Actually there was only one girl that I met in Thailand that told me about the magical village 4 hours up northeast from Luang Prabang, but as she was enthusing so much, I decided to make up my way here.
Seriously, if you get the chance to get a minivan, go for it! I thought that was what I booked, ended up in the local bus with just Lao people which was fine, but it took like 6 hours for 100km because we were stopping constantly to pick up eather other people or bags filled with rice.
But once I had made my way here, I fell in love with this tiny town that comes across your way when you follow the one and only road from the bus station for about 20 minutes. Bamboo houses everywhere, one huge bridge that connects the two sides of the city, amazingly friendly people and kids all around that will try to play with you for sure. Very little tourists, so a great opportunity to meet locals and truly experience Laos. I stayed at Delilah's, a guesthouse run by Harps, who lives here for a couple of decades and knows the area.