Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [422]
The area came under several attacks by jeen hor (Yunnanese) marauders in the late 19th century. The Prap Haw Monument (ràhp hor means ‘defeat of the Haw’) in front of the former provincial office (now used as a community college) commemorates Thai-Lao victories over Haw invaders in 1886. When western Laos was partitioned off from Thailand by the French in 1893, the monthon capital was moved to Udon, leaving Nong Khai to fade into a provincial backwater.
The opening of the US$30 million, 1174m-long Saphan Mittaphap Thai-Lao (Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge) on 8 April 1994 marked the beginning of a new era of development for Nong Khai as a regional trade and transport centre. The skyline has been creeping slowly upwards ever since.
Orientation & Information
Nong Khai runs narrow along the Mekong River, and most of the hotels and restaurants are on or near the water in the western half of the centre of town. The bus terminal lies a semi-long walk away to the east while the train station and Friendship Bridge are about 3km back to the west.
BOOKSHOPS
Hornbill Bookshop (0 4246 0272; off Th Kaew Worawut; 10am-7pm Mon-Sat) Buys, sells and trades English-language books. It’s the best English-language bookstore in Isan.
EMERGENCY & MEDICAL SERVICES
Nong Khai Hospital (0 4241 1504; Th Meechai)
Tourist police (0 4246 0186; Th Prajak) Next to the naga fountain.
IMMIGRATION
Immigration Office (0 4242 3963; 8.30am-noon & 1-4.30pm Mon-Fri) South of the Friendship Bridge. Offers Thai visa extensions.
INTERNET ACCESS
Coffee Net (Soi Thepbunterng; per hr 30B; 10am-midnight) Free coffee and tea while you surf.
Oxy.Net (569/2 Th Meechai; per hr 20B; 9am-10pm)
MONEY
Siam Commercial Bank (Hwy 2, Big Jieng Mall; 10.30am-8pm) Has your foreign exchange needs covered after normal business hours.
POST
Main post office (Th Meechai; 8.30am-4.30pm Mon-Fri, 9am-noon Sat, Sun & holidays)
TOURIST INFORMATION
Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT; 0 4242 1326; Hwy 2; 8.30am-4.30pm Mon-Fri) Inconveniently located outside of town.
TRAVEL AGENCIES
Go Thasadej (08 1592 0164; www.gothasadej.com; Mekong Promenade; 10am-7pm) One of the most reliable, all-round travel agents in Thailand.
Sights & Activities
SALA KAEW KU SCULPTURE PARK
One of Thailand’s most enigmatic attractions, Sala Kaew Ku Sculpture Park (admission 20B; 8am-6pm) is a surreal, sculptural journey into the mind of a mystic shaman. Built over a period of 20 years by Luang Pu Boun Leua Sourirat, who died in 1996, the park features a weird and wonderful array of gigantic sculptures ablaze with Hindu-Buddhist imagery.
As he tells his own story, Luang Pu (a Lao national) tumbled into a hole as a child and met an ascetic named Kaewkoo. Kaewkoo introduced him to the manifold mysteries of the underworld and set him on course to become a Brahmanic yogi-priest-shaman. Shaking up his own unique blend of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, mythology and iconography, Luang Pu developed a large following in northeastern Thailand, which was his adopted home following the 1975 communist takeover in Laos, where he had been working on a similar project.
The park is a smorgasbord of bizarre cement statues of Shiva, Vishnu, Buddha and every other Hindu and Buddhist deity imaginable (as well as numerous secular figures), all supposedly cast by unskilled artists under Luang Pu’s direction. Some of the sculptures are quite amusing. If you’re travelling with kids, they’ll enjoy the serene and stately elephant wading though a pack of anthropomorphic dogs. The tallest sculpture, a Buddha seated on a coiled naga with a spectacular multiheaded hood, is 25m high. Also of interest is the Wheel of Life, which you enter through a giant mouth. It boils Luang Pu’s philosophies down to a single, slightly baffling image. An explanation is available