Xaysomboun-Phu Bia Mine area guest houses

[mactbkk]

Houy Kham, Phu Bia Mine Junction, Guest Houses

These listed coming from the east, at the T-intersection, heading west down the hill.

-- * Tidta GH, 020-212-0955/652-0617 (not too good)

-- * Phonesy GH, 020-252-6514/652-0636 (not too good)

-- * Nam Yone GH, 020-252-0352/612-6348 (not too good, bed in room, squatter down the hall, stayed here in 2007, pretty good restaurant tho.)

-- *** Villa Nam Ngon, 020-246-8355, 020-599-1141, 020-246-8466, (good, 10 rooms, k 170,000/night, hot water, A/C, TV, sitters); email: [email [email protected]][email protected][/email], [email [email protected]][email protected][/email].

-- * Sayphudoy GH, 020-258-7061/020-752-5489 (not too good)

-- ** Phusy GH, 020-530-4945/652-0613 (OK, hot water, no TV, k 50,000/night, squatter in room)
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Xaysomboun/Moung Cha

-- ** Phu Bia Hotel, 020-225-9848, 020-593-4233 (OK, hot water, TV, and sitters)

-- * Phet Heuangsy Restaurant, 020-212-3355 (OK eats, one of a couple "restaurants" in the market)

-- * (forget the name, a two story GH right at the Bailey Bridge as you approach town, hot water, haven't stayed there)

-- A couple of barely one * guest houses on the road to the Phu Bia Hotel.
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Long Sane/Moung Hom GH (on the road north from Thabok to Thong Khoun, E-W road from Rt 13N-Phu Bia Mine-Xaysomboun)

-- ** Ponoma GH, 020-4074, 020-539-3717 (OK, one room with hot water, others cold, sitters)
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Mac

 

[bill]

Given the reasonable accomodation options there, would it be a good base for a few days to explore the surrounding area on a dirtbike ?

I passed close by that region 2 years ago on a trip from Phonsavan to Paksan and was very impressed with the scenery.

Is it possible to visit the Phu Bia/Phu kham mine ?

 

[mactbkk]

Bill

"Tour the area?" Hmmm, that's sort of a tossup.

Check out a couple of the threads regarding "problems" on visits to Xaysomboun, one hour east on the rough road from the Phu Bia Mine junction. The wife (Thai) and I've not had any problem on the last five visits there, stayed at the Phu Bia Hotel, ate and sipped suds at the market. Still, on last trip late August 2008 we were awakened at 0130 hrs by three guys knocking on our door at the hotel and asking to check out our passports. Dug them out, showed them, and that was it. The "cops," if that's what they were, were polite. Whole exercise took perhaps five minutes.

More tours? The drive up to the Long Tieng site is beautiful, altho access to the valley is still pretty much restricted. The Nam Ngum 3 people had a couple pieces of equipment working on the road last month. It's about an hour drive.

Visit the Phu Bia Mine? I doubt it, unless you have permission ahead of time from their office in Vientiane. I've not tried, just drove on by.

The direct road up from the Mekong River about at Thabok (about 92 km east of Vientiane) is pretty good. Good gravel and rock for the initial portion up to Long San, stop there for pho, then paved on up to the Phu Bia Mine junction. However, the mine's 18-wheel heavy loaded trucks have really done a number on portions of the paved road, particularly just north of Xieng Mi.

Mac

 

[jimoi]

Bill -
Tour of the area - it's not a toss up. It's an area that the authorities in Laos would rather you not visit as a tourist. Yes you can transit and yes you can overnight but there are other places to see. This fascination with LS 20A is silly and I think you could spend your time better in other areas.

Dirtbike touring areas to base out of one place, yes - I know a few and I also base out of a 2 locations to ride. Terrain similar to that of the Xaysomboun area, yes there are other places similar but they don't have Phu Bia mountain situated in the middle of it all.

My advice - ride through, see the area features and go someplace else that is less troublesome. as a resident of Laos, I'll be happy when the schoolboy attraction to LS 20A is over.

 

[Larry Baraniuk]

jimoi wrote: Bill -
Tour of the area - it's not a toss up. It's an area that the authorities in Laos would rather you not visit as a tourist.
This fascination with LS 20A is silly and I think you could spend your time better in other areas.

My advice - ride through, see the area features and go someplace else that is less troublesome. as a resident of Laos,
I'll be happy when the schoolboy attraction to LS 20A is over.

So far, the only ticket to get in to the LS20A air field is to bring in school supplies.I think another good ticket to get into a desired area is medical supplies.I'm not very good at bribing and I really don't believe in it.
But that seems to be a necessary trait to have to travel in Laos.
LS20A has become a world famous place all of a sudden.
At least once a month I see a television show here in Canada that mentions it.
For war history fanatics like me , the attraction to go to LS20A has in fact ,just begun and it`s getting more and more popular.
To put schoolboy attraction in a proper way , ever since I was a school boy ,I was always attracted to checkin out war memorials. Back then,I would ride my bike many miles to check out war fortresses and war monuments from the war of 1812. My fascination for checking out war museums, and memorials still continues to this day.
In Southeast I,ve checked out the "railway of death" war memorials along
the river Kwai in Thailand.I've also checked out many war memorials in Vietnam. When doing research on war memorials of the Secret War in Laos, I found that the war memorials for that war are located only in the United States of America.I guess Laos doesn`t believe in war memorials.
The Secret War is no longer a secret anymore.The Secret City is no longer a secret anymore.
I think there should be war memorials set up in many places in Laos. There should be one at LS20A and there should be one set up at the Lima 85 radar station just for starters.
I`ved been to LS20A and I`d really like to go there again ,however,right now I think that Laos is a bad place for tourists to go to.
Unfortunately,it looks like the Secret war in Laos is still going on.

Larry.