Red Lotus Lake
Nong Han Kumphawapi Lake, Covered In Pink Water Lilies Roughly From December To February · Kumphawapi, Udon Thani
Red Lotus Lake, Talay Bua Daeng in Thai, is the popular name for Nong Han Kumphawapi, a large, shallow lake south-east of Udon Thani city in north-eastern Thailand. For a few months of the cool season, roughly December to February, much of its surface is covered by millions of pink and red flowers, which botanists identify as water lilies rather than true lotuses, although everyone calls them red lotus. Visitors go out from the wooden piers on the shore in small motorboats that thread along channels through the flowers, with egrets, herons, jacanas and ducks all around. The flowers open in the early morning and close by around midday, so the trip is best made at dawn, when the light is soft and the air cool. Outside the season the lake is a pleasant but ordinary sheet of water and not worth the journey. The lake is about 45 minutes to an hour by road from Udon Thani, which makes it easy to combine with the Bronze Age site of Ban Chiang, the rock art and sema stones of Phu Phra Bat and the city's night markets.
Nong Han, Chiang Haeo, Kumphawapi, Kumphawapi, Udon Thani, 41110, Thailand
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: in the bloom season, roughly December to February, boats run every day from around sunrise, roughly 6 to 6.30 am, until early or mid-afternoon, with the last useful trip leaving by about 10 or 11 am, because the flowers close by around midday; there is no closing day, but outside the season few boats run. The piers and viewpoints are open land. Ban Chiang National Museum opens about 9 am to 4 pm and has a weekly closing day, commonly Monday, Tuesday or both; check. The traps that ruin a day are arriving after 11 am when the flowers have closed, coming before December or after February, getting a one-way ride with no return transport, and finding Ban Chiang museum closed on the day you combined them. Confirm current times before relying on them.