Undiscovered Isan – 8 Days

Head north-east out of Bangkok, stopping at the market in Klang Dong, where stalls overflow with local fruit, vegetables and regional produce. Then continue into Khao Yai National Park.

Lunch today is at your own choice.

Khao Yai was Thailand’s first national park, opened in 1962, and its forests are part of a UNESCO World Heritage site recognised for the variety of their wildlife and plants. Walk into the heart of the park on the trail to the Haew Suwat waterfall before checking in to your hotel.

Drive north towards Nakhon Ratchasima, the gateway to Isan, still known to most locals as Korat. On the way, stop in Dan Kwian, a village known for its rust-coloured pottery. In Korat, visit the memorial to Thao Suranari, also called Ya Mo, the local heroine who led resistance against a Lao invasion in the 19th century.

Head north to the archaeological site of Ban Prasat, the remains of one of the oldest settlements in the country. Continue to Phimai and its Prasat Hin, a Khmer sanctuary of pale sandstone, then visit Sai Ngam, a giant banyan tree whose spreading roots have grown into a small grove.

Return to Korat, where the evening is at leisure.

Drive to Buriram province and climb the great staircase to Prasat Phanom Rung, one of the best preserved Khmer monuments in Thailand, set on the rim of an extinct volcano. A few kilometres away, Prasat Muang Tham sits beside a large ancient reservoir dug to store water for the community. Inside two laterite walls with four gateways each, look for the finely carved lintels, small columns and baluster windows, five brick towers and two libraries, in a sanctuary that symbolises Mount Kailash, the home of Shiva.

Lunch today is at your own choice.

Continue to Surin and visit its national museum, little known and well worth the time. Its collection traces the region from prehistoric times and introduces the peoples who live here today: the Khmer, the Kui (Suay) and the Lao, each with their own language, dress and customs.

Begin in Ban Khwao Sinarin, a village known for its silverwork. Then stop at Ban Sam Kho, a traditional village rarely visited by travellers, where silk is woven beneath almost every stilt house. It is one of the best places to buy pha mai, Thai silk, straight from the people who make it.

Visit Prasat Sikhoraphum, with its five brick towers and central sanctuary still used for worship by local families. Continue to Prasat Kamphaeng Yai, a little-known 11th-century Khmer site of six buildings, where lintels carved with Shiva and Vishnu sit beside inscriptions in Khmer. Every March the local Khmer community holds an important celebration here. Lunch today is at your own choice.

Drive on to Khong Jiam, on the banks of the Mekong. The river rises in Tibet and flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia before reaching the sea in Vietnam.

Drive north to Mukdahan, across the Mekong from Savannakhet in Laos. Wander its lively, colourful market, where traders swap goods from Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and China. It is a place for the curious eater: rice-field rat curry, red ant eggs, cobra or monitor curry, and plenty of fried insects and chillies.

Continue towards Nakhon Phanom and stop at Wat Phra That Phanom, one of the most important temples in Isan for local people, built in the Lao style. Just before Nakhon Phanom, visit the small village of Ban Na Chok, where Ho Chi Minh lived for a time in the late 1920s.

Arrive in Nakhon Phanom and check in to your hotel on the edge of the Mekong.

In Sakon Nakhon, take part in a sacred thread ceremony, in which a monk ties a cotton thread around your wrist for merit and good fortune, and a chance to make a wish. The ritual has animist roots: it is believed the body holds 32 souls that can drift away, and the threads bind them in place to keep illness at bay.

Continue to Ban Chiang, known across the country for its pottery and weaving. In 1966 an American student stumbled on what became one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia, and the excavations that followed uncovered pottery and bronze tools thousands of years old, with evidence of early rice farming and animal raising. Ban Chiang has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992. Nearby, watch bamboo weavers at Dong Yen village and pottery painters at Baan Pulu.

Transfer to Udon Thani and head south of the city to Talay Bua Daeng, the Red Lotus Sea. Take a boat out across the lake, which from December to February is covered in pink-red lotus flowers.

Visit an orchid farm whose owner bred the Udon Sunshine, a local orchid with a delicate fragrance. Continue to Nong Khai, a small town on the Lao border, and walk among the sculptures of Sala Kaew Ku, a park of giant Buddhist and Hindu figures, some around 25 metres tall. Then browse Tha Sadet market, full of crafts and goods traded across the river from Laos and beyond.

Return to Udon Thani for your flight to Bangkok and your onward journey.