TrongpaiExpat
February 18th, 2008, 10:06
Air Asia had a good price for two RT tickets from Bangkok, 4,200B. Nok, Thai and one-to-go also go to Ubon but Air Asia by far had the better price. Ubon's airport is new and modern. They call it an international airport but there does not seem to be any international air flights, I guess it's wishful thinking. About 1/3 of the passengers to Ubon were farangs (some quite bizarre looking) with younger Thai girl friends, I assume making a home visit.
I wanted to rent a car and I went with Budget but Ubon's prices are higher than Bangkok, Phuket and Krabi for some reason. I looked around the web for some independents but did not find anything that looked decent. It was only for 4 days, so I rented a Honda Jazz for 1,700B per day.
We arrived at our first destination, Khong Jiam, at dusk. Khong Jiam is about 2 hours east of the city of Ubon at the juncture of Mai Nam Mun and Mekong river. The two rivers meet in what is called see song, two contrasting colors, the Mekong mud brown and the Mun bluish-green. It's a picturesque little town with one ATM, quite a few restaurants, and some Karaoke bars. The popular restaurant is the Pak Mun, on a float at the bank of the Mekong but for half the price you get the same food at the less fancy place at the end of the walkway on top of the bank. All the bars and restaurants close if there are no customers, so you have to eat early.
We stayed at the Araya Resort. I did not book on the web site. The BF called and got the 1,600 on the river bungalow for 1,100 per night. There are several resorts in the area but only the Araya is on the Mun. The sign to the Araya as well as the sign for the resort was only in Thai, yet they wonder why they don't get farang customers. The number of resort type hotels far exceeds customers, Thai or farang. I can see how why they discounted the room but I don't see why this is not a popular destination. Some of the bungalows on the river have gone belly-up and just sit vacant. The river side bungalow at Araya is new and was perfect.
We took a long tail boat tour of the rivers for 400B per hour. In the dry season you see some unique looking dark lime stone formation where the Mun dumps into the Mekong. The boat boy was very cute and got a good tip. It's not hard to find boats, they find you if you walk along the river side walk.
Pha Taem National Park is a short drive from Khong Jiam. We saw some huge mushroom shaped rocks formation and the road eventually comes to a very high limestone cliff overlooking the Mekong with no barricade which would be a certain death if you jumped or fell. There's a sign, "dangerous no poke" and another "Take care the bees are hitting yourself" There is a walkway that descends to some viewing platforms where you can see 3000 year old color rock paintings that were remarkably clear.
This is dry season, so the three parks waterfalls were reduced to a low flow. The weather this time of year is pleasant, day time highs were comfortable and nights cool. I might have seen better watter falls in the rainy season but walking on the trails in the winter is much easier.
The Border town of Chong Mek was not worth the trip unless your looking for cheap tourist trinkets like back scratches from the numerous stalls that sell cheap junk to tourist. Ubon farangs use this for visa runs.
Driving around Eastern Ubon is much different than the farm land of Surin and Si Saket. It's not populated, the land is not cultivated and you get a chance to see what the land looked like in it's natural state.
The BF had a school friend that was now living in Rasi Salia north of Si Saket that he wanted to visit. We booked a hotel first in Si Saket, The Kessiri Hotel, for 1005B I don't recommend it. It was clean but very basic, the AC had two setting, very cold or off. The land around Si Saket is all cultivated farm land. We bought some food and a case of beer and found the farm. They live in a small cluster of houses off a main road. As dusk approached more and more people came in off the farms and a few dozen people came to greet the farang. They family was very honored to have a farang come to visit and I was the center of attention and conversation. I caught the following: How much does he weigh? How old is he? How much money does he have? Where does the farang come from? What does the farang eat? How many times a day does the farang eat? Can the farang eat Thai food? Does the farang like the King? They also asked me about the American presidential election and knew that the dollar was loosing value against the baht. A few of the older women gave me some traditional Thai clothes to wear and took a lot of pictures. At dinner and I noticed on of the items on my plate moving--I think it was termite larva with some adult termites still alive mixed with some spices. When we left they gave us a package of all the produce that they grow, rice, onions, garlic and something green. The entire village assembles for our departure and children ran along the side of the car as we departed.
So, if any of you are making a home visit with your BF, in either Surin, Si Saket, or Ubon, you might consider a side trip to Khong Jiam and the border areas along the Mekong and Mun rivers. You can do Khong Jiam in one day, a quick river tour and then take off to Pha Taem but we were on a slower tour and took our time. I recomend it it but up to you.
Araya Resort (http://www.southlaostour.com/index.php?lay=show&ac=article&Id=318102&Ntype=777)
On the Mekong the other Hotel option is:
Tohsang (http://www.asia-planet.com/thailand/ubonratchathani/tohsang-khong.htm)
I wanted to rent a car and I went with Budget but Ubon's prices are higher than Bangkok, Phuket and Krabi for some reason. I looked around the web for some independents but did not find anything that looked decent. It was only for 4 days, so I rented a Honda Jazz for 1,700B per day.
We arrived at our first destination, Khong Jiam, at dusk. Khong Jiam is about 2 hours east of the city of Ubon at the juncture of Mai Nam Mun and Mekong river. The two rivers meet in what is called see song, two contrasting colors, the Mekong mud brown and the Mun bluish-green. It's a picturesque little town with one ATM, quite a few restaurants, and some Karaoke bars. The popular restaurant is the Pak Mun, on a float at the bank of the Mekong but for half the price you get the same food at the less fancy place at the end of the walkway on top of the bank. All the bars and restaurants close if there are no customers, so you have to eat early.
We stayed at the Araya Resort. I did not book on the web site. The BF called and got the 1,600 on the river bungalow for 1,100 per night. There are several resorts in the area but only the Araya is on the Mun. The sign to the Araya as well as the sign for the resort was only in Thai, yet they wonder why they don't get farang customers. The number of resort type hotels far exceeds customers, Thai or farang. I can see how why they discounted the room but I don't see why this is not a popular destination. Some of the bungalows on the river have gone belly-up and just sit vacant. The river side bungalow at Araya is new and was perfect.
We took a long tail boat tour of the rivers for 400B per hour. In the dry season you see some unique looking dark lime stone formation where the Mun dumps into the Mekong. The boat boy was very cute and got a good tip. It's not hard to find boats, they find you if you walk along the river side walk.
Pha Taem National Park is a short drive from Khong Jiam. We saw some huge mushroom shaped rocks formation and the road eventually comes to a very high limestone cliff overlooking the Mekong with no barricade which would be a certain death if you jumped or fell. There's a sign, "dangerous no poke" and another "Take care the bees are hitting yourself" There is a walkway that descends to some viewing platforms where you can see 3000 year old color rock paintings that were remarkably clear.
This is dry season, so the three parks waterfalls were reduced to a low flow. The weather this time of year is pleasant, day time highs were comfortable and nights cool. I might have seen better watter falls in the rainy season but walking on the trails in the winter is much easier.
The Border town of Chong Mek was not worth the trip unless your looking for cheap tourist trinkets like back scratches from the numerous stalls that sell cheap junk to tourist. Ubon farangs use this for visa runs.
Driving around Eastern Ubon is much different than the farm land of Surin and Si Saket. It's not populated, the land is not cultivated and you get a chance to see what the land looked like in it's natural state.
The BF had a school friend that was now living in Rasi Salia north of Si Saket that he wanted to visit. We booked a hotel first in Si Saket, The Kessiri Hotel, for 1005B I don't recommend it. It was clean but very basic, the AC had two setting, very cold or off. The land around Si Saket is all cultivated farm land. We bought some food and a case of beer and found the farm. They live in a small cluster of houses off a main road. As dusk approached more and more people came in off the farms and a few dozen people came to greet the farang. They family was very honored to have a farang come to visit and I was the center of attention and conversation. I caught the following: How much does he weigh? How old is he? How much money does he have? Where does the farang come from? What does the farang eat? How many times a day does the farang eat? Can the farang eat Thai food? Does the farang like the King? They also asked me about the American presidential election and knew that the dollar was loosing value against the baht. A few of the older women gave me some traditional Thai clothes to wear and took a lot of pictures. At dinner and I noticed on of the items on my plate moving--I think it was termite larva with some adult termites still alive mixed with some spices. When we left they gave us a package of all the produce that they grow, rice, onions, garlic and something green. The entire village assembles for our departure and children ran along the side of the car as we departed.
So, if any of you are making a home visit with your BF, in either Surin, Si Saket, or Ubon, you might consider a side trip to Khong Jiam and the border areas along the Mekong and Mun rivers. You can do Khong Jiam in one day, a quick river tour and then take off to Pha Taem but we were on a slower tour and took our time. I recomend it it but up to you.
Araya Resort (http://www.southlaostour.com/index.php?lay=show&ac=article&Id=318102&Ntype=777)
On the Mekong the other Hotel option is:
Tohsang (http://www.asia-planet.com/thailand/ubonratchathani/tohsang-khong.htm)