Khon Kaen    

Khon Kaen, with its 150.000 inhabitants is not only the capital of the province of Khon Kaen, but it is also the important commercial centre in Isaan. The city is located about 450 km from Bangkok.
We arrived the city with our rental car from Sukhothai, and took approximately 7 hours for the 400 kilometres. The first 100 kilometres, there were a lot of rice fields, then we went up in a steep winding road to the mountains. We thanked God that this route was splendidly constructed and not to much traffic and besides plenty of picnic and rest areas where the people offered the regional goods.

( Click for large image !)

The last 100 kilometres to Khon Kaen, it was flat again and comfortable to drive. Our GPS brought us directly to the hotel, despite several detours and road works.
Our hotel was just a dream, right now as we had visualized. From our room in the 18th Floor, we had a wonderful view over the city and the lake.  

We stayed here for 3 nights and so we had enough time to explore the city at all. Very nice is the large lake with the park around it. At the evenings and weekends there are many food stalls and stalls selling everything you like. The city has really no great tourist attractions but much more life.

Quite by accident we came along the Wat Pra Mahathat Kaen Nakhon. It belongs to the mainly sights of the city and was not found in our travel book which shows, that the cities of the Isaan are really not yet been explored completely by tourists. May be this was the reason that we like it here so well.
 

Of course, stroll through the local market is always a highlight for us even we have seen dozens of it, but it is never boring and there is always something new to see, to smell and to taste.

We enjoyed the time here very much, the city is so typical Isaan and in addition, our hotel was really a dream.

InterNet addresses: