Leaving Thailand in the north, we travelled into neighbouring Laos down the Mekong River. Setting off on the 2 day trip we were expecting an uncomfortable journey, being crammed onto poky wooden benches along with tens of other tourists. Thankfully the scenery was breathtaking enough to distract from the discomfort and allowed us to revel in the experience, witnessing local life along the Mekong - kids jumping and playing on the banks, simple fishing boats and ramshackled huts lining the rivers edge.

At the end of the second day we arrived in the quaint town of Luang Prabang, listed as a World Heritage Town by UNESCO, this is a beautiful place to kill a few days. We hired bikes and rode around the archaic temples alongside the strikingly colourful monks clad in bright orange cloth. On our final morning we awoke at 5am to participate in the monks' morning alms - offering food and money to the monks on the roadside, a daily ritual for them and a humbling experience for us.

Next stop, Vang Vieng, still in the north of Laos on the way to the capital Vientiane. This town is swarming with backpackers, all seeking the river tubing experience, which was bizarre yet great fun. The local river plays host to tens of bars all lining the banks, there are dubious wooden constructions jutting out over the water, with zip wires, slides and rope swings reaching into the deepest parts of the river. James and I each hired a tube along with the hordes and jumped in, loving the adventure of the swings, slides and Beer Lao. I took a hard hit on the water, the resulting bruises lasted a week! It was comical to see 18 year old Europeans dressed in drag, dancing to crap electro-pop and swinging from tarzan ropes whilst the local old ladies watched on with a smile on their faces - not something you see everyday.

Our swift 8-day trip through Laos ended in Vientiane. We're not lovers of cities but this was small, easy to navigate and with an abundance of great restaurants. A visit to the COPE centre was extremely sobering. COPE is a rehabilitation centre for the people of Laos who are affected by landmines and unexploded ordnance. During the Vietnam-US war, the US dropped over 250 million bombs on Laos with the intention of flushing out the Viet-Cong. Nearly a third of these didn't detonate, leaving approximately 80 million bombs in the countryside. Unfortunately scrap metal carries a huge price in Laos and thousands of people scour the land for it to sell on. The results are obvious, men, women and children killed and maimed on a daily basis by the unexploded bombs, a sad reality and risk for the poor and desperate people of Laos. COPE is an amazing organisation helping to rehabilitate people affected by the bombs and to provide free medical care for those who can't afford it. The COPE website is well worth a visit if you want to find out more: www.copelaos.org

We were pleasantly surprised by Laos, the people and the countryside are beautiful, and there is so much to see and discover, the road less travelled. It's an extremely poor country, evident in both the cities and in the countryside, yet it is rich in natural beauty with an abundance of breathtaking scenery and natural wonders. We would have loved to have spent longer here but unfortunately our time ran out, Vietnam awaits!