Known by Thais as I-San, the sprawling
Northeast Plateau is bordered to the north and east by the Mekong
River and Laos, and to the south largely by Kampuchea.
The Northeast is a distinctive region thanks to a topography of lovely
forested mountains and national parks and rolling farmland-, to its
colourful inhabitants who speak their own melodious dialect, have
a delicious highly spiced cuisine, and a hospitable, vibrant and oftentimes
boisterous folk culture; and because of archaeologically significant
excavations and shrines - - such as Ban Chiang where the world's oldest
Bronze Age civilisation flourished some 5,600 years ago,- and venerable
prasat hin (stone castle) temples, legacy of I-San's former importance
to the Angkor-centred Khmer empire.
Khao Yaii National Park, northeast of Saraburi and some 200 kilometres
from Bangkok, covers parts of four provinces at an average elevation
of 800 metres. Khao Yai is some 540,000 acres in area, has a highest
peak of 1,351 metres and contains within its rain forests and high
grasslands numerous species of protected wildlife, such as deer,
bears, tigers, elephants, giant hornbills, sunbirds and silver pheasants.
The park is laced with hiking trails, and has 10 rapids and waterfalls.
 Nakhon
Ratchasima
259 kilometres northeast of Bangkok, is the gateway to I-San. 56
kilometres to the northeast of provincial capital lies Phimai, site
of an 11 th-century prasat hin temple, one of the loveliest examples
of classical Khmer architecture found outside Kampuchea. The complex
occupies land within boundary walls measuring 250 x 280 metres and
was sufficiently important to have been connected by road with Angkor.
Other major I-San attractions include Khon
Kaen, a university town some 450 kilometres from Bangkok
in I-San's geographic centre and famous for its Mat Mi silk; Loei
province's Phu Kra Dung National Park, a crisply beautiful forested
plateau between 1,000 and 1,350 metres where night-time temperatures
sometimes drop to near freezing point, and the Kaeng Khut Khu rapids
at Chiang Khan; the scenic Si Chiang Mai to Nongkhai road which
largely parallels the Mekong River; Udon Thani's Ban Chiang village
and museum which house priceless Bronze Age jewellery and pottery
excavated from local burial mounds; Nakhon Phanom's Phra That Phanom,
the most revered Northeast shrine, the spire of which dates from
the 9th century; Ubon Ratchathani, 629 kilometres from Bangkok,
which introduces the annual Buddhist Rains Retreat with a lovely
Candle Festival, and the pre-historical rock paintings at Pha Taem
in Khong Chiam district near the Mekong River; Yasothon, where,
each summer, massive homemade rockets are ceremoniously fired into
the air to "ensure" bountiful rains; Surin, where an annual
Elephant Round-Up each November attracts visitors from all over
the world; and Buri Ram's Prasat Hin Phanom Rung, a lovely hilltop
Khmer sanctuary once connected by road with Angkor.
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