A ferry crosses the Mekong from Laos to Thailand, at Nakhon Phanom. Shows off the beauty of the Lao side.
Another beautiful feature is the riverside promenade in Nakhon Phanom.
And yet another beautiful feature of Nakhon Phanom, very pretty girls crossing a major street in town.
A nearby river can sometimes give a town a very pretty setting. Nakhon Phanom certainly benefits from the storied Mekong, which separates Thailand from the Lao PDR, represented by the much smaller but lovely Tha Khek. The small Thai city also benefits from the stunningly beautiful jungle hills on the Lao side as well as some of its own significant temples and hillsides.But I’m going to give Nakhon Phanom the beauty crown overall. While I spent too-short a time in the river city and have promised myself to go back soon, I came away impressed by the number of beautiful girls I saw around the place. My Isaan tour started in the sizeable city of Ubon Ratchathani where I doddled for an extra two days, four in all. I now regret my laziness. I should have moved on sooner and enjoyed more time in NP.
I took a five-hour milk run bus ride from Ubon, passing through Mukdahan. I’d left Ubon in an unsatisfied state of mind. After I disembarked at the small bus station in NP and set off on a back soi transit on a three-wheeler taxi to a hotel, I was already far ahead of Ubon in my count of pretty girls. Upon stretching my legs in front of the Windsor Hotel, my mood was buoyant. Not all the pretties had left for Bangkok, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Phuket. Of course, your mileage may vary, but this was the so-called high season and yet Nakhon Phanom seemed ripe with surprises . And they were not shy of staring at the white stranger.
I met a young Austrian traveller that evening and he was tired of the place after two days there. While I accepted his observation that first evening, I walked a lot of the town the next day and frankly, I think the town needs a fairer shake. Yes, it’s small, yes, the evenings could be quiet, the bars and restaurants on two late week-day evenings were largely empty, the traffic really thinned out, but somehow I think the place deserves another look. And so I shall later this year.
I rather liked the wide open main streets. The smaller, narrower ones closer to the riverside, were interesting and sprinkled with bars, karaokes, restaurants and yes, some shacks. Not pretty. Here's a Thai town that, if it shows some foresight, could beautify its setting even more by cleaning up some of the riverside properties. Still, it has a beautiful riverside promenade. It probably won't be long before more is done.
An American expat I met in Ubon had lived in NP for a year. He said that if you are a single person, you will likely find the place rather disappointing but if you married a local girl, you would find your life a busy one. You would also enjoy the quiet and the beauty of the province and Lao. Oh, almost forgot: he said the most beautiful Thai girls come from the southern portion of the province, from the ethnic clan, the Phu Tai. I wouldn’t recognize a Phu Tai look, but a beautiful girl rarely escapes my radar.The hotel cost me 350 baht a night. The room had long ago seen better days but the air-con worked, there was good water pressure and the bed was big and comfortable. I also had a nice fourth-floor view of a major street and the Lao hills.
The first evening I ate at an outdoor street market. First I had one of those thick, Thai coffee sludges with condensed milk. Love this stuff. I was attended to by no less than three smiling ladies at the coffee cart. Then came a delicious khao mun gai (sliced chicken on rice but with no spicy ginger sauce, although there was a chili sauce). I complimented the sole female vendor who struggled to ask me if I was alone (using the term “one”, which I didn’t get for a moment or two) and said she was alone. Hint, hint.
I collected a number of smiles that night. I don’t know but I must have been looking particularly handsome that night. Maybe my wallet was showing. I noticed that the younger girls, gliding by on scooters or walking, were not shy about looking at the stranger. It was altogether the opposite of Ubon. Maybe they're shy in Ubon and in NP, not so much. Or just more curious.
Later, I bumped into my Austrian acquaintance, which is easy to do in such a small city centre. We checked out a country fair, a concert venue, the overflowing Indochina Market, then a couple of karaokes (including one populated by three ladyboys, though we didn’t know that before we walked in), a disco kind of place and a bar or two. Action was to be had but the spirit was weak, on my part.
The next day I knew I was going to go to the Lao PDR, crossing the Mekong to Tha Khek. While I gave some thought the next day to staying on, I had to be in Vientiane on the weekend to forage for motorcycles for our Lao tour.
Nakhon Phanom is a pretty town, in a beautiful setting, great location (being on the Mekong and near Lao and Cambodia borders), friendly people (hotel clerk, who spoke pretty good English, insisted on taking me across the street to tell the Thai-speaking lady what I wanted to eat), lovely girls, great international market, good food, and a town with air service direct to Bangkok.
I’ll be back.
LINKS
- The Tourism Authority of Thailand's very helpful website describes Nakhon Phanom
- TAT's map of Nakhon Phanom
- Stickman writes glowing report of the City of Hills
- Talen at Thailand, Land of Smiles reports on one of the finest, ancient features of the province, namely Wat Phra Tat Phanom, just one story among a huge collection of stories and photos on the province.
