The town makes a pleasant place to hang out, its quiet, broad streets lined with some grand old public buildings, colonial-style houses and creaking wooden shophouses. But most importantly for those with their sights set on Laos, the town is home to the third Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, which opened to much fanfare in November 2011.
Walking around town, you’ll see several lit-up boat shapes around the place, a reminder of Nakhon Phanom’s best-known festival, the illuminated boat procession, which is held on the river every year at the end of the rainy season, usually in late October. Around fifty boats of up to 10m in length, adorned with elaborate lights and carrying offerings of food and flowers, are launched on the river in a spectacular display. The week-long celebrations – marking the end of the annual three-month Buddhist Rains Retreat – also feature colourful dragon-boat races along the Mekong, pitting Thai and Lao teams against each other.