Phana is a district town (amphur) in Amnat Charoen Province, in the lower northeast (Isan) of Thailand. About 28,000 people live in the district, in 36 villages. These villages are grouped into four tambons. Within Tambon Phana there are two municipalities, Tetsaban Phana and Tetsaban Phra Lao. I can be said to live in Moo 1, Ban Phana, Tambon Phana, Tetsaban Phana, Amphur Phana. If you ask me how big Phana is that gives me the chance of answering in five different ways!
Phana is linked by highway 2049 to Amphur Muang Samsip (26 kms) and highway 2134 to Amphur Lue Amnat (22 kms). These two towns are both on the main road (highway 212) between Amnat Charoen and Ubon Ratchathani. Phana is about 60 kms from Ubon and 45 kms from Amnat. Highway 2134 continues to another amphur, Trakan Phuetphon, 20 kms away, and then continues to the Mekong River at Khong Chiam.
Not being on a main road means that Phana is rather seldom visited by outsiders and there is a somewhat remote feel to the place. And this sense that Phana is cut off from the outside world has been re-emphasised by the fairly new 'ring road' which means that through traffic does not, in fact, have to go through Phana at all, which is just as well because the main road through Ban Phana is very narrow and a bit winding.
There is a lack of commercial development as compared to Trakan and Muang Samsip which gives some people a false impression regarding the prosperity of Phana. At the same time, it is also one of the charms of the place. And since there are now good roads linking Phana to the two more 'advanced' amphurs, it is really not such a bad thing.
But how do you measure commercial development anyway? Well, until 2008 there was no bank in Phana, although there has been an ATM outside the tetsaban offices for the last three or four years. The Bank of Agriculture and Commerce which we now have is not exactly a 'high street bank', but it does good business all the same, so there was clearly a need for it. Another measure of our so-called under-development which outsiders comment on is our lack of a 7-11. Never mind, we have plenty of small shops in the front of people's houses that serve most of our needs, and a mini-mart in the amphur area, as well as several excellent little eating places, mostly serving civil servants and school students at lunchtimes.
We also have all the usual facilities of a small town in Thailand, as well as one or two not so usual ones: the District Office, a 40-bed hospital, Post Office, Police Station, District Public Health Centre, a High School, lots of Primary Schools, kindergartens, day nurseries, six wats in Tambon Phana alone, a pharmacy, a library, garden centres, a traditional medicine centre, a spa massage place (evenings only as the owner/practitioner is a physiotherapist in the hospital by day) lots of people who can repair just about anything (motorbikes, bicycles, TVs, computers ...), a snooker table, karaoke, a new market and bus station under construction, as well as our very active tetsaban (municipal council).
Until 1993, Phana was in Ubon Ratchathani Province and since Ubon is much larger than Amnat Charoen, most people still look to Ubon for big shopping trips, entertainment, and so on, and of course from there they can take the train to Bangkok, or a plane from Ubon airport. Travelling to Bangkok by coach, though, can be done direct from Phana. About five coaches pass through each evening, originating from Khong Chiam. They arrive in Bangkok at about 5 a.m. the next day, and the return trip to Phana arrives at about the same time. Very convenient, but very cold! The air con is always turned up way too high.
Because Amnat Charoen is a new province and a small one, they have been heavily promoting the few places they consider worth visiting. Phana has two of them, Wat Phra Lao Thepnimit and Don Chao Poo. Wat Phra Lao Thepnamit is famous because of its antiquity and its Buddha image, Phra Lao. Don Chao Poo is famous as the forest home of the guardian spirit of Phana and of the large troop of macaque monkeys. Nowadays the forest is also used for several municipally-organized events each year.
Ban Phana, the original village, has some good examples of traditional Lao wooden houses, although it has some smart modern houses alongside them.
In the aerial photograph of Ban Phana below you can see the compound of Wat Phra Lao close to the large pond. The road running from top left to the lower right is highway 2134 to Trakan Phuetphon, and the road branching towards the bottom of the picture is highway 2049 to Muang Samsip. Part of Don Chao Poo can be seen as the wedge shape to the right of this road, on the south-eastern edge of the village. The green roof of my house can be seen among the trees to the south of Wat Phra Lao and to the south of the road, on the western edge of the village.
Altogether, Phana is a good place to visit and an even better place to live.
Don Chao Poo, the main entrance gate
Aerial Photo of Ban Phana
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