Latte Break

Not many pictures for you this week...

Spent it Vien Vien-Laos.

And if there were it would basically be pictures of sand pails-filled with bad alcohol. Sometimes party towns have great food. However if this one does I didn't really discover it. One good eat they did have was the sandwiches. Really great grilled sandwiches. But there is only so many of the same kind of sandwiches before getting sick of it.

Today, I escaped from the party scene and am sitting in a quiet town sipping on a Loas latte. The Jars Cafe. Damn. Best latte since I left Coffee Exchange. Makes me remember how much I love a good coffee. I haven't even bothered with it the last few weeks. Coffee is bad and expensive. This one is fair priced at under 2 bucks and it so good! I drank most of it before I thought about taking a picture. That has been a problem. Eating things before I even think about snapping a photo. I get excited!

{One day later....}

Drinking another great latte now. Great instrumental of "yesterday" is playing. I feel like home. A sanctuary. I can close my eyes. I miss my friends back home. I miss the coffee exchange. But the little sip that causes the nostalgia, cures it as well. This is a little gem of a place. and the best part is a kind and enthusiastic owner Mr Yai. He even let me behind the counter and I got to make my own latte. Woot!

We visited "the Plains of Jars" today and I learned that the US bombed the hell out of Loas durring and after the vietnam war. Killing thousands of civilians and displacing a half a million people. Also there are still unexploded bombs here. Many farmers and children die each year because of it. Bombies. We wern't allowed to walk in certain areas for fear of detonating them. I won't talk about it here much because this is a food blog, but look it up. You prob never heard about it and it will blow you mind.

Ok thats my rant. Here are some more food pictures. And I will have even more for you tomorrow.

Woke up and climbed to the high temple to watch the sunrise[Luang Prabong.]

Best fried sandwiches in [Vang Vien]

Took a trek and went to a whisky village. They basically make a fermented rice cake and put it in a jar. Then they add water. It tastes like a rough saki. What I am doing here is some kind of local drinking game. The rules are not clear other than you go around the circle and must drink a lot. What makes it difficult is they keep adding more you as you drink so you can never seem to get ahead. Then if you stop drinking and you havn't drank enough then they make fun of you in Laos, and then tell you to drink more. !

I will write more in-depth about another whiskey village we visited, in a future post.

Food with friends!

[Photo Credit: Hega Skarrud]

[Photo Credit: Hega Skarrud]

The buckets I mentioned- this is filled with half a bottle of bad whiskey and red bull. Not all of my travel companions remember vang vien that well....

One of the coolest drinks you can get in vang vien- non alcoholic. Sugar cane juice with lime.

Perfection.