The French colonial period left Laos with a taste for baguettes and decent coffee, and Vang Vieng has a handful of bakeries that maintain the tradition. The best of them opens at dawn and sells baguettes with pâté, eggs, or condensed milk to travellers still bleary from early bus departures. The coffee — Lao robusta grown in the Bolaven Plateau — is thick and strong in the traditional drip style.
Eating on the terrace as the morning mist lifts from the Nam Song and the karst silhouettes emerge is one of the better ways to start a day in Vang Vieng. By mid-morning the baguettes are usually gone and the place shifts to smoothies and pancakes for the lunch crowd. If you want the proper experience, arrive before eight.