I know very few people that have been to Laos and having spent a few days in the second city, Luang Prabang, I am thinking that I should make it my mission to promote this place as a great, slightly off the beaten track, safe, good value and relaxed city to visit. It is well geared up for the tourist and travellers alike.

With a rather relaxed French ambience, a plethora of very good restaurants and views over the mighty Mekong River this is a good place to spend a few days just chillaxing or if you have longer why not enrol on a one day Laotian cookery course, a two day weaving course or even a mahout course and learn to train elephants!

You can also visit waterfalls, caves, go mountain biking or trekking, take a trip on the river or simply enjoy a bit of shopping in either the night market or the more locally oriented day market. Anything you choose to do will be done at a slower pace and be at a price that makes you ask 'how can that be so cheap?'

There are plenty of options for accommodation in Luang Prabang, in fact almost every other building in the old town seems to offer something ranging from less than £10 to over £400 a night. The Hotel Nagara was our choice and was certainly much closer to the lower than the higher price, but for that we got a really clean room, air conditioning, a large walk in shower room, comfy beds, a free minibar and breakfast overlooking the river. You do not have to break the bank to get something decent in Luang Prabang and as you probably know Mrs H would certainly not be happy in a cockroach infested flea pit and too be honest, neither would I.

Dining in the town also ranges from very cheap, to very good value. On the night market there are food stalls selling what was a healthy and clean looking buffet plate for 15,000 LAK (Lao Kip) which is about £1.20 and for a few extra pounds you can add grilled meats and fish. Plenty of people had their plates piled high and for that price I am not surprised. Our meal at a restaurant called Salt 'n' Pepper was not a huge amout more and the chicken and vegetable noodle stir fry that I had was just 20,000 LAK (£1.60) and was a pretty decent size and was freshly cooked in an open kitchen. You can pay more, but it does not take long to start questioning why you are paying 10 or 20,000 LAK more at the place next door. It might after all be less than the price of a coffee at Starbucks when you come back down to reality - but it does make you think twice.

Even though Laos may not be on the major tourist trail map, it is noticeable that there are lots of people here doing the tourist thing. Having climbed the 300 plus steps to the top of Phou Si hill we were the first there ahead of the sunset, by about two and a half hours, slowly but surely the place started filling up and it was a good job we staked a claim to some prime real estate early doors even if it did mean baking in the sun. The sunset was impressive as was the gaggle of people that had arrived behind us! The time did pass quite quickly as we spent most of it chatting to a Dutch guy who was filming a documentary. This should be completed by April 2015 and you can find out more by visiting www.traveltelly.com plus I think we have got him thinking about his next project too so it will be good to keep an eye on his website.

We also visited the Kuang Si wateralls by simply talking to a tuk tuk driver on the street corner. His price quickly went from over £20 return to under £8.50 return for both of us and even with the modest entrance fee this was a great day out. The journey each way, of about an hour, was made in the company of British, French and Aussie backpackers and even though they were much younger than us it was s great chance to chat and exchange travel stories (I think we were well ahead on 69 countries). The waterfalls were impressive and most people were content with diving into the water pools but we climbed up to the very top of the falls and looked out over the drop many feet below as well as the stunning mountain backdrop.

The good thing about everything we have done so far, and Laos is no exception, is that you do not need a travel agent, an organised tour in a minibus giving you just thirty minutes free time to 'see the old town' or a resort representative. Nothing we have done has been difficult, you just need to do a bit of research (the internet and books are the way to go) and see what happens when you get to your destination. Arriving in Luang Prabang there is a fixed fee transfer service of 50,000 LAK, if you have no local currency then they will take 200 Thai Baht, or 6 US Dollars. We were on the way into the city centre within a minute of handing over our cash and there was no waiting for everyone else on the organised tour to board the bus. It really is fairly easy doing it yourself if you do a little bit of research!