Travel Tips

Following our morning tour of the temples in Nong Khai, we took an air-conditioned bus to Udon Thani... The 45 minutes journey passed thru many patched vegetation (it is extremely hot in this region at this time)...

Udon Thani was a surprise... It was more cosmopolitan and vibrant than I envisaged... The town is busy and there are more traffic on the road - just like Bangkok...

As we have at least 3 hours to kill before our flight to Bangkok, we decided to see the town... In terms of touristic sites, Udon Thani does not have much to offer...

Our first stop is at the San Lak Mueang or the City Pillar...It is located at the northeast corner of Thung Si Mueang (City Field)....The City Pillar commemorates the founding of the city and is also where its guardian spirit resides. People make offerings of flowers, candles and incense at the ornate shrine, which is located next to a smaller shrine housing a Buddha stela... Nearby is a sacred banyan tree which, as is the custom, is the repository for broken or discarded spirit houses...

The only other notable temple in the town is the San Chao Pu-ya... Located near the Nong Bua Market, this large and beautiful Chinese-style shrine, set next to a pond, houses a huge model of a golden dragon that is featured in the annual Thung Si Mueang festival held every December...

The San Chao Pu-ya sums up our visit to Udon Thani...The tuk-tuk took us thru all the back road to the airport... At least we were able to see the other part of the town...

Udon Thani Airport is quite pleasant but has nothing much to offer... It has an airport restaurant serving buffet dinner, as well as a coffee cafe...Like most Thai airports, there are a lot of reading materials in the departure lounge, but they are all in the Thai language... So bring your own reading materials if you do not read Thai...

The Thai Airways flight brought us back to Bangkok in about 70 minutes...