Isaan road trip: Searching for normalcy in Thailand’s northeast
CNNCNN — An overweight dog naps by an open-air som tam shop. Here in the village of Ban Nong Doen Tha on the Mekong River in northeast Thailand, it’s almost like the pandemic never happened. David Luekens/CNN Despite delivering an intensely flavorful cuisine to go with serene Mekong valley scenery and a strong list of natural and historical attractions, Isaan drew only a small fraction of the numbers of foreign tourists who flocked to other Thai regions before the pandemic. David Luekens/CNN “Life here is pretty much pre-pandemic normal for most people, but we haven’t done a tour since mid-February,” says Tim Bewer of Khon Kaen-based Isan Explorer, one of the few tour companies that focuses on sharing the region with a foreign clientele. A fair number of foreign travelers crossed the third Friendship Bridge in Nakhon Phanom – along with similar border crossings in Nong Khai and Mukdahan provinces – back when passing between northeast Thailand and Laos was an easy task prior to the pandemic.
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