Visit Kunnapat Rock Salt Spa (Ban Dung) (Udon Thani)

Ban Dung district located in the east of Udon Thani city is famous for its salt extracted from naturally saline water that is pumped from the ground and poured into basins exposed to the sun to evaporate and let the salt to crystallize. In the area you will find several salt fields and on the roadsides many stalls selling bags of this salt (20 THB for a 1.5 kg bag). And in the Ban Dung locality itself, there is the Kunnapat Rock Salt Spa which uses this same salted water heated in the sun (the temperature therefore varies according to the seasons, it was at 50 °C when I went there in mid-December) to offer health baths.

You can choose to soak only your feet or your whole body in wooden bathtubs, some of which have a nice setting with a view of the pond in which the water is heated. They advise you to dive in for 5 minutes, get out of the water, drink water (bottle provided), dive back for 5 minutes and so on... On the phases in the bathtub, you have to not move because the movements cause the water to stir and make the sensation of heat stronger. I did not have too many difficulties to get inside the water but it was more complicated for my wife. So maybe not a place that relaxing for people that can not dive themselves in very hot water. It is accompanied by a small do-it-yourself salt and turmeric facial treatment. They also sell a whole range of beauty products. While there, go see the salt fields just behind the spa (access on the left of the store) and the warehouse.