Enticing aroma sees coffee shop become top tourist attraction in Oudomxay

The enticing aroma of coffee emanating from a modern outlet named Home Cafe in Nalea village, Xay district, Oudomxay province, has become a popular gathering place for tourists and people of all ages, thanks to the wide variety of tempting items on the menu.

A customer orders coffee at Home Café.	Mrs Kingkeo Souksomboun, the owner of Home Café.

Customers can order many kinds of coffee, rice cakes of various flavours, and food made to order, all served in a beautiful natural setting, while the café itself has modern decor and impressive standards of service.
In addition to coffee, the high-quality drinking water produced by the Lao Brewery Company is also one of the most popular products on offer at the cafe.
The café’s owner, Mrs Kingkeo Souksomboun, told a visiting reporter about her inspiration for creating Home Café, saying “Before I opened the café, I lived in Vientiane where I went to many attractive and modern coffee shops, but then I moved to live with my family in Oudomxay province. I learned how to make coffee and sweets at home and then tried them out on my family.”
“I really enjoyed this so I decided to open a modern coffee shop of my own. Since it opened, it has gained popularity with local people and foreign visitors who are passing through or organising events, as well as foreign tourists visiting Oudomxay province.”
The highlight of Home Cafe is the focus on fresh Lao coffee produced on the Pakxong plateau in Champassak province, with Arabica being especially popular.
The café serves both hot and cold blended coffee along with sweets and food to order. In addition to its in-house service, the café caters to customers of all types, including students, office workers, tourists and Chinese nationals living in Oudomxay. There is currently only one branch of Home Cafe in the province but there are plans to open a second outlet in Vientiane, which will be named Lum Cafe and serve people from all walks of life.
Cafés are on the increase in Oudomxay province as it gains renown as a tourist destination through the efforts of local authorities and the central government to build the service sector to accommodate the needs of the growing number of visitors to Laos.
One of the stations on the Laos-China Railway is located in Oudomxay, meaning that more visitors from China and other countries are coming to the province.
When the railway opened for service in 2021, the presidents of Laos and China said “The Laos-China Railway is one of the many development projects under the One Belt, One Road programme and is a joint investment between Laos and China with both countries having a strong mutual interest in strengthening connectivity.”
Mrs Kingkeo said “The opening of the railway offered a great opportunity as it has led to a significant increase in the number of tourists as well as more shops, coffee shops, restaurants and hotels. When I first opened the café I didn’t have many customers but things soon changed. At weekends we have 100-200 tourists coming here. Most of them are intrigued by the unique taste of the coffee we serve, which is the original old mountain coffee from the Pakxong plateau.”
According to a report from the provincial Tourism Department, in 2023 Oudomxay received more than 280,000 visitors, who were served by 27 hotels, more than 200 guesthouses, six coffee shops, and at least 10 massage parlours. 

A reporter visiting Home Café poses for a landmark photo.

ByTimes Reporter
 (Latest Update June 13, 2024)