The agriculture of the region is based on the cultivation of rice, but there are also a large number of various fruit, vegetables and sugar-cane grown as well as some cattle farming.
Rice 'paddies' as far as the eye can see - and until recently I believed that seed was sown in the same manner as corn or wheat.
I was wrong, each rice plant is placed by hand, so please remember that the half a bowl of rice you leave on your dinner plate probably took an Isaans farm labourer 15 minutes to plant.
An important crop in the Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Kalasin areas is sugar-cane.
In December, January and February every other truck seems to be an overloaded cane lorry.
Moving slowly they make a rolling road block on the main highway between Khorat and Nongkhai.
However their drivers' condideration for other road users is exemplerary.
A small Sunday cattle market about 25km north of Khon Kaen.
When the photographs were taken the market was just coming to a close but the breed of cattle can be clearly seen as being totally different from those known to Europeans.
The market too will be unfamiliar to the average European - no steel bar stalls to bruise the beasts, no concrete areas so unkind to bovine hooves ... and of course the valuable cattle travel with more space and comfort than the cow-herds perched on the hay rack.
