erawan guesthouse

This was honestly one of the strangest stays I’ve had in Asia. The bed was comfortable and the shower had hot water, but the service was pretty lacking. We’d already paid one staff member, then were woken late at night and told we owed more. It was their mistake, and of course we were happy to pay what was due, but waking us when we’d booked multiple nights felt way over the top. The bike rental guy, who we’d arranged through the hotel, also disturbed us multiple times for random reasons. I do want to thank the cleaner personally, though. We’d taken the night bus and arrived earlier than expected, and she got us into a room really quickly without any notice. We were very grateful.

The room was very clean, and it was okay for one night. But there was still a lot of noise late into the night, which brought down my rating. We booked here to get away from noisy hostels and somehow ended up with even more noise, which sucks. They also didn’t provide towels, which is a bit strange for a guesthouse.

The room had everything I needed: it was clean, had good AC, and a comfortable bed. Erawan is in a quiet, lovely part of Pakse, with a nice view of the surrounding mountains, but still not too far from town. And the Bolaven Plateau is not to be missed. I normally don’t write reviews, but I had such a nice stay that I wanted to. The owner is a lovely young lady who helped arrange a motorcycle rental and a van to my next destination in Laos. She answered all my questions and was a sweet conversationalist, a pleasure to chat with. I’d totally come back any time.

Very bad experience. The air conditioning didn’t work at first, though they eventually fixed it. After that, we had no hot water, and they couldn’t fix it. I got very sick during the night from food poisoning. I was vomiting and losing fluids, and drank the last bottle of water. I called the hostess to ask if I could buy some drinks, but she refused to sell any at night and said they were only available from 8 am. The Guesthouse is remote, so there was nowhere else to get a drink. Most horrible night ever.