In a break from the sparsely read, mundane posts about biscuits, tea and cake I thought I would try my hand at a little bit of that travel blogging that I believe is hot now.

I had been to Savannakhet before and found the accommodation available disappointing. Searching on the usual internet sites confirmed that the quality and variety of sleeping options was below par, even for Laos. So I thought I would give y’all a heads up about this new hotel I stayed at last time I was there.

It’s called the New Saen Sabai Hotel and it’s on the Mekong riverside. Its located directly opposite the old Ferry Terminal where you used to get the boat to Thailand.

Personally, I love a new hotel as generally, the beds are nice, the carpets are clean and everything is working so I would always choose to stay in a new hotel over one with ‘character’, nice view or higher star rating.

The New Saen Sabai Hotel (I hope they realise that their Hotel won’t always be new) opened in December 2012 so it’s about six months old although they still have an opening promotion so I got the room below for $26 dollars (800 baht) a night. I don’t know if this is one of those promotions that will run forever but at that price I think it is an ok deal, considering the last time I stayed in Savannakhet I think I paid about 450 baht to stay in an absolute hole.

As you can see the rooms are decorated to a fairly high standard, there’s tea and coffee-making facilities, a flat screen T.V with about 50 channels, I can’t tell you what they were because I spent longer trying to work out how to turn it off than I did actually watching, but it appeared to have a good selection of different languages.
There is also free wi-fi in the room which was a good speed when I was using it. Although I may have been the only guest in the hotel.

Savannakhet is quite a strange town, the riverside area, which includes the old town is pretty quiet, it’s busier a few streets away from the river, around the main road that runs through the town but the town is small and the riverside area nice. The hotel is just a 5 to 10 minute walk from the Thai Consul if you are in Laos to get a Thai visa.

Yeah there was a little dust on top of the ledge above the mirror but that was taller than any of the staff could see, so I can understand why they would miss it.

One of the things I have noticed while travelling is that the standard of bathroom fitting in South East Asia is a little disappointing. For example, in this new hotel, the sink tap wobbled, the towel rail couldn’t hold the weight of a towel, the blinds were hanging off at one end, the shower was at an angle that was perfect if you were 6 ft 8 inch or above, otherwise it hit you straight in the face or just flew above your head. Also it was hard to tell if the shower was supposed to be hot or not, it occasionally got a little luke warm but was normally cold, it also took forever for the water to drain away.  None of which really bothered me, it’s just a trend I’ve noticed.

Once in own memory life with these real images at our hotel balcony.

You can just turn up or email or call ahead, (see contact details on the leaflet above.) The hotel is listed on Agoda but it always showed as unavailable when I searched for dates so I don’t think it’s been fully set up yet but it would be worth checking those kind of sites if you’re thinking about staying here as you may be able to get a better deal.

I think for 800 baht it’s a pretty good option although there is a lot of cheaper alternatives in Savannakhet. When I stayed there it was after a 10 hour bus journey so I didn’t mind paying a little extra.