In my humble opinion, the northeast of Thailand, or Issan as it is more commonly referred to, is overlooked by far too many travelers. It’s a fascinating region of cultural and culinary diversity and never fails to delight me.

Located in the upper northeast, 615 kilometres from Bangkok, the province of Udon Thani is perhaps the last place you would expect to find salt farms.

But in the district of Ban Dung checkerboard rice fields have been given over to the production of high quality rock salt.

The salt-rich groundwater is pumped up from 80-metres below at a number of licensed farms in the area. It’s an activity carried out in the cool and hot seasons, and one which produces high quality salt.

As well as producing salt, the farm I visited also makes Chinese-style salted eggs and has a spa with a selection of natural and salt based products.

I’ll post a few more images of my travels in Issan over the next few days.