NEAR RIVER RESTAURANT,
Rob Suak, Golden Triangle, Far Northern Thailand

This tranquil and lovely part of the most northerly region of Thailand has a lot going for it, albeit that at the present time it is slightly off the tourism radar.

Most tourists who include a visit to the northern provinces of Thailand rarely venture past Chiang Mai, whilst others move on to Chiang Rai. Few go farther north to the very edge of Thailand where the Mekong River bisects the three countries making up the "Golden Triangle", namely, Burma, Laos and Thailand.

Before embarking on a two hour ferry ride up the mighty Mekong River we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the appropriately named Near River Restaurant, which is in the river side town of Rob Suak (Chiang Rai province), right smack bang in the middle of the once infamous Golden Triangle.

On a stinking hot “wet” season early afternoon we sat in the shaded open sided restaurant of the Near River which is only an eight iron golf shot to the banks of the world’s eleventh longest river. It is quite a large wooden structure, with a thatched roof, sturdy wooden tables and equally sturdy chairs, gingham tablecloths, woven place mats and three ply paper serviettes.

After inspecting the menu with all of the usual Thai dishes on it we settled for a shared plate of miniature prawn rolls with a piquant sauce, one som tam, one Pad Thai for the Shopper Girl who was suffering withdrawal symptoms resulting from no shopping for the previous three days, while I went for the chicken coconut spicy soup.

To refresh the palate I had a large bottle of Heineken beer while the Shopper Girl opted for a bottle of chilled water.

Two other Caucasian couples and a Thai family besides us made up the patronage on this particularly stifling early afternoon as we sipped our drinks and watched the kaleidoscopic activity on the pier not far away.

After about ten minutes our plate of miniature prawn rolls arrived. There were in total 10 rolls filled with finely julienned vegetables and minced prawn meat. The pastry was light and the rolls had been deep fried to perfection. The accompanying piquant sauce lived up to its name, with a mixture of fish sauce, soy and sweet chilli with finely cut spring onions swimming on top of the mixture.

My choice of the spicy coconut chicken soup turned out to be very large bowl of broth with a generous amount of chicken portions swimming amongst the bamboo shoots, the galangal, the ginger, the coriander, the chilli, the tomato and the cellophane noodles. The name of the dish lived up to its expectations; it was indeed very spicy, producing more beads of sweat on an over worked brow already struggling with the heat of the far north of Thailand in the middle of the wet season. The chicken portions were tender, the coriander losing the fight to balance the dish with the other strong tasting ingredients but nonetheless it was a highly enjoyable bowl of soup but probably not the best choice given the ambient conditions.

However, the som tam (papaya salad) was the perfect antidote to the spicy chicken soup. The shredded papaya had been mixed into a mound interspersed with snake beans that had been blanched so that they were served crispy, some dried shrimps that had been reconstituted in cold water, sliced tomato, sprinkled roasted peanuts and a lovely salad dressing in which I detected garlic, chilli, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar.

For the Shopper Girl she had hit the bull’s eye. She described the ubiquitous Pad Thai as “beautiful” and “one of the best I’ve had on this trip”. It did look good and it smelt good as well.

I couldn’t finish my bowl of spicy chicken soup and it is not often that a dish “beats” me, but at that juncture the freshness of the papaya salad sitting in front of me proved too much of a temptation. However, the Shopper Girl had completely demolished her Pad Thai and it is usually her that can’t finish her order.

We finished our drinks as we could see from our vantage point that our ferry was about to ignite its diesel engines for a trip up the river into the mysterious land of Laos.

So I summoned the shy waitress for the bill and settled for the following:

COST: 1 x large Heineken beer, 85 baht; 1 x bottle of water, 25 baht; 1 x plate of prawn rolls, 55 baht; 1 x Som Tam, 45 baht; 1 x chicken coconut spicy soup 85 baht; 1 x Pad Thai, 60 baht. TOTAL: 355 baht. ($AUD12.60 at the time).

SCORE: Value for money, 10/10; service, 8/10; ambience, 8/10; food, 9/10. TOTAL SCORE: 35/40.

CONCLUSION: The Near River Restaurant and Bar is reminiscent of the Thailand we used to know of many years ago. Languid, somnolent, lovely food served by very shy girls, beautifully chilled beer, gracious welcome and effusive farewell, tremendous value for money, open sides of the restaurant letting the hot air come in and mix with the fanned air above our table. It certainly brought back memories of the Thailand that we first saw and fell in love with all those years ago and which in many respects no longer exists in the more tourist orientated places in the kingdom.

VERDICT: This little Mekong River side town has improved tremendously since our last visitation 33 years ago. Then it had one sealed road running through the village with all the other “roads” little more than dirt tracks. Back then it had just two restaurants that were quite good, now it has many more, with the competition producing good food at very competitive prices. The appropriately named Near River Restaurant and Bar is one of the best in the lovely town of Rob Suak. I highly recommend it.

Emdee I would have thought the spicy chicken soup and the extreme heat of the day would have been a great opportunity to justify another large Heineken?

I certainly felt like another two or three RR, but the ferry for Laos only runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays from Rob Suak, so if we missed that we would have been snookered for three days. I made up for the lack of libation on the ferry trip wherein they sold my favourite beverage - Beer Lao - at 50 baht a bottle!