The Northern Isan tour just ended has given me the opportunity to finally complete visits to all this region's provinces, 20 in all. Bueng Kan was the final one, but I also needed to stay a while in Maha Sarakham, a province I had only passed through before. From this province I reached Nong Khai, Bueng Kan's neighbour too as little was covered in Nong Khai on previous visits. The problem I had throughout was time, just 10 days to cover an area with its furthest point 744 kilometres from Bangkok. Ten days was the best I could do without delaying these visits until next year, but the tour would have been more comfortably conducted over two weeks. The question is, did I achieve enough coverage of these provinces so that it was unnecessary to visit them in the future? I believe the answer is yes but as with all other provinces there is always more to discover.
As regards Maha Sarakham, this is a small province and quite easy to cover. I was surprised to find Khmer ruins and other historic sites here which made the effort totally worthwhile.
With Nong Khai there have been recent visits but with no focus on totally exploring the province. My first visit was before this website came into being. With Nong Khai, its natural areas are in the west and one regret is that I didn't adequately explore the more remote areas where the waterfalls are. Possibly because of high water I didn't find the area on the banks of the Mekong River particularly attractive as I did in Ubon Ratchathani earlier this year in the dry season.
So, it was Bueng Kan which attracted most of my attention knowing it had some iconic natural attractions. Bueng Kan is quite a new province which to its east is very much the same as Nong Khai on the bank of the Mekong River. In this area I did locate some interesting views into Laos. The city itself is unremarkable, the best natural attractions are all to the east. We arrived in Bueng Kan during the annual Ok Phan Sa Festival signifying the end of Buddhist Lent. One thing became apparent in Nong Khai: The long weekend extended to Monday and the 28th and 29th became a real challenge with everywhere either fully booked or charging inflated prices for accommodation. As well as the festival itself, this area is also famous for firework displays as if they intended attacking Laos across the river. On a more limited scale, Laos fires back. On the Monday we started exploring the eastern districts of the province. The highlight of the entire tour came on this day with a visit to Phu Sing. There were crowds here to visit this amazing natural attraction which helped in spreading the cost of transport to visit the natural features of Phu Sing. Unfortunately, things went a bit downhill from there. Either because of time, my limited mobility and/or the Parks' tourist tax I wasn't able to partake in some key attractions. This continued into the Tuesday with only the minor attractions visited. The foreigner tax of up to 400 baht means you really need to spend time at each location to justify paying it. As mentioned, I hadn't allowed for that and there were plenty of other sites to visit.
The main thing is that I attempted to get to these locations so I can record them on my visit list but obviously not able to review them or take photographs. In terms of coverage, while there was room for improvement, I would not consider a revisit, especially due to the travelling involved. It was this traveling; we covered some 2,800 kilometres, coupled with the higher accommodation cost that sent this tour well over budget.
If I compare this with other tours, Ubon Ratchathani in April for example, this tour only briefly reached that level and in that sense, I am relieved that the job got done without any mishaps.
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