The Complete Guide to Nong Khai - More Than Just A Border Town
Straddling the eastern banks of the Mekong River, the town of Nong Khai acts as the border point between Thailand and Laos. With its thriving riverfront, bustling markets and amazing food, Nong Khai deserves more of your time than just a glance from the bus window as you cross the border. We spent several days in this charming little Thai town and this is our complete guide to Nong Khai, the gateway to Isan.
In this Guide:
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links.
Nong Khai is full of beautiful and unexpected sights.
Where is Nong Khai - Getting to the Border Town
Nong Khai sits right on Thailand's north-eastern border with Laos, one side facing the Mekong River the other into Thailand's Isan region. The name Nong Khai refers to both the province and the provincial capital, as is the case with many Thai towns and cities.
The town is around 613 km north-east of Bangkok and 35 km south of the Laotian capital of Vientiane.
You can find Nong Khai on Google Maps here.
Getting to Nong Khai from within Thailand
Nong Khai is a major border crossing, as such it has plenty of transport linking it to the rest of Thailand. Buses and trains are by far the easiest and most affordable way to get to Nong Khai from within Thailand.
If you wanted to fly, (backpacking budget meant we didn’t even consider this), you could catch a plane to Udon Thani Airport and then take a bus for an hour to Nong Khai.
Nong Khai by Bus
As with nearly every major town in Thailand, you can catch a bus from anywhere to everywhere. The local bus and minivan services are one of the amazing things about Thailand, they make it so easy to travel around. If you are outside of the Thai capital, head to the local bus station and ask, or check online with 12Go.
If you are travelling from Bangkok to Nong Khai the buses will depart from the Mo Chit Bus Terminal (sometimes called Mochit or Mochit II) near Chatuchak Park. You can find the bus station on a map here. You can book tickets online in advance with 12Go or directly at the bus station.
The bus can take between 9 and 14 hours to reach Nong Khai. The bus station in Nong Khai is located here, an easy walk into the centre of town.
Nong Khai by Train
Nong Khai Railway Station serves Bangkok, Udon Thani, Nakhon Ratchasima as well as a cross border service to Vientiane (more on this later).
You can find the Nong Khai Railway Station on a map here, it is a little way out of the main town but you can easily grab a tuk-tuk or songthaew into town from the train station.
The most common train route for travellers is Bangkok to Nong Khai. The trains leave Bang Sue Grand Station (also known as Krung Thep Aphiwat) up to four times daily, twice in the morning and twice in the evening, and takes around 9-10 hours to reach Nong Khai. There is another train that will take you all the way from Bangkok to Vientiane in Laos - see the next section for more details.
You can book tickets online here.
Getting to Nong Khai from Laos - Vientiane and the Thanaleng Border Crossing
From within Laos you will first need to get to Vientiane, once there you can catch a bus from the Central Bus Station here. There are buses that take you all the way to the Nong Khai Bus Station that leave every few hours. If you miss the direct bus to Nong Khai, then just catch a bus to the border itself - these buses leave much more frequently. The journey time from Vientiane Central Bus Station to the border will take around 35 - 40 minutes and will cost 18,000 kip for a ticket. The border buses are marked in English as "Friendship Bridge".
If you want to reserve a seat from Vientiane to Nong Khai in advance, you can book them online via 12Go. Check the options out as you can get a hotel pickup included this way.
Another way you may want to cross the border is via the newly opened train route. Two trains run per day between Vientiane (Khamsavath Station) and Bangkok Bang Sue Grand Station. If you are getting off at Nong Khai, the journey is really short, you’ll spend more time at the Immigration desk than on the train.
In the worst case scenario you could get a taxi to the border point. If you are making your own way to the Friendship Bridge / border, it is located here.
Crossing the Thanaleng Border
Once at the border you will have to show your exit card (don't worry if you lost it you can just fill in another), and get stamped out of Laos. You will then need to get a bus across the Friendship Bridge between the two countries. The bus costs 20 Thai baht. You can also pay in Laotian kip.
On the other side of the bridge pass through Thai customs and "voila" you are in Thailand. The border point is a little way outside of town (you can find it here), but it is a cheap tuk-tuk ride back into town.
The Thanaleng Border is listed as being open between 6am and 10pm every day.
Crossing the Thanaleng Border - by Train
If you are taking the short railway journey from Vientiane to Nong Khai you will get stamped out of Laos at Vientiane (Khamsavath Station) before you get on your train, and get stamped into Thailand at the Nong Khai Railway station when you get off.
If you are interested in crossing between Thailand and Laos by train, or want to know more about this route make sure you check out our article on the overnight train from Bangkok to Vientiane:
What To Do In Nong Khai
Nong Khai is hardly massive, but it still has plenty to do. We explored the town on foot and rented a scooter to get out into the surrounding Isan countryside and were surprised and delighted by what we found. There is so much to this region! Here are just a few of the highlights within easy reach of Nong Khai:
Nong Khai Riverfront - Bars, Temples and Statues
Nong Khai runs parallel to the Mekong and the town has taken great advantage of this. A massive promenade runs down the river's edge, with markets, temples, bars and street food spilling out down its length.
During the day the promenade is empty, except for a few people taking a stroll. It is a great way to get out and see some of the beautiful temples that line the river. Don't miss Wat Lamduan with its huge golden stupa and seated Buddha overlooking the Mekong. A little further east and you will find Wat Sri Sumang, with its prayer hall covered in painted scenes. At the far eastern end of the promenade is the gorgeous, white sided stupa of Wat Phrathat Lanong, or rather a replica of the wat…
You can see the tip of Phra That Klang Nam here, in droughts much more of the temple comes above the surface.
Out in the middle of the Mekong river is a curious shape wrapped in gold and saffron robes. The original Wat Phrathat Lanong (sometimes called Phra That Klang Nam) is a 15th century stupa that long ago tumbled into the Mekong. Said to house foot bones of the Buddha it is a holy site and you can catch boats from the shore to take a closer look, touch or leave offerings at the sunken temple. On shore the beautiful new Wat was constructed to honor the 72nd birthday of Queen Sirikit of Thailand.
Another famous feature of the riverside promenade are the enormous twin Naga Statues of Nong Khai. These monstrous mythical snake creatures tower over the river walk shining in green and gold occasionally shooting water out of their mouths! You cannot miss them if you are walking along the riverfront.
We did say the Naga were big!
Come sundown, Nong Khai's riverfront really comes alive. Dance and aerobic classes set up shop facing the river, whilst behind them, the bars open and spill tables onto the promenade. Street food stalls and shops open up all along the river and a few floating restaurants can be found on the water itself. On Saturdays the riverfront becomes the bustling heart of Nong Khai's Walking Street Market.
Tha Sadet Market
Nong Khai is a border town and that means markets! The Tha Sadet Market sprawls along the riverfront, its restaurants opening up onto the promenade outside. You can see the Tha Sadet Market here on Google Maps.
Inside the market you can find handicrafts, clothes and restaurants as well as a famous Vietnamese coffee shop and restaurant - Cafe Viet. The market stocks a bit of everything, from Thai souvenirs and Chinese temple offerings to outdoor activity equipment and lingerie!
You can find pretty much anything in a Thai market.
Tha Sadet Market is open all day and is well worth a nose around. Make sure you find the fish statues outside on the promenade - each one representing a species that can be found in the Mekong.
Nong Khai Central Market
(location)
If Tha Sadet Market is the border market, Central is the local one. Full of the fresh fruit, hustle and bustle and vibrant colours found in all Thai markets, the Central Market is the town’s local hub and heart. If you are looking for good cheap local Thai street food, this is a great place to start. We had a fantastic bowl of noodles and (on another occasion, we aren’t that greedy) a delicious bowl of congee, from stalls in the market. Both were generous, tasty and very cheap.
Chicken Rice or “Khao Man Gai” is everywhere and always delicious.
A bow of congee or “Jok” is always a great choice - try it, you wont be disappointed!
We were visiting Nong Khai just before Loi Krathong and the whole market was gearing up for the festival. Everywhere we looked, rainbows of flowers and complex, woven krathong looked back. If you have a chance to travel Thailand in or around Loi Kratong do - it is beautiful!
Loi Krathong
The festival of Loi Krathong happens every year on the 1st full moon during the 12th Lunar month. Loi Krathong translates (roughly, pardon our Thai) to “Floating Joy”. The festival honors Buddha and the Watergoddess. People come down to bodies of water to offer penance for sins and wash away bad luck. Traditionally this would be done by making a small raft from banana leaves, setting alight three incense sticks and letting the river take it away; these floating offerings are called krathongs. Over the years the krathongs have become more elaborate and now often feature woven naga, bouquets of flowers and sometimes even dolls and figurines. The offerings have changed but the sentiment of the festival stays the same. It is a beautiful thing to see if you have the chance, the Thai waterways light up with floating candles as the offerings drift downstream.
Wat Pho Chai
(location)
The chaos of the market stills and calms as it laps up against the neighbouring Wat Pho Chai, a gorgeous Thai temple with some of the most amazing temple artwork we have seen.
Outside the temple is grand, red gold and white, but inside it is a riot of color and artwork. Every wall is covered in intricate retellings of the life of the Buddha, as well as local legends and myths. It is well worth a little stop inside, just remember to dress appropriately!
Sala Keo Kou - Nong Khai Buddha Park
(location)
Bizarre and beautiful, that is how we would describe this unexpected treat. A lifetime's labour of love by the same spiritual artist that collected and built Vientiane's Buddha Park (Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat if you're curious), Sala Keo Kou is even more gigantic and strange than its Laotian brother.
There is a incredible mix of styles, influences and artistic license on display at the Buddha park.
After walking the whole length of the river promenade, we wandered a further half an hour down the backstreets of Nong Khai until we found ourselves in the surreal garden of statues. Firstly, these statues are HUGE! Massive multi-storey images of the Buddha towered over us. At ground level grand dioramas featuring multi-faced statues and many limbed (Hindu influenced) figures sit all around.
Look at the stalls for a sense these statues scale!
We wandered around for an hour taking in the intricate carvings, gargantuan scale statues and amazing stone storytelling. We caused a feeding frenzy of catfish when we bought some bread for the fish in the ponds and generally just had a great time.
There is a centre dedicated to Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat in the park - it even features his mummified remains, but there were a few families worshiping there and we didn't want to intrude.
Sala Keo Kou is much less famous than the Buddha Park in Vientiane and it was much less busy than when we visited the Laotian site. We mostly had the park to ourselves to explore without bothering anyone.
Entrance times and Ticket Prices.
Sala Keo Kou is open between 8am and 6pm everyday. Festivals may affect the opening hours.
Tickets for Nong Khai's Buddha park cost 40 baht per person for foreigners.
Exploring the Isan Countryside - The Sky Bridge of Wat Pha Tak Suea
(location)
Nong Khai is a gateway to the beautiful and lesser travelled, Isan region of Thailand. If you are looking for an excuse to get out of town and explore, then the Sky Bridge at Wat Pha Tak Suea is a great reason to investigate the countryside around Nong Khai. Just rent a scooter in town (our accommodation sorted this for us but there are places all over Nong Khai) and head out onto the roads of Isaan.
The Sky Bridge and temple are an hour and a half to two hours scooter ride west of Nong Khai.
On our way to the temple we stopped off in the market town of Tha Bo. This bustling town was really cool, full of busy markets and amazing food. We stopped off for a coffee at a super cute cafe down one of the town's side streets. Baan-Phee Coffee was the perfect pick me up for our drive to the temple.
The road to the temple mainly follows the Mekong river and takes you through towns, villages, farms and countryside. It is great fun exploring on the open road in Thailand, there is such a sense of freedom and it really feels like you have stepped away from the hostels and banana pancakes of the tourist hotspots. Eventually the road wiggled up the side of a mountain and we pulled into Wat Pha Tak Suea.
The temple itself is very impressive. Wat Pha Tak Suea sits high on top of a hill and is full of colourful statues and beautiful golden ornaments. Two enormous seven headed Naga’s guard the entrance, one emerald green and gold the other pink and gold. Golden clams hold glass jewels and ornamental treasures - the temple is seriously impressive!
Under construction…whoops!
We, however, had failed to do some pretty basic research before coming to the temple. The Sky Bridge, which allows you to walk off of the hill's crest, was closed. It was having some fairly major reconstruction work done.
This wasn't the massive let down you may think though, the view was still incredible! From the hilltop we could see right out over the hills and plains of Isan, the Mekong snaked away in front of us and, on the other side of the river, Laos stretched away to the horizon.
The view more than made up for our mistake.
After the temple we drove back towards Nong Khai, stopping for an amazing Isan lunch of grilled chicken and a seriously spicy som tam salad. The restaurant was fantastic, overlooking the Mekong. No English was spoken but with a little google translate there was no problem ordering. You can find the restaurant here on Google Maps.
Even without the Sky Walk, the drive, lunch and view had made it a great day out.
Som Tam - Papaya Salad, Gai Yan - Grilled Chicken. Very handy phrases to know if you are hungry!
We cannot tell if the Skywalk has reopened as of now. The Goggle reviews are all quite old except for one that seems to be talking about it pre-renovation. Check with a local in town when you visit Nong Khai and let us know in the comments!
There is plenty more to do in the area around Nong Khai, there are waterfalls, beautiful lakes and all manner of other attractions to see and do in the area. We were only in Nong Khai for a few days and it was during the dry season so we couldn't visit everything. Let us know what we missed in the comments!
Accommodation - The Best Places to Stay in Nong Khai
There are plenty of accommodation choices in Nong Khai. No matter your budget there will be a hotel, hostel or guesthouse to suit your style.
If you give Pikul some advance notice, they can come pick you up from the station or the border!
We are budget backpackers and found a perfect little hideaway at the Pikul Apartment Hotel. It looked like it has been trapped in time since the 1990's but we kind of loved that! Everything was clean, efficient and comfy and our room was huge with a good shower and a little balcony room.
The Pikul Apartments are located in the heart of town, but off on a side street so they are quiet and relaxed.
There are tons more accommodation options to choose from in Nong Khai, check out our handy map below for all your hotel and hostel options:
Eating and Drinking - The Best Food and Coffee in Nong Khai
It is hard to eat badly in Thailand, you have to really try to find a disappointing meal! Nong Khai is no exception, with hundreds of shophouse restaurants, street stalls and sit down bistros all serving fantastic food. We ate really well in our few days in Nong Khai and these are some of the stand out restaurants and street food we would recommend:
Golden Spoon - YouTube Recommended Congee
(location)
This one came on the recommendation of one of our favourite "food tubers" - Gary Butler AKA 'The Roaming Cook'. We had run into him a few days before in Vang Vieng (read more about that amazing town here) and he advised us that, if we like congee, which we do very much, we couldn't miss out on this place!
Congee is an odd meal, it is binary - there are those that have not had it, they think, "savoury pork porridge? Errr...nah...sounds grim". Then there are those that have had it and are now addicted. We have never met anyone who has had congee and not liked it!
Golden Spoon was very busy whatever time of day we passed it. On our first night in town we grabbed a couple of seats to see what the fuss was all about. It was fan-tas-tic! Some of the best pork congee we have ever had, their house made special jaew or chilli sauce set off everything amazingly. We ordered our pork congee with deep fried Chinese sausage which was excellent but, honestly, you could order anything here and have a delicious meal.
Cheers Gary!
Dee Dee Pochana - A Thai Chinese Feast
(location)
Once the sun has set over Nong Khai, the chairs come out and crowd the pavements at this Chinese style shophouse eatery. Crowds of people gather, sitting at the metal tables and eating delicious dishes of roasted meats, fried fish and Thai Chinese classics.
We had an amazing dinner here: fried catfish salad (not in any way at all a salad, more an uber crispy crunchy deep fried delight), morning glory in oyster sauce, fried rice and an amazing pork and mushrooms in a cashew nut sauce.
We are aware that we are quite greedy!
Greedy or not, who could resist!
Nong Khai Night Market
(location)
Around the crossroads and up the streets around Dee Dee Pochana is the everyday night market. Full of roti, grills, stir fries and curries there is something here for you no matter what you are craving. We had some fantastic Hat Yai style fried chicken (check out our article on Hat Yai here) at this market for an early dinner and have been thinking about it ever since!
If you are looking for some classic Isan food, there are barbeques roasting up chicken and plenty of som tam stalls to choose from.
You never know what you are going to find at a night market.
Wizard Coffee - Scrolls and Breakfast
(location)
Another recommendation from Mr Butler, the BB Wizard Coffee Truck can be found parked along the riverfront promenade. Open only in the mornings the Wizard serves breakfasts and fantastic coffees.
The wizard himself!
We loved the vibe and the aesthetic of the coffee shop truck, with its scrolls for menus and camp chair seating. The coffee is also seriously good and at a reasonable price.
Cake at Toeys
(location)
Sometimes you just need a sweet treat. Cake at Toeys was a little reward we gave ourselves for a long day out on the bike. The cakes are fantastic and the coffee brilliant. After a day out in the hot Thai sun the air conditioning was also a very welcome bonus!
Everywhere else - This is Thailand after all!
There are so many good restaurants, stalls and street food to try in Nong Khai. We couldn't possibly hope to cover all of them.
If your eating badly in Thailand - The problem is you!
From delicious chicken rice to flaky roti's there are loads of great dining options not on this list (or Google Maps for that matter!), just head out into the town and you will stumble on something delicious. As we mentioned in the “What to Do” section, there is some fantastic cheap food to be found in the central market.
Let us know in the comments if we have missed an especially good place to eat!
Where to Go After Nong Khai? Laos and Isan Await!
Being a border town Nong Khai is the gateway to Laos, it is an obvious pausing place between countries and makes a great final or first stop when coming from or going to Laos. The Laotian capital of Vientiane (check out our guide here), with its high speed rail and bus links, is only a short bus ride away from the border. If Laos is your next destination, Nong Khai is a good start.
A less travelled, but to us massively exciting route after Nong Khai is Isan. This huge region of Eastern Thailand hugs the Mekong and the border with Laos. Full of relatively unknown, but stunningly beautiful destinations we decided that an Isan exploration was what we would do after Nong Khai. From Nong Khai we would work away along the Mekong to Bueng Kan then Nakhon Phanom and Mukdahan before heading inland to more incredible places. We cannot recommend Isan enough. If, like us, you love getting off the well trodden tourist trails, eating delicious spicy food and going to some lesser known Thai gems, Isan is for you!
Isaan restaurants are worth the trip alone!
Conclusion - Is Nong Khai Worth Visiting?
Of course it is! Nong Khai is an interesting town, full of fantastic sights and amazing food!
Nong Khai is far more than just a border town to change buses in. The markets are vibrant and fun, the Buddha Park is unlike anything we have ever seen (including its brother across the water in Vientiane), and the food was phenomenal. We only wished we could have been in town for the weekend Walking Street and market ... next time we will time it right!
Nong Khai makes a fantastic first stop on a Laotian or Isan adventure. The town deserves your time and rewards your exploration.
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, why not save the pin below?
If you’re found this blog helpful, entertaining or you just fancy supporting us, please click the button below!
Come with us as we travel between Bangkok Thailand and Luang Prabang Laos. We catch the budget friendly, overnight express train from Bangkok to Vientiane before transferring to the Laos China high speed railway to Luang Prabang. Read our guide to find out which ticket to buy, ticket prices, train facilities and what to expect at the Nong Khai border.