Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
YASOTHON & ROI ET PROVINCES
Yasothon and Roi Et, two of Thailand's most rural provinces, have little of interest to fast-
track travellers, but they do show a side of Thailand that few people (including other Thais)
ever see.
People looking to nose deeper into Isan culture will want to take a peek at Phra That
Kong Khao Noi and purchase some pillows in Ban Si Than in Yasothon Province. Yaso-
thon city saves all its gusto for the annual Rocket Festival, which completes a trifecta of
Isan icons. Roi Et Province, whose capital city is the far more pleasant of the two, has a
few enormous off-beat attractions, including a serious contender for Thailand's strangest
temple.
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Yasothon
POP 20,675
Yasothon has little to offer visitors outside the official whizz-bang period of mid-May, and
it neither looks nor acts like a capital city. In fact, sometimes, it barely feels like a city at
all.
Sights
Yasothon has two attractions, though neither is worth a special trip.
dawn-dusk)
is a highly venerated Lao-style
chedi
said to date from AD 695 and to enshrine
holy relics of Phra Anan (Ananda), the Buddha's personal attendant monk. Much more in-
teresting, however, is the restored
hŏr đrai
(a building for storing Tripitaka Buddhist scrip-
tures), dating to the 1830s, that sits on stilts in a pond to protect the sacred scripts from ter-
mites. It's kept open so people can go inside.
The heart of the
Ban Singha Tha
neighbourhood, just below Wat Mahathat, has several clas-
sic French Indochinese shophouses, trimmed with artistic flourishes that are evidence of
Yasothon's former wealth. They were built for Chinese merchants by Vietnamese labourers
almost a century ago at what was then Yasothon's port, and with their historic value re-
cently recognised, restoration work has begun.
