We are a couple (40 and 41) from Germany and had a fantastic 19-day trip through Laos with Serd. During our journey we learned much about buddhism (as he is a former novice he knows a lot about it, of course) and Lao culture. He made it possible for us to get in contact with local people and to get a feeling how their life is like, which is otherwise quite difficult, because we do not speak Lao and most of the local people do not speak English, whereas Serd's English is excellent. Even through our long drives through the country it was never boring, because we stopped all the while to visit something along the road: a temple, a market (where we tested local food we never tried before), a waterfall, ... Whenever he made a suggestion to change our original itenary it was a good choice, not to forget his recommendations for having lunch or dinner. While driving (and we have been sitting in the car a lot) we talked about many different topics, because he is also interested in our way of life and how we see things. So after 19 days it was very hard to say goodbye to a friend and we hope to get back and see him again.