I stayed at Namma Vong Guesthouse for one week in January 2010 and it was exceptional. I befriended the young staff and family, including three-year old named Seng Ah Tit (who I taught to play marbles), and wound up teaching English school for two nights courtesy of the owner's daughter, Mrs Pong, who also assisted in my sponsoring Novice Onsi for two years of his English education ($220 USD). The location is superior--right outside the walls of Wat Xieng Thong, and across the road from the Mekong River--and the young staff exceptionally friendly, with good English. I was invited to join many games of petang in the empty lot next door, sharing BeerLao with the lads, and even helped set up their new bicycle rental business by making signs. The room was clean, the water hot, and the air conditioning cold--what more could one ask? Morning monks'alms-gathering is right outside, a process in which the owner's wife participates--this family is Buddhism at its best. The person who left the blog about the theft I suspect has confused this guesthouse with another one--Namma Vong is exceptional value, friendly, and in an exceptional location.

Peter Heron

I recommend everybody to stay this guest house.
It locates very close to Wat xiengtong the most famous temple in Luang Prabang and you can walk to Mekong river in 1min!
The family is so kind for us. they always say 'sabaidee' with nice smile:)
We could have a really great time with this GH.
I'm sure that I will stay again.

Never pleasant to leave a bad review, but this place thorougly deserves it. We had £70 stolen from our room, despite it being kept in bag inside a protective security cage. The only reason we had so much is that the ATMs are unreliable so we had got the money ahead to pay the hotel.

The room was kept locked at all times, except for one occasion when we handed the key in for the maid to clean. At no time did any other guest see us go in or out of the room as it was not very busy. To get into the locked bag takes about 15 minutes, therefore it really needed to be done by someone that had an excuse for being discovered, rather than an opportunist thief. Also valuable items such as Malarone tablets and IPODs were left behind, presumably because a local thief did not realise their value. Moreover, the thief had sneakily left behind some dollars and kip, but had a) been too greedy b) handn't realised we'd left the exact amount to pay for the room so knew how much was there.

When we reported the incident, the person on duty accepted that it had probably been an inside job based on the evidence we gave. We left it with him and when we came back at lunchtime, he said he had spoken to all staff and they had all denied it therefore there was nothing he could do!. However, given this is a family hotel the fact he recognised it was one of the staff was a pretty big deal. He implied we would be given money off the room as compensation, an offer he later withdrew. He also said his Dad, the owner would come to speak to us personally. There then followed a series of excuses as to why this wouldn't happen (meeting a long lost friend he hadn't seen for 5 years, down to finally saying he was at the office and was too busy).

Ultimately there was nothing we could do, although it was such a blatant case of a theft by hotel staff. Therefore I am writing this review in the hope that it will dissuade people from staying here, so that other lovely Lao people will benefit from running honest, professional businesses.

simple and good and for 20 USD per night with breakfast just fine - has hot water and is quiet and is directly across from the most important WAT in beautiful Luang Prabang. The place is very basic but also adequate and clean just fine for budget minded travellers. The best part is that it is very locally run and the family is very warm and welcoming.