Talking about ‘traveling’ the person who inspired me the most is my mom. I remembered my first time to Bangkok with her when I was 6-7 years old visiting my eldest sister. Taking the fan-bus from Phayao to Bangkok might not sound great for other people but to me, that trip was like my first long journey trip by bus [12-14 hours I guessed], to the capital city like Bangkok – Everything at that time was memorable and made me telling this story with both lots of smiles and tears, smile as trip was memorable, tears as I miss my mom, she passed away October last year. Mom is very brave, she never traveled to other farther province before but she decided to bring me along for her first Bangkok trip. The said trip was so much fun as my sister’s friends took me out to Bangkok zoo, to eat lots of street food and desserts, you can imagine how happy I was as a rural area boy in Bangkok and it seemed like everyone loved you and took good care of you. Thank my mom, my sister and her friends as now, I can travel anywhere alone and even though the fear, I manage to cope with it well all the time.
The decision for Uthai Thani trip this time too as it was made a night before the departure over Friday’s boring party with one of my closed friends, P Aun and we ended up meeting the next morning driving to Uthai Thani without any booked hotel, no tour agent nor tour guide, no one there that we know or expect to meet and most of all – no plan. We drove from Bangkok in the morning, stopped any restaurants or malls we wanted and arrived Wat Tha Sung as per TripAdvisor’s advise in the afternoon as P Aun used to visit this province before, we then approached a hotel in the heart of city and headed to the night market afterwards.
It’s my first time and I found that Uthai Thani is unique, calm, peaceful province with humble lifestyles and interesting places. It seemed to me that the province is charming, pure and a hidden province where less people thinks about visiting there. To me, I felt in love with this province and Uthai Thani could be one of my favorite provinces to re-trip anytime I want as I can drive there only less than 2 hours.
The purple city: We were amazed with most of the houses in Uthai Thani [Especially in the city center] that were painted in purple, even the post box was also colored purple – How cute! This is to honor Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn who owns a house in Uthai Thani and was born on a Saturday. [On Saturday the color of the day is purple] Therefore her royal flag is purple, therefore the citizens of Uthai Thani do this to show their love and loyalty.
I also love the river life there: Yes I mean Sakaekrang river of Uthai Thani where an indigenous way of life and beautiful scenery are. We walked there late afternoon to take photos and of course to visit the night market [walking street] where a wide variety of local specialties are available, we enjoyed eating local food, taking photos of the charm of the old wooden shop houses at Trok Rong Ya [Saturday] night walking street. There is an unique and cool coffee shop we found, Infinity Koffee, just in the middle of the walking street where they served coffee in moka pot, the shop is also well decorated with art stuffs, models and plants – Great for photos plus the owners P Eak and P Ya were so kind. They are the ambassadors of Uthai Thani as not their traveling advises were great but they brought us around showing where to eat, to shop and to visit – Thanks so much!
Love street food? Uthai Thani is a hub too, see some shots I took and you’ll know why. In my opinion, Uthai Thani still maintains its indigenous essence although changes are knocking on its door. If you want to experience the rustic charm of the villager’s life or you may call it ‘Slow life’, Uthai Thani is a recommended choice. Me, I’ll re-trip soon!
How to get there: Driving from Bangkok, use Highway 32 and passing Ayutthaya, Ang Thong, Sing Buri and Chainat provinces, when reaching km 206, turn left at Tha Nam-Oi intersection onto Highway 333. Go another 16 kilometers and you will reach Uthai Thani provincial town.