Long Ride to Udon Thani (อุดรธานี)

I enjoy traveling but don't enjoy planning the travel at all. I was traveling to the easy side of Bangkok for the buffalo races and decided not to travel back through Bangkok heading home until after the 18th of November. I thought I will just get a hotel for 2 weeks somewhere and do what I am good at, being lazy. I was sitting in Khong Chiam thinking what do I want to do tomorrow and for the next 14 days. I decided to ride the 480 kilometers or 300 miles to Udon Thani since I had some dots on my map there.

I had a hotel still dotted on my map for staying in when doing the Rocket Festival and it looked about half the distance to Udon so clicked on map for direction and off I went.

It is sort of strange following the phone and not really knowing where I am and passing a temple and thinking I've been there before. Near the end of my 1st days ride I was close to Chai Mongkol Grand Pagoda which I tried to visit 2 years ago. I couldn't find the entrence then and didn't try this time. I did stop and take a picture from a distance this time.

Before going into the city of Udon Thani I stopped at the National Museum of Ban Chiang and the Excavation site. This is one of Thailand's World Heritage Sites. The museum was mostly a display of pots and a few remains found at the excavation.

I also stopped at White Lotus temple or Wat Santi Wanaram (วัดสันติวนาราม) before going into the city.

My first full day in Udon I visited a few of the local temples. The first was the Chao Pu Chao Ya Shrine (ศาลเจ้าปู่-ย่า อุดรธานี) or Grand Father and Grand Mother Shrine

The China City Shrine didn't seem to be open when I arrived so just snapped this picture from a distance.

The City Pillar Shrine or San Lak Mueang (ศาลหลักเมืองอุดรธานี) was next to the China Shrine but it was open.

My last temple of the day was also the one I found to be the best of the temples I visited this day. It was Wat Pothisomphon (วัดโพธิสมภรณ์)

The next day I rode out to Wat Phu Taphao Thong (วัดภูตะเภาทอง). It's mostly Naga Snakes and rock formations. I am reading now that there is a red hand print on one of the rocks that holds some sort of significance but I missed seeing it. I still enjoyed wondering around the strage rocks and Nagas.

My plan was to go to Phu Foi Lom National Park (ภูฝอยลม) next. I put it in google maps and headed off going down dirt paths through rice fields and up and down winding and twisty roads. It was a really fun ride until google said to go left down something that didn't look like a road to me. It looked more like a dry stream bed and I started down it but soon came to my senses. I'm not sure if my motorbike was capable of going down some of the drops I could see ahead of me but I was sure the rider was not capable enough. I gave up on going to that national park. I just enjoyed the twisty road back to the main highway and the hour ride back to the city.

I thought about attempting the national park again the following day via a different route but just rode out to a reservoir and took it easy. I didn't even take a picture this day.

The following day I left the city of Udon Thani but had a couple more stops in the providence but will talk about them in the next post.