Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [449]
Goodmook* (0 4261 2091; 414/1 Th Song Nang Sathit; dishes 70-380B; breakfast, lunch & dinner) This fun place has all the ingredients of a travellers’ cafe – a mix of Thai and Western food (ôm yam to T-bone), free wi-fi, art on the walls – except a room full of travellers. Though many of those who do stop in Mukdahan longer than needed to change buses do cosy up here at some point. Bike hire is 100B per day and the management intends to lead tours.
Getting There & Away
Mukdahan’s bus terminal (0 4263 0486), which has a good coffee shop to tide you over during your wait, is on Rte 212, west of town. To get there from the centre, take a yellow srng·ta·ou (10B, 6am to 6pm) from Th Phitak Phanomkhet near the fountain. There are buses to Nakhon Phanom (ordinary/1st class 52/92B, two hours, hourly) going via That Phanom (ordinary/air-con 28/50B, one hour), and also to Khon Kaen (2nd class 155B, 4½ hours, every half-hour), Ubon Ratchathani (ordinary/1st class 80/144B, 3½ hours, hourly) and Yasothon (2nd/1st class 81/104B, two hours, 10 daily). There are three Bangkok (2nd/1st class 390/502B, 10 hours) departures between 8am and 9am and many more from 4.30pm until 8.45pm including a 24-seat VIP service (818B, 8.30am, 8pm and 8.15pm) with 999 VIP (0 4261 1478).
If you’re driving to Ubon Ratchathani, Hwy 212 will zip you there in about three hours, but if you can spare a whole day, take the Mekong-hugging backroads through a gorgeous and rarely visited stretch of rural Thailand.
Boats continue to connect Mukdahan with Savannakhet, Laos, though these days they’re for Thai and Lao only. When taking the buses to Savannakhet (weekday/weekend 45/50B, 45 minutes, hourly 7.30am to 7pm) all border formalities for foreigners are handled during the crossing: the border-pass office at the bus station is for Thais only.
AROUND MUKDAHAN
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Phu Pha Thoep National Park
Although little more than a speck of a reserve at just 48 sq km, hilly Phu Pha Thoep National Park (0 4260 1753; admission 100B), also known as Mukdahan National Park, has some beautiful landscapes and is scattered with unusual mushroom-shaped rock formations. The main rock group sits immediately behind the visitor centre, and wildflowers bloom here in October and November.
Besides the weird rocks there are several clifftop views, where pretty much only forest is visible around you. Also popular is Nam Tok Phu Tham Phra, a scenic waterfall (May to August only) with a grotto atop it holding hundreds of small Buddha images. It only takes a couple of hours on the well-marked trails to see all of these, though you’ll need to scale some ladders to reach them. Tham Fa Mue Daeng, a cave with 5000-year-old hand paintings, is an 8km drive from the main park area. If you’d rather walk through the forest, you’ll need a park guide.
For accommodation, you have a choice of camping (per person with own tent 30B, 3-/5-person tent hire 300/600B) or the three-bedroom bungalow (0 2562 0760; www.dnp.go.th/parkreserve; 1800B) that can sleep six.
The park is 15km south of Mukdahan off Rte 2034. Srng·ta·ou (20B, 30 minutes) to Amphoe Don Tan (which leave from the bus terminal in Mukdahan every half-hour) pass the turn-off to the park entrance. Hitching the last 1.3km to the visitor centre isn’t tough, or you can try to bargain with the srng·ta·ou drivers (try for 30B) to have them detour off their route and take you. Less-frequent Kham Marat buses also pass the turn-off, and the 5pm service is your last guaranteed ride back to town.
Old Highway 212
Travelling north of town along the old route of Hwy 12, which never strays far from the Mekong, offers a lovely look at traditional Thai life and makes a fantastic bike trip: Goodmook* (opposite) and Huanam Hotel, ( Click here) in Mukdahan hire out bikes.