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Northeastern Thailand

The sprawling northeast plateau is bordered to the north of the Mekong River and Laos, and to the south largely by Kampucha. The Northeast is a distinctive region its topograph of forested mountains and rolling farmland, its colourful inhabitants, and because of archaeo- logically significant excavations and shrines -- such as' Ban oldest Bronze Age civilisation Chiang, where the world's prasat Hin (stone flourished some 5,600 years ago, and castle) temples, legacy of the Angkor-centred Khmer empire.

      Major places of interest include Khao Yai National Park some 200 kilometres northeast of Bangkok; Nakhon Ratchasima, 256 kilometres northeast of Bangkok; the 11th century prasat hin temple at Phirnai; Khon Kaen, a university town some 450 kilometres from Bangkok and famous for its Mat Mi silk; Loei province's Phu Kra Dung National Park, a crisply beautiful forested plateau between 1,000 and 1,350 metres where night-time temperatures often approach freezing point; the scenic Si Chiangmai to Nongkai road which largely parallels the Mekong River; Udon Thani's Ban Chiang village and museum which houses priceless Bronze Age jewellery and pottery excavated from local burial mounds; Nakhon Phanom's Phra That Phanom, the most revered Northeast shrine; Ubon Ratchathani, 647 kilometres from Bangkok, which introduces the annual Buddhist Rains Retreat with a lovely Candle Festival; Yasothon, where each summer, homemade rockets are launched to "ensure" bountiful rain; Surin. a site of the world-famous Elephant Round-Up each November; and Buriram's Prasat Hin Phanom Rung, a lovely Khmer sanctuary formerly connected by road with Angkor.