Nakhon Ratchasima

Two days in Korat, Phimai and Dan Kwian

Two days from Korat covers the province's main sights. Day one goes to Phimai, about 60 km north-east, for the Khmer sanctuary, the national museum and Sai Ngam, ending at the Thao Suranaree monument. Day two takes in the old moated town, Wat Sala Loi and the pottery village of Dan Kwian.

Spend the first day out of town and start early; if you flew into Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang, take the bus up to Korat the evening before. Take a bus or hired car about 60 km north-east to Phimai and be at the historical park when it opens; the sandstone sanctuary is older than Angkor Wat and at its quietest before the tour vans roll in. Study the carved lintels, then cross to the Phimai National Museum for stonework gathered from sites across the region. Lunch is noodles in the shade at Sai Ngam, the banyan grove on the edge of town. With a car, stop at Ban Prasat on the way back to see Bronze Age burials still lying in their excavation pits.

Aim to reach Korat by late afternoon and walk to the Thao Suranaree monument as the light fades. Families arrive with garlands, and hired singers perform in thanks for prayers answered. Eat at the stalls nearby.

On day two, explore the old moated town in the morning and visit the Maha Weerawong Museum behind the library on Ratchadamnoen Road, if it is Wednesday to Sunday. See Wat Sala Loi, whose ordination hall takes the shape of a Chinese junk, before lunch. In the afternoon, ride south-east to Dan Kwian, where roadside shops sell rough, rust-glazed pottery from the village kilns.

Pad mi Korat, shophouse rice and gai yang by the Ya Mo monument

Korat's own dish is pad mi Korat, a stir-fry of the province's thin rice noodles often eaten with som tam. Lunch is shophouse rice such as khao man gai and khao mu daeng, which sells out by early afternoon, and evenings mean gai yang and sticky rice at stalls around the Ya Mo monument.

Korat eats like the rest of Isan, with sticky rice at the centre of the table, but it has a noodle of its own. Pad mi Korat is a stir-fry of the province's thin rice noodles, a country cousin of pad thai, often eaten alongside a plate of som tam. Market stalls and small shops around the old town cook it to order. Out at Phimai, the stalls in Sai Ngam sell the local version, pad mi Phimai.

Lunch in town means shophouse rice. Look for a glass cabinet out front hung with boiled chickens and strips of red pork: those places sell khao man gai, chicken on rice cooked in the stock, khao mu daeng, and noodle soup, and very little else. They sell out by early afternoon. Shops with a written menu will cook almost any Thai dish you ask for.

Evenings are for the charcoal grill: gai yang with som tam, larb and a basket of sticky rice, at stalls around the Ya Mo monument and the night markets. When April heat makes the street hard work, the malls on Mittraphap Road, Terminal 21 among them, have air-conditioned food courts.

Cool dry months, April heat and the Thao Suranaree festival

November to February is the best time to visit Korat, with December and January lows near 19C and almost no rain. April peaks at about 37C, the rains build from May to a September high of about 239 mm, and the Thao Suranaree festival fills the old town from late March into early April.

The Korat Plateau has a real cool season. December and January lows drop to about 19C, highs stay near 30C to 31C, and barely any rain falls; December averages around 3 mm. November to February is the time to walk Phimai and hike in Khao Yai. By April the picture flips. Highs reach about 37C, the fields are bare and brown, and the old town is hard going at midday.

Rain builds from May and peaks in September at roughly 239 mm, usually as afternoon storms that clear by evening. The rice fields turn green, Khao Yai's waterfalls fill, and the park's trails become muddy and full of leeches.

The big local event is the Thao Suranaree festival, which runs from late March into early April in honour of Ya Mo. Expect parades, stage shows and night markets around the monument, and booked-out rooms in the old town. Songkran follows in mid-April, with water fights across the city. If crowds are not your thing, aim for the quiet weeks of December or January and save the festival for another trip.

Khao Yai and Korat's three UNESCO listings

Nakhon Ratchasima was the first Thai province to hold three UNESCO listings: the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex (World Heritage, 2005), the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve (1976) and the Khorat UNESCO Global Geopark, declared in May 2023. Khao Yai is the one most visitors actually see, on a long day from the city.

Opened in 1962, Khao Yai was Thailand's first national park and is now its third largest, covering more than 2,100 sq km across Nakhon Ratchasima, Saraburi, Prachin Buri and Nakhon Nayok. Since July 2023 entry tickets have to be bought in advance through the free QueQ app. TAT gave the foreign rate then as 200 baht per adult and 100 baht per child, with an extra cash charge of the same amounts at the Chao Pho Khao Yai Shrine and Noen Hom gates; check the app for the current price before you drive up.

The geopark is the province's newest listing and Thailand's second UNESCO Global Geopark after Satun. Its fossils range from about 16 million to 10,000 years old, and UNESCO also recognised the local Thai Khorat culture as part of the listing. A hired car is the practical way to combine park, forest and fossil sites in one trip.