Houayxai Riverside Hotel (Phonevichit Guesthouse)

Stayed overnight to catch the slow boat. Took the 2 p.m bus from Chiang Rai and arrived at the hotel around 5 p.m. If you have Thai Baht, the lady selling the bus ticket for the bus crossing the bridge will exchange it for Lao Kip at a reasonable rate. (official rate was 294 kip for a baht got 292 kip for a baht). Rooms have a fantastic view of the Mekong. Dinner and breakfast were good. The ticket office and the slow boat pier have since been moved down stream about 5 km away from the town. Hence you need to get a songthew to reach the pier. When I reached the pier in the morning, realised that I had left my cap in the hotel restaurant. Paid the songthew driver 25000 kip to retrieve it. On his return with the cap, he informed that the hotel cleaner who found the cap had demanded 10000 kip which he had paid her and I had no choice but to reimburse him. Not sure whether the cleaner had actually demanded the money or the driver was pulling a fast one to get extra money. But this incident created a negative feeling.