Udon Thani has one foot on the highway and the other off the beaten track. The city boomed on the back of the Vietnam War as the site of one of the largest US air bases, and it subsequently became the region's primary transport hub and commercial centre. Today you have to dig deep behind its prosperous concrete veneer to find any flashes of its past. Udon sees relatively few foreign travellers, its main selling point being the abundance of Western foods and facilities preventing Isan's largest expat community from getting too homesick.
Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thailand/udon-thani-province/udon-thani#ixzz3n76OGBoJ