BootsnAll Travel Community

A colleague and I are planning a trip to Laos from 1-18 Nov by travelling by rail from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok and then on to Vientienne.
It has been planned in a bit of a hurry because we've both been in a very high-stress project which is, thankfully, winding down by month end. Having skimmed through a couple of travel guide books (at the bookshop for free!), I'm quite excited about this trip not coz there are lots of things to do but more for its culture, heritage, tradition, way of life, etc. However, it would be an even better trip if we actually got to do things off the beaten track.
Laos, being a small country, doesn't have lots of info contributed by travellers on the Internet so was wondering if there is at least 1 BootsnAll member who has been there and really *experienced* it.
Waiting for some "enlightening",
Melissa