Breakfast in Bountai - Phongsali Province, Northern Laos

Breakfast at the one sit-down restaurant at the Bountai Market, whose menu was very limit and as a result both our prior day's lunch and breakfast consisted of an order of khao piak, the Lao version of pho with pork as the protein of choice. For both meals, we sat at the same table located in the cantilevered patio portion of the restaurant that, for breakfast, afforded a view of the Nam Leng River below and the Road #1B bridge that spans it in the upstream direction backed by wooded hills shrouded in a veil of fog, with the meal accompanied by the sounds of passing morning traffic, crowing roosters and Lao pop music playing in the background. My steaming bowl of khao piak and mug of hot green tea really hit the spot on that cool, misty morning, with the khao piak being very tasty (saep der!) and a good way to start what would be a long day involving walking tours of three ethnic minority villages and over 7 hours on at time windy and very rough roads en route to Phongsali.