Ubon Ratchathani sits in Thailand's far east, where the country narrows to a point against Laos and the Mekong. It is not a place most first-time visitors reach, which is precisely its appeal — Isan here is slow, devout and deeply itself. The province draws Thais for one event above all: the Candle Festival, held each year to mark the start of Buddhist Lent. Whole communities spend months sculpting enormous beeswax candles into intricate reliefs of myth and scripture, then carry them through the city behind hundreds of dancers in a procession that is part art exhibition, part act of faith. For a Western traveller it is one of the most photogenic and least crowded festivals in the country.
But Ubon rewards more than a single morning. The Mekong forms the province's eastern boundary, and along it lies a string of quietly remarkable sights: Pha Taem National Park, where prehistoric people painted the sandstone cliffs and where the sun rises over Laos before anywhere else in Thailand; the 'two-colour river' where the muddy Mekong meets the indigo Mun; and Wat Sirindhorn Wararam, whose vast luminescent bodhi-tree mural shines green at nightfall. We pace this as a private journey for four to six guests — early starts only when the light demands it, long lunches, and a guide who can read the temples and the river for you.
