Refractory Road

We reserved a bungalow at the Ubon Buri Hotel and Resort after cross-referencing recommendations on Agoda, TripAdvisor, and Lonely Planet. It proved itself to be an over-priced disappointment. The hotel is located south of the city proper, about a kilometer south of the river. To its east is a building supply operation whose warehouses are immense. To its south is […]

We ended up staying here after four or five hours of checking every accommodation we could find in and around Khong Chiam. There are lots of hotel and guesthouse operations in the small town of Khong Chiam, ranging from rickety shacks at an asking price of 500 baht a night, to the Tohsang resort with prices in the thousands of […]

We stayed at this hotel after a long day of driving, and just wanted some place to stop for the night. Whether it is a good or bad selection for Surin is not something to which we can speak, as we didn’t search further. The hotel complex consists of a main, five-story building comtaining the lobby and rooms; a pool […]

This guesthouse operation is located a couple kilometers northwest of Prasat on route 3011. It consists of ten stand-alone bungalows, and a common a restaurant building with open-air dining. All the bungalows are the same size and construction, the only difference being that half have an interior-accessed bathroom, and the other half having an exterior-accessed bathroom. We stayed in a […]

Elephant Crossing is located on the southern end of town, on the river. It consists of a restaurant on the river with both covered and uncovered seating, and a four-story hotel structure. We arrived in Vang Vieng at the tail end of a tropical storm that had coaxed flooding, including flooding of many of the hotels and guesthouses along the […]

Hotel Khamvongsa is located on the western end of the central district of Vientiane. It’s about a five minute walk to the river front and the area where food vendors set up there for the evenings. It’s only about a maximum of a twenty minute wall to most anything you’d want to see in central Vientiane. It’s also just far […]

The Souksavan Guesthouse is located about a three hundred meters west of the actual bus station, and about a hundred meters east of where the bus might drop you off if you are coming from Nong Khiaw (in which case it might drop you next to the Dok Champa Guesthouse). There’s a sign for the guesthouse on the main road, […]

This hotel is located in a hill north and center of the main road through Phonsavan. It is a hotel operation that Americans would recognize as a hotel operation. This place is a bit pricey – we stayed in a suite for $58 US a night, and a standard room was running for $45 US a night. That’s a lot […]

The Lattanavongsa Guest House is one of several guesthouses in Muang Ngoi, a small town accessible only by boat via a 1-1/4 hour ride upriver from Nong Khiaw. This guesthouse operation consists of an open-air restaurant near the water with a river view, and a group of a dozen or so bungalows about 50 meters farther in from the water. […]

The Nong Kiau River Side is located on the east bank of the Nam Ou River, in what is more properly called Ban Sop Houn, across the river from Nong Khiaw proper. The rooms are detached bungalows with river views, positioned high up on the bank. They are good sized, with large glass doors opening onto decent-sized balconies. The bathrooms […]

Pak Beng is the halfway point on the Mekong River route from Chiang Khong to Luang Prabang. This is where all the slow boats stop overnight. Santisouk Guesthouse is one of many hotels and guesthouses in this small town. There is a wide selection, but we didn’t take the time to shop. After the six and a half hour boat […]

This hotel is located in the southwestern part of the city, but still just a 15 minute walk to the central area. The hotel is a compound, with a very large main building up front, behind which is a handful of other buildings. These other buildings include a central dining area and conference room of sorts, a building with their […]

This guesthouse is located on the south end of town. The place is of wood construction on an embankment, so there are three levels to the facility with rooms stuffed into it in varied arrangements. We got a room with a great view of the Mekong River. There was the room proper, an attached bathroom with shower stall and Western […]

We came to this place by way of Agoda.com. We were about to leave Lampang for Chiang Rai, didn’t know where we would stay, and checked the prices and ratings on Agoda.  Laluna came up favorably. It’s reasonably priced by Chiang Ria standards, but expensive by Thailand standards. We paid $60 US (1800 baht) for a room with a king […]

Pai River Corner is located on the river, in the tourist epicenter of Pai – right by all the restaurants and bars and tattoo parlors and massage joints and trinket shops. That doesn’t mean it’s noisy or lacks a sense of privacy. It just means that it’s located where the tourists are most concentrated. Not necessarily a bad thing in […]

This hotel is located 22 kilometers north of the town of Chiang Khong, on the banks of the Mekong River. The hotel grounds straddle the two lane road that parallels the river. The grounds consist of a number of bungalows, a main building that serves as an open-air restaurant and office, a large building right on the river that is […]

We stayed here two nights based upon Lonely Planet citing it as perhaps the best option in Lampang. The place is located on the river. It’s a true guesthouse. The owners live on the premises. You rent a room in place that has been divided up into multiple rooms. They offer food at an on-site restaurant. There were several foreigners […]

Fern Resort is located nine kilometers of driving to the south of Mae Hong Son. Other places we have stayed in Thailand had “resort” in the name, but this is the first that came close to actually warranting the word in the way that Americans think of a resort. The place is a complex of upscale bungalows dispersed on well-manicured […]

This place is located in the small town of Mae La Noi, Mae Hong Son Province, about thirty kilometers north of Mae Sariang in northwestern Thailand. The name says “resort,” but that’s a bit of an overstatement. When I think of a resort, I think of an all-inclusive place with all the amenities to avoid leaving the resort – a […]

Little Eden Guesthouse is one of several small hotels/inns that line the area between the roadway and the river in Soppong. All of them seem to cater to English-speaking tourists, even though Soppong itself has nothing remarkable to recommend it as a tourist destination. But it is located in an area riddled with caves, and that is apparently the draw. […]

This place is an “Our Pick” in the Lonely Planet Guide. Maybe they never really stayed here. The place is a combination restaurant and hotel in a single building on the river front; one of several in a row of guest houses. It’s a three story place. There are rooms and an open-air restaurant with a large deck on the […]

Thasongyang Hill Resort is located a couple kilometers north of the town of Tha Song Yang in northern Tak Province. There are multiple rooms and bungalows. We selected an air conditioned bungalow of some 300 square feet, which ran us 500 baht a night in the off season. The bungalow was brown wood inside, with a single window. A bit […]

The Ban Thai Guest house is a Lonely Planet “Our Pick.” It’s located on the west end of the central town, just off the main drag. This puts it in reasonable walking distance of downtown Mae Sot. Ban Thai is a compound, consisting of a main building that contains rooms, several stand-alone bungalows, an office building, and a maintenance building. […]

The Ruean Thai hotel is listed in the Lonely Planet guide as a mid-range hotel. We got a basic room, with king sized bed, for about $40 US a night (off-season rate).  That’s a bit pricey in a location where budget accommodations can be had in the $10 US range. But it’s a nice place, with lots of wood construction, […]

This place is listed as a mid-range option in Lonely Planet. It ran us 908 baht for a “deluxe” room with a queen bed and private bath. It’s located 4 kilometers from the train station, and cost us 150 baht to get between the two on the first day; 200 baht on the second day. There is a breakfast included, […]

Upcountry Bed and Breakfast is located just off the Kula Highway, in Upcountry Maui. It’s about 12 miles from Kahului, and some 28 miles from the summit of Haleakela. We chose this place because there aren’t many options in Upcountry, and this one had the best reviews in TripAdvisor and Expedia. It’s a single large house, with four guest rooms. […]

We stayed at the Four Seasons in Wailea, Maui for a couple of nights. What can you say? It’s the Four Seasons. They wipe your butt with smile – and for a nominal fee, of course. Now, we are normally not upscale resort types, but what the heck! You gotta do it every now and then. Of course, when you […]

Huelo Point Lookout is on the north shore of Maui, between Kahului and Hana. It’s 34 miles west of Hana on the road to Hana. The accomodations are individual cabins, linked together with covered walkways. The cabins have cooking capability (essential given the dearth of restaurants nearby) and hot tubs, and there is a common pool. The grounds are lush […]

Honua Kai Resort is located on the Kaanapali Coast, which is just north of Lahaina. Kaanapali is one of two resort strips on Maui, the other being the Wailea area. Honua Kai Resort is fairly new. One structure is two years old; the other is just one. The price is very good for this area and this quality of hotel […]