The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

dirtydog

Phornthip Guesthouse is 20 meters down Inpeng Road which is just off of the River Mekong road Fangum Road so it's quiet but central.
Well quiet from the road noise point of view anyway, the rooms start at 80,000kip to 120,000kip, sounds expensive but 120,000kip is 400baht so it aint too bad and that includes breakfast.
Twin bedded room with aircon, tv, fridge, hot water, towels and soap was 350baht per night.



The tv had true tv on it with the films channel, whole place is no smoking though



Proper toilet, hot water shower and bum gun



Loads of this arty type rubbish all over the place.



The only downside was the louvered doors, the inside of them had some 1/4 inch ply to try and cut down the noise, that don't work though



There is a choice of 3 breakfasts, I had the sausages and bacon but without eggs, there was actually 2 tiny pieces of bacon but I ate one, and the sausages are really hotdogs, still its free so thats all that matters.



Phornthip Guest House,
72 Inpeng Road,
Vientiane.
Telephone: (856 21) 217239

__________________

good2bhappy

the bread looks Ok

KFC

The Phornthip is a fairly small GH, and is unfortunately mentioned in the French "Routard" guide book as : "tres jolie". As individualistic as the French seem to consider themselves - guess what - this is the place they flock to in droves, stinking up the lobby area with their vile cigarette smoke, totally ignoring the "No smoking" signs.

Soo, it often has no vacancy after 12 noon. Reservations are only taken from repeat customers, and then it's a touch and go.

I would recommend the excellent:

travelfish.org

for listings for hotels and GH in Vientiane. It is not difficult to find a decent GH or hotel in VTE. And remember one thing: cheap and good are, usually, mutually exclusive. The cheap places here in VTE are inhabited by budget travelers, and scruffy but polite Japanese and Korean kids.

You get what you pay for. Bt. 400.00 - 450.00 buys you a decent, safe and clean room with fridge, hot water and TV in many of the GH, most of them listed on travelfish.org

By the same token, if you are only here for a short overnight visa run it does not really matter all that much.

DrAndy

agreed

dirtydog

Its probably the largest guesthouse I have stayed at in Vientiane with between 40 and 50 rooms, didn't see any French there and as the lobby area is open air cigarette smoke wouldn't be a problem although sadly I didn't see anybody smoking.
It is also one of the last to fill up as I had tried about 8 guesthouses along the Mekong River Road before I got there.

KFC

Hmmm, I am sure you have mixed up your GH here, the Phornthip has maybe 8 - 10 rooms, located diagonally across from the equally small Auberge Sala Inpeng (very nice place but a bit more expensive) in a small soi running from Wat Inpeng to the Mekong river.

Around the corner is the much larger Inter (city?) Hotel.

The photos you show in your post above are indeed of the Phornthip. But, as Dr. Andy sez, it doesn't really matter all that much.

dirtydog

I think you will find that it is you that is confused, or maybe you are reading some crappy site with incorrect or out of date info, when I take my pictures I take one of the sign, ie at the beginning or the end of that group of shots, so there is no confusion on my part, I also get a business card so I have the address, as you can see the address is posted in the first post with the phone number, the building has a big court yard, it is an "L" shaped building 3 storys high, also at the back of the building is more rooms off a "T" junction, I should mention that on that trip to Laos this was the only guesthouse I stayed at, so there are no others I could have got confused with, have you actually stayed there?