If you enjoy feeling rich without actually being rich Laos is the destination for you. Bundles of 10 000, 20 000 and 50 000kip bills are in circulation, millions of kip pass through your fingers daily. Unfortunately they are only just worth the paper they are printed on. Life's great when you can live off $10 AUS a day, including a few beers as you watch the sun go down over the Mekong at the end of another hard day in southeast asia.
For breakfast you can indulge in a fresh baked baguette which is a blend of rice and wheat flour. These come plain for 3000kip (40c AUS) or fill them with pate, salad and flossy pork. A cup of rich strong Laos coffee kick starts your heart for a mere 3000kip.
Lunch time is great for a bowl of noodle soup, fine rice noodles cooked to perfection come in a bowl of steaming pork based broth with fresh greens, chunks of meat (your choice; pork, chicken, duck or beef) and crispy pork crackling. 7000kip (90c AUS).
Freshly squeezed fruit juice and shakes are avaliable on every corner for just 5000kip (70c AUS).
Dinner time, well anything goes! In Vientiane there are many restaurants serving up local cusine, French, Italian, Indian or Korean, there are even a few steak houses to be found. Depending on what's your flavour you can spend as little as 14 000kip ($1.80 AUS) or as much as 300 000kip ($38 AUS) for Foi Gras in the best French restaurant in town.
We keep it cheap so there is more kip for beer Laos! On the Mekong you pay for the view at 10 000kip a large bottle ($1.30 AUS), small bars around charge 7 000 to 8 000kip ($1 AUS) but if you buy from a distributor you can pick up a case (12 large bottles) for 63 000kip ($8 AUS).
1 litre bottles of 'Two Elephants' drinking water will set you back 1 000kip (15c AUS).
Eating and drinking around Laos is a fun,cheap way to mingle with locals and get a feel for there lifestyle.
They do love to eat!
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