Day 13 Checking out Nakhon Phanom

November 23, 2009 by Don Ross
Filed under Blogs, Don Ross, Mekong Odyssey 09

It is blowing a gale in Nakhon Phanom, giving some significance to the receptionist’s question “did we want sea view or city view rooms”. In just a couple of days the weather swung from unseasonably hot to cool and windy, with temperatures falling to 15 degrees Celsius in the evenings.

It’s our rest day and we could almost believe we are walking along a seaside promenade as we stroll from the town’s two “tourist class” hotels towards the main pier and Indochina Market. The river is choppy with a strong wind from the east blasting restaurants and houses that face the river.

Nakhon Phanom’s promenade is impressive with tall trees, street lights and four temples that grace the riverfront and are illuminated at night.

Across the river, Laos presents a profile of jagged mountains, mainly limestone karsts that look remarkably like grandpa’s teeth; sharp, out of line and generally in decay. Well that’s what my granddaughter says about my aging grinders.

Nakhon Phanom was named after its mountain view, but it is a craggy outline on the Lao horizon as the town is as flat as the river that flows by.

As we have a day to spare in the town we visit the Tourism Authority of Thailand office, about 800 metres north of the famous clock tower that was donated by the Vietnamese community.

TAT’s marketing services officer, Khun Dao, provides us with a useful illustrated map of the sights in the province and adds a few recommendations.

Have we tried the do-it-yourself city cycling tour, she asks. We explain we have just passed the 1,000 km mark on a cycle journey following the Mekong River.

“Oh, then you might want to take a Sky Lab and see the sights that way,” she advises us.

We agree, at Bt20 per person, the three-wheelers are convenient and easy on our legs, if not our ears.

We ask if there are any festivals due. Khun Dao explains that we will have to wait until Christmas and head for Sakhon Nakhon, northwest of town when residents celebrate the Christian holiday in style.

Apparently, Nakhon Phanom has one of the largest Christian communities in the land, and the province is not short of a few expatriates who have retired here with their I-san wives.

We noticed as we approached the town, along highway 212, there were palatial homes, some surrounded by rice fields and others in small villages, presenting quite a contrast to the ramshackle dwellings of their neighbours. I wondered if they were family homes built on repatriated foreign exchange sent by I-san sons from workplaces in Singapore or the Middle East. Or could it be possibly a dowry, when a foreigner weds a lass from I-san?

Whatever, throughout the journey expatriates kept popping up with a family in tow in the smallest towns we visited along the way.

Nakhon Phanom is not the cheapest dining spot in I-san, but we discovered the night market a couple of blocks back from the riverside road going inland from the clock tower.

It was a recommendation of the TAT office and proved to be a highlight of the visit. We strolled along with hundreds of residents picking up sweets and savoury delicacies, snacking as we went.

Overall, Nakhon Phanom is a great town to visit, but fell short of expectations in dining options and when we did finally park ourselves at the Ohio restaurant on the corner of what was supposed to be the town’s trendy night scene, the food was expensive and mediocre.

Unfortunately, we checked in the wrong hotel, too, as the two tourist-class hotels situated on the riverside have very similar names. We ended up in the shabby one and the receptionist wasn’t about to correct our booking mistake.

A room with a view cost Bt700. There was no free internet and the mobile signal was so poor we had to stand outside on the street to talk to anyone.

In retrospect, we discovered a small budget-class hotel right in the centre of town, near most of the restaurants and opposite a cafe with free internet. That would have been a better choice. Having internet was definitely a factor in the value for money equation and Nakhon Phanom’s tourist class hotels should re-package their offer to ensure internet is included in the rate. An internet cafe charged Bt15 per hour. That’s about the cost of a bottle of water that hotels include in the rate.

Our ride is for charity. You can pledge support based on total kms we ride during the Mekong Odyssey, or offer a flat donation, which is ever is convenient.