Thread: A daytrip from Ubon Ratchathani

Ascending the cliff face, you then double back to the visitors centre along the top of the cliff.



















A very pleasant walk indeed. Both Khong Jiam and Pha Taem national park are easily doable in a day trip from Ubon. If you are in this part of the world, it seems a shame not to.





Thoroughly nice morning, and now we're off to Khong Jiam for some beer and sustenance.

Cheers Pol- they've been steadily rising in price here. They wanted 1000 bht a kilo for them on the barge restaurant in KJ, but after 'asking' it became 800bht. Very occasionally they are available from our local markets too, at 600 bht.

May as well update the Khong Jiam scene a bit. Firstly, the classic lurk of being able to go to the one horse town on t'other side of the river and pick up cheap goodies from Laos is now closed to the farang, sadly. Thai's are still allowed to do it though.

We finally overnighted in KJ, something I had been meaning to do for a while. The small nightlife part of town is located in the lee of the bridge over the Mun river, on the northern side. It is obviously mainly locally oriented, although a few expats make it here for some debauchery too. There are two 'legit' places that have a band and serve food of the standard Isaan river fare variety. This ones my favourite, it has rustic character and decent enough music. They're always pleased to see a westerner too, especially tonight as my mate is pretty good on the guitar, and treated them to some Dylan-






The tin roof you see peaking above the sign is the 'other' place- also with a band but too loud for my liking, and down the dirt track ahead are about half a dozen places with velvet curtains and dusky maidens sitting outside, to lure in gentlemen looking for such pleasures. It's all closed during the day, but at night with the usual gaudy neon it is a more attractive spectacle:-



Other than a smattering of nightlife and restaurants, KJ is a good place to pick up on things from over the Mekhong, such as Laotian cofee and contraband cigarettes (if you ask around). Or so they say. Accomodation is cheap too, we paid 350 bht for a perfectly adequate aircon room at the KhongJiam resort, or you can stump up a princely 500 bht for a room right on the riverbank. The barge restaurant down here I have yet to check out- more of the same I would imagine, because culinary variety is not a local strong point. :-







The many plastic bottles that 'litter' the Mun river here are actually floats for shrimp traps.





Khong Jiam is laid back, attractive, with entertainment, and cheap enough shopping to actually make it a profitable trip for us, as we only live some 70km away. Whats to complain?

Well, the road from Trakhan is in pretty dire shape with potholes these days, but we rise above these petty annoyances in Isaan.