Udon Thani

The land around Udon Thani was settled long before the city existed: Ban Chiang, about 50 kilometres east, was a farming village whose people made red-painted pottery and worked bronze, and its rediscovery in the 1960s reshaped understanding of prehistoric Southeast Asia. The modern city is far younger. Prince Prachak Sinlapakhom, sent north with Siamese forces to put down an uprising, made his base at the village of Ban Mak Khaeng and founded the town there in 1893; it grew into the administrative centre of the upper northeast under the name Udon Thani, "the northern city".

Railways reached the province in the 20th century and tied it to Bangkok, but the transformation came in the 1960s. The United States built a large air base beside the town during the Vietnam War, from which aircraft flew missions over Laos and Vietnam, and thousands of American personnel were stationed there until the mid-1970s. Roads, electricity, hotels, bars and an airport arrived with them, and the town grew several times over in little more than a decade.

The Americans left in 1976, and the city turned to trade, government and agriculture. Vietnamese families who had settled in the area earlier in the century, Chinese merchant families and Isan villagers moving in from the countryside gave it its mix. The Friendship Bridge to Laos, opened in 1994 an hour to the north, made Udon Thani a staging post for Vientiane, and the last thirty years have added shopping malls, hospitals, ring roads and a steady flow of foreign residents.

Udon Thani is an Isan city, and Lao-related Isan is the everyday language, though standard Thai is used in offices and schools. Mor lam, the sung verse driven by the reed mouth organ known as the khaen, and luk thung country music play at temple fairs, in pick-up trucks and at concerts on the central field; many of Thailand's best-known singers come from this part of the plateau.

The province is also strongly associated with the Thai forest monk tradition. Wat Pa Ban Tat, the monastery of Ajahn Maha Bua, and other forest temples in the district draw Thai pilgrims and foreign monks, and their austere practice sits alongside the busy merit-making of city temples. Two other communities colour the city: Chinese families, whose Chao Pu-Ya shrine stages a large dragon festival each December, and Thai-Vietnamese families, present since the mid-20th century, who keep their own restaurants, associations and church congregations.

Manners are those of provincial Thailand. Confrontation is avoided, a smile covers disagreement, and sanuk — the sense that work should also be enjoyable — is a real value. Temple fairs, weddings and ordinations are the social calendar, and grandmothers raising grandchildren while parents work in Bangkok or abroad are part of ordinary family life. Craft traditions of the province include mat mi silk weaving and the reproduction of Ban Chiang pottery patterns.

About 130,000 people live in the city municipality and roughly 400,000 in the built-up area that has spread along the ring roads, which makes Udon Thani the sixth largest city in Thailand. The economy runs on trade, government offices, hospitals, universities and colleges, cross-border business with Laos and the shopping that draws people from surrounding provinces; farming — rice, sugar cane, cassava and rubber — dominates the countryside around it.

Life follows the heat. Markets open long before dawn and offices start early; the middle of the day empties the streets, and the evening fills parks, malls and food stalls. Nong Prajak Park is busiest at first light and at sunset with walkers, runners and aerobics classes. Weekends bring temple visits, family meals and trips to the reservoirs and waterfalls of the hills to the north.

Like much of Isan, the province sends many of its young people to work in Bangkok, the eastern industrial estates, South Korea, Taiwan and Israel, and the money they send home builds village houses. The city also has an unusually large population of retired foreign residents, whose presence shows in its bars, clinics and property market. Drought, farm debt, air pollution in the burning season and road accidents are the recurring local concerns.

Udon Thani eats Isan food, and every meal starts with khao niao, sticky rice taken by hand from a woven basket. The standard trio is som tam, green papaya pounded with chilli, lime, garlic and fish sauce; gai yang, chicken flattened and grilled over charcoal; and larb or nam tok, minced or sliced meat dressed with lime, chilli, mint and roasted ground rice. Strong versions of som tam are made with pla ra, the fermented fish sauce that underpins much of the region's cooking, and with salted crab.

Beyond the trio the city eats sai krok Isan, a sour fermented pork-and-rice sausage grilled on skewers; tom saep, a hot and sour offal soup; and, in season, red ant eggs, crickets and silkworm pupae from market stalls. Fish and freshwater shrimp come down from the Mekong, and sticky rice steamed in bamboo, khao lam, is sold on the roadside.

The Vietnamese contribution is the city's distinctive note. Naem nueang, grilled pork sausage wrapped at the table in rice paper with herbs, green banana and starfruit, is a meal families order for celebrations; kai krata, eggs fried in a small pan with sausage and pork, is a common breakfast alongside baguettes and strong iced coffee. Chinese-Thai shops sell rice porridge and roast pork, and the night stalls add noodle soups, fried chicken and mango with sticky rice. Drinks are beer over ice and lao khao, the strong local rice spirit.