Nong Khai's location on the Mekong makes it a natural base for day trips into the Isaan countryside and across the border into Laos. Phu Phra Bat Historical Park, with its strange eroded rock formations and traces of settlement dating back over 3,500 years, is about 90 minutes away. Phu Thok, an isolated mountain in Bueng Kan province, has a meditation temple reached by wooden walkways bolted to the cliff face -- spectacular and vertiginous. And of course, Vientiane is just across the Friendship Bridge.