Kratie, Cambodia

“Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.” – Buddha

On our way back south we decided to break up our trip with a stop in Kratie. It’s about half way between Ratanakiri and Phnom Penh, a smaller town that sits right on the east side of the Mekong. The hostel we were hoping to stay in unfortunately only had 1 dorm bed available, and no private rooms, but as they did not want to lose the potential business, they accepted our offer of the both of us in the single dorm bed, for the price of one. One top bunk, with two people, for two dollars. Turned out to be our cheapest night yet.

There are a number of elusive, as well as almost extinct pink dolphins living in the Mekong just north of Kratie, and so the day after arriving we rented motorbikes and drove north. There is a point along the river where tour boats will take you out in hopes of catching a sighting, as well as plenty of sightseeing on little backcountry roads. After hearing of an uneventful experience from a fellow traveler, and finding out it was $9 a head for the 30-minute ride, we decided we would skip out on the touristy option and cruise around enjoying the ride.

Our favorite local hideout in Kratie.

There is a temple about an hour north of town and we decided we would head in that direction. It was a beautiful drive, with the road winding through the out sprawled villages which mainly lined this one street north to south. About three quarters of the way there we were driving through a more rural section when we spotted a motorbike down in the middle of the road, and as we got closer we realized there had been an accident just moments before. There appeared to be a man, possibly dead, laid out in the road with a woman sitting over him, and a young child sitting motionless a few feet away. We weren’t sure what to do, as locals had also just realized and were still beginning to emerge from their homes to see what had happened. Ali was driving as we did a u-turn to pull back around. As we approached more and more bystanders were coming to the scene. The man was beginning to regain consciousness as a crowd formed around them, and we instantly realized how bad the accident was. The child, who was a boy of maybe 7 years, had a large deep incision at the top of his forehead, to the point where you could see, at least, his skull, as well as several other severe cuts all over his body, the man’s jaw and face had numerous deep wounds, as well as his knee and shoulder, and the woman, who seemed to be in the best shape, also still had some quite horrific cuts. The three were all riding on the motorbike without helmets, and must have somehow crashed in an incident involving the car that slowly crept from the scene as we initially approached. 

We didn’t know how the locals would react to us “tourists” approaching this type of an incident, and didn’t want them to think we were just there to watch, but hoped we could do something and walked in. Contrary to what we were afraid they would assume, they started calling us over, possibly hoping that we knew how/could help in a way they could not. Our life guarding/first aid training wanted to kick in, but when there is a crowd of semi-hysterical bystanders, in which not a soul speaks or understands English, it proved quite difficult. I wanted to urge them to leave the man lying, avoiding moving his head, neck and back, but then realized that there was almost certainly no ambulance or help on the way, and that could just delay any “first response”, which would clearly not occur until they arrived at a medical center. There were all being picked up and “looked after”, so we figured the next best course of action would be trying to get pressure on the wounds to stop the bleeding and get the people to help.

We got out the few sanitary wipes we had and helped apply them, and tried to mime for the others helping to apply pressure. They clearly weren’t sure what to do, as lots of calling back and forth and general confusion seemed to resist any decision making. Numerous cars drove by over the course of several minutes, in which we also tried to communicate to get them in a vehicle to some sort of medical center, but for some reason they all stayed put.

There was a moment Ali later recalled, which at the time also seemed to just be wasting precious time, but when reflected upon later touched us both. When the man first came to, with his wife sitting over him and the boy a few feet away, the first thing the man did was pull his son over to him and hug him crying for what seemed to be minutes. We were fairly certain they were all going to live without any majorly critical issues at this point, but it seemed as if the man wanted more than anything else to just comfort his son, himself thinking at that moment that it truly could be his last. This desperate sense of comforting appeared to take precedence over everything else, and it was actually quite moving.

They eventually got each of the three on three different motorbikes, one person driving and one helping hold them on, and though it was clearly being rushed in an emergency situation, was also quite unerving to witness. The three helmet-less motorbike victims immediately hopping back on motorbikes, now totaling nine, all without helmets, racing for help. We’re not exactly sure what happened to them later that day, but as we drove south an hour or two later we saw a small crowd at a local medical center not far from where the accident occurred, and assumed that with the injuries they had they were able to get decent enough of care within a short amount of time to be alive and well today.

While it was a scary moment for sure, it helps remind us appreciate what we’ve got, and if nothing else it taught us to keep wearing our helmets and to slow down. Turns out our parents were right all along!

We took the rest of the day pretty easy; further on our way back, near the area where the dolphin tours left from was a network of docks and canopies spread put across a large section of the river. We wandered down through little shops and found a man selling tickets at the entrance. It was 1000 riel a person, or 0.25$. We were enticed and paid to enter. It turned out to be a little day “resort” if you could call it that, with hammocks hung under every canopy, where people came to just relax and socialize on simple hand built docks stretching out 6-inches or so above the Mekong. You can order food and drinks, and stay as long as you’d like. We grabbed 2 hammocks and just lazed around and read, nibbling on some fish and sticky rice, and hard boiled eggs before calling it a day and heading back to Kratie. As a relaxing end to a pretty hectic day we had a great dinner at a locals restaurant and beer or three at our hostel.

The 100-Column Pagoda.

A sweet little setup.

Bath time! The locals bathe together in the river after a hard day of work.

Local Village on the river.

Despite the stress of the day, we were able to relax and enjoy another beautiful sunset.

We were up early the next morning headed to our next destination. The capital city of Phnom Penh!