While Phonepaseuth (Serd) was unable to personally guide me in Paksi and the 4000 islands area and facilitate me across the border with Cambodia,  I did meet him in Vientiane beforehand and he seemed a wonderful young man. He explained that personal matters had prevented him taking the tour but that he had arranged his cousin to take the tour.  'Shampoo'did a wonderful  job and also advised that he runs a restaurant and simple backpacker accommodation as well as a volunteer program for foreign visitors to help teach the island students English. A real inspirational person and very personable.  Highly recommend both Serd and Shampoo.  Both are organised and know their areas and,  as former monks,  have a nice charm and ease about them. 

We (a couple and 16-year old son) visited Northern Laos for a very short 5-day tour on our way to Cambodia. I had myself designed the tour, and was looking for a guide and driver to show us Luang Prabang, drive to Phonsavan and to Vang Viet and to end in Vientiane. By pure chance I fell on Serd as a guide, and that was a very lucky choice indeed. From the moment he picked us up at Luang Prabang airport until he dropped us at Vientiane airport, we enjoyed every moment with him. Serd speaks an excellent English, and has an intimate knowledge of his country... on  Buddhism of course, but also on all matters ranging from Lao life, Lao populations, Lao food, Lao politics and up to the Vietnam War. As he personally knows the neighbouring countries, it became very easy for us to place Laos in a context with neighbouring SE Asian countries and with China. Serd also has a very good sense of humour, and it was never a dull moment neither for us the elderly, nor for our son. And an important point: Wherever we stopped for roadside (or riverside...) lunch, it always was a treat.

And a last word: The driver that Serd employed was very good, and very safety-conscious, an important point on the  partly rainsoaked and truck-loaden roads of Norhern Laos.

In short, we had a phantastic time, and hope to visit soon Southern Laos, with Serd again.

I have lived in Asia for aorund 14 years. I have traveled all around Asia, and always organizing my trips without any help and reluctant to having tour guides or similar. But this time, my wife and myself take a last minute decision and decided to go to Laos. And then we both decided to hire someone to help us to visit the country. We did not have much choice because of the tight schedule. And when we landed in Vientiane we found Serd´s friendly smile. Attentive, kind, generous, intelligent....Just a few adjectives to qualify Serd, who not only chose carefully what we should visit but also took care of every detail of the journey, always adapting skillfully the itinerary to our mood. After seven days, we considered him more a friend than a tour guide. And we certainly meet him again in the near future.