When I was training with Team Dai last year, our weekly “city loop” took us past a billboard advertising Café Sinouk and promising a coffee factory and gardens. I always thought a rest stop for coffee sounded perfect, but the team disagreed in their competitive zeal to finish the route. Now that my power-cycling days are over, I recently recruited Carol and Tony for a leisurely ride to Café Sinouk.

We started on a quiet, meandering dirt road that runs along the Mekong River. I’ve visited this temple many times on my bike rides, but Tony had never seen it. (You can read more details about this temple at my old blog post, Highway to Hell.)

Tony’s thinking Hell doesn’t look so bad, actually.

We left the river road and pedaled alongside cars, motorbikes and tuk tuks on Vientiane’s version of a major thoroughfare for 11 kilometers until we reached the aforementioned billboard. At the end of the long driveway, we found a little coffee shop, where the owner sat with some friends.

“I’m sorry, we’re closed!” he said but then kindly offered to serve us some coffee. He and his companions even shared their little tea-time cakes.

Even the dogs were enjoying an afternoon break.

Mr. Sinouk invited us to return on a weekday afternoon, which sounds good to us!