BOTTOM LINE: Nong Khai is a lesser known tourist destination, and there is some action if you look for it. You would not come here for that, though.

Nong Khai just across the Mekong River from Vientiane, Laos. It is larger and nicer than Vientiane (see my report on that city before going). It is northernmost train stop on the northeast train line from Bangkok. There was no air-conditioned train going that way, so the train was a bit slower and there was no food, either! Bring your own or starve on this twelve-hour trip. Bring something to read as well.

What a nice place to lounge around while recuperating! I did some research, however, just for your benefit:

1) Pantawee hotel. The hotel guys working there will bring them to the guests. This wouldn't work for me because I want to choose. It's a nice, clean-looking hotel where rooms start at only 200 baht per night and go up if you want hot water and air conditioning (not as necessary as it is down south). http://www.pantawee.com/

2) West side of Warnutit Road, about 150 yards south of the main road. Don't worry about finding it, the tuk-tuk drivers will bring you here --every time. It is the only place they know of. Every time I went there I saw zero to two girls (the same two girls, too --nothing for me). The second time I gave a tuk-tuk driver (a different one) a chance to find me something, I expressly told him --in Thai-- not to take me there, and then I asked him in Thai if he understood what I said. He assured me he did and kept repeating, "Lay-dee, lay-dee number one!!" Then the sonovabitch took me straight there. I got out and did not pay him, of course. The same two girls came out of some building across the road.

3) HEARSAY: A hotel across from a bar called Carson's. Carson's is reputed to be a gay bar, but I heard it's not really, just the proprietor is a swoosh. None of the tuk-tuk drivers know where Carson's is, and I never found it myself. One young Briton opined that the girls there --in this hotel across the street from Carson's-- were cute, and you can get short time right there for around 500 baht. Sorry to report this unconfirmed, but you could take the lead where I left it.

4) If you are staying in any hotel or guest house that's "visitor friendly," try discreetly asking the staff to find someone for you.

LODGING: ------------
Most of the guest houses won't allow you to bring anyone back, but some do. The worst guest house is Mekong Guest house; it is the noisiest place in Nong Khai and I could not get any sleep there. After I got settled in at another place I heard another new arrival complaining that he had just spent two nights at the Mekong and couldn't get *any* sleep.

Most guest houses are not "guest friendly." But private rooms are around 120 baht per night (not quite three bucks).

tjdick@hotmail.com