For many travellers, Thailand means Bangkok, Chiang Mai, or the southern islands. But beyond those familiar destinations lies Isan, the country’s vast northeastern region. Stretching across the Mekong basin and bordering Laos, Isan is known for its bold cuisine, rural landscapes, and culture shaped by centuries of Lao and Khmer influence.
Khon Kaen is one of the main gateways to the region. A growing university city and regional hub, it sits at the crossroads of northeastern Thailand and offers an ideal starting point for exploring Isan.
Our journey there began in Bangkok.
A Brief Stop in Bangkok
I arrived in Bangkok a day before Victor and stayed at Hotel Indigo on Wireless Road. The day was fairly quiet. In the morning, I had a work trip, a short taxi ride across the city that passed elevated train lines, tangled cables, and neighbourhood markets already in full swing.
Bangkok traffic has its own logic. What looks chaotic somehow works. Motorbikes weave between cars, street stalls appear wherever space allows, and yet the city moves forward in its own rhythm.
After the visit, I headed out for lunch at Thai Niyom Cuisine. I ordered the Phuket combo platter, a colourful selection of southern Thai specialties that offered a small introduction to the region’s bold flavours. The platter included nam prik goong siap, a shrimp paste served with grilled shrimp and fresh vegetables, grilled chicken with golae sauce, and tiny shrimp fried in crispy betel leaves.
There was also yum ya nat, a refreshing salad made with sweet Phulae pineapple tossed in a spicy Thai dressing. The mix of sweet, sour, and spicy flavours felt like a perfect reminder of how vibrant Thai cuisine can be.
The rest of the afternoon was mostly spent waiting for Victor to arrive. His flight was due at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 4:05 PM, and by early evening, he had made his way into the city using the Airport Rail Link and BTS Skytrain. From Phloen Chit it was only a short walk back to the hotel. To mark the beginning of the trip, we headed out for dinner.
Dinner at The Local
Dinner was at The Local, a restaurant tucked into a traditional Thai house just off Sukhumvit. We started with a couple of salads, including a bright pomelo salad with shrimp. The citrusy sweetness of the pomelo balanced beautifully with lime and chilli. Alongside it came stir-fried Phuket sand crab with chilli and salt, delicate crab meat lightly coated with heat and aromatics.
Another dish quickly became a favourite: phak mieng, southern greens stir-fried with eggs. It was simple and comforting, the kind of dish that feels deeply rooted in home cooking.
For our main, we ordered the restaurant’s Mom’s Recipe Spicy Southern Fried Fish. The fish was first fried and then tossed across a hot wok with homemade southern yellow curry paste and Thai herbs in a style similar to kua kling. The result was intensely fragrant, spicy, and packed with flavour.
After the long travel day, we kept the evening simple. A short ride back on the BTS, a quiet walk along Wireless Road, and an early night before heading north the next morning.
Arriving in Khon Kaen
The next morning, we woke to a bright Bangkok morning in our hotel on Wireless Road. After breakfast, it was time to move on, heading back to the airport for a short flight north to Khon Kaen.
Just over an hour later, we landed in northeastern Thailand. Almost immediately, the atmosphere felt different from Bangkok. The skyline was lower, the roads wider, and the pace noticeably slower. Khon Kaen is a regional capital rather than a global metropolis, but it plays an important role in northeastern Thailand as a centre for education, commerce, and transport.
After checking into our hotel and dropping off our bags, we headed out to explore.
Lunch: Pad Thai at Sriruen
Our first stop was lunch at ศรีเรือนผัดไทยไข่เป็ด (Sriruen Pad Thai) on Ruenchit Road, a Bib Gourmand restaurant known for its exceptional pad thai. Chef Sriruen has been making the dish for more than thirty years. Originally from Phitsanulok, she prepares noodles with bold flavour thanks to the use of duck eggs.
Looking at the menu, there were several variations available, including thin rice noodles, glass noodles, and even macaroni. We decided to try two versions. The first was rice noodles wrapped in egg, one of my favourite ways to eat noodle dishes because the thin egg layer gives the noodles a rich, silky texture.
The second version used glass noodles with fresh shrimp, which felt slightly lighter but just as flavourful. It was a perfect first meal in Khon Kaen.
Understanding the Region: Khon Kaen National Museum
After lunch, we visited the Khon Kaen National Museum, which offers a helpful introduction to the history and culture of northeastern Thailand. The museum traces the region’s development from prehistoric settlements through the Dvaravati and Khmer periods to the formation of modern Isan communities.
Many of the exhibits focus on archaeological discoveries from across northeastern Thailand, including artefacts from ancient settlements, pottery, tools, and religious sculptures that reflect the region’s long and complex history. There are also displays explaining the cultural traditions that shape life in Isan today, from religious practices to local crafts and everyday customs.
Walking through the galleries provided a useful foundation for understanding the places we would visit over the following days. Rather than arriving in each town without context, the museum helped frame the landscapes, temples, and communities we were about to encounter across northeastern Thailand.
Night Markets and Walking Streets
Later that evening, we made our way to one of Khon Kaen’s walking streets, where a lively night market takes over the road.
The street was packed with people, music, and rows of food stalls selling everything from grilled meats to fresh desserts. What stood out most was how local it felt. This wasn’t a tourist market designed for visitors, but a place where families, students, and groups of friends gathered to eat and spend the evening together.
Even though we had dinner booked later, I couldn’t resist trying at least one snack.
One stall was serving khao kriap pak mo, delicate steamed rice dumplings with a thin blue wrapper coloured naturally using butterfly pea flowers. Inside was a savoury filling of minced pork, peanuts, and herbs, served with lettuce, chilli, and crispy fried garlic.
Light and fragrant, it was the perfect snack while wandering through the market.
Dinner: Modern Isan at Kaen
After the market, we headed to dinner at KAEN, a restaurant featured in the Michelin Guide. Chefs Paisarn and Kanyarat present a refined take on Isan cuisine, blending traditional flavours with modern presentation in a relaxed, casual fine dining setting. Many of the ingredients are sourced from local small-scale farmers and are rarely found in markets.
We ordered several dishes to share, including a pomelo salad served with a soft-shell crab fritter, a stir-fry made with fermented fish sauce and crispy fish, a fragrant galangal coconut soup with deep-fried fish and young banana, and grilled fish wrapped with bamboo and banana leaves.
Each dish felt rooted in traditional northeastern Thai cooking while still being presented in a creative and refined way.
A Full Day in Khon Kaen
The next morning, we headed out for breakfast at Baan Heng, a Bib Gourmand restaurant also recommended by Lonely Planet.
Set inside a comfortable shop house, the restaurant serves playful renditions of classic Isan and Chinese-Thai dishes. We ordered khao ob kun chiang, a fragrant rice dish baked with Chinese sausage, and pang baan heng, a rich buttery bread filled with pork. Alongside it, we had glasses of Thai tea, strong and sweet.
Cafés and Creative Spaces
After breakfast, we stopped for coffee at Glomglome Coffee before taking a Grab to Colombo Craft Village, a small creative complex filled with artisan studios, cafés, and bookshops.
From there, we continued to Wat That Phra Aram Luang, one of the most important temples in Khon Kaen. Located near the centre of the city, the temple serves as a major religious site for residents and offers a glimpse into the everyday role Buddhism plays in the community.
The temple grounds were peaceful compared to the busy streets outside. Ornate buildings, golden details, and carefully maintained gardens created a calm atmosphere where locals stopped to pray or quietly walk through the complex. Like many temples in Thailand, it felt both like a place of worship and a community gathering space.
After spending some time exploring the grounds, we continued to lunch at Khun Jaeng Guay Tiew Pak Mor Kao Wang. The small restaurant has earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand and is known for its delicate rice dumplings and tapioca balls, a skill passed down from the chef’s mother, who ran a similar shop in Bangkok for more than thirty years.
We ordered the tangy tom yum noodle soup with egg, along with garlic chive dumplings and sadu pak mo, delicate steamed rice dumplings with savoury fillings.
After lunch, we stopped at Vector Coffee Roaster – The Wall for another coffee break. The café sits within an area locally known as “The Wall,” a creative cluster of small cafés, restaurants, and street art that has become a popular hangout spot in Khon Kaen. Colourful murals cover the surrounding buildings, and the whole neighbourhood has a relaxed, youthful atmosphere shaped by the city’s large student population.
Vector Coffee Roaster itself is a minimalist space focused on carefully brewed specialty coffee. After several busy stops throughout the day, it was a welcome place to sit for a while and slow down. The coffee was excellent, easily some of the best we had during the entire trip.
Temples and the Lake
In the afternoon, we visited Phra Mahathat Kaen Nakhon at Wat Nong Wang, one of Khon Kaen’s most recognisable landmarks. The temple rises nine stories high, each level built on gradually smaller platforms, creating a striking tiered structure that can be seen from across the city.
Inside, each floor features murals and displays that illustrate Buddhist teachings as well as aspects of local history and culture. The architecture combines traditional Thai elements with ornate decorative details, giving the temple both a spiritual and cultural significance for the city.
Climbing to the upper floors, we were rewarded with panoramic views across Khon Kaen. From above, the city stretched out around Bueng Kaen Nakhon Reservoir, with low-rise neighbourhoods, temples, and patches of greenery spreading across the landscape. It offered a peaceful moment to pause and take in the city from a different perspective before continuing our afternoon.
Dinner and Dessert
For dinner, we went to Song 24 Nor, a lively restaurant recommended by the Michelin Guide. The menu is enormous, with more than 200 dishes served in the style of a traditional boiled rice spot, where you order several plates to share. We ordered stir-fried squid with salted egg yolk alongside the restaurant’s well-known tom yum soup with deep-fried snakehead fish, which was wonderfully fragrant and slightly sour.
After dinner we stopped at หน้าเมืองนมสด (Naa Mueang Nom Sod) for dessert. The shop specialises in soft steamed buns served with sweet custard dips in flavours such as pandan and Thai tea. Places like this are known in Thailand as milk cafés, casual dessert shops that stay open late and serve simple sweets alongside glasses of fresh milk, condensed milk drinks, and toast with various toppings. They are especially popular with students and young people looking for a relaxed place to gather in the evening.
We ordered a set of the fluffy steamed buns and dipped them into the thick custards. Warm, soft, and lightly sweet, they were the perfect ending to a long day exploring Khon Kaen. It was a simple but satisfying way to end the evening.
By the time we left, Khon Kaen had proven to be the perfect gateway to Isan. Between the markets, temples, cafés, and incredible food, the city offered a first glimpse into the culture and flavours of northeastern Thailand. The next morning, we continued our journey north to Udon Thani.
Stay tuned for the next part of our journey through Isan.
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