Does anyone have any recommendations for a reasonably decent place to stay for a couple of nights close to Tha Bo, near Nong Khai.

Thanks in advance.

I would go to the Mut Mee in Nong Khai

Highly recommend the following in Thabo: http://banthaithabo.com/pub/enindex.php. If you are in Thabo, make sure to visit Dawn's Papaya Salad Shop near

Wat Suk Gel -- Rated as the Best in Thailand...

Highly recommend the following in Thabo: http://banthaithabo.com/pub/enindex.php. If you are in Thabo, make sure to visit Dawn's Papaya Salad Shop near

Wat Suk Gel -- Rated as the Best in Thailand...

Hello, Jazsnake!

When did you stay at Banthai Thabo? It's a nice place indeed, but I've been told that the resort is now closed.

Ah, it always makes me nostalgically sad to think about the old days. Tha Bo was my first Peace Corps assignment in 1965. I was the only Westerner who lived there, and it was in a room of the school where I taught. There was an American Catholic priest who occasionally came through and stayed a night or two, making rounds on his motorcycle, but not too many farangs came through at all. Boats crossed to the Lao side constantly - at the time the sandbar/island had not been formed which now blocks the view of Laos from the street closest to the river. There was no Nongkhai bridge, nor a thought that one would be needed. There was one road through town, pavement ended 100 feet before and after Tha Bo, and no river road from Nongkhai - you had to come over 20km of dirt road from the Friendship Hwy just to get there. I still go back fairly often to see my former students & the few fellow teachers who still live there, or are living, but the place is unrecognizable, and growing more impersonal by the year. My Matayom school had 200 students; that's long gone, and the "new" one has about 3000, and a marching band. There was one telephone in town that I knew of - at the post office - and now, of course, everybody has cell phones. And cars. And there's a 7-11 which is so crowded it's sometimes hard to get in.

I can see coming the day when Tha Bo will be bart of what will be called "The Greater Vientiane Metropolitan Area." And . . . Vientiane in the old days, that is another story . . . how weird to see that charming little town with its hints of French architecture turning into just another urban sprawl, with Toyota dealerships and . . . on and on, and packed with farangs passing through for a week or two who think they're seeing something quaint and primitive.

Anyhow, the place still has a little of the old charm left, just a little, and if you can find a nice bungalow to stay along the river, more power to you. Enjoy what's left, and enjoy the sweetness of the fun-loving people of Isaan.