The most beautiful view of the Mekong — where Thailand faces Laos across a lotus-filled river
Nakhon Phanom is a small city on the upper Mekong River in northeastern Thailand (Isaan), facing the Lao city of Tha Khaek across the river. It is consistently cited as having the most beautiful Mekong riverfront in Thailand — a long promenade lined with colonial French-influenced shophouses, with the forested hills of Laos rising directly across the water and the Mekong at its widest and most serene. The city has a strong Vietnamese immigrant community (descended from Viet Minh supporters who fled here in the 1950s), making the food scene an unusual fusion of Thai Isaan and northern Vietname…
Nakhon Phanom was a significant regional centre in the ancient Lao Lan Xang kingdom before coming under Siamese control. The French colonial border placed the Mekong as the boundary between Thailand and French Indochina, leaving Nakhon Phanom on the Thai side facing the French protectorate of Laos. During the Vietnam War (1960s–70s), the US military operated a large airbase here (Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base) used for covert operations against the Ho Chi Minh Trail; its presence explains much of the city's current infrastructure.