Nighttime drink stand

How did they do business before plastic bags?

Did customers bring their own containers, like the pails that carried draft beer from American bars? Did the vendors fold bindles from banana leaves, or even paper? (Origami paper cups are easy to make, but in controlled, spill-tolerant conditions (my childhood kitchen), I've also found that they tend to soak through very quickly.) While wrinkling my brow over this sour flavor (papaya, perhaps; 3,000 kip), I was glad to be sipping from a straw rather than reaching for the communal dipper.

Nighttime sweets stand
"Downtown," Vientiane, Laos
(From a November 2006 visit)

Comments

[Greg Strong]

I wonder if people like the bags because they're a larger size than cups? That's a ton of juice. And a ton of ice. Would one person drink this?

[Dave Cook]

One baggie, one inbiber. It's less than you think, when you consider how the Laos sun can dry a fellow out.