Vientiane

i stumbled across a chinese run coffee shop on a quiet street in the early, cool morning in the old quarter of vientiane. in the northern tradition the thick, rich and sweet coffee is served with a glass of green tea. there was deep fried bread on a plate on the thick concrete table. the cieling was high. it felt like a cross between a french colonial building and a soviet, industrial garage - two spaces you see a lot here.
the coffee was wonderfully delicious.
having dropped off some laundry, i went for a little walk in search of a local newspaper (the government-run vientiane times) and found it at a store which sells prosciutto, jameson's irish whiskey and pasteries.
we spent the last three days in a dusty town searching out dusty packets of oreo's of dubious provinance. the whole town sold about a dozen products, i think. luckily baguettes, marmalade and happy cow cheese were among them.

ben and cath and i have this running toast going. at the end of a particularly challenging day we raise a glass of well-earned cold beerlao. the list last night, over an equally well-earned dinner of indian curries was as follows: to slow boats, elephants, red wine and chickens, guest houses and moonlight.