Korat Thailand Guide

The Korat Cat: Nakhon Ratchasima's Silver-Blue Good-Luck Cat Every Thai province has a symbol, but Korat's might be the only one that purrs. The Korat cat — called Si Sawat in Thai, "colour of prosperity" — is a silver-tipped blue-grey cat that has lived in Nakhon Ratchasima province for centuries. It appears in the Tamra Maew, the old Cat-Book Poems kept in the National Library, and tradition links it to Phimai, the great Khmer city in the north of the province. With its heart-shaped head, huge green eyes and coat that shimmers like rain on silver, it is considered one of the luckiest animals in Thailand — and it carries this city's name to cat shows all over the world. From Phimai Temple to the Cat-Book Poems The Korat is a natural breed, not a designed one: it developed in the villages and temples of the Korat plateau and has barely changed in hundreds of years. The Tamra Maew, written sometime between the 14th and 18th centuries, lists the Si Sawat among Th...

Save One Market: Korat's Biggest Night Market Korat's evening economy runs on Save One. This is not a cute night bazaar for tourists: it is one of the biggest night markets in Isan, a vast grid of food, clothes and everything-in-between that locals treat as their evening mall. Come hungry, bring small notes, and plan on walking — Save One rewards the wanderer. Where It Is and When It Opens Save One sits on the eastern side of Korat city, close to The Mall Korat and the city's big retail belt. It is easiest to reach by ride-hailing or songthaew — parking fills early on Friday and Saturday nights, and walking in from the main road is part of the ritual for many regulars. The market typically opens in the late afternoon and runs into the night, generally from around 4 or 5 pm until about 10 or 11 pm, and usually every day, with weekends by far the busiest. Stall numbers and exact hours can change, so check locally or on the market's social media before a special trip. ...

Of all the Khmer temples in Thailand, Phimai is the one that feels most like a city. It is not a single tower on a hill, and it is not a quiet village shrine. It is a walled sanctuary with a main prang, side towers, galleries, a naga bridge and a moat, built in Phimai town on the bank of the Mun River, about 60 kilometres north-east of Nakhon Ratchasima city. Come here and you are not just visiting a temple: you are walking through the heart of a Khmer town that was once an important stop on the road to Angkor. ในบรรดาปราสาทขอมในประเทศไทย ปราสาทหินพิมายเป็นแห่งที่ให้ความรู้สึกเหมือนเมืองมากที่สุด ไม่ใช่ปราสาทหลังเดียวบนเนินเขา แต่เป็นศาสนสถานที่ล้อมรอบด้วยกำแพง มีปราสาทประธาน ปราสาทบริวาร ระเบียงคด สะพานนาค และคูน้ำ ตั้งอยู่ในอำเภอพิมายริมแม่น้ำมูล ห่างจากตัวเมืองนครราชสีมาประมาณ 60 กิโลเมตรไปทางทิศตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือ ครั้งหนึ่งที่นี่เคยเป็นเมืองสำคัญบนเส้นทางสู่เมืองพระนคร Phimai Historical Park: the main prang and its side towers across the lawn. Photo: Arian Zwegers, Wikimedia Common...

Thao Suranari: The Ya Mo Monument and Korat's Old City Gate Every Thai city has a heart. In Nakhon Ratchasima — Korat, as everyone calls it — the heart is a bronze woman holding a sword and facing west towards Bangkok. Thao Suranari, or 'Ya Mo' as everyone calls her, is Korat's heroine, and her monument beside the old city gate is where locals come to pray, give thanks and ask for luck before exams, journeys and new businesses. Come here first, and the rest of the city makes more sense. Who Was Ya Mo? Thao Suranari was the wife of Korat's deputy governor in the 1820s. In 1826, during the invasion by Chao Anouvong of Vientiane, Korat people were captured and being marched towards Laos. According to the story honoured across Thailand, Ya Mo helped organise resistance: the prisoners fed their captors food and drink, then rose up and broke free at Thung Samrit, north-east of the city. King Rama III granted her the title 'Thao Suranari', meaning 'brave wo...

Fifteen kilometres southeast of Korat city, just off Highway 224, the roadside changes colour. Stalls piled with rust-red pots line the road, smoke drifts from wood-fired kilns, and every other doorway is a potter's workshop. This is Dan Kwian, the pottery village — and its name tells you exactly what it is: dan means a checkpoint or toll station, kwian means oxcart. For centuries this was the place where oxcarts stopped, paid their toll and loaded up with pots. Photo: Louisqgaots, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons A Craft Since the 1740s Pottery has been made at Dan Kwian since around the 1740s — nearly three centuries of turning the same clay. The village sits at a narrows of the Mun River, and in the days of oxcarts and river boats it was a natural checkpoint and trading post: pots made here were loaded onto carts and boats and sold across Isan. Before the 1970s, almost everything made here was useful ware — big water jars of about 50 litres, lidded jars for storing ferment...