#lao coffee

[johnross23]

Riverside Breakfast in Vang Vieng, Laos

[chrisyphotoessays]

Buying Coffee Beans in Vientiane

Monday, Steady rain for several hours that put an end to taking some photos of the river in the morning light. Well, I needed to keep that horse in mind this morning. Tried to find the correct address of a Lao coffee company and gave up. I wanted to buy some beans and send them home.

The streets here have up to three names - Lao, French and a roman script attempt at the Lao name. Street signs only have any two of the three and the combination could be different at the next intersection.  Google does not cope with that. I noticed that the traffic police had pistols.  I set off on foot as I had no local cash for a tuk-tuk. It was quite a long walk to a bank and I did not find the supermarket selling Lao coffee on the way.

Patience is needed in changing currency here. Really, I should have changed double the amount at least. In the end they short changed me a little bit with both Kip and Baht, so they gave me a little bit more cash. An Aussie bloke approached me in the bank and asked if he could change his Kip for my Aussie dollars? No way!

As a pick-me-up, I had green sticky rice in a little glass with pandanus ice cream, $2.80. Nearby, I found local coffee beans at a Phimpone mini-mart on Settathilath Road. Two varieties were $17.60 and $15.60 a kilo. I paid $19.50 for half a kilo of each. This shop has a wide range of food including European varieties and wine.

Then I walked down to Makphet café, 78 Ban Inpen Street. It is in a French colonial style house. Inside the walls are painted a soft yellow with original artworks hung in the main areas.  The garden is visible from the windows of the dining room. I had soup with tiny mince pork bits and vegetables. K40000, $6.50. Very good flavour and presentation. The waiter was very small and dark, not confident and nearly spilt the soup, poor girl. When I finished, I showed her how to slide it onto the table. This café provides vocational training for former street kids and others who are at-risk.

 Back at the hotel the boys were eating lunch and drinking beer with a German tourist seated on the floor of the kitchen. They invited me to join them. Nup. Maybe dinner with them tonight.