[landofsmiles]

Part 1>>>

Needed to do a border run for a 90-day stamp and as I know a lady in Ubon Ratchathani which is about 100k from the Laos border thought it an opportunity to see another part of "real" Thailand as opposed to "disneyland" Phuket.

Flew AirAsia...5400baht roundtrip....3 hour connection at BKK eachway. Flight arrives Ubon 3pm. ThaiAir have 3 flights a day from BKK too. The airport is right alongside the city and with over 800,000 inhabitants it was a lot bigger than I expected. Many people seem to confuse Ubon (Ratchathani) with Udon (Thani) and think they're the same place but look on the map and you'll see UDon is in the north part of Isaan...UBon is to the east.

Only took a few minutes on the back of my friends bike to the Regent Palace Hotel just off the main 3-lane highway (Chayangkul Road) that runs south/north through Ubon. 650baht/night included breakfast...I'd give it about 3*...was good enough for me. Couldn't stay with my friend in her room as she has one of her sons living with her and she's no longer "that sort" of friend as she's engaged to a guy from the US and now has a settlement visa to go and live there once the custody battle is resolved to get her other son away from her ex-husband.

No internet in the hotel but there's a shop in the road alongside...10baht/hour!...bit noisy though full of kids playing games much of the time. Found a car/bike rental shop a couple of streets up and rented a bike for 1000baht for a week.

Ubon is not a tourist destination and has no big attractions other then the Candle Festival at the end of July and there's really nothing much to see as a visitor apart from the large park at the south end of the city that gets busy every evening with people jogging along the path next to the waterfilled moat full of fish that runs around the edge of the park and 100's doing organised dancerobics!

I liked having days around Ubon when I didn't see another farang...went into BigC at the weekend when it was heaving yet still didn't see one. Only saw 4 or 5 others the whole week.

It was good to get out on the bike and ride out of town into the countryside. All around Ubon it is very FLAT and ricefarming is the main activity. You can see in the pics below a typical "farm" behind the village of Pa Ao about 15k north of Ubon...a few rai of land with the house, usually a few cows or waterbuffalo and some chickens. If your girl says she's going home to work on the farm...this is where she SHOULD be.

The Moon River (not sure if it's the same one Andy Williams? sang about!) runs past Ubon on its' way to the Mekong and one afternoon we rode down road 23 to Had Ku Dua where there are dozens of raft restaurants floating on the river and had a very peaceful afternoon there, eating and sleeping only being disturbed occasionally by women coming alongside in boats with fruit to sell plus assorted fried insects and beetles; small frogs and crabs and even black scorpions which I passed on, sometimes a sandcarrying barge would chug past or a longboat rowing crew in training.

We pigged out all afternoon on big freshwater prawns; a whole roast chicken; fried vegetables; lychees; longan; rambutan; 2 big bottles of Leo for me and fried bugs for her and her son...total cost 400baht. It gets really busy at weekends with locals...the afternoon we were there though the only other people around were some off-duty policemen with a few college girls! Definitely recommend it as a great way to experience some "real" Thailand - a world away from the "disneyland" tourist areas.

The Regent has a Spa attached to it...had to take a pic of the sign near the entrance! If you want a proper Thai Massage though I'd recommend the Spa and Holistic Massage shop 2 streets north of the Regent. Very tastefully decorated; large individual massage rooms with TV and piped music and 300baht for 2 hours. After a Patong massage lady had put me in hospital, in Ubon a lady called Narm restored my faith in Thai massage...she was that good I went back for a second go although that time was spoilt slightly by the Thai Air Force launching some F16s from the base at Ubon airport to do circuits...and the shop is right on final approach to the runway.

There's a fair amount of nightlife in Ubon but naturally the set up is Thai for Thai which means mostly karaoke bars (where ladies are available)...500baht ST appeared to be the going rate...not that I indulged. There's a few massage places about where specials are on the menu like PP Massage behind the Regent Palace and others that you need a Thai to tell you what and where they are as all the signwriting is in Thai on the darkened windows.

There's a few "western" style bars such as the Swing Party bar; Cowboy and Indian; Playboy bar with a live band. In a corner of the Pathumrat Hotel carpark...a few hundred metres from the Regent, is the Felice Club which has Coyote dancers that are barfineable....don't ask me how much though.

The big difference going to a bar in Ubon opposed to one in Patong is that most of the customers are Thai men. Another noticeable difference travelling around Ubon is unlike Patong where the girls go around wearing very little and with their @rsecheeks poking out the bottom of their shorts, in Ubon they are fairly well covered up wearing jeans or the office/shopworkers and the uni/polytechnic girls are in their black skirts and white or blue blouses.

Pics below...sorry poor quality...need a new camera>>>>

1. Typical farm
2. Regent Palace Spa sign
3. Ubon airbase gate guardians
4. Had Ku Dua raft restaurant on the Moon River
5. Mother and son in the Moon river
6. Rowing training

Part 2 to follow...the border run to Chong Mek