Our 6th country LAOS. Laos is a country so magical that we just could not get enough of it!! We where greeted by beautiful children shouting "sabadee" (Hello in Lao). There is a friendly atmosphere all round and great tasting Beer Lao...I even started having a beer or two. We headed to the south of Laos as a starting point and caught a "local bus" to the laid back islands of Si Phan Don (4000 Islands) on the Mekong River. The local bus consists of converted flat bed trucks that are filled with as many passengers as possible...there was 38 people on ours. Between your feet and above your head they fill the place up with rice and cement bags, live ducks, chickens and dead fish for dinner tonight. It was a very interesting journey. The Loa people found Ross and I very interesting and we had lessons in Lao language and was friendly forced to drink the local Lao-Lao (moonshine) with the boys. We stayed on the Island of Don Det and you can not possible find a place more remote and laid back. The bungalows are very basic bamboo huts with outside shower/toilet and electricity is rare. The scenery is amazing and we met some lovely people here that we travelled through the whole of Loas with. Paul and Alex we met as soon as we set down at Mrs Nay's bungalows. We both reconised each other from Sapa Vietnam, we passed each other while treking. The other couple are Bonnie and Mark we met them two days later and hit it off straight away. In don Det we explored the emerald green paddy fields and the huge waterfalls by hired bicycles. We did a boat trip on the Mekong to catch a glimpse of the rare and endangered fresh water Irrawady Dolphins...that glimpse never came. We went to a few more waterfalls and Ross had the courage to take a swim in the rapids. The rest of our time we spent lazing about in our hammocks drinking Lao Lao cocktails watching the magical sunset...already wanna go back!!