River Dolphins

I caught a glimpse of the sleek back of a dolphin arching out of the water, a split second of beauty that despite it being my reason for being in Kratie, Cambodia, was still somehow unexpected.

If you listened, ignoring the wedding music blasting from the opposite shore, you can hear the small splash as the dolphins break the water. It is the cross between a tinkle and a shush, and then the shiny back arcs briefly across the water and is gone. Disappeared into the tranquil water, a dream or a whisper. Gone in a breath only to reemerge meters away or not at all, swimming beneath the water beyond my view.

I sat for hours in the small boat, water collecting at the bottom leaving me to wonder if we’d be joining the dolphins in the murky water. But the boat held us afloat, bobbing soundlessly until we watched the water break at a distance and revved the small motor slicing the calm in pursuit of the majesty of an endangered river dolphin.

Forty-five minutes. Forty-five minutes of the music of the river in the waning hours of the day.

And despite the pronounced absence of palate wowing food in Kratie, I watched dolphins and was enchanted.