Buriram for Digital Nomads

The town of Buriram, capital of the Isaan province of the same name, is located about 120km east of Nakhon Ratchasima. With an urban population about 1/18th the size, my expectations were that it would be less developed and even more local. So it was a bit of a shock when I arrived here and found it to be more foreigner-friendly than some of the big cities in Isaan.

I didn't realise it until I arrived, but my hotel was only 150m from the campus of Buriram Rajabhat University. If Wikipedia is to be believed, then Buriram Rajabhat University has around 15,000 students. The population of Buriram is less than 24,000, so this is a very, very student-centric town, which I like. Students are young enough that they haven't become embittered by the world yet, so the vibe here is just really positive. It's the exact opposite of what I was expecting.

That's not a bad thing. It's pretty rare that I stay somewhere for only a week, and when I do it's because I'm not expecting to like it. That was my expectation for Buriram. I thought I was going to find myself too isolated, but not at all. As a foreigner here you'll feel a lot more at home than you might expect.

Of course, in a town so small you're limited in what is available, and the lack of vegan food here started to grate at me after just a week. That will perhaps preclude me from ever coming back long-term, but with that exception I found it a really lovely, friendly place that I enjoyed spending my time.

Welcome to Buriram

Who is Buriram suitable for?

While I found that Buriram had more foreigners than I was expecting (a mix of expats and tourists), it's still not a touristy place. I was expecting zero tourists, and it has more than that. All the expats I encountered here were 60+.

My point is that there's not much in the way of a social life here. There are some foreigner-aimed bars, as I'll get into below. They're a good bet to drink some beer and chat to some people, but beyond that, Buriram is not a place for the socially-needy nomad. It's also not great for vegans. You won't go hungry, but you'll probably be pretty bored of the food by the time you leave.

With the number of students, it's a good vibes kind of place, so if you're an independent-minded omnivore who just wants to hangout somewhere for a bit, you'll probably like it.

How affordable is Buriram?

Buriram is more expensive than you'd expect. As a small town located between Nakhon Ratchasima and Ubon Ratchathani, you'd expect it to be cheaper than them, but it's not the case, and there's actually a noticeable bump in price compared to everywhere else in Isaan I've been.

For example, in Buriram a one-hour massage will typically cost 300 baht. In the rest of Isaan you'll pay 200-250. A small bottle of San Miguel was 99 baht in my most-visited bar here. I'd expect 65 to 80 baht elsewhere. A meal at a local เจ restaurant here costs around 70 baht. An equivalent meal will be 40 to 50 baht elsewhere in Isaan.

These are all pretty insignificant increases in the grand scheme of things, and paying an extra 50 baht for a massage, or an extra 20 baht for a beer isn't going to make much difference unless you're on an extremely tight budget. But if you are, there are cheaper places to be.

Is Buriram safe?

As you'd expect in a small, studenty town in Isaan, crime is basically non-existent. The biggest risk I encountered were some rather aggressive soi dogs.

It's something I'm very used to. I walk wherever I go, day or night, no matter where I am in the world, which means I'm very often wandering down side roads and encountering packs of stray dogs after dark. You expect them to be territorial and to bark a bit, but I've never felt as close to actually being attacked as I was walking home here on my first night when I got surrounded by a pack of eight to ten dogs. They were very protective of the road right outside my hotel.

I went out a couple of nights later thinking it would be wise to take a motorcycle taxi back to my room instead of dealing with them again, but then I drank eight beers and decided fuck it, I'll get in a fight with some dogs. I got myself all hyped-up on the 25-minute walk back, and when I got there... they weren't there. They were obviously off trying to intimidate people outside another hotel.

Apart from the dogs, Buriram is very safe.

How is the Internet in Buriram?

Not great, but just about good enough. In my room the connection was 25.5mbps download, 26.4mbps upload, and was a little unstable, but I got through all my video calls without any significant disruption.

Is it easy to get by with English in Buriram?

Frustratingly so. Part of the motivation for the eleven weeks I spent travelling around Isaan was I wanted to be forced to practice Thai. Perhaps given the high student population here, most people I encountered spoke pretty decent English. Whether buying a train ticket or going to a restaurant or getting a beer, I would speak in Thai and many people would reply to me in English. It got very annoying.

Being sociable in Buriram

You won't find any events for meeting new people in Buriram. Or at least I didn't find any events for meeting new people in Buriram. What you will find is more foriegner-aimed bars than in Korat and Ubon Ratchathani combined.

They each only have one bar, so that's not too hard, but still. Dotted around the town you'll find a small number of bars.

One of the better options is Bee Stop Bar and Grill. I came here on my first night in Buriram and loved it. I came here again a couple of days later and they changed the TV from the football game I had requested and was midway through, because someone else had requested a different game. I didn't appreciate that, so left pretty quickly and didn't come back for a third time. Based on just my first night here it's a fun bar. Most of the clientel are older foreign men, but that's to be expected anywhere in Isaan.

I also tried Amsterram, which as you can probably tell from the name, is a weed themed bar. They sell weed alongside alcohol. I didn't stay for too long here, I found the vibe a bit off. Weed-themed bars are great if you're high, but otherwise the music's just kind of depressing, and everyone in the bar was a bit stand-offish.

If they get the same paranoia I get when I'm high, that's understandable.

Some other bars I bookmarked but never made it to were Nekromantix, which looks like a 90's themed craft beer bar, which is right up my alley. I walked past 2Bars on a couple of occasions and it always looked dead, hence I never ventured inside, but hey, perhaps on another night it's good. And MarieJane Craft is another craft beer bar, which I'd assume by the name also sells weed. Bamboo Bar always had foreigners in it drinking, even in the middle of the day, however nothing about it ever made me want to join them, but perhaps it's what you're looking for.

Bee Stop is a classy bar. I suggest wearing a shirt and shoes so you don't get turned away.

Things I don't like about Buriram

As I've mentioned above, I've never encountered soi dogs quite as aggressive as I did on my first night in Buriram. As it didn't happen again, perhaps it was a one-off.

The lack of variety in available vegan food was definitely another frustration, as I'll get to below. I got bored of eating at the same places here, and I only stayed for a week. It would likely stop me from wanting to come here for any longer, particularly if I didn't have a kitchen.

And the last thing that annoyed me a bit here, was how out-of-date or inaccurate Google Maps is. It's fairly common outside of major cities for Google to get a few things wrong, but here it felt like there were a load of businesses (including vegan restaurants) that existed on Google Maps that have either since closed down, or were just pure fantasy to begin with. It's always a bit annoying when you plan to go somewhere that it turns out doesn't exist.

Where to run in Buriram

Khlong Lalom is an 1,800 year old moat that was once dug as a defensive barrier for what is now Buriram. I assume back then it hadn't been dissected into five different parts by roads crossing over it, because that would have made it a bit pointless, but that's how it is now.

If you run a full lap of the lake it has a total distance of 5.36km, however the fact that it's cut into sections means that you'll have crossed roads eight different times by the time you get back to your starting point. None of them are especially busy or hard to cross so it's not really as issue on relaxed runs. If you want to come here and do a faster run without crossing any roads, then each of the five sections can be done as a lap on its own. The middle of the five sections is by far the biggest, although worth noting that the people that built the path only knew how to build right-angles, so there are some oddly sharp corners seeing as it's a path meandering around a large lake.

It's a very enjoyable route, it's not very busy, you'll get to see a bit of the town, and you'll also come across a few sporadic workout areas. I'd also come here to walk on my lunch breaks and do a few pull-ups at the pull-up bars I passed. This is the best option for running in Buriram.

An alternative is the running track in Buriram Rajabhat University (BRU). To look at it on a map, you might think that you can access the stadium from the main road, but you can't. I tried. Unless you're willing to jump a fence, you can only access it from the university campus. Walk until you see a big tree, then behind the big tree is an open gate that leads onto the running track.

I came here in the middle of the day and there wasn't another soul here because all Thai people are scared of the sun, so you'll likely have the track to yourself. It's an eight-lane 400m track (with a ninth lane on the straight), and is a better choice than Khlong Lalom if you want to do a fast run or sprints.

Khlong Lalom is the best place I found in Buriram to go running. To run an entire circuit is 5.36km, although you have to cross some roads.

Getting vegan food in Buriram

This was definitely my least favourite thing about Buriram. Freshly cut fruit is readily available from vendors all over the place, more so than anywhere I've been in Thailand apart from Bangkok, so that's helpful. As for getting an actual meal? I only came across three different vegan-friendly options.

As well as the below, you could try Healthy Cafe Buriram. They do smoothie bowls made with almond milk and oat milk, although on the one day I came here the chef was off sick, so I never got to try them.

ร้านอาหารเจ บุรีรัมย์หลังตลาดเทศบาล

ร้านอาหารเจ บุรีรัมย์หลังตลาดเทศบาล as this restaurant is named on Google Maps, translates to 'Vegetarian restaurant Buriram behind the municipal market', which is quite a useful way of putting it. It's behind the "midnight market" (which opens at 4pm and closes at 9pm) and is the best option for vegan food in Buriram. Luckily the restaurant doesn't follow the same hours as the market, and is open from 6am to 4:30pm seven days per week.

It's your typical point-and-hope เจ ('jay') buffet, but I always thought the quality here was decent, if a little more expensive than equivalent restaurants in other parts of Isaan. This will probably be where you get most of your nourishment in Buriram

ร้านอาหารเจ บุรีรัมย์หลังตลาดเทศบาล is a standard point-and-hope 'jay' buffet, although they have a higher than average number of sausage-type things on sticks. This plate costs me 70 baht.

La Paz

La Paz is the easiest restaurant for getting vegan food in Buriram. It a sort-of coffee shop type place, but they have a big food menu, including one vegan page, which contains five items. Each one has a picture and is translated to English, which it's why I say it's the easiest.

If you don't know how to speak Thai (or are just too hungover like I was), then point at the picture and make caveman noises and your point will get across. The portions aren't huge, so I'd suggest getting a couple of items when you come here. The cheapest vegan item is 69 baht, with the most expensive costing 119 baht.

There's plenty of comfortable seating and the shop is air conditioned, which is nice.

There are five vegan items on the menu at La Paz, ranging in price from 69 baht to 119 baht. This is the stir-fried spicy basil and vegan crispy pork with rice, which costs 99 baht.

The Salad Lab

The last place I'm going to recommend is The Salad Lab. It's a little shop that only has three tables and is across the street from a large school (so beware of coming here as the kids are getting let out), but it's your typical salad bar.

You take a bowl (small is 89 baht, large is 129 baht), fill it up with as much salad as you can cram in there, and that's about it. The cost includes two proteins, but none of these are vegan so I instead made sure to put plenty of kidney beans and jobs tears in my bowl (they were the only proteiny things available in the salad bar).

It wasn't a very exciting meal, but hey, it got a large quantity and variety of veg into me that day, so it was welcome all the same.

This is the large bowl, which costs 129 baht. I packed it so full that you can't see the mass of veggies underneath, but there was a lot of goodness in this bowl.

Where I stayed

Snow House Buriram

527/99 Jira Nakorn Soi 4

I have very mixed feelings about Snow House. Some things about it I loved, and some I just didn't.

I had a great start here, because despite arriving just after 10:30am when check-in time is 2pm, they let me check-in right away. That's always very welcome, and I found the staff to be very friendly and personable.

But then once I got up to the room, a couple of things instantly annoyed me. The first was that there were cigarette butts on both the floor and in the sink of the balcony. These weren't hard to spot, and as they got ignored by the housekeepers who came into my room everyday of my stay after that, I can assume they just don't get paid to clean the balcony because it was disgusting out there. Not just cigarette butts, but the floor didn't look like it'd been cleaned in months either. Just ignore the fact that you get a balcony at this hotel because it's not really usable.

The other thing the cleaners did that annoyed me, was there was no bag in the bin. That's never good for me because I drink so much tea and eat so much fruit, the remnants of which always end up in the bin, that I'm just going to make a mess of it if there isn't a bag in there.

I never like to complain, especially if my complaint could get someone else into trouble, as it could the housekeepers if they aren't cleaning the rooms properly. They're paid so little that wouldn't be fair, so instead I went to 7-11 to get a plastic bag that I could then use in the bin. Ok, surely they won't forget to replace it again.

Bzzzt, wrong. The next day they actually did replace the bag with another bin liner, but the day after forgot. Off I went to 7-11. By the end of my stay I was just using this bin without a bag in it, which made it kind of disgusting. I'm not sure what the game was we were playing, it was very annoying though.

Apart from the balcony, the room was actually pretty nice. Huge, east-facing windows, and being up on the fifth floor (out of seven) I was high enough that I could leave the curtains open while I slept, which I always do anyway, but here I didn't have to worry about people watching me sleep. I woke-up drenched in glorious daylight every day, which I love. The desk being right in front of a window was great too.

A downside was that the room was just a little bit too small to be comfortable. I moved the bed about a foot closer to the window than it was when I checked-in. That gave me a bit more space to exercise (although the extra foot of floor space that had been previously covered by the bed was predictably dusty), but it still just felt a little bit too small. The room was listed at 22m². I've stayed in 22m² rooms before that didn't feel so cramped. There was also an annoying number of ants in the room. They seemed to be everywhere.

The walls weren't very soundproof either. I had a corner room so was only sharing one wall, but anytime the couple in the room next door were talking, or watching a movie, or fucking, as they did a lot, I got to listen to it. That was fun.

The Internet was fast enough (25.5mbps download, 26.4mbps upload). It was slightly unstable, but mostly ok.

One thing I absolutely loved about this place though, was that apart from the aggressive soi dogs that lived outside, the location here was perfect. It's a short walk from the university, meaning it's a very student-centric area which is my kind of vibe. 7-11 is nearby (about a three minute walk) as are a couple of fruit vendors that setup every day. In the surrounding streets you've got pretty much everything you need, from coffee shops to launderettes (of which there are multiple), and you're an easy walk from Khlong Lalom, which is a great place for a walk or run, as well as the first two vegan-friendly restaurants I mentioned above.

It's why I have such mixed feelings about Snow House. I either loved or hated everything here. Loved the location, loved the friendliness of the staff, loved how much light gets into the room, hated that the balcony never got cleaned, hated that they refused to give me a bin liner, hated how many ants were in the room, hated I could hear the people next door fucking.

In a town like Buriram there aren't that many options, so you take what you can get. I'd certainly look to see if I could find anywhere better before coming back again, but despite everything I've just said, Snow House might still be the best option.

One of the best things here was the floor-to-ceiling east-facing windows. So much daylight streamed through the windows in the mornings. I loved it.

Summary of Buriram

Do I want to come back again?

I loved the vibe of Buriram, but given the lack of options for vegan food here... not really. I stopped here for a week, breaking-up my trip from Ubon to Bangkok. I'd gladly do the same again, but I can't imagine wanting to stay here more than a week, nor would I go out of my way to come back.