Following the Mekong through Thailand!

Since our last entry we have been exploring north eastern thailand, an area known as Isan, where there are relatively few tourists. We did a loop of the area heading from the Nakhon Ratchasima north to Nong Khai, at the Laos border. From Nong Khai we followed the Mekong River back down stopping in a few small towns along the way (Nakhon Phanom, That Phanom, and Ubon Ratchathani).

Isan has quite a different feel from Bangkok and places in the south of Thailand, being off the tourist trail a bit. Foreigners stick out a bit more, and people seem more friendly. Each town seems smaller and quieter than the last, although they all seem to have a clean, modern "Tesco Lotus" superstore on the outskirts selling everything from bikes to shampoo. (Now that you can cross into Lao by bridge at Nong Khai the Lao locals cross to buy their goods at Nong Khai's Tesco.)

The highlights include:

* From Nakhon Ratchasima, exploring the Khmer style ruins in nearby Phimai and a local silk factory.
* Seeing endless rice paddies in all directions.
* Staying in a guesthouse in Nong Khai on the banks of the Mekong river looking across to Lao a couple of hundred metres away.
* Wandering through a scrupture park in Nong Khai with hundreds of tall statues of weird adaptions of hindu and buddhist figures (some as tall as 10metres).
* Hiring a bicycle and exploring the countryside and local villages near Nong Khai.
* Reaching the small town of Nakhon Phanom and realising that we'd been there 30mins and seen everything.
* Being stranded in a small town near That Phanom with almost no public transport and then being given a lift by a friendly local.
* Mistaking the police station in That Phanom for a public toilet (it did look quite plain outside and had no signs).
* Being surprised by an elephant right out front of an internet cafe, which we paid a small amount to feed.

We finished up in Ubon Ratchathani (the provincial capital) for a dose of "city life" (a relative term) before heading across the border today to Pakse in southern Laos. So far Pakse, the capital of Southern Laos, feels like a smaller town yet than the ones in Isan. We went to the "Shopping centre" which turned out to be a three storey open air building, with escalators to take you to the top two empty floors. The real action is outside where you can buy fruit and bottled water.