Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [426]
Rom Luang (08 7853 7136; 45/10 Th Prajak; dishes 40-150B; dinner) Though the menu is mainly Thai, most of the Yellow Umbrella’s best-known dishes, like sausages and kor mo yâhng (grilled pork neck), are Isan specialities. The handmade tables and chairs add flair, and the grills stay smoking until 5am.
Café Thasadej (0 4242 3921; 387/3 Soi Thepbunterng; dishes 60-375B; breakfast, lunch & dinner) Sophistication is in short supply in Nong Khai, but it oozes out of this little restaurant. Both the menu and liquor list, the latter among the best in town, go global. Gyros, Weiner schnitzel, fish and chips, lasagne, tuna salad and smoked salmon are some of the most popular options.
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GREAT BALLS OF FIRE
Mass hysteria? Methane gas? Drunken Lao soldiers? Clever monks? Or perhaps the fiery breath of the sacred naga, a serpentlike being that populates folkloric waterways throughout Southeast Asia. For many Lao and Thai who live by the Mekong River, it’s not a matter of whether or not to believe. Since 1983 (or for ages, depending on who you ask), the sighting of the bâng fai pá yah nâhk (loosely translated, ‘naga fireballs’) has been an annual event. Sometime in the early evening, at the end of the Buddhist Rains Retreat (October), which coincides with the 15th waxing moon of the 11th lunar month, small reddish balls of fire shoot from the Mekong River just after dusk and float a hundred or so metres into the air before vanishing without a trace. Most claim the naga fireballs are soundless, but others say a hissing can be heard if one is close enough to where they emerge from the surface of the river. People on both sides of the Mekong see the event as a sign that resident naga are celebrating the end of the holiday.
Naga fireballs have only recently come to the attention of the rest of Thailand. TV news has been reporting the annual sightings for years, but it wasn’t until the 2002 release of a comedy film based on the phenomena that Thais really began to take notice. Entitled Sìp Hâh Kâm Deuan Sìp èt (Fifteenth Waxing Moon of the Eleventh Lunar Month; the film was released with English subtitles under the curious title Mekhong Full Moon Party), the debut of the film not long before the scheduled event had the expected effect. Thousands of Thais from Bangkok and the rest of the country converged on the banks of the Mekong in Nong Khai Province and waited for the show to begin. Sadly, it rained that year. But that didn’t dampen enthusiasm and naga fireballs were witnessed right on schedule.
So what, you might ask, is the real cause behind naga fireballs? There are many theories. One, which was aired on a Thai TV exposé-style program, claimed that Lao soldiers taking part in festivities on the other side of the Mekong were firing their rifles into the air. Interestingly, the reaction to the TV program was anger and a storm of protest from both sides of the river. Some suggest that a mixture of methane gas and phosphane, trapped below the mud on the river bottom, reaches a certain temperature at that time of year and is released. Many assume that some monks have found a way to make a ‘miracle’. Whatever the real cause, few Thais will even entertain the suggestion of a hoax.
Naga fireballs have become big business in Nong Khai Province. Every year some 40,000 people invade little Phon Phisai, the locus of fireball watching, and thousands more converge on dozens of other riverside spots between Sangkhom and Khong Jiam in hopes of sightings. Special buses (28B) make the return trip at night, but don’t try to leave too late or you run the risk of not getting back. Several hotels run their own buses where you’ll get a guaranteed seat, plus Mut Mee Garden Guesthouse sails its boat there and back (2500B, including lunch and dinner).
If you don’t come with the right mindset, you