Jimoi and David,
Thanks for confirming the new guest house. (Capt Bob, if there's a 3rd GH in Phou Khoun, they need a better sign. I've been thru there 5 times and have never seen anything other than the Xaiphavong GH and the Phou Khoune GH. Where's the other one?)
I was in Phou Khoun last week and stayed at the new GH. Here's all the additional info anyone could possibly need:
It's not bungalos, nor is it called "Bungalos." The confusion is because of the town where it's located. It's 3.4 km south of Phou Khoun in Ban Bangkalo. The official name is SaraPhouKhoune Restaurant and Guest House." There's no sign on the building but that's what is printed on their truck.
They obviously have the right connections as they're set up to serve meals to passengers on the buses that stop there. In addition to the bathrooms in the restaurant they also have a separate building outside with 4 western toilets. They're probably expecting the vans going between LP and VV to stop there too, although I didn't see any stop. I was worried about the noise but didn't hear anything after the 10:15pm bus left.
As for the rooms, they are 100,000 kip each. Each one has a fireplace. They are brand new and very clean with tile floors, and the private bathrooms have scalding hot water. The views from the room are even better than the views from the communal bathroom at the Xaiphavong.
The restaurant serves pre-cooked food. For 10,000kip you get a plate of rice and and your choice of any or all of 5 items. It wasn't bad and certainly no worse than what you could get in town. In the morning they cooked up some fresh fried rice for us for the same 10,000kip. The only downside to the restaurant was that they didn't have any beer. So that required an extra trip back to Phou Khoun. Oddly, no one in Phou Khoun was selling cold Beer Lao in a bottle. Only cold cans or warm bottles.
As for the Xaiphavong GH, they are now getting 40,000 kip for a room. The rooms were cleaner and the one I looked at had a new mattress. Still rock hard, of course. The supposedly excellent restaurant had noodle soup with a choice of chicken or no chicken. Nothing else.
I don't like to tell anyone else how to spend their money, but for the extra 60,000 kip, staying at the SaraPhouKhoune GH over the Xaiphavong is one of the best value upgrades in Laos.
