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, about 30 cents at the time), 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)