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Yasothon
Yasothon is a small province of 4,131 km² in the centre of Isan, separated from Ubon Ratchathani in 1972, with a population of around 525,000. It is most celebrated as the home of Thailand's most spectacular Bun Bang Fai — the annual Rocket Festival held each May to invoke rain for the rice-planting season.
Located approximately 531 kilometres northeast of Bangkok along the Chi River, Yasothon sits on low plains transitioning to river lowlands and ponds in the south of the province. The Bun Bang Fai Rocket Festival, staged on the second weekend of May, sees homemade rockets of up to nine metres in length and over 100 kilograms in weight launched skyward in homage to Phaya Thaen, the god of rain, accompanied by decorated floats, traditional music, and dancing that continue for days. The city of Yasothon itself has a modest urban population and serves as a provincial market centre for rice and cassava. A striking five-storey toad-shaped museum was constructed in 2015 to commemorate the toad legend embedded in local festival mythology. Yasothon's flat agricultural landscape and uncrowded highways make it a quiet counterpoint to the larger Isan cities.