From Chiang Mai to Udon Thani with Night Bus

After spending around five weeks in Chiang Mai during our second spell in Thailand, it was time to continue traveling. The first phase of our following journey is to take a night bus from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani and spend a couple of days there. Because neither of us hasn’t been there before, we figured out that we could get the most out of the town in four days.

The second stint is to cross the border from Thailand to Laos via Friendship Bridge. Our 60 days visas were about expiring so we needed to do visa run anyway. Since we didn’t want to extend the visas for 30 extra days, we decided to go and see our mutual friend living in Vientiane, Laos. You might remember our previous visit in Vientiane from our Quick Look of My Nomadic Life – blog post series.

Our friend welcomed us to stay with him as long as we like. But before going to Vientiane, let’s first take a quick peek how our last days in Chiang Mai went. In addition, we will share you our night bus journey from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani.

Final Days in Chiang Mai

Unfortunately, we didn’t do much during our last days in Chiang Mai. Because of the ongoing burning season, the air level in Chiang Mai is a pretty bad. That predisposed us to some illness – nothing serious, though. Having said that, we didn’t have the needed energy to do stuff. Still, since we have been around this area long enough, it actually didn’t bother us too much.

Anyway, we managed to take a couple of authentic Thai massages, eat delicious food in our favorite restaurants, and relax at the swimming pool.

On Tuesday noon, we checked out from our one-month renting apartment in Wat Ket area. It cost us 3500 baht ($99) plus utilities 800 baht ($23). Utilities included things such as water, the internet, and electricity. All in all, we paid for our 30 days stay 4300 baht ($122).

Even though our bed was a rock hard and internet didn’t work properly from time to time, in our opinion, it wasn’t a bad deal for that price, was it?

 

Journey from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani about to begin

We hopped into the Sueksa Tour’s night bus from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani at 8.30pm on Tuesday evening, 14th of March. Our bus journey began with hopeful thoughts of leaving the smog behind us. Ticket for night bus trip from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani cost 767 baht ($22) per person. You could get a cheaper trip around 550 baht ($15.60) but we wanted to pay more for comfort after reading reviews online.

The night bus journey itself from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani was ok. Pretty much same stuff comparing previous night bus trips in Thailand. A bit more expensive VIP-bus had large seats and plenty of foot space enabling us to get some sleep during the trip.

Instead of arriving at Bus Station 1 within the city center (like it should have been), the bus left us at Udon Thani Bus Station 2 outside the city at 6.45am. With that being said, we needed to grab a 100 baht ($2.84) taxi in order to get to the guesthouse. Our initial plan was to have a 500-meter walk from Bus Station 1, though.

We had booked an accommodation called Surada Guesthouse near the bus station. Because they had a vacant room, we could check in instantly at 7.30am instead of waiting up until two o’clock. Lucky us and big thanks to the hosts!

After drinking the morning coffees and tees, we wanted to take a tiny nap in order to get some energy for the forthcoming day.

After having a nap we’re ready to explore UD (as the locals say)

We spent the rest of the day in Udon Thani by taking a walk to the lake nearby. Furthermore, we had a lunch in the food court of Central Plaza shopping mall. In addition, we checked the night market and bazaar just a couple of hundred meters away, near Udon Thani train station.

This town with around 230 000 inhabitants seems to be more lively than we first expected. Surely this is nothing more than great news for us after reaching the city from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani. Let’s just hope the sky doesn’t pour all the rain down as it has been predicting in various weather forecasts.

We are going to spend four nights here in Udon Thani until crossing the border to Vientiane, Laos. I will share you our border crossing via Nong Khai, Thailand during the next blog post. Moreover, I will recap our few days in Udon Thani as well.