Red Lotus Sea

Nong Han Kumphawapi, some forty kilometres southeast of Udon Thani, is a broad shallow lake, mostly no more than a metre deep, that spends most of the year looking unremarkable; a sediment core from its bed shows lake or swamp conditions here for about 6,500 years. For a few weeks in the cool season it turns into a field of pink dense enough to hide the water, and boats run out from the pier at Ban Diam to push through the channels. The flowers are technically water lilies rather than lotus, and they behave accordingly: open before dawn, fully out by seven, closing as the sun climbs. Boats take small groups on loops of about an hour, past fishing platforms, egrets and the occasional net being hauled in. By ten the show is finished for the day.

What's there

• The bloom channels - boat lanes cut through solid pink flower cover.
• Sunrise on the water - low light and mist before the flowers close.
• Lake birdlife - egrets, jacanas and cormorants around the fishing platforms.
• Ban Diam pier - the main landing, with boats hired by size rather than by head.

When to go

The season runs roughly December to February, with January usually the peak, and the daily window is from first light to about nine. Aim to be at the pier by six. Weekend mornings bring domestic tour groups and a wait for boats, while a weekday costs the same money and gives you a considerably emptier lake.

Things to know

The window is narrow in both senses: a short season and a two-hour daily slot, and arriving late means a lake of closed buds. Bloom density varies year to year with rainfall. Boats are open and the sun is direct the moment it clears the treeline. There is nothing else to do at the lake, and the drive from Udon Thani rules out a lie-in.

Nearby

Udon Thani city and the Ban Chiang archaeological site to the east.

Key facts