DAY 1

At around 10 o'clock, we depart towards the KHORAT plateau stretching over a large portion of the North-Eastern Thaï provinces. On coming near that large area, we discover, standing like a sentry, our first temple, WAT THEP PITAK, whose tall thirty-year-old statue of Buddha, 50-metre-high, weighing 6 thousand tons, overhangs the tableland. After that first stop, we'll have lunch in a typical restaurant with an extensive view over the great lake of LAMTAKLONG.

Then, we enter the Great natural mountain park of KHAO YAI, that harbours one of the largest forests in South-East Asia. We go into a jungle through which run only foot-paths and small roads, tended by the national park authorities. We wonder at the splendid waterfalls of NAM TOK HEW SUWAT. On our way, gibbons and macaques share the place.

The evening is drawing near and we get ready for our photo safari. After night-fall we board a vehicle from the park to dislodge some inmates who take advantage of dusk to feed and drink. Thus we can admire tens of hinds and, if we are lucky, we may catch sight of wild elephants, boars or a tiger and a leopard. The park shelters also a very important population of several species of hornbills.

After our nightly escapade, we'll have dinner at the BONANZA hotel (or the like) before having a good night's rest.

DAY 2

After breakfast we set off to explore the KHMER temples. Twenty kilometres North of KHORAT, we have a first stop at the PRASAT HIN PHOMON WAN, a Hindu temple (late 9th century) which nowadays is a sandstone structure probably dating from the 13th or 14th century.

We drive on about 25 kms towards the North-East and we reach BAN PRASAT, the oldest archeological site in the area. That site, with remains of earthenware and ceramics shows us that it was inhabited by an agricultural community as early as three thousand years back.

After the stop for lunch, we enter the National historical park of PRASAT HIN PHIMAI. Besides its own beauty, that temple is interesting for its surroundings. As a matter of fact, it is the only Khmer temple of the Angkor times of that importance that is still standing in the middle of a town.
Phimai is still alive, surrounded by the town whose lay-out has been the same for centuries. After that extremely learned day, we spend the evening and the night at NAKHON RATCHASIMA (formely KHORAT). We put up at the SIMA THANI hotel (or the like).

You can take advantage of that free late afternoon to have a ride around the rown in a cycle rickshaw. We have dinner somewhere in the town and a walk around the THANON MAMNAT night bazaar.

DAY 3

After breakfast at the hotel, we make our way to our first stop, DAN KWIAN, the potter's village where we watch the age-old skills of those craftsmen. Going on, we reach another small village: PAK THONG CHA. That village is very famous in Thaïland for silk-weaving. We'll enter one of its workshops to learn about that craft.

We travel on and after lunch, at about 70 kms from BURI RAM, we reach the famous Angkor style temple, erected from the 10th till he 12th century : PHANOM RUNG. That enthralling temple has two assets : it towers up above the neighbouring plain,, giving the impression to reach the sky, then we find it is decorated with superior artistry. A few kilometres further, we visit another structure ,the PRASAT MEUANG TAM, erected in the 11th century. That temple, girdled by ponds is called the -lower city- as opposed to the PRASAT PHANOM RUNG, perched on those two hills.

After that visit, we resume our journey Eastwards, along the Cambodia border through small villages and tilled fields. We'll stop at the -road-posts- in TA MEUEN. Those three small houses are situated amidst the jungle, on the boundary between Thaïland and Cambodia.The stairs leading to the last house, the TA MEUEN THOM which faces South is even already in the Cambodian territory. Those structures had been erected at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century on the main roads of the kingdom, every 15 to 20 kilometres.

We reach UBON where we spend the night at the LAI THONG Hotel (or the like) and have dinner in the town to taste the traditional Issan cooking. Ubon is the largest North-Eastern province and its capital is one of the most important towns in Thaïland. If you wish to do so, you will be able to saunter about the great night market open from dusk to dawn near the river.

DAY 4

After a good breakfast, we resume our tour, still Eastwards. We soon stop at PIBUN, a small village where we watch the local special craft : the making of gongs.

Further East, we reach the meeting point of the river MUN with the famous large river MEKONG. Where as foreign tourists are not numerous, the Thaï are fond of marvelling at the -two-coloured river- where the Mun and the Mekong entwine their two streams setting each other's colours off.

We go aboard a pirogue, drift with the current and mingle with the joining colours of the two rivers. Upstream on the River Mun for a few kilometres we come crates up-side and down across the bustling fishermen of this area. Here, they use mainly huge cone-shaped baskets to trap their catch.

We put up at the TOHSANG KHONGJIAM RESORT (according to their availability). We have lunch on the banks of the grand River Mekong. After the meal and a short rest, we start on our way to the PHA TEAM NATIONAL PARK. The tall cliff overhanging the Mekong is the most interesting sight of the place. That cliff is several-hundred-metre-long and is covered with over three-hundred-year-old rupestral paintings. They picture fish baskets, giant cat-fish, elephants. Above the cliff an information centre stands on the tableland where an exhibition about the local geology has been arranged.

We go back to the hotel for dinner and night sleep.

DAY 5

After breakfast we set out towards the nearly Lao border. We go through the customs first on the Thaï then on the Lao side. That administrative formality gives us the opportunity to mingle with the seething crowd characteristic in that sort of place. After having friven for over half an hour, we'll go over the Mekong and reach PAKSE hotel (or the like).

We have lunch at the hotel and have a first taste of the local special food.

We have a short rest, then we begin visiting that town situated by the River Mekong and its tributary, the River Saidone.That important village, made up of both traditional an modern housing, is criss-crossed with very wide streets. We'll stop at the WAT LUANG temple and its Pali school dating from the 19th century, then we reach the very busy local market, highly coloured and scented with all sorts of smells. You will notice many stalls with fish from the Mekong and a few cautions traders who are trying to sell big gaure such as deer on the quiet. Hunting those animals has been already forbidden for several years. Anyway, the villagers can find here all the necessary eatables, from meat at vegetables and fruit, without forgetting frogs, snails or river-crabs.

To-night, we'll have dinner at one of the numerous restaurant-boats along the river banks, and we'll take this opportunity to taste produce yielded by the generous Mekong.

DAY 6

We have breakfast and start around 8.30 for a tour on the great Bolovens plateau. Our first stop is at a small tea and coffee growing farm where we taste their very good quality produces.

hen we drive into a more wooded area, where we soon come upon the tallest more beautiful water-falls on the plateau, the TAPFANE falls, about 120 metre-high. We drive on to meet several ancient ethnical groups.

First we stop at the village of the Alak, whose religion is Brahmanism and hindouism, then at the Katou's. The latter are still polygamous. The Ho Chi Minh trail running along a teck plantation reminds us of the latest historical events. We have lunch and a little rest at a very ecologic resort situated on the torrent bank. Then we resume our way to meet more ethnic groups : the Tatsung the highland weavers of the Houey Houme village as far as the Pasuan falls made famous in Lao by a prince in the 7th century.Our local guide will enjoy telling you the real story or the legend.

We drive back to the hotel in the late afternoon and have dinner.

DAY 7

We have breakfast at dawn. Here, you can choose between two programs :

By car you discover the life of the different ethnic groups, the famous ruins of the pre-Angkorian temple Wat PHOU at CHAM PASSAK and the sparkling Mekong landscapes as far as the four thousand splendid wild islands.

After breakfast, departure towards Champassak. Half-way through, we stop to have a glance at some very old 4th century ruins dating from the brahma-nist period. We soon arrive at the famous uncommon pre-Angkorian temple, the Wat PHOU, listed as world heritage by UNESCO in 2001. We draw near it to observe the testimony of the past. The oldest structures left are deemed to date back to the 6th and 7th centuries, the time of the Kingdom of Chenla, and have been completed at the end of the Khmer times of Angkor (9th to 13th century).

The ancient sanctuary is composed of three levels, which are reached successively first by walking along a lane then climbing up steps edged by statues of lions and nagas. At the top level we find the theme of Krishna's story already met on the lintels of two temples seen in Thaïland, which shows that those three sanctuaries may have been linked. Near the last sanctuary, the "rock of the crocodile" indicates that human sacrifices were probably held in the Chenla age.

We go back to the present day to have dinner and spend the night in Paksé.

DAY 8

Breakfast and departure at around 8 o'clock. First, we drive southwards, then we change direction to go a few kilometres inland and have an about two hours' ride on elephant back through the forest, with a few stops in villages.

Then we resume our journey southwards. We are ferried with our car across the Mekong and reach the greater island in the area (rightly called the area of the 4000 islands), the KHONG island. We have lunch on the river bank, at a very genial restaurant. After the meal we drive around that river island, through several typical villages and stop for a while to understand the home-making of palm-sugar.

After another ferry-crossing we resume our way southwards to Cambodia. We leave our vehicle a few kilometres from the border and board a small long-tailed engine-craft to reach the KHON island, after having navigated for half-an-hour on the river numerous branches. We put up at a small hotel very tastefully built, the Sala Don Khon, where we have dinner and spend the night.

Mind : the light will be switched off at around 10 p.m.

DAY 9

After a French breakfast (Lao has inherited from France the taste and ability of making the morning good warm baguette) we walk or cycle (it's up to you) around that heavenly small island. We go along the old railway bridge which used to link the Khon island to its neighbour, the DET island. An ancient neglected locomotive testifies of that colonial past.

Less than 2 kilometres away, along the river, we arrive at the Li Phi water-falls, a very impressive series of rapids.

Between December and May, if you are very early-risers, you may be lucky and have a glimpse of the Irrawaddy dolphins on the South-Eastern end of the island.

Late in the morning, on board our long-tailed craft, we go back to our vehicle on land. It takes us a few kilometres further, where we come upon the splendid KHON PHA PHENG waterfalls, called "the Eastern Niagara Falls". We have a meal in a small refreshment place before making our way back to Paksé. We spend the night at the Paksé Hotel (or the like).

Dinner is taken in a typical popular restaurant in the town.

DAY 10

After breakfast, we drive back towards Thaïland. We cross the frontier at the same station and after about 1.30 drive, we arrive at Ubon where you will get a domestic flight to Bangkok. (about one hour's flight).