Blogs from Ubon Ratchathani, Eastern Thailand, Thailand, Asia

We have woken early ready for breakfast before our bus trip across the border. We have exactly the right amount of cash for fried eggs, bread and a drink at the cafe. The rest of our cash has been spent at the supermarket stocking up on drinks and munchies since kip will be useless once we exit Laos. All packed, we check out, only to find our breakfast restaurant, along with just about every other restaurant in the street, is firmly closed! Ah, it’s new year and most of these places are Chinese owned. It looks like we are either going without, eating munchies, or risking the Indian breakfast then? An Indian restaurant owner beckons us in. He can do fried eggs and bread, plus lassi for me and tea for Ian. We do a mental ... read more

Pataya is another dump but nowhere near as extreme as BKK . It has a nice( ish) beach but is rather dirty . I got there about 3 or 4 hours with the mega cheap taxi , driver wearing sunglasses black tie and leather gloves Im sure he had been watching the Blues Brothers the night before but was a great laugh , never got a tip though as he spent most of the journey driving at mach2 whilst texting or talking on his mobile which sort of unnerved me a little , I dont have much faith in Thai taxi drivers after the last one from BKK airport did a U turn on the motorway after a truck caught on fire some way in front of us , pretty hairy doing that I thnk they ... read more

So after that quick overnight stop at little Nang Rong, I arrived in Ubon Ratchatani, one of the easternmost larger cities in Thailand, from where I would make the crossing into Laos. Apparently Ubon was an important air base for the US forces during the Vietnam War, during which time the city prospered. However it does seem as if not that much has happened in the city since, which in many respects seems to have seen better days. The city itself is not large, and quite walkable. There are a few temples of some importance to the city, but it seems the only time it really gets crowded is during the Candle Festival that it's famous for, which occurs annually in July. That's probably also the only time the old, soulless 1970s style 3-star hotels fill ... read more

After a one and a half hour drive to the Thai – Cambodia border to visit Prasat Khao Phra Wihan we found there would be no access on that day. The famous temple located strategically on top of a mountain overlooking Cambodia has been a point of conflict for many years. On the day that I decided to visit the temple some Thai and Cambodian troops had a stand-off in the nearby area and it was decided to close the temple for safety reasons. I was disappointed but still could view the temple using some binoculars at the Thai lookout area and had a great view of the mountain and Cambodia below. I will try to visit the temple from Siem Reap on the Cambodian side on a future visit. Fortunately I had a plan B ... read more

Ubon Ratchathani is a very good place to visit and the people have not been exposed to as much tourism like other parts of Thailand and can maintain their normal lifestyle. This was my first visit to Ubon which is a large city in the east, close to Cambodia and part of Isaan, my favorite region of Thailand. This is what I call the “real” Thailand where most people are even more friendly, charming and polite than the tourist areas and live a normal life at work and play. It is quiet and peaceful, the motorcycle and car drivers are very careful and also polite unlike the hectic traffic in other places. I saw very few foreigners in my five days in Ubon and everywhere I went in the city and region I met the most ... read more