Thread: A daytrip from Ubon Ratchathani

Khong Jiam is where the Rivers Mun and Mekhong meet, it offers several nice riverscapes, and some decent riverside eating. Up the road is the Pha Taem national park- must get there one day. Early risers can see the first dawn in Thailand too-










We sat down and had a nice enough meal on our usual floating barge restaurant. None of those absolute whopper Mekhong giant prawns available this time though- merely large ones this time, but certainly tasty. A bit of pleasant banter revealed the Waitresses are from Laos- where, it would seem, a 2000 bht per month salary is quite ample to make the daily river crossing worthwhile.

I like Khong Jiam. It is picturesque, laid back, but with enough low key tourism to give a bit of added variety for a town of this size. There is even a low key 'karaoke' scene (nudge wink) here, featuring young ladies from Laos. A border town certainly has it's benefits- I could think of much worse places than here to live.

Of course there is no border crossing in Khong Jiam. Officially. Turns out, as of January 2010 anyway, that is a downright benefit.

Shall we visit Laos, the dodgy way??