All the best bars, beers, and booze from a week in Isaan
And we're back!
Sunset at Likhit in Nong Khai. This did not suck.
Before I get ahead of myself, a quick mea culpa. You may have grown accustomed to fresh drops every Thursday, give or take. The past few weeks have thrown me some curveballs. One came in the form of bronchitis, and the others in a tidal wave of assignments and, well, a road trip across Isaan.
On the bright side, thanks to that trip, I have loads to share with you. In fact, that’s what I want to talk about now.
A lifetime ago, my wife and I spent a week riding public buses and motorbikes across Isaan, Thailand’s northeast. We visited Nong Khai, Khon Kaen, and Buriram, all places delightfully devoid of mass tourism and many of the trappings of big cities. Most of the time, we just ate gai yang (grilled chicken), explored Khmer ruins shrouded by wet season rice paddies, or chilled out by the Mekong with cans of Singha.
We returned to the northeast this October with a slightly different agenda. By the time I was an IPA deep at a hipster bar in Ubon Ratchathani, I realized this trip would be different—in all the right ways.
From Ubon, a rapidly growing hub connecting Thailand to southern Laos, we would spend a week slowly driving our way to Tam Jok Loei, a beer festival taking place in Chiang Khan. Along the way, we would stop in less-heralded provinces like Roi Et and Sakhon Nakhon to visit bars, breweries, and distilleries.
There’s a reason Time magazine named Isaan one of the world’s greatest places this year. I think we found a few new reasons to keep it on that list next year, too.
If you want to retrace our footsteps, read on for a recap of our week on the road, including places that every beer geek and boozehound should put on their radar.
Ubon Ratchathani
We took the 7am flight from Bangkok to Ubon. By the time we had strapped ourselves into our rental car outside the airport, I sorely needed a pick-me-up.
We downed bowls of guay jab yuan (rice noodles with peppery, Vietnamese-style pork) at Ta Mee, and made a beeline for Nap’s. The café-slash-roaster—named one of the country’s best in 2020—has fanned out across Thailand, with branches in Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai, and more, but it got its start in Ubon. The city is full of great cafés, though. In fact, everywhere we went in Isaan found excellent third-wave coffee.
The last time we were so deep in the region, the best we could find was Chao Doi, the metaphorical equivalent of McDonald’s iced coffee.
Excellent coffee shops abound in Ubon. The coolest? Probably Long Lux. The best? Nap’s.
Fueled up, we drove to Pha Team, a fantastic national park with lots of funky rock formations, cave paintings, and waterfalls an hour east of the city via Ubon’s gong highway.1 After a long day out, we returned to the city, had a Thai-Vietnamese feast at Indochine, a restaurant that has been in operation for more than five decades, and decided to paint the town red. Or reddish. We were tired, after all.
There was one bar I knew we had to visit: Ubon Tap Taste House.
Author and wife enjoying hazy IPAs. In a nook behind me, there was a Christmas tree. It’s coming up!
The interiors reminded me of an American sports bar: black fencing, heavy wood tables, wrap-around bar, pool tables in the back, big screen TV airing sports.
It was spacious and buzzy with customers picking from fridges packed with imports and Brewing Project beers, as well as a half dozen taps of beers and wine. As the monsoon lashed the city outside, we downed IPAs and listened to a cover band absolutely rip “Come As You Are.”
Roi Et
Roi Et is kind of like the Kansas of Thailand: breadbasket, middle of nowhere, not a lot going on, not a lot of visitors. But it has always fascinated me because there really is a lot to do; you just have to work for it.
On the southern edge of the province, there’s the ancient Khmer village Ku Ka Sing. Just off the highway from Ubon, there’s Wat Pa Non Sawan, a temple littered with oddball sculptures, from shocking depictions of hell to polar bears. To the west, there’s Wat Pa Kung and its sandstone pagodas.
Did I mention the massive Isaan flute tower?
The tower in question.
Shaped like a wot, a traditional pan flute made from bamboo, the Roi Et Tower lords over the provincial capital, offering 360-degree views of the city below and essentially the whole flat, green landscape in the distance.
Beyond its offbeat attractions, Roi Et also has surprisingly vibrant nightlife.
After running around the lake in the center of town, we visited Patitoh. The bar has a connection with a brewery of the same name in Vientiane that I don’t really understand. But I do know that the bar in Roi Et serves about a dozen beers, ranging from a West Coast IPA and porter to a dunkelweizen and pilsner.
A fresh-poured porter at Patitoh. Say that three times fast.
Here’s the kicker: the beers are staggeringly cheap. As in, starting from THB 59 for a 330ml pour of their witbier and climbing as high as THB 119 for their IPA. Don’t ask me how. I don’t have answers for you. All I know is that the mileage varies, but by and large the beers are enjoyable, and the low-key setting—small and warm and set beside the canal that rings Roi Et—makes it a wonderful place to unwind in the evening.
It isn’t Roi Et’s only craft beer bar, either.
Hop Head is a new bar, and it is very good. / Image courtesy of Hop Head via Facebook
Set in a spacious house fronted by nearly floor-to-ceiling windows about a kilometer north of the city center, Hop Head serves 20-plus beers on top and more in cans and bottles. With a tap list that could rival what you’d find at any Bangkok bar, it appeared to be the favored hangout for young folks more interested in the quality of their drinks than the city’s thumping club scene or seedy karaoke bars.
Sakhon Nakhon
In a reversal of trends, our visit to Sakhon Nakhon began with booze.
Onson from outside.
On a whim, we dropped by Onson, a brand known for its unique spirit distilled from coconut flower sap.
Our arrival was a surprise. For everyone. But the co-founder and face of the brand, Tiger, welcomed us inside to see the production site and share some drinks with us.
Some very tasty juice.
After learning a bit about the operation, we tried several Thai spirits, from Spirit of Chaiyaphum’s sugarcane-based rum to Nasan’s liquor distilled from coconut flower and Onson’s own experimental gin.
I have a lot more to write about Onson—and about distilling in Thailand in general (spoiler: if you think Thailand’s brewing laws are wacky, try its distilling laws). Expect a more thorough story soon.
While in Sakhon Nakhon, we also got a chance to eat at Tiger’s restaurant, House Number 1712. This place is quietly doing great things in, and for, Sakhon Nakhon.
The flavors and ingredients are local, from the pone yang kham beef—some of Thailand’s best—to the tilapia they top with an herb-laced jaew (a tangy green sauce). Tiger told us his vision to keep everything hyperlocal inspired him to start Onson, in fact. “I didn’t have a local drink to serve, so I decided to make it myself,” he explained.
Sakhon Nakhon’s famed pone yang kham beef at Moong Yod.
Whether it’s indigo-dyeing workshops at Man Gardens, chilled out boat trips on Nong Han Lake, grill-it-yourself pone yang kham feasts at Moong Yod, or high-quality coffee at Guzzjung and Nap’s, the city has a lot to offer. It also hosts a massive Christmas parade and festival, which is probably its biggest annual event.
No matter how you frame it, though, Sakhon Nakhon is an underrated destination.
Nakhon Phanom
Neighboring Nakhon Phanom is about as far into Isaan as you can go. It’s the nexus between Vietnam, Laos, and northeast Thailand, the point in the Mekong where several cultures converge. It should come as no surprise that it has a rich Vietnamese heritage, or that Ho Chi Minh spent time here—you can even visit his house.
That heritage lives on in the banh mi vendors and coffee shops serving Vietnamese coffee you’ll find along the city’s extensive riverside pedestrian path. But it’s still Thailand, so you’ll also find somtam stalls serving the funkiest iterations of the dish.
Beyond food and heritage sites, if you need any specific reason to come here, it’s the nightly sunset boat cruises down the Mekong.
I can’t recommend this boat ride enough. Go there and do it.
As you sputter up the river, the breeze licking your cheeks, the evening light paints the karst across the river purple, like Ha Long Bay on land. You hear towns on both sides of the Mekong stir to life. Zumba groups dance in front of Nakhon Phanom’s Naga statue as a man plays the phin (the Thai lute-guitar). Cyclists and joggers race down its riverside path. Restaurants fill up with friends and families.
Am I selling you on this yet, people? How about the fact that it costs just THB 50, and the beers on board also cost just THB 50?
Another experience that did not suck at all.
We enjoyed the pace of life in Nakhon Phanom so much that we stayed two nights. On the second, we made an unexpected discovery.
Next to our hotel, the S Villas, there was a grocery store called Rung Sap. We expected it to sell local snacks and maybe some beers like Singha, but instead the fridges were loaded with Pheebok, the Brewing Project, and even Yoho, the Japanese brewery famed for its Yona Yona Ale. Naturally, we bought some to enjoy on our balcony.
We also picked up a bottle of Sangvein rum and some Renudrunk rice wine, which have since been muled back to Bangkok in a remarkably heavy suitcase.
Bueng Kan and Nong Khai
From Nakhon Phanom, we drove through Bueng Kan, perhaps Thailand’s most criminally under-visited province.
Bueng Kan is home to two of the country’s most ass-puckering destinations: Phu Tok and Three Whale Rock. The former features a ramshackle wooden bridge that wraps around a rock that rises out of the rice paddies, while the latter is exactly as it sounds—three large rocks jutting out of a plateau that look a helluva lot like whales.
Walking on this rickety thing, looking down at imminent death? Hard pass.
Safety seemingly of no concern, you’re allowed to walk right out onto both attractions. I assure you: your photos will remind you of how small and fragile we really are.
Beautiful and terrifying.
When we finally reached Nong Khai, it was dusk, and I had one place in mind.
We drove out to Likhit, an wood-framed beer bar beside the river. It had two of its own beers on tap, plus six others provided by Beervana, including my all-time favorite, Fresh Squeezed. We ordered a full Isaan spread for dinner and had a couple of beers as the sunset spilled its colors onto the Mekong. It was, in a word, magical.
Likhit: yet another fantastic bar.
Those keen to travel here should know that Likhit is celebrating its fourth anniversary on Nov. 4. I can’t think of a better excuse to visit Nong Khai.
Loei
We left Nong Khai late on Friday morning, with enough time to take the scenic route.
Highway 211 traces the Mekong into Loei province. The road bends around rolling hills dotted with banana plantations, breaking every now and then to give you a glimpse of the river. It was one of the most beautiful routes I’ve ever driven.
We stopped in a town called Sangkhom for pla pao (salt-coated, grilled river fish), somtam, and sticky rice at a restaurant by the river, looking across the river at Laos, and rolled into Chiang Khan in the late afternoon.
Any other day, we would have visited Jo Beer—a pilgrimage site for brewers in Isaan—and had whatever was on tap as the sun sank into the hills. But Tam Jok Loei awaited.
One of the most fun festivals I’ve been to in a long time.
I have a lot to write about the festival, and I will soon. For now, it’s enough to say that it was everything I hoped it would be and then some. I had too much fun, in fact.
It was the perfect way to end an illuminating week in Isaan, a region currently being overhauled by a youth-driven, artisan-oriented movement. I wouldn’t have changed anything from this journey. Except that I would have liked to linger a little longer.
No kidding—every other house on this road seems to belong to a gong-maker, and some of their pieces are impressive. I can’t say I knew such a cottage industry existed. If you can access the New York Times, read that piece, because it’s fascinating.