#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Laos Forum >  >  > Laos Hotels and Guesthouses >  >  Mali Namphu Guesthouse - Vientiane, Laos

## 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.  :Smile: 

On Wallace's recommendation, we booked a room at the Mali Lamphu (malinamp@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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## 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.

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## Marmite the Dog

> never able to get a room at this place, as they are always full





> we booked a room


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

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## chitown

> Originally Posted by sjaak327
> 
> never able to get a room at this place, as they are always full
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 :smiley laughing:

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## sjaak327

> Originally Posted by sjaak327
> 
> never able to get a room at this place, as they are always full
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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.

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## Marmite the Dog

> I prefer to not book anything, as I never know when I might arrive somewhere.


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

Is is sinking in yet?

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## sjaak327

> Originally Posted by sjaak327
> 
> I prefer to not book anything, as I never know when I might arrive somewhere.
> 
> 
> Hence you don't get to stay where you want to stay.
> 
> Is is sinking in yet?


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.

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## MeMock

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

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## sjaak327

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


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

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## DaffyDuck

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


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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## DaffyDuck

> Originally Posted by sjaak327
> 
> I prefer to not book anything, as I never know when I might arrive somewhere.
> 
> 
> Hence you don't get to stay where you want to stay.
> 
> Is is sinking in yet?


I doubt it.

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## Marmite the Dog

> Does it take more time to edit the portions of quoted text included in your reply? Yes. So does spell-checking and proofreading.


*ahem...*

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## dirtydog

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


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

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## sjaak327

> Originally Posted by sjaak327
> 
> 
>  
> Ah so booking a guesthouse in advance takes a brain nowadays ?
> 
> 
> Apparently, so.
> 
> ...


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

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.

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## mtone9317

In spite of the sniping on this thread, it's a good one. My 2 bt, as if it mattered. I think it's a matter of trust. It depends on one's experience. I bought a pair of expensive tennis shoes for my daughter one Christmas. The next day I tried to buy a pair of tennis shoes for my grand daughter and I discovered that my credit card was maxed out. Some had bought a computer on my card. I took me three months to get it straightened out, 3 trips to the bank, forms to fill out and a wait to see a bank official. That's why I don't pre-book and pay with my credit card. Here in TH, I have two credit cards, one that is always near the limit. So, if someone steals my number all they can get is about $50. However, I still don't prebook for that reason.

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## Marmite the Dog

^ I didn't pre-pay, only booked. Never gave them any CC details.

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## English Noodles

Use an online virtual credit card (VCC), charge the card up with only the amount it is going to cost. Problem solved.

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## Begbie

> Use an online virtual credit card (VCC), charge the card up with only the amount it is going to cost. Problem solved.


That's new to me. How to you obtain one ?

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## English Noodles

^ https://www.entropay.com/

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## Phuketrichard

Stayed here for 3 nights and it was a great place, rented a motorcycle around the corner and then parker inside the GH each night.
had a room on the scond floor and will retiurn as grea location.

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## Vientianeboy

I really don't know why anyone would bother to stay here when you could stay at the Souphophone Guesthouse. It has large, very clean rooms and is in an excellent location.

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## Marmite the Dog

> I really don't know why anyone would bother to stay here when you could stay at the Souphophone Guesthouse. It has large, very clean rooms and is in an excellent location.


I must have missed your review and photos of that place. Have you got a link to your thread?

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