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Lotus blossom lake
Posted: December 5, 2017, 8:26 pm
by nabanga
Hi - I am a long term resident of Vientiane and enjoy a big-city escape to Udon every couple of months. Does anybody know if the famous lake covered in flowers is in blossom yet? The wife wont shut up about it. Thanks
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: December 5, 2017, 10:56 pm
by Adhoc
Yes, it's opened a bit earlier than usual this year. I went there last week, great trip.
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: December 6, 2017, 3:08 am
by Hoopoe
nabanga wrote: ↑December 5, 2017, 8:26 pm
Hi - I am a long term resident of Vientiane and enjoy a big-city escape to Udon every couple of months. Does anybody know if the famous lake covered in flowers is in blossom yet? The wife wont shut up about it. Thanks
The blooms are up on the south East side the rest will follow soon , the best time to go (IMHO) is mid January onwards , as there's more wild life then , the swallows etc come in and follow the boats ,
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: January 2, 2018, 4:13 pm
by Hoopoe
Hoopoe wrote: ↑December 6, 2017, 3:08 am
nabanga wrote: ↑December 5, 2017, 8:26 pm
Hi - I am a long term resident of Vientiane and enjoy a big-city escape to Udon every couple of months. Does anybody know if the famous lake covered in flowers is in blossom yet? The wife wont shut up about it. Thanks
The blooms are up on the south East side the rest will follow soon , the best time to go (IMHO) is mid January onwards , as there's more wild life then , the swallows etc come in and follow the boats ,
Hi guy's just an up date , i've been out on the lake today 6 hours in all , it was quite pleasant , i was expecting the chill factor ,9 am start , full bloom , by 11.30 am they had started to close up ,after 12.30 pm from a distance you would think it was a mud bank , so as advised previously get there at the latest 9 am , take warm clothing just in case the breeze starts , the pics are in reverse order 12.30 pm - 9 am
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: January 2, 2018, 7:31 pm
by Faraday
Looks very nice, Mrs F & I intend to go later this month.
Any decent & inexpensive hotels nearby?
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: January 2, 2018, 8:57 pm
by UdonThaniPete
Hoopoe wrote: ↑January 2, 2018, 4:13 pm
Hoopoe wrote: ↑December 6, 2017, 3:08 am
nabanga wrote: ↑December 5, 2017, 8:26 pm
Hi - I am a long term resident of Vientiane and enjoy a big-city escape to Udon every couple of months. Does anybody know if the famous lake covered in flowers is in blossom yet? The wife wont shut up about it. Thanks
The blooms are up on the south East side the rest will follow soon , the best time to go (IMHO) is mid January onwards , as there's more wild life then , the swallows etc come in and follow the boats ,
Hi guy's just an up date , i've been out on the lake today 6 hours in all , it was quite pleasant , i was expecting the chill factor ,9 am start , full bloom , by 11.30 am they had started to close up ,after 12.30 pm from a distance you would think it was a mud bank , so as advised previously get there at the latest 9 am , take warm clothing just in case the breeze starts , the pics are in reverse order 12.30 pm - 9 am
We were actually there at 07:30 this morning, this is probably our fith or sixth visit here over a 8 years, I must admit that we were quite shocked by the damage that has been done to the Lilly beds by the boats, you can actually see the damage done by the propellor blades, where once were beautiful Lilly’s there was nothing, only chopped stems.
Not really surprising as what you see on the roads here you see on the lake, wacky races, as it’s a game to get people out there, cutting corners in the Lilly beds and destroying the Lilly’s, parking up for photos in the Lilly beds then hammering it back for their next customers.
They are so short sighted to see the damage they are causing, they will have no more customers as there will be nothing more to see and then have no more jobs, I guesstimate if they continue as they are without some rules or guidance, it will be finished in 5 years, this would be such a shame but looks like usual TIT.
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: January 2, 2018, 9:37 pm
by rick
I'm lucky and have a red lotus lake on my doorstep (well, 100 metres away). Only about 50 rai but most of it has lotus on it, I see it every day i take my daughter to school. At it's best about 8.30 a.m. Has been spectacular since late November.
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: January 3, 2018, 4:43 am
by Hoopoe
Faraday wrote: ↑January 2, 2018, 7:31 pm
Looks very nice, Mrs F & I intend to go later this month.
Any decent & inexpensive hotels nearby?
Hi ,Re-hotels , it depends where your going onto the lake from ,as most of the bloom's are located south East i would suggest somewhere along the 2350 Kumphawapi - Nonghan rd ( pref 7 kilometers out of Kumphawapi) along this rd there are quite a few places to stay ,mini resorts etc or if the little resorts are not to your liking there's always KP hotel not far from the railway station Kumphawapi ,
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 2, 2018, 2:29 pm
by nabanga
We went last weekend and were pleasantly surprised. I had no idea it was so popular - I had expected a lay-by with a few boatmen waiting around, but it was a full-on tourist circus with a tarsealed carpark the size of a footy field and about 200 matching boats.
We opted for the 500 baht ticket, which allegedly takes you further, for 90 minutes, instead of the 300 baht to a closer area for 60 minutes. In reality our 90 minute trip only lasted 60 minutes with a 10 minute sprint back to the start, so the boatmen are obviously trying to squeeze a few extra "90 minute" trips into their 6 hour window.
The lotus beds were huge and in full bloom, all around a small island with a few bamboo houses on it - very picturesque, even with 10 other boats full of jabbering package tourists in matching shirts and caps pulling up along side you. And what was nice, that you don't often get on boat trips like this, is that nobody tried to sell you anything.
We'd go again.
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 2, 2018, 8:35 pm
by wazza
The Island was off limits last time I went, anyone know why ??
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 2, 2018, 10:18 pm
by Hoopoe
wazza wrote: ↑February 2, 2018, 8:35 pm
The Island was off limits last time I went, anyone know why ??
I'll check with the monks ,see if i get ant sense out of them , will report back if i get an answer ,
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 3, 2018, 11:05 am
by Hoopoe
Reet ( dont sack the messenger ) this is the info i've obtained ( maybe some of it lost in translation ) the island was given ( by the Government ) to monks as a refuge for deep meditation & budhist practices ,as a sanctuary ,back when i first went on there 20 years ago, there were only 2 small stilted huts for a maximum of no more than 2 monks at a time ,were allowed, it has since over the years been built on & commercialised and become a profit making business , The government has stepped in and closed it down & taken the monks off it ,as it is now not being used as first intended ,, in the next few weeks i'll go and check this out and try to verify this , so will it open again is blowing in the wind ,
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 7, 2018, 10:06 am
by Hoopoe
My previous post i have now verified it ,it is true the reason for stopping people going onto the island , BUT it's convenient for the boat men as now they can curtail the time they are out ,i had a lot of them with me last night , it never ceases to amaze me half of them didn't know why the island was out of bounds , ha ha ,ALSO it's not out of bounds for local people ,i will be on there as soon as the temps rise , bbq ,party etc ,yesterday it was very quiet ,( chae lae side of the lake ) very few tourist's , but this is during the week ,
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 7, 2018, 12:20 pm
by wazza
Hoopoe
Thanks for the update
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 7, 2018, 2:45 pm
by parrot
There's a link at
https://2baht.com/red-lotus-sea-udon/ that talks about the island........has a small temple there called Wat Dawn Luang (วัดดอนหลวง).
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 7, 2018, 2:48 pm
by wazza
Wondering if the Monks were charging the boat owners a fee to land there ???
And thats when the Govt intervened ??
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 7, 2018, 2:59 pm
by parrot
I'm going to holed up in a fuselage for 20 or so hours........maybe I can dissect the history of the small temple on that island. Looks interesting.
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 7, 2018, 10:22 pm
by Hoopoe
I dont recall a temple on the island back 20 years , if you look around you'll find the blocks i used to manufacture they created a small alter ish with them , besides the 2 stilted huts they then began to build more , i hear different stories from the locals about it ,the only one i tend to believe is the sanctuary one as i witnessed this years ago , As for the monks charging the boat's for docking ,i doubt this very much as the guy's would have bent my ear about it long ago , in the report i read it stated it's a floating island ,this is not the case , hence the stilted huts , it is prone to flooding in the wet season ,
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 13, 2018, 9:27 am
by Bangyuk
One thing worth doing if you take a boat is to say you want to see birds. A few of the boatmen know the quieter parts of the lake. It's much more peaceful away from the continuous stream of boats for selfie takers, but you've still got the noisy engine of course. You do get time to take photos of the lotuses, and the bird watching is excellent if you are in to that kind of thing. At 500B for 90 mins it's good value I think.
Re: Lotus blossom lake
Posted: February 13, 2018, 5:23 pm
by Hoopoe
Bangyuk wrote: ↑February 13, 2018, 9:27 am
One thing worth doing if you take a boat is to say you want to see birds. A few of the boatmen know the quieter parts of the lake. It's much more peaceful away from the continuous stream of boats for selfie takers, but you've still got the noisy engine of course. You do get time to take photos of the lotuses, and the bird watching is excellent if you are in to that kind of thing. At 500B for 90 mins it's good value I think.
Absolutely correct ,there is more to the red lotus than meets the eye ,i have access to boats when ever i require and to travel slowly and quietly around the outskirts is a pleasure for the wild life / birds etc ,but best from mid January on , as there are more migratory birds in , But also on a different approach i also Party out there with my Thai friends , music , drinking & BBQ are involved and the odd dancing and falling in , hey ho ya can't win them all ,