Udon Thani, Thailand
So I was in Chang Mai and I got the call from a dear friend from Laos that he was heading for Udon Thani to have they’re baby at the AEK Udon Hospital. I basically didn’t know where it was but knew it was close to the Freedom Bridge that connects Laos to Thailand about an hour plus away. After three days at the Top North Hotel in Chang Mai writing and swimming in the pool I ticketed for Udon Thani with Nok Air. Nokair.com.
As Nok Air circled to land I should have taken photos of this immense airport. I had never seen anything like it in Thailand. The airstrips are considerably longer than most and the vastness of the staging area was also curious.
I went to the AEK Udon Hospital to visit my friends and they offered to get me a room nearby for relatively cheap in the hospital apartment complex. I could stay for next to nothing and be part of the family affair. I don’t like hospitals for all the right reasons and chose to go somewhere else, The Surada, Surda Worawongthep (owner). 666/3 Posri Road, Makkhang Muang Udonthani 41000. (email, suradaghuesthouse@hotmail.com, ph. # 042-222486 or (66) 81 909 0109, (66) 42 245 769. The owner and her daughters and a friend run it. My room was more than I could ask for with a large balcony over looking the railroad tracks that never made more than a couple beeps. The trains run smoothly.
I got to wonder about the airport and my level of awareness jumped folds. Udon Thani Airport was once called the Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base. During the Vietnam War it was one of the if not the busiest airport on the planet Earth. Without dropping deep into a history lesson I should also say that this was one if not the main post for Air America, a non-cover/covert airline run in tandem, at a time, by the CIA and China were in their beginnings mostly observation operations, later to be used for shall I say ‘black ops’. It has been rumored to be a ‘black site’ but I’m not so sure anymore or at this time. I’m not even going to get into the drug running that without question occurred. The CIA manufactured a company in the states and ran this airline with LBJ government official consent and later ‘Tricky Dick Nixon consent in its hay-day, 1968.
The U.S. military modified Udon International Airport for it's needs and as a result a town grew up with bars, hotels and restaurants out of a need to serve U.S. troops and local staff. Today there are approximately 600,000 people living in and around town and 1.5 in the Udon province. Udon is one of four main cities in the North East.
I dug into Wikipedia and found out all I could about this airport. I advise you to do the same. The Vietnam War is not what they told you it was, or what they told you it was in school except anticommunism and the domino theory were its biggest fear and climax. There are lots of things I’d like to share but you are better off getting it from the same source I did rather than me reiterate. Look for black opps, black sits, Tet Offensive, Mini Tet, Air America, and all the back shadow finances that go with it. The CIA was clever then and what about now allowing ‘stand down’ orders to make things happen verses make it right. They can be ‘deeply’ shallow and strategic.
There is a fairly large South Vietnamese population in Udon that never returned home after the Vietnam War and the fall of Saigon, today Ho Chi Mien City
The hospital was up the street 200 meters on the same side of the road. My friend rented a ‘hospital apartment for 6,000 baht a month and had a second after the birth apartment with full hospital care set up for once the baby was born. The total cost, and I’m exaggerating by rounding up, was 15,000 baht per day including all medicine, operations including a C-section, check ups, maids, and food to the mamma and baby, the lot. Were talking $ 500 USD per day including EVERYTHING. The apartments are good size with balconies, flat screens, room service, refrigerator, full bathroom, and the higher care rooms are two beds, a day care center for newborns, and all the amenities to make you comfortable. So that means when mamma is tired, she can hand the babe to the nursing staff on duty and they will monitor the baby while ma sleeps or eats or just needs down time 24/7. You couldn’t get that in the states for the same price, I’ve never seen anything like it in the United States. It’s worth the flight if, ladies, you plan ahead.
There is a group of expats from all walks of life living in Udon Thani; I’d guess 2,000. The proximity to the Lao border is something that also intrigues me. I will have to check that out on my way back this way later.
