Ubon Ratchathani

Two days in Ubon Ratchathani and the Pha Taem cliffs

Two days in Ubon Ratchathani covers the city and the Mekong. Day one is on foot around Thung Si Muang Park, the national museum and Wat Thung Si Muang's stilted library, then Wat Nong Bua. Day two needs a car for Pha Taem National Park's 3,000-year-old cliff paintings, Khong Chiam and Wat Sirindhorn Wararam.

Spend the first morning on foot around Thung Si Muang Park, a short ride from Ubon Ratchathani Airport if you came on one of the flights from Bangkok. Look at the 22 m candle sculpture on its junk, the statue of the town's founder and the Monument of Goodness, put up by Second World War prisoners to thank the people of Ubon for their kindness. The national museum fills the 1918 former city hall at the edge of the park and tells how Lao princes fleeing Vientiane founded the town. Then walk to Wat Thung Si Muang to see its wooden scripture library standing on stilts in a pond.

After lunch and a rest through the heat, take a songthaew to Wat Nong Bua and its white chedi modelled on the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya. Finish by the Mun River at sunset, then eat at the night stalls in town.

Day two needs a car or motorbike and an early start. Drive east to Pha Taem National Park above the Mekong, near Khong Chiam, and walk the cliff path to the ochre paintings of fish, elephants and people, more than 3,000 years old, with Laos on the far bank. Have lunch in Khong Chiam, where the brown Mun meets the Mekong, and come back via Wat Sirindhorn Wararam so you arrive at dusk, when its mural begins to glow.

Khai krata breakfasts and neua yang kaolee table barbecue

Ubon Ratchathani mixes Vietnamese breakfasts with Isan cooking. Mornings mean khai krata eggs with a baguette or khao piak sen noodle soup, lunch and dinner bring grilled meats, som tam and Mekong fish, and neua yang kaolee table barbecue is the local group meal, with Muen Thip on Phichit Rangsan Road the best-known address.

Ubon was founded by Lao nobles and later took in Vietnamese families, and both show on the plate. Mornings are for Vietnamese-style breakfasts: khai krata, eggs fried in a small pan with minced pork and sausage, served with a baguette and coffee, and khao piak sen, a soft, slippery rice noodle soup thickened with tapioca. Look for them in old shophouse cafes in the centre.

Lunch and dinner are pure Isan. Grilled chicken and pork, som tam made pungent with fermented fish sauce, larb and sticky rice turn up at stalls all over town, and freshwater fish from the Mun and the Mekong is grilled in salt or simmered into sour soups.

A local favourite for groups is neua yang kaolee, a Thai take on Korean barbecue cooked at your own table and dipped in fiery sauces; Muen Thip on Phichit Rangsan Road has long been the place for it, and the menu comes in English. In the evening, the night market stalls near Ratchabut Road sell grills, noodles and desserts.

Ubon's July Candle Festival and the October boat procession

The Candle Festival at Khao Phansa, usually in July, is the city's biggest event, though July averages about 294 mm of rain. October brings the Illuminated Boat Procession on the Mun River.

Ubon's year turns on Khao Phansa, the start of the three-month Buddhist rains retreat, which usually falls in July. Temples and districts spend weeks carving huge wax candles covered with mythical figures, and the finished pieces stand on display in Thung Si Muang Park before being pulled through the streets in a long procession the next morning. Arrive a day early to see the carving up close before the parade crowds build, and reserve a central room as soon as the date is announced.

July is wet, though. In October the end of the retreat brings the Illuminated Boat Procession on the Mun near the Rattanakosin Bicentennial Bridge, a gentler event with fewer crowds.

For sightseeing, November to February is far easier. December brings around 5 mm of rain, highs near 31C and lows of 19C, ideal weather for the drive to Pha Taem, and February has a flower festival in town. Avoid April if heat bothers you: highs average 37C, and Songkran water fights take over in the middle of the month.

Sam Phan Bok and the Ubon Ratchathani Geopark

Sam Phan Bok is a broad shelf of sandstone in the bed of the Mekong, pitted with thousands of holes carved by the current, and it only shows when the river drops in the dry season. It sits inside the Ubon Ratchathani Geopark, which Thailand's Cabinet put forward for UNESCO Global Geopark status on 23 June 2026.

The geopark covers about 1,829 sq km across Pho Sai, Si Mueang Mai, Khong Chiam and Sirindhorn districts. Alongside the rock reef it takes in steep river cliffs, leaning rock pillars shaped by erosion and Cretaceous fossil sites where dinosaur remains have been found. It began as a local geopark in 2011 and was certified as a Thailand Geopark in 2023. The full application goes to UNESCO between October and November 2026, followed by an inspection on the ground, so any decision is still some way off.

For the rocks, aim for the cool, dry months when the Mekong is low; in the rains the reef disappears under brown water. Sam Phan Bok lies upriver from Pha Taem, so a car lets you link the two with the mushroom-shaped pillars of Sao Chaliang in one long day. Late afternoon light on the potholed stone is the best time for photographs.