Three days Northwestern Eesan

[gerhardveer]

It was a nice 1100km-Trip from Roi Et - route and roads you can see in the first picture. The main points ChiangKhan - Erawan-Cave - Nong Khai are in red letters, the other letters show the highway-numbers.

First day we drove from Roi Et to Chiang Khan. It is a nice small town with beautiful old wooden houses and many guesthouses. Most interesting times are the evening with night market and good food and the early morning ( about 6am ) when many people are sitting in the street waiting for the monks.

 

[gerhardveer]

If you have time, drive the "highway" 2195 westernly from Chiang Khan till the crossroads with road 2115. Many holes, sometimes narrow, but one of the most beautiful roads I drove in Thailand! About 50 km's - first part with about 16 km's along Mekong river with beautiful view to Laos and large forests. Deplorable is the massive increasement of rubber plantations in the last years - I fear the rests of natural forests will diappear the next years. It's the northwestern Eesan outback with no tourism - noone looks there for nature's protection...

When you reach the crossroads with road 2115 (17.703680, 101.412771 ) , follow this road till crossroads with 2399 (17.625045, 101.422334 ) and drive there till road 203 (17.446282, 101.466633 ) - there drive eastward to Loei (2115-203: 33 km's). Those 33 km's lead you through beautiful wooded mountains with many curves - don't drive fast but enjoy the landscape, sometimes there are big "waves" in the road caused by underwashing....
Next station maybe Loei for a break - we drove through to the Highlight of our trip: the huge and awesome-impressive Erwan-Cave ( Point "H" in the map - 17.34533 102.01906 ) As there is already much written, see the links below! Only some few words: Take water with you - it is a thirsty trip / good shoes aren't a mistake / take care walking in the dark cave, there maybe slippery spots...

English:
http://www.udonmap.com/udonthaniforum/erawan-cave-t14797.html
http://www.showcaves.com/english/th/misc/Erawan.html
Deutsch:
http://udon-news.com/de/blog/erawan-cave

We continued driving via Nong bua Lamphu / Udon to Nong Khai. Because it's well known, also here only a few words: Every saturday evening from 17-20h there is a night market with a beautiful atmosphere at the Mekongpromenade. What you should see is the bizarre Wat Kaek or Sala Keaw Ku
See my album:
https://www.facebook.com/gerhardveer/media_set?set=a.589348101129270.1073741856.100001622563665&type=3)

English:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Nong_Khai
Deutsch:
http://wikitravel.org/de/Nong_Khai

And now have pleasure looking the pics or visiting those beautiful places...

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[DavidFL]

Wow! That's quite a cave. Thanks for sharing that.