Jon the Traveller

Brilliant place. Very cheap considering its location on one of Thailand’s up and coming island destinations.

The place comes fully loaded with “free” wifi (pay them for the password once and then never pay again (they dont seem to notice)); excellent restaurant – which still works even during storms when the islands’ power dies; cheap motorbike rental; a POOL; and a rocking bar with the friendliest Muslim barman anywhere, Kazim. Just don’t let him play cards for money with you.

Lanta Full Moon has a range of bungalows to suit all budgets, from aircon concrete jobbies to fan and cold water bamboo huts, which are great – even if the last one is close to the Ban Klong Khong Mosque and you get woken up by the call to prayer at 7ish every morning.

Excepting the rocks that pepper the beach at low tide, I cannot really come up any other downsides to Lanta Full Moon, so guys go to Lanta and STAY THERE!!!

Despite being on the most developed beach on Ko Chang, White Sands beach, this place is very much a backpacker haunt. Its pretty easy to find, either walk down its track from the main road above the beach, or walk north on White Sands until you get to the rocky headland and it sits right over it.

As far as its facilities go, it has the usual restaurant (pretty decent), common area and tour desk/reception. The rooms/huts are in good condition and the bathrooms are great. The staff really proved themselves helpful when I had my little event, calling the police, getting me a free shake and so on. Totally unexpected.

I cannot really say more as I only spent a night here due to getting robbed.

One of the best budget places I have stayed in. Period.

The best rooms here are those floating on the River Kwai itself, these range from 300 – 450 baht, the remaining bungalows on the riverside by its restaurant – that does great Thai food at street prices – range from 150 to 250 baht per night and from a look are just as nice as those on the river, but for me it was staying right on the river that was the big sell here. They also have a good tour desk attached to the operation that offers very good local tours and onward national travel at stunning prices.

Location wise it is in the heart of Thanon Maenamkwai, the main guest-house strip in town, so is very handy for everywhere.

All in all stay here if you come to Kanchanaburi.

Great place on Soi Rambuttri, a few minutes from the Khao San Road. The Sawasdee caters for many budgets within the budget range, from windowless rooms for 300 baht to mid-range quality aircon doubles for 800 baht.

The staff are pretty friendly, although those in the restaurant can be a little flaky at times, but that is mainly because the restaurant gets very very busy – indeed its open 24 hours and is busy for most of the time. It does a nice mix of both Thai and Western food, all cooked to a good standard.

For a good option in Banglamphu you cannot go wrong here.

Saw this place on Travelfish and in my Lonely-Planet so checked it out after trying a few other cheaper places, however with so many arrivals in town when I got here, they were full. The Riverside however was not, probably due to it being a touch on the expensive side:

180000 Kip per night for an aircon double or single room en-suite;
100000 Kip per night for a fan double or single room with en-suite.

The rooms themselves aren’t very big, but the beds are amazingly comfy which was good news for my back as so far on this trip the beds have not been that great. They have cable television with BBC World News, so I could get my Auntie Fix!

As far as location goes, its a stones throw from the frontage along the Mekong – however the promenade area is undergoing a massive regeneration/construction project, so do not expect to see much – and close to the rest of the main traveller amenities – bars, restaurants and the like.

They offer some travel services, in addition to free wifi in the lobby and a car service should you require it.

Biggest downside for the majority of travellers is the cost, however in Vientiane elevated costs seems to the norm, so its not a reason to be put off staying here.

Got into VV very late – too late to originally stay here on my booking. However after spending the night in a cheap flop-house of a place, I popped down to see if they would be able to honour the aforementioned booking. Lo and behold the reception staff said they could. They gave me a gorgeous bungalow overlooking a well stocked fish pond on the grounds, yes it cost $32 a night, but I wanted to relax and pamper myself somewhat, given that I would be spending some time in a place I have come to loathe.

The room was very large with a king size double bed, aircon, hot water showers and a veranda right over the pond, facing towards the restaurant and the river.

For a bit of a splurge the place is very much worth it and the attached restaurant is such a change from the rest of the riverside places in VV, it has a wonderful “piazza” feel to it and does some amazing food, from Laos staples right though to good Provençal and even some Malaysian dishes.

Check their website for more information.

Having made the decision to fly into Luang Prabang, I needed to find a place that would pick me up from the airport, as its a slight way out of town.

After much browsing of Travelfish and Google, I happened upon Rattana’s and fired off an email. A few hours later my reservation was confirmed. A day later I was met at the airport and taken to the guesthouse.

Rattana’s itself is close to the boat landing for the slow boats, as well as close to Phou Si, the Hmong Market and pretty much the rest of Luang Prabang. The rooms are pretty spacious overall, and very well maintained. And at $15 a night you cannot ask for more.

Rattana’s also offers trekking and other tour services ould they interest you, as well as being able to arrange onward bus tickets to anywhere in Laos.

Overall as a slightly more costly place than most of the budget range in town, Id say Rattana’s does what it does very well and I have no complaints about the place.

I’ll be reviewing my guest-houses from now on in the format shown below.  Also shall post these on Travelfish and other sites.

Stayed 6 nights here. Paid 340 baht for a double fan room with shared facilities.  For the price its pretty good, not much noise and facilities are cleaned at least twice a day what I saw.

The restaurant there is not that amazing but that’s not down to the food, more the staff there who can be a little off when it gets busy, or even just plain forgetful. The food itself is a good introduction to Thai food for those who do not wish to start straight on the street food. Menu also has a nice array of western food, which I found out is actually made at one of New Siam I’s sister properties, but that doesn’t really matter as they are very close by.

Location is on a sub-soi off Soi Rambuttri which is much more genteelthan the nearby Khao San Road, although its still a bit of a zoo at times. Going the other way from Soi Rambuttri brings you onto Th Pra Athit which is good as it has a riverboat pier on it and once on the river you can get to the main sites quite easily indeed, and even the sky-train should malls or the bigger markets be your destinations.

All in all I do recommend the New Siam 1 to people who want to stay somewhere quiet in the city, and yet still easily get to all big musts in Bangkok.