(NOTE: This trip is best suited to 4-days and 3-nights, but can be shortened to a weekend by eliminating Day-1 from this itinerary)

• Students arrive in Ubon Ratchatthani, Thailand by overnight (sleeper car) train from Bangkok or aboard the first flight from Bangkok. Following pick up, we bus to a tributary of the Mekong River for a picnic breakfast and group orientation.
  
  
• Following breakfast, we set off by bus for beautiful “Moonlight Waterfall” where a stream cascades through a round opening of a limestone ledge and pours through like a moonlit shower. After we frolic under the falls, we’ll explore the macro-invertebrate life of the creek bed.

• Next we drive to Ban Chiang, an ancient town along the Mekong River trade routes. Here we will enjoy a delicious lunch at a riverside restaurant and have time to shop for local handicrafts at the many stalls set along the river bank.
  
  
• Our final destination for the day is Pha Taem National Park – an area designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here, a trail leads along a high cliff embankment of the Mekong that is adorned in hundreds of red ochre paintings depicting fish traps, giant Mekong catfish, human figures, hands and much more. It is the most extensive display of pictographs (rock paintings) in the world!

• Pha Taem National Park has lovely lodges overlooking the massive Mekong River where we will share in a traditional Isaan meal with music and dancing on a patio under the stars. Later we will take advantage of this remote location (no city lights) to study the wonders of the night sky.

Overnight: Pha Taem National Park Lodge