The bustling riverfront of Nong Khai is where you will find much of Nong Khai’s charm. The main street parallels the water, and you can take any number of alleyways in to find yourself at the edge of the mighty Mekong river.
The Mekong river is the twelfth largest river in the world. Flowing all the way from Tibet, it winds down through China and southeast Asia until it spills into the South China Sea from Cambodia.
Nong Khai is an important town in the northeast of Thailand, as it is a major border crossing with Laos. This is the closest border crossing to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. Learn all you need to know about Crossing the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge.
So many travelers find themselves just transiting through on their way to Laos. If this is the case for you, we recommend taking a day to explore what the city has to offer before moving onto your next destination.
I’ll detail the boardwalk, the night market, the floating restaurants of the Mekong, and Tha Sadet market. These are all within walking distance to each other in the center of Nong Khai city.
There are also two attractions outside of Nong Khai center city that we recommend taking your family to if you have the time – the Nong Khai aquarium and Sala Keo Kou sculpture garden.
The Nong Khai Riverfront Boardwalk
The river’s edge has a large concrete boardwalk running alongside it. There you will find the large naga statues guarding the riverfront. The naga, a serpent who bestows onto the land, is a significant figure in Thai and Lao mythology. There is an abundance of Thai folklore that includes the naga serpents in the Mekong. Some myths even attribute the creation of the Mekong river to the naga! The statues found on the boardwalk are a good reminder of the importance Thais place on the naga serpents.
The boardwalk is great for a long family walk with various attractions along the way – a lookout to climb, statues of the fish of the Mekong, and multiple photo op stops. But the real gem of the walk, of course, is looking out at Laos, the country on the other side of the river.
Night Market on the Boardwalk
At night, the Nong Khai boardwalk transforms into a night market as stalls are set up along the boardwalk. Beginning late afternoon, the first stalls will be set up and by sunset, you will have all stalls set up.
You will find lots of snack options as well as dinner options in take away containers. It is popular amongst the locals, so you will find lots of clothes and toys stalls as well. People sit along the river’s edge and look out at the Mekong while enjoying their night market goodies.
If you are in Nong Khai for dinner, we recommend the night market as a good option for finding local street food to eat.
Eating on a Floating Restaurant
For a great lunch option, we recommend trying one of the many floating restaurants on the Mekong river!
From the boardwalk, you can access a number of restaurants on the Mekong. There are stairs leading down to the floating restaurants. At the top of the stairs, you will find a menu and information about the restaurant.
There is a wide variety of food sold and the prices are reasonable for the experience. The dishes are mostly Isaan cuisine, the Thai food of the northeast. These would include well-known Thai dishes like fried rice and papaya salad. But there are specialty Mekong dishes as well, such as the Mekong catfish.
Food is brought out and expected to be shared family-style. Each person at the table will receive their own plate and the dishes will be placed in the middle of the table with a utensil to dish the food onto your personal plate. Menus have English translation and there are bathroom facilities on board.
Our family really enjoys the experience of sitting over the water and watching the Mekong rush past.
Tha Sadet Market
Running alongside the boardwalk in Nong Khai is the Tha Sadat Market. This day market looks like an open wet market, but instead of fresh food, it houses a variety of international goods. From Chinese tea to Laotian dried water buffalo hide, Vietnamese sandwiches and Thai handicrafts, this market is a great place for exploring.
It is easy to spend several hours here as each stall in the Tha Sadat Market is unique. Even our kids enjoy perusing the shops!
Most items have prices marked, so I don’t recommend bartering unless you are buying larger quantities from the same stall.
There are a few food stalls and restaurants interspersed in the market, as well as coffee shops. Bathrooms are few and far between, cost money, and you should bring toilet paper along!
Attractions on the Outskirts of Nong Khai
Nong Khai Aquarium
The Nong Khai Aquarium is found on the west side of town. It is only accessible by car or Grab taxi.
Despite being a relatively small aquarium, it hosts an abundance of fish found in the Mekong river. My kids enjoyed seeing the variety of catfish found in the Mekong and then matching them with the fish statues found along the boardwalk.
The names of fish are in English with most other signs in Thai. We recommend using a translation app to help if you want more information.
The aquarium follows the dual pricing system of Thailand with a price for Thai citizens and a separate price for international visitors.
International Adults – 100 baht
International Child – 50 baht
We recommend spending an hour to an hour and a half here. There are feeding shows and a gift shop at the end which can add more time.
Sala Keo Kou Sculpture Garden
The Sala Keo Kou Sculpture Garden is a religious site found on the east side of the city, closer to the city center. The garden is full of large unusual concrete sculptures. You can easily take a Grab taxi or drive your own car to this location.
Although this attraction is more geared to Thai tourists, as they understand the religious symbolism of the sculptures, we highly recommend this attraction to international visitors as well.
Sala Keo Kou was created by Luang Phu Boonlua Surirat, a religious teacher in the 1960’s who mixed Buddhism with Hinduism. Because of this mixing of religious ideology, the statues at Sala Keo Kou sculpture garden are unique to others around Thailand. It is because of the uniqueness we recommend going. You will see things you can’t find elsewhere.
There is very little English at the sculpture garden, so you can use a language translation tool on your phone or just use observation to compare and contrast the different statues throughout the gardens.
The price for an international visitor is 40 baht per person. We recommend staying between one to two hours. There is also fish feeding inside the gardens of Sala Keo Kou Sculpture Garden for the kids to enjoy.
After seeing what Nong Khai has to offer you can check out other things to do in the nearby Northeast Thailand Area.