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Marmite the Dog

Last weekend I went to Vientiane so I could sample Dark Beer Laos and eat some decent food. It also gave Dougal the opportunity to ignore me.

On Wallace's recommendation, we booked a room at the Mali Lamphu (malinamp[at]laotel.com - Tel: + 856 21 215093). They even answer their emails, which was a pleasant surprise.

The front of the GH didn't look too promising.



But after walking through the shophouse you come out into a lovely courtyard.



We were up on the first floor. Nice.



The room was clean and the bed was comfortable. As we were at the back of the hotel it was nice and quiet.



UBC on the telly.



The shower had heated water and was nice and powerful, but you'll have to make do with a picture of the wardrobe as GoW was having a shower when I was dicking around with the camera.



We paid around 550 Baht a night. Good value in my opinion.

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I will meet the blackness and the blackness will be eternal

sjaak327

Nice to actually see this place. I go over to Vientiane twice a year and was never able to get a room at this place, as they are always full. I usually go next door to the phoneprasuit.

Marmite the Dog

It's amazing the difference having a brain makes to ones life...

chitown

sjaak327

Ah so booking a guesthouse in advance takes a brain nowadays ?

I always thought it was rather easy to do. I prefer to not book anything, as I never know when I might arrive somewhere.

Thanks for the laugh tough.

DaffyDuck

Ah so booking a guesthouse in advance takes a brain nowadays ?[/quote]Apparently, so.

I found that if there are places I desire to stay at, booking in advance, and using the help of a great booking agent, makes sure that I do.

I do understand that the concept of 'planning' is beyond the abilities of some people, who prefer to justify themselves as 'freespirited' and 'gaining flexibility' - and ened up not having what they wanted... :-)

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sjaak327

So I fixed the quoting error for you, quoting apparently is beyond your abilities

As I said before, I tried to get a room at this place a few times before, but learned that they are always full. No problem for me, as I said, Vientiane is full of places like this, some better, some worse.

I don't think not booking in advance has anything to do with free spirited, at least not in my case.

I only book in advance if there is a significant financial gain, ie. walk in rates as oppposed to the rates offered by booking sites like asiarooms.com. This doesn't apply to this particular guesthouse (in fact this doesn't apply to the vast majority of guesthouses in Vientiane). It might offer some advantage for places like the Lao Plaza hotel for instance.

Another reason to pre book, is indeed if you are dead set to staying in a particular place, I am not in this particular case.

Having said that, this place is in a great location, but so is the place next door, and so is the new Lao Paris, which altough a tad more expensive, is also a lot better, and I usually go there nowadays.

In any case, I am not wasting a phone call to a hotel, or god forbid a travel agency to book a room in Vientiane, since it isn't reallhy needed. Sure the popularity of the Thai consulate in Vientiane has indeed lead to a big increase in the number of Visa runners from Thailand in say the last two years, but accomodation in Vientiane is still in oversupply.

Marmite the Dog

Hence you don't get to stay where you want to stay.

Is is sinking in yet?

sjaak327

Yeah that's a minor inconvenience, part of travelling.

Booking hotels in advance is something I don't do, I loose flexiblity, at the minor expense of not being able to stay in this GH for instance. And of course it's not like you are out of choice in Vientiane in any case, plenty of places that are as good or better then this one. And some that are far worse.

Bo penang as the Lao say.

DaffyDuck

I doubt it.

MeMock

nah that would be bor pen yang......

sjaak327

You got the drift, transliteration is a touch business, this is also true in Laos.

Marmite the Dog

*ahem...*

dirtydog

I never book any where in advance, but then again I'm not particulary bothered where I end up.