Udon Thani

A few weeks ago, my wife and I took a short trip to the town of Udon Thani in northeastern Thailand. With 450,000 residents, Udon Thani is the 4th most populous city in the Issan region (northeast), and the 7th biggest city in Thailand.

We arrived around lunchtime, and after checking in at our hotel, our first stop was the (free!) Udon Thani City Museum! I had never been to Udon Thani before, and I was really interested to learn about its fascinating recent history.

During the Vietnam War, Udon Thani experienced a huge boom (very much like Pattaya) due to the US military base that operated there, not far from the border with Laos. The influx of American dollars made Udon Thani a rich city with a high level of English proficiency. There was even a US consulate in Udon Thani until the mid 90s. Now, Udon Thani is a peaceful and quiet city surrounded by national parks.

This dog is the mascot of Udon Thani

Udon Thani is also famous for its big yellow ducks. 

A big yellow rubber duck has been at the city park since 2013. Her ducklings joined later, and it's since become a sort of symbol of the city. 

According to the artist, the ducks represent "peace, freedom, and unity".

street art in Udon Thani

Feeling sleepy, we stopped in at a local cafe that we learned was operated by a local vocational college! I ordered an espresso sunrise, and Pinky and I shared a delicious honey toast.

Then, we decided to take a walk around a pond at one of the city's several beautiful parks. The city is known for its numerous beautiful parks that encourage people to get outside and enjoy the natural beauty.

It seems like the city government places a lot of emphasis on getting people outdoors. 

Even though it was a warm afternoon, there were plenty of people outside having a picnic, walking and biking, or just sitting on benches enjoying the sunny day.

One thing that Udon Thani is particularly famous for is its ancient ceramics, and there was a monument to these ceramics at the park! Udon Thani ceramics are known for their distinctive style, which is characterized by their intricate swirling designs and vibrant colors. Traditional techniques are used to create pieces that are both functional and decorative, ranging from simple dishes and bowls to elaborate vases and sculptures. The art dates back thousands of years and is the subject of several archaeological discoveries in the area.

After the park, we walked to the City Pillar Shrine, but by now we were getting a bit tired, and we knew we were going to have a very early morning the next day. After taking a few photos, we decided it was time to call it a day, head back to the hotel, and order some delicious and spicy Issan food for dinner.

The next morning we did something very special (but I'll write about that tomorrow!). In the afternoon, we decided to head back into town to visit the Thai-Chinese Cultural Center.

The center has a museum, a tea shop, a beautiful garden, a fishpond, and a small Taoist shrine.

The purpose of the center is to display and preserve the rich history and culture of the Thai-Chinese community in Udon Thani and northeastern Thailand.

The museum is called the Museum of Morality, which I thought was a weird name for a museum, but it just turned out to be about Confucius and the traditional Chinese festivals and holidays celebrated in Udon Thani each year.

We bought some fish food at the museum and fed the fish. No matter what age you are, it's always fun to do.

Behind the cultural center was a large Chinese temple that faced yet another lake and another beautiful park.

We decided to take another walk around this lake as well. We were delighted to spot some new bird species, which we added to our birding life list.

We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. When we were asking locals what to eat, nearly every one of them listed off what we thought of as Vietnamese dishes.

Interestingly, Udon Thani is well known for its famous Vietnamese food. Well... it's not exactly Vietnamese food. I guess you could say that the local cuisine is sort of a fusion cuisine... like these Vietnamese dumpling noodles served with Thai Tom Yum broth.

A very popular snack are these little sandwiches served with pork pie, sweet Chinese sausage, and egg. It's a sort of Udon Thani take on banh mi. It was really interesting to see how different the food was from what I was used to... different even from the Issan food that I had been expecting. Everything we had was delicious, though.

And since they offered egg coffee on their menu, of course we had to order it!