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Zurich Bread Artisan Bakery, a Thai chain. This bakery/cafe is truly superb. I never had such good bread in my 30 plus years in the US. Again, we have an instance of Asians selling white culture to other Asians, although at this location, most of the clientele are white tourists.



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[Saffron Cafe]



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Display near Chinese rairoad bridge and tunnel under construction. Notice that it's only in Chinese. No Lao!



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[display near Chinese rairoad bridge and tunnel under construction]



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Chinese worker dormitory. I've seen quite a few of these across Laos.



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Chinese built railroad tunnel under construction. That's Mark Barrett, a Canadian engineer and urban planner who was heavily involved with the development of Lao infrastructure. Employed by the United Nations, Mark advised the Lao government on road building, water treatment plants, waste management, community banking, slum upgrading, housing development, on and on, and Mark also supervised foreign companies here. When Mark arrived in Laos in 1994, the country had but one streetlight, and no highway. Mark has also worked in Thailand, Bangladesh and Iraq.

This week in Luang Prabang, I'm staying at Mark's house, so thank you very much, Mark!



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[Chinese built railroad tunnel under construction]



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[Chinese built railroad bridge under construction]



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[Chinese built railroad bridge under construction]



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[Chinese built railroad bridge under construction]



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[Utopia Cafe]



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[Utopia Cafe]



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