Both me and Ash had enjoyed our day relaxing on Don Khon and were really excited about our day of kayaking with the people we`d met the previous day. When arranging the deal the day before the guy had told us he would pick us up at 9am from our bungalow and the plan would be for the others to kayak down the river to us. This sounded ideal as it meant we didn't have to bike over to the other island and so we both sat in our hammocks eagerly awaiting their arrival ...

After a quick and trouble free bus ride south from Pakse we arrived at the ferry port to 4,000 islands. We had deliberated lots about which island to stay on and in the end we decided Don Khon would be the one for us. Described by lonely planet as 'the real Laos' we went for it and got a long tail boat over to the island. On arrival we had to do a good balancing act to get out of the rocking boat safely without landing in the Mekong but once we managed it we wand...

On Friday night we took our first sleeper bus to Pakse, a small townin the south from Vientiane. After having to get a local to explain to our bus company on skype the name of our guesthouse we were pleased to get picked up at 7.30 as planned to take us to the VIP sleeper bus. Ash had done his usual last minute '"adrenalin rush" by deciding to put a film on his iphone 30 minutes before we left! On arrival at the bus depot we were pleased to see some bi...

At 9 am we ere were on the VIP (VIP=reduced chance of breakdown???)10 hour bus to Vientiane (Capital of Lao). A coupe of local pick ups later we were straight into the mountains heading through amazing bamboo hut villages perched on the edge of the mountain side-these people put a lot of trust in bamboo round this part of the world! It was great to see but we didnt pass through quietly. Our driver was intent on using horn on every corner and as we passed on ...

We have both decided that we really like Laos, especially Luang Prabang. After our long boat ride we decided to chill out on Tuesday and go to a waterfall with some guys we'd met from the boat. After a nice tasty breakfast from Utopia (everyone who has visited Luang Prabang will know this little piece of heaven) we headed over to the guys hostel and took a tuk tuk ride for about an hour. We even met a 'northerner' from Blackburn who was hilarious and him and Ash ...