Nakhon Sawan

The city of Nakhon Sawan is located about 260 km north of Bangkok. On the way to Chiang Mai, you pass the city. There is a good highway to Nakhon Sawan, and by car you can reach the city in about 4 hours. By train is also very comfortable, it takes about 5 hours to get there.

We decided to go to Nakhon Sawan for two reasons.
Pia's sister Nok owns a piec of land in Banphot Phisai , a small city in the province. She has an oistricht farm there. In 2003 we went there three times, more about that on our Banphot Phisai page. We liked the place very much, so we decided to take a look at the provincial capitol.
The second reason is the Lonely Planet. According to the Lonely Planet, Nakon Sawan is a nasty place with nasty inhabitants, no place to go. For some reasons nothing is said about Nakhon Sawan province. Pity.

We stayed in Nakhon Sawan for only 2 nights. During Chinese Newyear every hotel in town is booked, so we could not stay any longer. First day, we arrived late, the station is located outside town, so it was a bit difficult to get a song-thaew driver to take us to our hotel. A fellow-passenger gave us some help, so we were able to reach our hotel at a fair price. We had dinner at the hotel (for the first time!), good, tasty food and good service. And after dinner we had a drink in an open-air bar behind the hotel, where a band was playing.
Behind the hotel is also the largest disco of northern Thailand, not so nice in the middle of the night.

Next day we went sightseeing in the city. There is a big park in the northern part of town, well maintained and shady. A nice place to pass some time.
The center of town is very busy. Nakhon Sawan is located at the beginning of the Chao Praya and it has always been a trade center. Nowadays transport by water is not imported, but the city is situated at important roads to the north and northeast, so it stayed very busy.
There are a few markets along the river. A wholesale market for vegetables and fruit and a genral market with lots of clothing. Pia bought some nice shirts, for a very reasonable price.

Near the markets, you can make a boat trip on one of the rivers. Two hours by a private boat costs 300 bath (about 7 euro). You will see a lot about life along the river. The owner of the boat, a friendly lady of about 60, must earn a living this way. She used to make a fair living in the old days, when everithing was transported by water, but now almost everbody and everything goes by car.

In the evening we hed dinner in town, opposite the park. We had found a small restaurant where you could eat 'nuea yang kowlee', small pieces of meat, you have to prepare yourself on a charcoal-grill. Tasty and nice to do. The price was about 60 bath (less than 2 euro), unlimited portions. That's very cheap.
The owner told Pia that he opened the restaurant two month earlier, let's hope everything goes well.
It became rather late, and we had a long way to walk to our hotel. The restaurant owner arranged a tuk-tuk for us, at a very fair price, so we were back in our hotel very soon.

Our conclusion after two days in Nakhon Sawan: nice busy town with nice people.