Udon Thani is a province in Thailand. It is about 562km north-east of Bangkok and takes around 50 minutes to reach by aeroplane from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK). Both AirAsia and Thai Airways offer direct flights from here to Udon Thani two or three times a day, or alternatively you may try traveling by V.I.P bus, which is cheaper (tickets cost around 500 Thai baht), but the journey can take up to eight hours.

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Udon Thani is a province in Thailand. It is about 562km north-east of Bangkok and takes around 50 minutes to reach by aeroplane from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK). Both AirAsia and Thai Airways offer direct flights from here to Udon Thani two or three times a day, or alternatively you may try travelling by V.I.P bus, which is cheaper (tickets cost around 500 Thai baht), but the journey can take up to eight hours.

Udon Thani is around 56km from Nong Kai. Nong Kai is bordered to Laos across the “Friendship” bridge and you can drive or take a bus directly to Laos from Udon Thani Bus Station (which is quite an old station). This V.I.P bus journey to Laos will take around an hour. There are two bus stations in Udon Thani both old and new, so be careful or you might end up heading in the wrong direction. The new bus station is outside the city and very quiet, but the old one is in the city centre close to Central Plaza, the biggest shopping centre in Udon Thani.

Udon Thani International Airport (UTH) is around 5km from the city centre, and is quite easy to get to by tuk-tuk (around 15 minutes journey time), and will cost you around 300 baht one way. if it’s your first visit to Udon Thani I’d suggest you to take a taxi from the airport to the Central Plaza area, as this is Udon Thani’s main business district with many 3-5 star hotels nearby. If you plan to stay longer and don’t want to waste lots of money for a hotel then you may want to try a mansion instead (this is a cheap version of a hotel). Prices in central Udon Thani start from less than 400 baht/night, but if you plan to stay longer, like two weeks or a month then it is quite possible to get a further discount.

December 2009 was the first time that my boyfriend visited me here in Udon Thani, and also the first time he’d ever visited Asia. He didn’t know much about Thailand at all, and it took him a while to get used to spending Thai bahts, and understanding what the relative value of things compared to the UK, he has learned from me though, so it didn’t take too long. We made sure we spent carefully and are still doing that now. Luckily he has me as a girlfriend, who lives here and knows where to eat, where to stay, and what transportation to use at a reasonable price. We don’t spend money on unnecessary things when we go shopping together, although it can be very tiring, no not because I’ve been walking too long, I don’t have a problem with that haha , but because there’s always a smaller chance of getting a discount from shops or even tuk-tuk’s when they see I’m with a farang boyfriend LOL… they thought we are rich!

I just mentioned a moment ago that it’s quite common here to ask for a discount when dealing with shop/stall owners and tuk-tuk drivers, but to my boyfriend it’s kind of weird, as he says it would be considered unusual in the UK. It reminds me of when I was in a border market in the north of Thailand, a place that is well known as a big market for gems. I was there with my mum and her friends, and they were busy asking for a discount for some gems. I was getting annoyed because they’d been dealing for long time already (about an hour), but what amazed me was that the owner discounted for more than 50% in the end. This made me laugh as, even though my bum was tired from all the sitting around waiting, I then realised that it was worth the wait in the end! These sort of deals can work out very well. But you still have to be careful sometimes. If you are their first customer of the day, then it is possible some of them might take offence if you ask for a discount, as they believe it’s a bad sign (Thai beliefs and superstitions), even though every other customer after you can ask for a discount all day. They will try to sell to you anyway for a good start to business that day (you will know this when you see them cup their hands and pray when you pay).

From the business area of Central Plaza (which is near the old bus station) there are plenty of mini-buses and tuk-tuk’s available if you fancy to visiting the city’s central park (Nongprajak). The mini-bus only costs 10 baht, and me and my boyfriend used this very often. The Udon Thani Museum is also near Nongprajak and costs nothing to enter, so feel free to visit. We’ve spent quite a few hours in the park during my boyfriend’s last few visits. taking many photos. The weather is usually nice, windy and cool amongst the beautiful gardens, and we really enjoy it here. Usually we rent a carpet and buy some fish food, and my boyfriend has good time feeding the catfish from the bridge in the centre of the park.

After enjoying ourselves in the park for a while we usually walk to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant nearby (about 300m away). This restaurant is quite a famous one in Udon Thani and is our favourite restaurant, the food is incredibly delicious and also not expensive as well! When the tummy is full, the only one thing I can think of is BED haha, so we head right back to our hotel room to have a siesta and wait for the night time to come yay! Time to go to UD TOWN.

So, I’ve written about UD Town often before because it’s such a nice place and my boyfriend loves it. He seems to become very energetic and his eyes are shiny like gold when I say “Hey babe do you want to go UD town?” . He gets dressed up very quickly haha… as you like honey . So yes, I’ve shown him many parts of Udon Thani, here are some of the places we’ve been to…

Udon Thani Attractions

The Monument of Krommaluang Prachaksinlapakhom(อนุสาวรีย์พระเจ้าบรมวงศ์เธอ กรมหลวงประจักษ์ศิลปาคม) - I went here to pray and pay respects several times.

 Nong Prachaksinlapakhom Public Park (สวนสาธารณะหนองประจักษ์ศิลปาคม) - A small garden that is filled with decorative and flowering plants, and there is a bridge linking the island with the mainland. We have stood on the bridge feeding fishes several times, and I’d like to suggest you guys visit before midday to avoid the worst of the heat.

Udon Thani Museum (พิพิธภัณฑ์เมืองอุดร) - I decided to take my boyfriend and some other farang friends to this museum so they can learn more about the history of Udon Thani. When I was a teacher in primary school I took my students for education tours in this museum.

Wat Pa Ban Tat (วัดป่าบ้านตาด) -This temple is also the residence of Phra Achan Maha Bua Yannasampanno, the famous monk. Inside it’s compound, there are wild animals like birds, squirrels etc. I still remember when I was a kid my father took me to this temple and I enjoyed playing with the squirrels.

Chaopu – Chaoya Chinese Spirit Shrine (ศาลเจ้าปู่-ย่า) - Is located near Nong Bua Market and UD town.

Ban Chiang National Museum (พิพิธภัณฑสถานแห่งชาติ บ้านเชียง) - Also known as Ban Chiang Archaeological Site, this is located in the Nong Han district of Udon Thani Province. The site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 1992. We visited Ban Chiang National Museum by car with my dad and his friend (who was driving for us), but be aware that cameras are not allowed inside the museum.

Phu Phra Bat Historical Park (อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์ภูพระบาท) - This was a very interesting place to visit for my boyfriend, especially as my dad knew so much about it’s history (my dad has been friends with the official park guide for many years). The park has many ancient sandstone carvings and other Buddhist relics, and they talked for a long time about the history of the park as we walked around. My boyfriend took many pictures and found it all very fascinating.

This was a very “adventurous” trip for us, as I was actually left alone in the forest at one point. My dad told me to wait for him as he took my boyfriend to see something deep inside the forest. It was about 5pm and I really didn’t like being there on my own, it was scary, so I decided to walked out… and guess what? Later my Dad and boyfriend came searching for me, and they started getting a bit worried after a while because it was starting to get dark, but they found me in the end… sigh. We finally went back to the city and dropped by at a Tesco branch to get some dinner. As it was the first time my boyfriend had visited he was like “WOW! There’s Tesco in Thailand?” LOL “Yes, we have three Tescos here darling”, and it made him feel like he was right at home in the UK.

The biggest fresh market called “Talad Thai-Isaan”

Welcome to Udon Thani!

Tung Srimuang Festival the biggest one of Udon Thani and seems to be a very popular festival that Udon people look forward to end of the year (Dec1st-15th). This contains the parades that happens every Dec 1st and 5th of the year. The parades are usually depart from Rajhabaht University Udon Thani and wandering around down town. I find it’s huge and very interesting parades amongt plenty of people from Udon Thani and another provinces nearby including tourists come to watch. The parades end at Tung Srimuang where you will meet the fair It’s heaven for people who loves shopping and eating also concerts from various famous bands in Thailand and other entertainment possibilities it’s great fun indeed.

Place to eat in Udon Thani: Local & Western Food

Until next time, happy travelling!

Kit

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