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

1. Day 1: Bangkok to Khao Yai

   Suvarnabhumi airport to the hotels near Khao Yai National Park

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Khao Yai
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) by about noon, and a driver meets you in the arrivals hall. We gather the group and leave Bangkok at about 1:30 pm, so we skip the city and head north-east on the highway towards Khao Yai, about three hours away with a coffee stop. The flat rice plains give way to forested hills as we climb towards Pak Chong, and the air is noticeably cooler by the time we reach our hotel on Thanarat Road, the road that climbs from Pak Chong to the park gate, lined with resorts, cafes and farm stalls, where we stay two nights. 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.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

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

   Free time: Free time at the hotel before the evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land at Suvarnabhumi by about noon; the exact meeting time comes with your final itinerary. Arriving at Don Mueang (DMK)? Tell us and we arrange the pick-up there.

2. Day 2: Gibbons, hornbills and waterfalls in Khao Yai

   A full day in Khao Yai National Park

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Khao Yai
   Day 2 details

   We drive into Khao Yai at about 6:30, as the forest wakes, with a park ranger or naturalist guide alongside your See Sight Tours guide. Thailand's first national park, opened in 1962, is part of the Dong Phayayen–Khao Yai Forest Complex, listed by UNESCO in 2005. 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. 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. Back at the hotel by late afternoon, the evening is free.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Skip the forest walk and spend the morning at the watchtowers and visitor centre with the vehicle, then join the waterfalls after lunch.

   More active option: A longer morning trail with the ranger, about 5 to 6 km, for more time on the gibbons' ridges.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: Forest trails are uneven and can be muddy early in the season; wear closed shoes. Leech socks are useful in November. Wildlife is wild: gibbons are heard most mornings, sightings are never guaranteed.

   

3. Day 3: A winery lunch and the silk weavers

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

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Nakhon Ratchasima
   Day 3 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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)

   More active option: An early bird walk at the park edge with your guide before breakfast.

   Free time: Morning at leisure and the evening free in Korat

   Activity: Non-drinkers get juice or soft drinks at the winery lunch at no extra cost.

4. Day 4: Phimai at opening, Muang Tam at dusk

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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Buriram
   Day 4 details

   We leave Korat at about 6:30 am and reach Phimai Historical Park at opening, about 7:30, when the lawns are wet and quiet. Prasat Hin Phimai was built in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, before Angkor Wat, and its central tower faces south-east, towards Angkor, at the end of an ancient Khmer road. Your guide walks you through the gates and galleries and reads the lintels with you: Shiva dancing, scenes from the Ramayana, and Buddhist images, because Phimai was a Mahayana Buddhist temple. Breakfast is in town, and from Wednesday to Sunday the Phimai National Museum shows the finest carvings moved here for safekeeping. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Stay at the hotel instead of the Muang Tam visit; you see Phanom Rung, the larger temple, tomorrow.

   Free time: A rest at the hotel in the middle of the afternoon

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot at Phimai on flat lawns and stone paving, and an hour at Muang Tam.

   

5. Day 5: Phanom Rung at sunrise, an Isan night in Khon Kaen

   Buriram province to Phanom Rung, then north to Khon Kaen

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Khon Kaen
   Day 5 details

   A short, early drive brings us to Phanom Rung when it opens at about 6 am. The temple stands on the rim of an extinct volcano, about 400 m up, and you climb to it along a processional walk lined with lotus-bud posts, across three naga bridges and up a long stairway, with the plain of southern Isan spreading out behind you as the sun comes up. Inside, your guide points out the Narai Bantomsin lintel, Vishnu reclining, which was taken from the temple and returned from a museum in Chicago in 1988. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Sleep in and join the group for breakfast; your guide shows you Phanom Rung's carvings in photos on the drive, or stops briefly on the way past.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Khon Kaen

   Activity: The only pre-dawn start, about 5:30 am. Phanom Rung's stairway has about 50 steps in flights, with landings. Tell your guide how hot you like your food: every dish on the walk can be made mild.

6. Day 6: Sala Kaew Ku and sunset on the Mekong

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

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Nong Khai
   Day 6 details

   Before we leave Khon Kaen we climb Wat Nong Wang, a nine-storey pagoda by Bueng Kaen Nakhon lake, painted inside with the city's history and with a view over the lake from the top. Then it is about two and a half hours north through Udon Thani to Nong Khai, a quiet border town on the Mekong. 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. Dinner tonight is your choice along the river.

   Included

   • 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

   More active option: Hire a bicycle from the riverside and ride the flat Mekong path towards the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge before sunset.

   Free time: Evening free on the riverside

7. Day 7: The Mekong road to Chiang Khan

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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Chiang Khan
   Day 7 details

   Today follows the river. Route 211 runs west from Nong Khai beside the Mekong, through banana groves and riverside villages, with the hills of Laos on the far bank, about four hours of driving at an easy pace with stops. 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. 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. In the evening the walking street fills with stalls, and we finish the trip with a farewell dinner by the Mekong.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Free time on the walking street after dinner

   Activity: Shoulders and knees covered, and no bright or tight clothing, at Wat Hin Mak Peng; your guide carries spare sarongs.

   

8. Day 8: 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

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   Chiang Khan's mornings are the reason to come. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Skip the sunrise and walk the riverside at your own pace after breakfast.

   More active option: Walk the last stretch up Phu Thok instead of riding to the top.

   Activity: The flight time is confirmed at booking. Book an international flight leaving Bangkok in the evening, after about 8 pm, and allow for the transfer from Don Mueang to Suvarnabhumi if you fly from there.

Wildlife and weather: November to February is the dry, cool season: clear days in the low 30s C, cool nights in Khao Yai and morning mist on the Mekong at Chiang Khan. The waterfalls are fullest in November and thinner by February. Gibbons call most in the early morning; hornbills and other wildlife are wild and never guaranteed.

• Khao Yai2 nights
• Nakhon Ratchasima1 night
• Buriram1 night
• Khon Kaen1 night
• Nong Khai1 night
• Chiang Khan1 night