Things To Do In Udon Thani – Visit Udon Thani – Budget Travel In Thailand

Udon Thani connects north-east Thailand and Laos with the rest of the country. It is a popular destination, particularly for expats.

Whilst in Chiang Mai, we decided to travel east to Udon Thani. This was so that Joanna could fulfil her dream of visiting the nearby Lotus Lake. On our way, we broke up the journey by stopping off at various towns and cities.

We knew very little about Udon Thani upon arrival. Joanna had done some research and found that Udon Thani has the highest number of Western men with Thai brides in the whole of Thailand. This didn’t exactly paint a pretty picture. We had already seen plenty of white males with much younger and much prettier Thai partners.

The Seedy Side of Udan Thani

It seems that every Thai city has its bars where Western males buy the attention of the, usually much younger, Thai women of their fancy. The ultimate goal for these women seems to be to find a man that will provide for them and take them away from their lives in the bars. The woman gets looked after and the man gets himself a much younger wife. I had heard that other Thai people look down on this but I didn’t see any evidence of this. It seems to be accepted, which is even more sad.

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Things To Do In Udon Thani

Food And Drink In Udon Thani

The Udon Thani nightlife is situated on Samphan Thamit Alley (map). Here, you will find endless bars entirely populated by tourists and young Thai girls. Bars with names like ‘Red Lion’, ‘Fun Bar’ and ‘Irish Clock’ serve Sunday dinners and fish and chips. It is grim. We get out of there pretty quick.

We found a place called Cheers Club (map) which was relaxed and had a nicer clientele.

As we walked back towards our hotel, we could see the clientele in the ‘girly-bars’ and there is no way we would have felt comfortable in there.

Anfield Cafe (map) is a coffee shop filled with Liverpool FC memorabilia. More interestingly, it also had random bits of 80s hardware scattered around: televisions, cassette players, keyboards, etc. The coffee was strong and cheap and gave us a much-needed lift.

Wood You Like Cafe (map). is situated next to a gas station and didn’t look too appealing from the outside. However, the inside was a different matter. The cafe is influenced by Studio Ghibli and Moomins and they have various merchandise for sale, as well as coffee and snacks. They were also playing some jazzy Christmas tunes which added to the magical atmosphere. The coffee was excellent; maybe the best I had in the whole of Thailand. We decided to have some light food too and the bruschetta with spinach and cheese delighted our taste buds!

Nong Prajak Park

We visited Nong Prajek Park (map) as we had heard there was a bicycle rental store inside the park and it was a nice place to enjoy a relaxing bike ride.

We entered the park to the north, as this is where the bicycle rental shop was located. The bikes are rented by the hour and this was enough time for us to cycle once around the park and explore it’s many nooks and crannies, and once more around its perimeter.

The park is extremely well looked after and has many places to have a snack and a drink. There are children’s areas, boat rental and places to just sit and enjoy the atmosphere. It was a great place to cycle as there are dedicated cycle lanes. We finished our cycling with a delicious coconut ice cream. Highly recommended.

Red Lotus Lake

We were picked up at our hotel at 7 AM to visit the Udon Thani Red Lotus Lake. Read about this here.

Thung Si Muang Market

Thung Si Muang (map) is a huge market where you can buy food, clothes, furniture, bric-a-brac, household goods, etc. There was a good atmosphere to this market and it looked like it would get even livelier in the evening as there was a stage set up for live music.

UD Town Udon Thani

UD Town (map) is an area that runs adjacent to the railway and contains many shops; from the big high street names to more local businesses. There is outdoor street food, bars, restaurants and live music. As it was the start of the Christmas season, there were also lots of decorations that gave it a seasonal feel. Next to UD Town is another market; this time a more typical Thai market with small cafes offering all kinds of food and drinks. We decided to eat at one of the markets and I had a delicious Japanese mussel dish. The markets seemed to go on forever; they sell just about everything here!

UD Town Opening Times: 11 am – 10 pm, every day.

Is Udon Thani Worth Visiting?

Apart from the Red Lotus Lake, Udon Thani is a typical Thai tourist city with bars, restaurants and night markets. The centre is lively and the park is a great way to escape the hustle and bustle. I would recommend spending at least a couple of nights here.

From Udon Thani, we were to move on to Nong Khai which would be our last city in Thailand before crossing the border into Laos. It seemed hard to believe that our 2 month adventure in Thailand was coming to an end and we’d soon have to learn the currency, the culture, the etiquette and the basic language for a whole new country.