch them. The Irrawaddy Dolphin seems to take a relaxed approach to being a dolphin and didn't jump around. Dorsal fins pop out of the water regularly and maybe a tail but that is about it. It is still worth going to see them if only to relax on the Mekong and enjoy the scenery. The journey north to the boat landing takes you through villages. I was surprised to see ox carts trundling up and down the road, something I hadn't seen in Laos. I can't remember the name of the guesthouse I stayed in, but if you walk north along the road that follows the Mekong there are three next to one another. Apparently the UN stayed here during UNTAC and the Red Cross are there now. I paid $6 for a double ensuite hot shower. I even got to watch Tottenham win the League Cup. I was shadowed by Khmer Del Boy Mark 2 while I was in Kratie. He was nice enough and his English was good but like a child he did not comprehend that the more he hung around me and nagged me the less inclined I was to listen to him and the more inclined I was to hit him. I was going to the guesthouse that he tried to sell me anyway and then I choose to get him to take me to see the Dolphins. In the morning I was going to buy a ticket for the bus and he intercepted me enroute to get the commission (it didn't cost me anymore). There are at least two different buses from Kratie to Kompong Cham, the one I was on cost $4 and took four hours.
I wasn't in the best frame of mind in Kompong Cham. I was frustrated by the poor selection of accommodation and found the staff at the various places irrritating. I ended up staying in Bophea Guesthouse, the best of a bad bunch. I paid $4 for a double with cold shower ensuite. The ensuite had a steel door that looked like it used to be the cold room in a butchers. If you are only going to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh while you are in Cambodia then you may aswell stop in Kompong Cham to get a taste of small town Cambodia. It again has a Psar and some French buildings. I found Kompong Cham alot less charming than Kratie. For a small town there are alot of annoying moto drivers. I paid $5 for the four hour bus journey to Siem Reap.
Tickets for Cambodian buses appear to be sold per seat rather than per person. A whole family can fiyt iself on two seats. Unfortunately this means a whole family can sit on one seat next to you and they unsurprisngly spread out. From Kompong Cham to Siem Reap I had a small child and her Grandmother who halfway through the journey was joined by another yet smaller child. The bus had a TV and was playing some Cambodian comedy shows. One was the Cambodian Fast Show, there were no gay tailors instead they had a sketch repeated throughout the thirty minutes of three guys throwing a flip-flop and one of the three somehow not throwing it correctly. Comedy gold according to the show and everyone on the bus. Another sketch was the rivalry between a man with a moustache and a woman (no moustache) in a village. The woman kept winning their altercations. Once the Fast Show had finished we had a man and a woman singing a song, it looked like it was filmed back in the 1960s. Again they were having a dispute of some description during the very long song. The lunch stop was a cafeteria of sorts where the plumbing in the toilets had given up so a 'new' floor had been added, a layer of bricks. A cow and calf were nosing around the piles of rubbish, a depressing sight.
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