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Region: Northern Laos> Province: Bokeo> Location: Huay Xai
Friendship Guesthouse
Clean and quiet with amazing rooftop balcony.
Huay Xai
Bokeo Province
Tel: (084) 211 219, (061) 815 650
Description
The rooms at Friendship Guesthouse are fine: clean and brightly lit, with a bathroom and hot shower, with fascinating decorations, such as Chinese-style synthetic curtains and fringing on the sheets. The highlight is undoubtedly the rooftop balcony which has no furniture but an almost 360 degree view of the town, Mekong and some distant mountains, behind which the sun sets. Spectacular. Staff are helpful and have a foyer full of local information. They'll take breakfast orders the night before to save you time in the morning.
Total rooms: 15
Sgl fan private b'room
3 USD (low season)
3 USD (high season)
Dbl fan private b'room
4 USD (low season)
4 USD (high season)
Triple fan private b'room
6 USD (low season)
6 USD (high season)
Quad fan private b'room
8 USD (low season)
8 USD (high season)
Added to Travelfish on: 15th June, 2004
Last visited or updated on: 6th December, 2006
Guest feedback
Travelfish's review - No rating given
By pesky_tourist ( total comments: 4 
)
mrandmrsburke: Perhaps staff wasn't friendly because you don't speak Lao? Did you try?
Friendly but getting a little tattered - No rating given
By tblairg ( total comments: 7 ) Stayed here 12/2006
We found the staff really helpful during the single evening we stayed. The rooms were definitely getting a little frayed at the edges, but were clean and represented good value. Water was hot, beds were ok and warm, and beer served on the rooftop was cold! Hardly a trip highlight, but a fine place to stop a night.
Travel Fish's review is a bit optimistic!!! - 
By mrandmrsburke ( total comments: 25 ) Stayed here 2/2006
We stayed one night before catching the boat to Luang Prabang via Pak Beng. The staff were efficient, but I wouldn't say friendly. In fact they hardly spoke to us. The room wasn't dirty, but ok, it was just very old and a bit dilapidated. The bathroom was dingy and the water didn't flow away properly leaving a pool of water around the toilet and the hot shower didn't work and was freezing cold.
Didn't see any of these nice chinese curtains, all looked a bit half-hearted and cheap and no mosquito nets, but plenty of mosquitoes. We did have a telly in our room with some English spoken channels that prevented us from getting to suicidal. As a one night stopover it was better than a complete dive. Don't buy your slow boat ticket here BAP Guesthouse does them 100B cheaper for the same boat, but you have to put up with the grumpy owner, who is if you take her in the right spirit quite funny to watch!!!
No mosquito nets? - 
By millionario ( total comments: 11 ) Stayed here 7/2004
The room I visited at the Friendship had no mosquito nets, and I didn't find it that friendly. The stairs of the guesthouse just look like Amsterdam's!
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