8 - 9 th Feb, 2013
With Pak Chong literally behind us, we had roughly 230 km in front of us before we’d reach Khon Kaen. The roads themselves in Thailand are good, however, as we all know the traffic rules and load limits can be another story.
Being sugar cane harvest time many of the trucks are filled higher than high. On two occasions during our trip, we witnessed trucks that had come to grief, no bends in the road!...maybe a gust of wind?
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| Not a sugar cane truck |
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| Lunch stop |
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| Khon Kaen |
As we entered Khon Kaen we retrieved Ning Nong from the console to locate our lodgings for the night. And, as she guided us around town, Stray spotted a nice looking yellow building down a lane, not from from Fairy Plaza Shopping Mall.
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| The Money Place Hotel - Khon Kaen |
With the name like ‘The Money Place’, which is opposite the still under construction, orange, ‘The Rich Home’, we couldn’t go wrong ;) A very newish and acceptable hotel indeed. Decorated simplistically and containing a fridge, large soft bed, small dining area, ample bench and storage, sat TV and air con the rooms were more than adequate, spacious and clean. You can find them on Facebook
here.
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| All the rooms opened out onto external walkways/verandas |
We happened to be visiting on a Friday when the walking street night markets are held, only a short walk north from Fairy Plaza on Na Muang Road. I forget exactly which street on the right it is, but you can’t miss the stalls and people and naturally, there’s 7 Eleven on the corner. Not the biggest night market I’ve been to, but plenty of trinkets and reasonably priced (tagged) clothes. Stray had bargained and bought shorts for 350 baht in Pattaya, here they were on the rack for 200 baht.
And food, lots of food, so that’s where we stopped for dinner. Sorry, no photos.
With not much time allocated to our morning activities (I’m already starting to wish we had more time up our sleeves) we asked the girls at reception where we could find breakfast = boiled eggs and if at all possible, toast. They gave us directions, in Thai, back to the same street that hosted the markets the night before with the land mark of ‘???? red’. *Umbrellas, I see red umbrellas, that must be it! We ordered and ate our boiled eggs accompanied with those little donut pastries (which double as soldiers/toast fingers) and coffee strong enough to fuel a small jet plane.
Tummies full, we packed up the car and took a short drive to see the Nine Storey Stupa (or Phra Mahathat Kaen Nakhon) located in Wat Nong Waeng, near Kaen Nakhon Lake.
50 metres square, 80 metres high and adorned with temple bells, it makes a pretty sight and sound. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go inside, which is a shame after reading
Wiki’s description of its contents.
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| Across the lake |
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| Pedal paddle boats |
We wandered down to the lake and around the park, which was fairly deserted apart from many trees and quite a few sculptures. I’m sure there was much more to see and places to visit, but alas, Nong Khai was awaiting our arrival.
*LIGHT, it was 'red light' as in traffic light - fai daeng! As luck would have it the red umbrellas belonged to the street cafe next to the traffic lights.
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6 comments:
Snap - Great pictures. The weather looks a bit cool and overcast, perfect for walking. I've travelled through Khon Kaen many times but only stayed there once. I much prefer Udon Thani. Did Ning Nong direct you to Central Plaza and empty out your purse?
@Martyn The days of emptying out my purse have long gone...how many trinkets can one buy and lug home! ;) We experienced quite cool mornings and evenings during our trip (even in BKK), with the expection of Chiang Mai, it was a nice change from the usual hot humid days.
The hotel you stayed in looks nice.
I stayed in one similar in Hua Hin. It was clean, air conditioned, had a big TV and cable and incredibly lovely staff. For 600 baht a night, I thought it was an incredible deal.
BTW, even though I've been living in Thailand for more than a decade I still haven't seen much of Khon Kaen. Your photos reminded me I need to get back there. Soon :)
@Rachel Thanks so much for dropping by Rachel :) Do you remember the name of the Hua Hin hotel? HH is on my 'must visit one day' list. Khon Kaen was very pretty!
Where are you living/have been living in LOS?
hi Snap. although i've driven around the lake many times, i never stopped and walked down to it. i used to eat at the Chinese restaurant that juts out onto the lake. it's a nice place to hang out. take care, Snap.
@MJ Klein If we'd had more time, it would have been nice to walk around the lake :)
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