Accommodation Close To Tha Bo.

[Shrubbery]

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.

[StevenHeidbriderSr]

I would go to the Mut Mee in Nong Khai

[jazsnake]

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...

Edited April 22, 2013 by jazsnake

[GuyL]

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.

[montrii]

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.