Phnom Penh and Beyond!

Hello Everyone!

I'm currently in Kratie, Cambodia which is a small city of about 80,000 situated along the banks of the Mekong River. The Mekong River is absolutely enormous and this particular stretch offers some of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in Cambodia so far. Yesterday, I went with a friend I met from Switzerland to visit a nearby island. From this side of the river, the island looks like the opposite shore, but in actuality the river extends beyond the island to a distant shore you can barely make out. We took a ferry across and explored the island which offered a unique opportunity to see a piece of rural Cambodia. Cutting through the middle of the island, you saw brilliant green rice fields, small bamboo dwellings usually perched upon stilts for the rainy season, and lots of white and tan cows. One of the cows was getting a bath in a small pond....I have to say I was slightly jealous considering how hot it was! The people were very friendly and from the looks we were getting, you could tell there aren't many tourists that make it this way. After spending the morning exploring the island, we took the ferry back across the Mekong and made our way to a nearby town where it's possible to sight the freshwater dolphins for which Kratie is famous. We rented a boat which took us out to the middle of the Mekong where the dolphins hang out. After awhile, you began to see them as they popped up for air. The Irrawaddy dolphins are actually an endangered species and you can only spot them in two places in the world! I have to say that it was really strange to see dolphins in a river in the middle of Cambodia! We went around sunset which was a peaceful and beautiful time to watch the dolphins move among the currents of the river whose waters were golden at that time of day. Overall, it was one of my favorite experiences in Cambodia so far!

I will catch an early bus for Phnom Penh tomorrow morning before heading to Vietnam on the 1st of November. I've done most of what I've wanted to do in Phnom Penh except for visiting the Killing Fields. After visiting the Tuol Sleng (S-21 prison) Museum (i.e. genocide museum), I felt like I needed some time to process what I had seen before venturing off to this other site. I will go to the killing fields on my last day in Phnom Penh which I'm sure will be a difficult but important experience. As many of you know, I wrote my thesis in college about the effects that war has on the prevalence of psychological distrubances among children; particularly children growing up under the Khmer Rouge. I spent countless hours researching this topic and yet I still didn't feel prepared for what I saw at the Tuol Sleng Museum. I'm waiting to write about this experience until after I have visited the Killing Fields, but I will say that it has given me so much to think about and truly be thankful for. So, I will give you a full report of my experience in Phnom Penh once I return to the city.

love and miss you all,

Rachel