The perfect tonic

FOR a touristy town, Luang Prabang has its fair share of bakery-cum-cafes.

I was fully prepared to dedicate an entire afternoon to coffee and cake and a particularly good chic lit book called The Other Side of the Story, when I discovered there was no need.

Every night about five cake stalls are wheeled out onto the main touristy strip as part of the nightly handicraft market, which sells some really cute stuff by the way, from quilted cushion covers to Laos coffee, slippers, ceramic pots and colourful wiry paper lamp thingys.
(Ok, that last one was beyond my ability to describe.)

Every cake stall has the same range so it’s not necessary to roam around looking for the best flavours, though it is necessary to roam around to find the moistest looking ones on sale.

So here we go: ginger, pumpkin, mango, pineapple, apple, chocolate, banana, chocolate and coffee, and coconut.

All are enormous in size; too big really; but *sigh* they really are the perfect tonic when you’re beating your head against the wall because you’ve eaten so much cold tofu and stir fried river weeds (yes, I coined that term myself) and rice you think you just might explode.

(Almost literally, in fact, ‘cos you know, it is tofu.)