Having dutifully seen some temples on our detour through Ayutthaya (as many as we could given the circumstances) we are now heading on to Nong Khai, a small border town across the Mekong from Vientiane, Laos’ capital. Mum is landing in the latter today, and then crossing the river tomorrow to join us for a week of exploring Eastern Thailand, so we’re headed to meet her.
Following our last, painful night train journey we’ve booked a day ticket this time for the 8-9h trip, a good idea as we’re still feeling a bit peaky. When we get to the pretty Ayutthaya station, we meet our first challenge: boarding! There’s three platforms, but the only way to access the further ones is to walk across the rails. To complicate matters, we’re scheduled on platform 3 but there are two other trains just before us on respectively numbers 1 and 2 who will block the way. We’re stressing about how to get to our carriage but the security official in charge of shepherding westerners very competently reassures us: everything will be fine. And indeed, the whole operation unfolds like clockwork, people flowing across to their appointed location while trains nip in and out in a singularly unrushed ballet. With only a few minutes’ delay, we climb into the single air-conditioned carriage of a small, rickety train. It’s completely full (we take the last couple of places), and after some laborious dialogue to explain we’d like to switch with someone to sit together, we try and make ourselves comfortable on chairs made for much smaller people. It’s not a cosy journey by any means but overall it beats the freezing overnight bunks and we make it to our destination in one piece by 6pm.
We’re still shattered from the past few days and after expediting dinner at our hotel we go straight to sleep. The Mut Mee guesthouse, where we will be meeting my mum tomorrow for another night in Nong Khai, had a last minute bed for us tonight as we reworked our plans following our bug, but the only available spot is a lopsided room which feels like it’s about to slide into the river. Luckily this is just for one night and we change to better lodgings in the morning, after being woken up at 8am by rave music - it is Children’s Day in Thailand and the party starts early. We’re expecting mum around lunch after she crosses the border from Laos, so we take one of our rare opportunities for a lazy morning. The Mut Mee has a lovely leafy terrace overlooking the river and we settle there for a comfortable few hours, admiring the broad flow of the Mekong, at least a kilometre across here. We can even just glimpse the Friendship Bridge One spanning the river between Thailand and Laos in the distance.
Just after noon, mum arrives, having crossed half the world to spend a week with us. It’s an emotional meeting as we catch up over tea and once settled down, over lunch by the river. Once we’re ready to move on, our first goal this afternoon is to figure out how to get to our next stop, the sleepy riverside village of Chiang Khan, where we’re all booked in for the next two nights. We’ve heard there is a direct bus - but information on its schedule is singularly hard to find and we end up having to trek to Nong Khai bus station itself where after a couple of false starts we do find someone in the know. Bus 507 runs at noon on three days of the week - unfortunately not tomorrow when we need to take it! We try to ascertain the return schedule but this stretches our informant’s English and we give up - we’ll have to figure it out once we get there. This does leave us in a transport conundrum, but luckily Mut Mee are ready to help and the manager Pao offers to drive us over for the 160km journey. For a fee of course, but she will include stops along the way, turning it into a mini sightseeing tour. It’s a bit dear but sounds worth it and we don’t have many alternatives!
With that settled, we have the rest of the afternoon to explore Nong Khai. It feels almost like a seaside holiday town: dominated by the overwhelming presence of the Mekong, everything is turned towards the water, with restaurants, temples and markets all facing onto the wide pedestrian riverside walk. As we stroll around, shielding ourselves from the afternoon heat as much as possible, we come across a huge golden seated Buddha on top of a temple’s roof, giant fish statues lining the promenade, and a very authentic covered market (probably one of my favourites in Thailand - full of locals). Children’s Day festivities are in full swing and occupying a good section of the riverfront, with music, market stalls spilling out, and street food being set up in preparation for the evening.
Mum and I want to make sure we catch the sunset on the river tonight, but we still have a few hours before that, which we decide to occupy with a visit to the sculpture park of Sala Keoku. Set up by a Laotian artist and his followers, the park is an attempt to mesh Hinduism and Buddhism through a bestiary of giant sculptures inspired by both religions - the spiritual meaning of it is a bit above our heads but the statues are definitely impressive. Set in a pleasant shaded garden, many of the works tower above the trees and we spend an enjoyable hour walking around to check out the various Buddhas (including a striking twenty-meter high Naga Buddha), the wheel of life which you access by climbing through a demon’s mouth, and the artist’s mummy (!) conserved in a large white museum. Back in town thanks to our chartered tuk-tuk, we settle back down on the Mut Mee’s terrace - a perfect spot to keep an eye on the sky as the light dims. We’ve heard that sunsets here are spectacular and this one delivers indeed. The horizon turns from blue to pink and purple, and then just as we think that’s the end of the show, to an incredible blood red, all reflected in the mirror of the Mekong - a gorgeous sight which we’re far from the only ones to admire.
Having braved the hordes of mosquitos rising from the river to watch the entire spectacle, it’s now time for dinner, and as the hotel’s kitchen is closed due to the holiday, we head out to the festival’s night market. It’s all a bit disorienting as Nong Khai is much less geared towards foreigners than the other places we’ve visited so far, and all the signs tend to be in Thai only - but with a bit of pointing and showing numbers on our phones we get a selection of noodles and meat skewers, accompanied by fresh coconuts, which we eat contemplating the now-dark river. Not a bad first full day for our newly-arrived companion!
Beautiful and so nice to see your mum and travel together - Enjoy (a bit late, sorry!).