Dan Sai outside of festival time

You've probably never heard of Dan Sai. 

Before I researched my trip in spring 2019, I'd never heard of Dan Sai either. It's a tiny town built on highway 2013, by the junction of the Nam and Sok rivers. 

There are only a couple of small guesthouses or resorts, and a couple of small cafes and restaurants. It's could be largely forgotten as a sleepy little town, if it wasn't for one simple thing:

The Phi Ta Khon festival takes place once a year, combining a spirit festival with a Buddhist festival, fanciful costumes, rockets, and added phalluses.

It's apparently pretty full-on.

I was passing through town at entirely the wrong time of year to see it, but I did spend a couple of hours checking out the local museum, where you can see a large numbers of imaginative and impressive masks and costumes, plus photos and an explanation of the festival.

Add in a nearby relaxing hilltop temple, welcoming people (who are noticeably surprised to see a Western tourists wandering through town), and surprisingly good sourdough bread at the local bakery café, and you have a great overnight stop on your route from Northern Thailand to Isan.

Some practicalities below the pics.

Transport:

Coaches run from Phitsanulok to Udon Thani 3x per day, stopping at Nakhon Thai, Dan Sai, and Loei en route. The first scheduled one leaves P'lok at 9:30, and is scheduled to arrive in Dan Sai at 1, and Loei at 2.

I caught the 9:30am bus from the Phitsanulok bus terminal 1, which was 20 minutes late (it also stops at terminal 2 about 10 minutes later, where the bus sat for 20 minutes). The bus arrived at Nakhon Thai at around noon for a quick pit stop (so the passengers could visit the toilet, or grab some food), and then arrived at Dan Sai about 13:15. I'd suggest you make sure you're at the bus stop early when leaving, though - the following day I caught the same bus heading further east, to Loei, and that bus left Dan Sai at 12:40. There's no bus station at Dan Sai; buses stop on the main road. Heading west, there's a bus shelter near the police station to mark the stop. Heading east, there isn't a bus shelter, but there is a post that marks the stop.

There are also yellow and white minivans that run at least part of this route - I saw them passing through Dan Sai a couple of times a day.