Thailand's Isan: Khao Yai, Khmer Temples and the Mekong

Bangkok to Khao Yai

Suvarnabhumi airport to the hotels near Khao Yai National Park

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Khao Yai
• Environ 3 h de route

Soir

If you land earlier, or want a night in Bangkok first, we can arrange it. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week ahead: the temple dress code, the cash worth carrying, how the one-night stops work and an early start tomorrow. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner of Thai and Isan dishes.

Compris

• Pick-up at Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)
• Drive to Khao Yai with your guide
• Welcome briefing and welcome dinner

Activités en option

• An extra night in Bangkok before the trip, booked on request

Gibbons, hornbills and waterfalls in Khao Yai

A full day in Khao Yai National Park

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Khao Yai
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

Early morning is when the gibbons call across the valleys and great hornbills cross between fruiting trees, and our guide carries a spotting scope for whatever we find. We walk a forest trail of a few kilometres, then stop at the grassland watchtowers, where elephants and sambar deer sometimes come out.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in the park. In the afternoon we visit the waterfalls: Haew Suwat, which drops into a pool you can walk down to, and Haew Narok, the park's tallest, seen from a platform at the end of a stepped forest path.

Soir

Back at the hotel by late afternoon, the evening is free.

Compris

• Khao Yai National Park entry
• A day with a park ranger or naturalist guide: early forest walk for gibbons and hornbills, the grassland watchtowers
• Lunch in the park
• Haew Suwat and Haew Narok waterfalls

Activités en option

• Night spotlighting drive in the park, run by the park in open trucks, paid locally

A winery lunch and the silk weavers

Khao Yai to a hill winery, then Pak Thong Chai and Nakhon Ratchasima

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Nakhon Ratchasima
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

A slow morning after the early start: sleep in, swim, or go back to the park edge with your guide for an hour of birdwatching.

Après-midi

Late morning we drive into the hills around Khao Yai, where vineyards have grown since the 1990s on the cooler slopes, for a walk among the vines and a sit-down lunch at a winery with a tasting of its wines; we name the estate when we confirm your dates. In the afternoon we cross to Pak Thong Chai, a district south of Nakhon Ratchasima known for its silk. At a family workshop you see the whole chain: silkworms and mulberry leaves, reeling, dyeing and the wooden looms, and you can buy straight from the weavers.

Soir

Then it is a short drive into Nakhon Ratchasima, the city everyone calls Korat, the gateway to Isan, where the evening is free near the Thao Suranari monument and the night market.

Compris

• Vineyard walk, wine tasting and a sit-down lunch at a Khao Yai winery
• Silk weaving workshop in Pak Thong Chai
• Drive to Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat)

Phimai at opening, Muang Tam at dusk

Nakhon Ratchasima to Phimai, then Buriram province and Prasat Muang Tam

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Buriram
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

Breakfast is in town, and from Wednesday to Sunday the Phimai National Museum shows the finest carvings moved here for safekeeping.

Après-midi

After lunch we drive about two to two and a half hours south-east into Buriram province and rest at the hotel. In the late afternoon we visit Prasat Muang Tam, a 10th to 11th century temple wrapped in four L-shaped ponds, its laterite walls warm in the low sun.

Compris

• Phimai Historical Park at opening with your guide
• Phimai National Museum, Wednesday to Sunday (closed Monday and Tuesday)
• Lunch in Phimai
• Prasat Muang Tam in the late afternoon

Phanom Rung at sunrise, an Isan night in Khon Kaen

Buriram province to Phanom Rung, then north to Khon Kaen

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Khon Kaen
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

Breakfast follows, then we head north through Buriram and Maha Sarakham, about four hours of driving, with a sit-down lunch and stops on top of that. We reach Khon Kaen, the university city of the north-east, mid-afternoon and rest.

Soir

In the evening your guide leads an Isan food walk through the markets: som tam pounded to order, larb, grilled chicken, Isan sausage and sticky rice eaten by hand.

Compris

• Phanom Rung Historical Park at opening with your guide
• Lunch on the way north
• Isan food walk in Khon Kaen with your guide, dinner included

Sala Kaew Ku and sunset on the Mekong

Khon Kaen to Nong Khai, then Sala Kaew Ku and the Mekong promenade

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Nong Khai
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Après-midi

After lunch near the river we visit Sala Kaew Ku, a sculpture park of giant concrete figures made from the late 1970s by the mystic Bunleua Sulilat and his followers: a many-headed naga rearing over the trees, Buddhas, Hindu gods and a wheel of life you walk through. Your guide explains the strange mix of beliefs behind it. In the late afternoon we walk the Mekong promenade past the Tha Sadet market as the sun drops behind Laos, a few hundred metres away across the water.

Soir

Dinner tonight is your choice along the river.

Compris

• Wat Nong Wang in Khon Kaen
• Lunch in Nong Khai
• Sala Kaew Ku sculpture park with your guide
• Sunset walk on the Mekong promenade and the Tha Sadet market

The Mekong road to Chiang Khan

Nong Khai along the Mekong to Wat Hin Mak Peng and Sangkhom, then Chiang Khan

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Chiang Khan
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

Mid-morning we stop at Wat Hin Mak Peng, a forest monastery on rocks above the river, where monks still meditate in the trees; it is quiet and asks for modest dress.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal by the river in Sangkhom. We reach Chiang Khan in the late afternoon. The town's main streets are lined with two-storey teak shophouses, many over a century old, with shutters that open straight onto the street, and the riverside path looks across to Laos.

Soir

In the evening the walking street fills with stalls, and we finish the trip with a farewell dinner by the Mekong.

Compris

• The Mekong road (Route 211) with your guide
• Wat Hin Mak Peng
• Riverside lunch in Sangkhom
• Evening walk through Chiang Khan's old wooden streets
• Farewell dinner by the Mekong

Mist on the river, then fly to Bangkok

Chiang Khan to Phu Thok and Kaeng Khut Khu, then Loei airport and a flight to Bangkok Don Mueang

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

At dawn, monks walk barefoot along Chai Khong Road to receive sticky rice from kneeling townspeople; you can watch from a respectful distance or join in with your guide's help. Those who want the view drive up Phu Thok, a hill a few kilometres outside town, where from November to February the Mekong valley often lies under a sea of mist at sunrise. After breakfast we stop at Kaeng Khut Khu, a bend of the river where rapids run over rocks in the dry season, and try the coconut sweets the stalls are known for.

Après-midi

Late morning we drive about an hour to Loei airport (LOE) for a flight of a little over an hour to Bangkok Don Mueang (DMK), arriving in the afternoon. Your guide sees you to check-in.

Compris

• Dawn alms round in Chiang Khan
• Phu Thok viewpoint at sunrise
• Kaeng Khut Khu rapids
• Drop-off at Loei airport (LOE)
• Flight from Loei to Bangkok Don Mueang (DMK) with one checked bag