As the above picture suggests, staying on the Mekong in Nakhon Phanom was absolutely beautiful and very relaxing. The first few days of my stay in April were sunny but not real hot with a great breeze flowing off the Mekong to the balcony. Then it got humid and the bugs invaded.

One night about day four into the stay we came home from the family farm and I saw a small writhing white mass on the balcony. Upon closer inspection it was a tangle of insects with big white wings. As time moved on their numbers grew until the entire balcony floor was covered with them. And where there be bugs there be frogs…thousands of them. Singing happy songs all night long while they feasted on their own version of a Thai BBQ.

As you can see the next morning there were piles of dead bugs to brush aside on the balcony. When I went into town later that morning I was astonished to see huge piles of bugs being swept up everywhere by a rather large workforce of Thai’s that work for the city. They were filling 55 gallon drums and big trucks with the carcasses of the little critters.

As soon as they appeared they disappeared after a day. I thought it was odd that they only lasted that long but I was happy to have the balcony back at night. After a few days of being lulled into a false sense of relaxation they returned with a vengeance for 2 days and then promptly disappeared again for the rest of my stay.

Staying right on the Mekong is definitely the way to go in Nakhon Phanom but there are certain tradeoffs to consider. Insects at night, especially during April, will definitely be a nusiance and some of the mossquitos are very large. The white winged critters didn’t bother anyone they just like to congregate around light, screw and die. I never did find out what they are but I finally found an insect the Thai’s don’t like and won’t eat!

As the above picture suggests, staying on the Mekong in Nakhon Phanom was absolutely beautiful and very relaxing. The first few days of my stay in April were sunny but not real hot with a great breeze flowing off the Mekong to the balcony. Then it got humid and the bugs invaded.

One night about day four into the stay we came home from the family farm and I saw a small writhing white mass on the balcony. Upon closer inspection it was a tangle of insects with big white wings. As time moved on their numbers grew until the entire balcony floor was covered with them. And where there be bugs there be frogs…thousands of them. Singing happy songs all night long while they feasted on their own version of a Thai BBQ.

As you can see the next morning there were piles of dead bugs to brush aside on the balcony. When I went into town later that morning I was astonished to see huge piles of bugs being swept up everywhere by a rather large workforce of Thai’s that work for the city. They were filling 55 gallon drums and big trucks with the carcasses of the little critters.

As soon as they appeared they disappeared after a day. I thought it was odd that they only lasted that long but I was happy to have the balcony back at night. After a few days of being lulled into a false sense of relaxation they returned with a vengeance for 2 days and then promptly disappeared again for the rest of my stay.

Staying right on the Mekong is definitely the way to go in Nakhon Phanom but there are certain tradeoffs to consider. Insects at night, especially during April, will definitely be a nusiance and some of the mossquitos are very large. The white winged critters didn’t bother anyone they just like to congregate around light, screw and die. I never did find out what they are but I finally found an insect the Thai’s don’t like and won’t eat!