Irrawaddy Dolphins spotting

Today we decided to hire two bikes for LAK 10,000 (76p) each for the day and head south to Don Khon island to see the Tat Somphamit water falls and the rare Irrawaddy dolphins if we could spot them. It was early morning, well 9:30am, when we set off and headed for the water falls, when we crossed the bridge to Don Khon we were charged LAK 20,000 each for crossing the bridge, locals, if they stopped get charged LAK 5,000 - which is fairly typical for Asia we are discovering. It was extremely hot and the road was very dusty as we crossed the island towards the waterfalls. We then had to pay another 1,000 kip to park our bikes so we could cross the rickety wooden bridge to the waterfalls. There were lots of stalls as we entered, all selling woven fabrics but only one lady actually sitting at a loom weaving. The fabrics as always were beautiful and very cheap. We walked on and the waterfalls were pretty impressive. More Kodak moments! We then followed the signs to the beach which turned out to be a real damp squib! The heat was almost unbearable and we had been looking forward to a dip (we had come prepared with cozzies). Then we saw the beach, and the no bathing signs. So rather than waste any more time we headed back to the bikes to see if we could find these dolphins (buying some fabric on the way out!) Again the heat was unbearable and it seemed to be quite a long way to the dolphin area. When we arrived there wasn’t much there but it was very pretty. A wide area of the Mekong with islands in the middle, Laos on one side and Cambodia on the other. We found a boatman and he agreed he would take us at 4pm. It was only 1.30pm so we found cold drinks and hammocks to pass away the time. 3.30pm we headed back and this lady took us out on her boat. She took us to the centre of the Mekong River where we waited, and waited, two other small boats were waiting too. After about 10 minutes the other two boats headed back and we were alone. Then about 100 metres away we saw them coming up for breath, just as quick as they came up then disappeared. However this was just the start as three minutes later they were up again, slightly closer and we could see two perhaps three dolphins. Another three minutes and they appeared again, this time there was three and they were much closer, it was magical to watch them so close. Check out the video to see them in actions. The heat of the day had passed our boat returned to shore and we got on our bikes and headed back to the north of the island. On our way back we came across not one, but two, lots of water buffalo wallowing in the muddy water. It took us almost a hour to travel back and we must have cycled over 20 kilometres today, on bikes that were far too small. Another memorable day :-)