Six years later, the Baanta price is still 600B and the rooms have been well maintained. I stayed at the Baanta on Loi Krathong, and the main building had few guests in it even though the festivities were centered at the Naga Viewpoint, 400m away.
With a hotel, restaurant, riverwalk, and 7-Eleven within walking distance, as well as small local shops like pharmacy and hardware, Pak Chom makes a quiet and less expensive overnight alternative to the tourist scene of Chiang Khan.
The Baanta also has half a dozen cabins for 500B in the grass opposite the main building that are smaller inside than the main building’s rooms but are more romantic and selfie-friendly.
The cabins were all taken, so best to book on Line (the manager writes English) if you want a cabin:
The Baanta is 900m from the 7-Eleven and 400m from the very good Chom Ploem Restaurant (18.02528,101.889889). The Chom Ploem has upstairs seating overlooking the Mekong promenade, open for lunch and dinner,until 19:00.
Another selfie-friendly option is the Pak Chom Homestay (18.02494,101.88904), which is next door to the restaurant and was sold out when I looked at it. Their cabins look even smaller than the ones at the Baanta, for the same 500B price. They are packed around a concrete parking lot—to me, a motel not a homestay—but if you walk outside you can see the river, unlike at the Baanta. It looks like it might be noisy.
Downtown Pak Chom:
I’ll include some photos of Pak Chan’s Loi Krathong here, not being worth a separate thread. There must have been over a thousand people in the parade, which was a couple of kilometers long, and even more at the fair at the Naga. There seemed to be a lot of community spirit in Pak Chom. I only saw two foreigners, male with local partners. There were fireworks at 9 p.m.
Lao guests at the Baanta:
A very small part of the Loi Krathong Parade, for which the highway through town was blocked for several hours.
The Loi Krathong fair:
