After wandering around Vientiane for a while, then me parking myself in a cafe with the bags whilst Peter went inspecting hotels and guesthouse, he came up with a couple of beauties. The first one was a bit expensive for what it was, but the room they had shown Peter had gone when I went to have a look. His second choice was much better.

 

The Avalon is a brand new hotel with about 20 rooms. The rooms themselves a a bit small, but are nice and modern and the bathroom is huge, especially the shower. There was air conditining which would operate at fan only, and fly screens on the windows to keep the mozzies out

Again, there was no kettle, but there was a small fridge, a nice ad comfortable sitting chair, a writing desk and a TV with over 100 channels. As with the previous hotel, most channels were foreign, mostly from South East Asia. No fewer than 6 dedicated sports channels kept Peter very happy (except when Middlesboro lost).

There was free Wi-Fi on the 5th floor (our floor) , but it was a bit temperamental, worked for a while then not at all, and I couldn't pick it up without using my super-dooper antenna.

There was a pleasant rooftop seating area (nobody bothered to tell us about it - we only found it by exploring.

 

 

The furnishings were all new - the bed comfortable, the pillows firm (but a little too high for me; I got a stiff neck. The air conditioner on top of the TV also had a setting fan only. Location was OK - just in front of the night market where some stall holders charge tourists double the real price for grilled chickens and pork (we witnessed it) and far enough away from the main street to be quiet, although a couple of ferocious sounding dogs barked at each other all night during the 3 days we were there. Convienence stores, bakeries and mini-marts are everywhere, although the nearest pharmacy is at the morning market, which is a good 30 minute stroll.

I found it surprising, especially in the current state of world economies, that after staying 3 nights and telling them we would wanted to stay another 7 to 10 nights if they would give us a better price, they didn't want to know. Business must be good,eh? Seriously, I could understand their reluctance to negotiate if they were busy, but from what we saw they weren't even close to half full.

Although it was nice, I don't think we'll be back as there is better value to be found elsewhere in Vientiane, such as the next place we stayed at.

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