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AROUND KHON KAEN

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Chonabot

This small town located 55km southwest of Khon Kaen is one of Thailand’s most successful silk villages. It’s known for producing top-quality mát·mèe. The Sala Mai Thai (Thai Silk Pavilion; no roman-script sign; 0 4328 6160; admission free; 8am-5pm Mon-Fri, from 9am Sat & Sun) is a silk-weaving museum on the campus of Khon Kaen Industrial & Community Education College where you can learn about the entire silk-making process, and even take a turn at a loom. Besides showing the simple wooden contraptions devised to spin, tie, weave and dry silk, there’s an exhibition hall upstairs that catalogues traditional mát·mèe patterns and a couple of typical northeastern wooden houses. It’s 1km west of town on Rte 229. The pavilion sells silk too, but most people buy from the myriad shops on Th Sribunreung, aka Silk Rd.

Buses bound for Nakhon Sawan, departing from Khon Kaen’s ordinary bus terminal, will drop you in Chonabot (2nd/1st class 44/53B, one hour, six daily). Or take just about any south-bound bus (2nd/1st class 34/43B, one hour) or train (9B, 30 minutes, 7.50am, 1.50pm and 3.50pm) to Ban Phai, where you can get a srng·ta·ou to Chonabot (10B, 20 minutes, every half-hour).

Prasat Puay Noi

The 12th-century Prasat Puay Noi (admission free; daylight hr) is the largest and most interesting Khmer ruin in northern Isan, though it can’t compete with even some of the not-so-famous ruins further south. About the size of Buriram’s Prasat Meuang Tam, but far less intact, the east-facing monument comprises a large central sandstone sanctuary surmounted by a partially collapsed prang and surrounded by laterite walls with two major gates. It has some good lintels left.

GETTING THERE & AWAY

By public transport from Khon Kaen, catch a bus (2nd/1st class 34/43B, one hour) or the 7.50am local train (9B, 30 minutes) to Ban Phai, then a srng·ta·ou to Puay Noi (30B, 30 minutes). The last srng·ta·ou back to Ban Phai leaves at 2pm.

If you have your own wheels, head 40km south from Khon Kaen on Hwy 2 to Ban Phai, then east on Hwy 23 (signposted to Borabu) for 11km to Rte 2301. Follow it and Rte 2297 for 24km southeast through a scenic tableau of rice fields to Ban Puay Noi.

Phu Wiang National Park

Uranium miners discovered a giant patella bone in this region in 1976. Palaeontologists then unearthed a fossilised 15m-long herbivore later named Phuwianggosaurus sirindhornae (after Her Royal Majesty, Princess Sirindhorn). Dinosaur fever followed (explaining the epidemic of model dinosaurs in Khon Kaen), more remains were uncovered and Phu Wiang National Park (0 4335 8073; admission 400B) was born.

Enclosed excavation sites (8.30am-4.30pm) – including one with a partial skeleton of Siamotyrannus isanensis, an early ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex – can be easily reached by trails from the visitor centre or nearby parking areas. Park guides (some speak a little English) offer free tours of the bone sites if you call in advance. Those who want to explore further (best done by car or mountain bike) will find dinosaur footprints, waterfalls and prehistoric cave paintings.

The Phu Wiang Museum (0 4343 8204; admission free; 9am-5pm), 5km before the park, has geology and palaeontology displays, including full-size models of the dinosaur species that once lived in the area. Kids will love it.

The park has one six-person bungalow (0 2562 0760; www.dnp.go.th/parkreserve; 1200B) and a campsite (per person with own tent 30B, 3-/6-person tent hire 225/450B). Simple food is available.

GETTING THERE & AWAY

The park entrance is 90km west of Khon Kaen. Buses from Khon Kaen’s ordinary bus terminal stop in Phu Wiang town (ordinary/2nd class 35/47B, 1½ hours, every half-hour). It’s best to get off downtown (not at the bus terminal) where you can hire a túk-túk (one way/return 200/400B) or motorbike taxi (one way/return 150/350B) for the remaining 19km to the park entrance. If you only pay for a one-way trip you’ll risk not being able to get a ride