The Irrawaddy Dolphin is seriously endangered. There about 100 living in this stretch of the Mekong river. Some babies have been born recently and there are some major protection measures in place. Nets for fishing are banned in this area and there have been very few dolphins caught in nets recently – it used to be quite a common occurrence.

We saw a small number but they are incredible hard to photograph as they only surface for a fraction of a second. I came back with lots of photos with nothing in them. A couple of blurs in the photos below indicate we did in fact see something. But it was a wonderful time out on the Mekong. Phnom Sambok, the temple we visited earlier that day was visible at the top of the only hill in sight.

It has been great to see two very endangered species this break. The other being the Orangutan in Sarawak. In both cases local people were enthusiastic about protecting the animals. There were also significant actions by government authorities and NGOs. This was great to see.