Tha Bo

Introducing Tha Bo

Surrounded by banana plantations and tobacco fields that flourish in the fertile Mekong floodplains, prosperous Tha Bo is the most important market centre between Nong Khai and Loei. The covered market, which spills out to the surrounding streets, is full of tobacco, tomatoes and other locally grown products.

The area’s largest Vietnamese population lives here, and they’ve cornered the market on noodle production. You don’t have to travel far before you’ll see sheets of kǔaytǐaw (wide, flat noodles) drying in the sun. It used to be mostly spring-roll wrappers laid out on the bamboo racks, but noodles are a better export product and most businesses are making the switch. Si Chiangmai, just upriver and directly across the Mekong from Vientiane, has picked up the slack and is now the area’s spring-roll wrapper capital.

Hotels are still something of an oddity in Tha Bo, but you’ll be well cared for at the Gasalong Resort & Guest House (0 4243 1227; Rte 2020; 250-500B; ), 1km out of town, where bright and cheery bungalows (plus two 250B fan rooms) rest in a quiet little compound filled with trees and flowers and surrounded by rice paddies. There is a handful of food stalls and basic restaurants on the main street through the town.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009