Udon Thani: the gateway to prehistoric Ban Chiang

In the northeast of Thailand, Udon Thani remains the starting point to reach the prehistoric site of Ban Chiang, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Taxis and tuk-tuks remain the most common way to get around.

The Nong Prajak Lake, in the heart of the city, remains a popular public park for evening walks around an artificial water mirror.

A few minutes away, the Wat Pa Ban Tat, a monastery of the Thai forest Buddhist tradition, offers a place of serenity far from city traffic.

Heading inland, you reach Ban Chiang, an archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage location that revealed one of Southeast Asia's most ancient prehistoric civilisations.

As evening approaches, Udon Thani's night market offers local street food along the pedestrian streets of the centre.

The excavations at Ban Chiang, which began in the 1960s, have unearthed decorated ceramics with spiral motifs dating back over five thousand years, among the earliest evidence of bronze working in Southeast Asia.

Udon Thani developed rapidly as a modern city during the Vietnam War, when it hosted one of the region's major American air bases, leaving an urban infrastructure that the city still preserves today.