So what can 100 yuan buy in the rural vegetable market? Buying food in Laos vegetable market is basically the same as in China. The only difference is that their stalls are all packaged, and most of the stall owners sit on the floor, which is a bit like the feeling of China in the 1980s. The only difference with China is that there is no shouting and no noisy environment.
Their dishes are all packed and weighed in advance, and they are all sold by the whole catty. There are no calculators and bookkeeping tools in their stalls, because the locals are not good at bookkeeping, and most of them weigh the vegetables before selling them.
As for the price of fruit, it is similar to that of China. Bananas and mangoes are a little cheaper than those in China, but rambutan, mangosteen and durian are even more expensive than those in China. 100 yuan, it is no problem to buy more than ten kilograms of fruit in Laos.
More importantly, their drinks are expensive. A bottle of ordinary mineral water is three yuan and coke is five yuan. Because they have no local industry, most of these things depend on imports. Laos has no beverage factory or even food factory except beer factory, so the price is naturally very expensive.
The barbecue here is similar to that in China, and the fish weighing more than two catties is about 60~80 yuan. Most barbecues are made with local tilapia.