The Mekong River is located on the northern border with Laos. Laos is a communist country. My wife and I avoided Laos. We started our adventure at Nong Khai, which is located across the river from Vientiane, Laos. Nong Khai has a row of old buildings of French-Chinese architecture. The Friendship Bridge is 2 Km west of Nong Khai. The Lao, Vietnamese and Chinese people cross the bridge and sell their things in the market in Nong Kai. There is a riverside promenade or sidewalk, which has a great view of sunset. There are a few guesthouses and hotels. It is a peace and quite town. We did take a sunset dinner cruise for an hour.
My wife and I took the scenic route by open window ordinary bus for this trip down the Mekong River. The air-con buses are hot and stuffy. The ordinary buses are cool and breezy.
We stopped at Bung Kan. Bung Kan is very, very small. We stayed at the Mekong Guesthouse, which is the only accommodation on the river and it has a great little restaurant. It is owned and managed by a falong. I walked around the town in about an hour. It is a haven of peace and quiet with a view of the river. I loved it. We sat on our little balcony and watched the sun go down over the river.
I think the thing to do is call ahead the day before you want to travel to the next town for accommodations. You could use a travel agent.
We were going to stop at Ban Ahong to break up the trip but the owner/manager of the guest house in Bung Kan told me that the one and only guest house was out of business and that there were no accommodations in that town. It is a good idea to call ahead for accommodations or see a travel agent.
Our next stop was in Nakhon Phanom, which is highly rated by some people but I found it boring. It has very wide streets and an excellent wide view of the river and the mountain peaks in the background on the Laos side of the river.
We stopped at Mukdahon on the river. They have a sidewalk or promenade on the river. Outside of town is a tower with a restaurant on top, which was out of business. We hired a tuk-tuk to take us 3 Km south of town to Phu Narom Hill, which has a narrow view of the city. It was boring.
Our next stop was Ubon Ratchatani, which is the North-East’s largest city. I liked it because it has all the Western conviences but not the bad air. It does have traffic. We visited the Ubon National Museum, which I found interesting. It took about 45 minutes.
Our last stop was at Khong Chiam. It is very, very small. I liked it for it’s peace and quite. We stayed in a log cabin on the river. We only stayed at places that have air-con, TV, hot water and western toilets. We hired a long boat and took a sunset cruise. The Mekong and the Moon River meet at Khong Chiam.
All these towns have markets and local food. Some of the bigger towns have Western food.
Try going to a book shop and purchase a book about traveling in Thailand if you plan to get away for some peace and quiet along the tranquil Mekong river. I think the Mekong River is going develop into a very nice place to visit and live.
Live long and prosper.
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