I'm (Kevin) sitting in the Ho Chi Minh Airport after an eye-opening, emotional, and excellent 2 week coffee buying trip through Laos and Vietnam. This was my first trip to both countries (as well as a brief night in Bangkok) and I'm leaving very impressed with both countries.
I traveled with my boss, Lindsey, and we had a one night layover in Bangkok at the start of the trip. With a free afternoon ahead of us, we immediately took to the streets to explore the city. We saw the largest solid gold Buddha in the world and, after meeting up with a coffee supplier of ours, we took a boat ride along the Chao Phraya River.
Wat Traimit - holds the largest gold Buddha in the world
Boat on the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok
The following day we flew from Bangkok to Ubon, Thailand, and then drove across the border into Laos. We spent the next 4 days exploring the main coffee growing region--the Bolavens Plateau. Laos is a beautiful and very peaceful country. I hadn't done my research ahead of time, so I was surprised when I saw the communist flags flying throughout the country. This was my first time in a communist country, but it didn't affect my trip at all. It's a very calm and peaceful feeling country which may stem from the prevalence of Buddhism. The food was great, the people were friendly, and the potential for high-quality coffee is enormous. It's a relatively new coffee origin for the higher-quality coffee roasters, so we're very excited to be an early adopter and supporter of the coffee. I'm running a special project with a coffee mill there which will be a coffee type that has never been produced in Laos, so I was very eager to taste the progress thus far. So far, so good. The highlight of the Lao portion of the trip was the day when a group of coffee farmers organized a village party for us. We had excellent food, watched (and partook in) some traditional Lao slow dancing, and had some good laughs. The last day in Laos we visited a Hindu temple from the 11th and 13th century called Vat Phou. We were accompanied by one of our coffee suppliers who is Hindi so it was great to see it through his eyes and have him explain it all. After 4 great days in Laos, I was a bit sad to leave and but was excited to head into Vietnam.
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| Coffee delivery |
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| Visiting a school and donating some art supplies |
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| Great welcome from the students |
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| Students |
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| Coffee break |
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| Our coffee drying |
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| Village party |
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| Village party |
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| Village party |
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| This is the village leader |
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| Meeting with a group of coffee farmers |
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| Meeting with a group of coffee farmers |
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| Cupping table |
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| Lao and Communist flags |
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| Vat Phou |
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| Vat Phou |
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| Vat Phou |
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| Vat Phou |
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| Vat Phou |
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| Vat Phou |
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| Vat Phou |
We arrived late at night in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon until 1976) and were immediately impressed with the absolute lack of any traffic rules as we headed to our hotel. The streets are completely filled with motorbikes and they act like ants moving through the streets in every direction. During our 6 days in Vietnam, we did a lot of traveling throughout the country. The first full day there we flew up to Dak Lak to visit the robusta area. Robusta is a very low quality type of coffee of which we only buy a very small amount. It was a very different experience than visiting an arabica area (higher quality coffee that we buy) and it was much more impersonal. Robusta is really the ugly side of coffee, but visiting the area was a good education nonetheless. It's much more a price-driven (low, low prices) area rather than a relationship/quality driven area. Starting the Vietnam portion of the trip in robusta territory made me a bit nervous for the rest of the trip. However, the next day we flew north to Da Lat City and all concerns immediately vanished. Da Lat City is an absolutely beautiful former French city up in the highlands of Vietnam. The French influence is apparent in the architecture and it's called the honeymoon city b/c that's where people go for honeymoons and vacations because of the climate and how beautiful the city is. It reminded me of a mix between Lake Tahoe (lots of pine trees that I've never seen in coffee areas) and a French alpine village. We met many farmers and even spent a day visiting farms on motorbikes. It was a fantastic 3 days and I'm excited to go back there on vacation with Melinda. We spent the last 2 days in Vietnam back down in Ho Chi Minh City and used one as a tourist day. We visited the Cu Chi Tunnels which was the underground tunnel network and headquarters of the Viet Cong. Next we visited the War Remnants Museum which is all about the Vietnam (American) War. I've never had such a hard time going through a museum. It was a tremendously emotional experience to see the horrors of that war, but it was a well put together museum. The last morning of the trip I woke up early to walk down to a park that tons of people exercise in during the early morning. It was a pretty funny sight to see people moving in all random directions with their wacky exercises--swinging their arms and legs in odd ways, practicing Tai Chi, a guy practicing his sword moves with an actual sword, and two extremely old ladies hacky sacking better than anyone I've ever seen. It was a great way to start the day. I sat sweating in the early morning humidity watching them too long and soon realized that I was going to be late for breakfast. I was walking back to the hotel when I was signaled over by a guy on a stopped motorbike. Through his arm motions I realized that he was offering me a ride and it would cost 50,000 Vietnamese Dong (their currency) to take me the mile or two back to the hotel. That equals just over $2. So I borrowed his extra helmet (too small) and hopped on back and we joined the chaos of the motorbike ants swarming through the city and had a great final ride through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.
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| Happy farming family |
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| Coffee buying station -- owned and run by women as most are in Vietnam |
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| Coffee tractor |
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| Separating the red from the green |
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| The pom-pom looking robusta trees |
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| Stoking the fire of the coffee dryers |
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| Nice view from a wet mill |
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| The countryside around Da Lat is covered with these green houses growing flowers. It's a huge flower producing area and has a big flower festival every December. |
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| Exploring farms by motorbike |
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| Happy farming couple |
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| Beautiful country |
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| Lunch served at one of the farmers' house |
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| Hostess |
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| Her house (where she served us lunch) and farm in the background |
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| Coffee and pine trees -- a unique combo |
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| This lady lost her husband a few years ago but still continues to farm her land |
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| My driver |
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| Notebook from a coffee collection station |
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| Coffee collection station |
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| Award ceremonies for the top farmers of the year |
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| Raking the coffee to help it dry |
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| Ben Thanh Market - Ho Chi Minh City |
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| Ben Thanh Market -- Ho Chi Minh City |
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| There are constant reminders throughout Ho Chi Minh City that it's a communist country |
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| Joining the masses of motorbikes |
All in all, it was a great trip filled with excellent food, new sights, and great coffee and I'm very eager to return someday--hopefully with Melinda in tow.
