A toast to my fans... Mat Hi Ba Yo! Drinks in Southeast Asia
- David
- Mar 16
- 7 min read
Africa to Southeast Asia… imbibing from drought to deluge (for science of course).
My socials have been absolutely flooded with requests for updates on the alcoholic drinks we’ve encountered on our way to and through Southeast Asia. Ok, ok I hear you!
The last post on this topic was (found here) on the heels of our visit to Spain and explored the amazing Spanish wine culture. Unfortunately since then we really haven’t encountered anything terribly blog worthy. That is, until we explored Vietnam! More on that below.
As a friendly reminder, this series is focused on locally specific or culturally interesting alcholic drinks. As much as I would love to try every fruity cocktail to appease my fans, especially those who will remain un-named to protect the innocent (or even not so innocent) that isn't my mission here.
But first, an overview of where we’ve been and what we have found…
Morocco
Morocco was the start of the Muslim country swing of our journey and the beginning of what I am now referring to as our “dry season”. Morocco has strict laws about the consumption of alcohol but bars and restaurants are allowed to sell it as long as the patrons can’t be seen drinking from a public space. Which means many of the bars or restaurants are either rooftop or have very small windows at the top of the exterior wall. Lots of restaurants didn’t serve alcohol at all.
Regarding drinks, bars would serve the typical cocktails (nothing unique here). We did try one Moroccan made wine that we bought from our Riad and brought to the desert with us. Let’s just say it wasn’t cheap and it was just ok but the young American couple we shared it with was, like us, excited to have a glass of wine at all!
That said, Morocco does have some of the best mint lemonade and hot tea on the face of the planet. If the mint lemonade only came with a shot of vodka or gin we’d be having a different discussion. They also have great coffee which can be found in some pretty wild places like the tope of a mountain at a mobile "starbucks".
Egypt
Very similar to Morocco, however a little more relaxed with the rules around drinking within visibility of the public. The usual cocktails were available in most restaurants but really nothing special to note.
Dubai
Though in a Muslim country, this was the most western feeling Muslim country we visited. Any cocktail you could imagine was available however, restaurants would not serve alcohol on public facing terraces. Also, no local alcohols of note here.
Maldives
Once again, a Muslim country with strict laws on alcohol. And given that the country is a bunch of islands that have to import everything except fish and seaweed… nothing of local note.
However, the islands are private resorts and can serve anything they can import. Our resort, Constance Mufooshi, had some very creative cocktails and an amazing wine list. Given it was all-inclusive (and I do mean ALL) this was the end of our dry season!
Singapore
Singapore, also an island and dependent on imports doesn't have a lot of space to get creative with locally sourced ingredients. They do however have a well known drink… the Singapore Sling along with every other cocktail you might want.
Also, thanks to an old co-worker of Ilene's we visited a Hennessy museum in the Ion Orchard Mall in the Ion Art Gallery. Get this… for the whopping price of nothing you get entry to a brief tour of Hennessy’s legacy (which was actually interesting) and a free glass of Hennessy! And… if you bring someone who doesn’t like the stuff, you get two glasses. Thanks Ilene! I knew there was a reason I was keeping you with me on this journey. Btw, best 10am tour ever!
And, thanks to Ilene’s amazing travel research skills, we were able to find a Singapore based Gin distillery named Tanglin Gin that did tastings. Due to their laws, they have to import the base alcohol but then they distill it to make a number of flavored Gins. With notes of hibiscus, the Orchid Gin was my favorite. If you like your Gin to really pack a spicy wallop, the Black Powder Gin is chili pepper based and at 58% alcohol packed some serious burn in a couple different ways.
Vietnam
If you’ve made it this far (or just skipped ahead) you are in for a treat which is pretty much what I discovered upon arrival in Vietnam - and not just with the alcohol. Drinking in the Indochina region is really about either the beer or more importantly, the “happy water”.
What is happy water you ask? Well, happy water is a form of rice wine that runs about 35-45% alcohol. Judging by the descriptor alone, one might think this is something like sake; to be blunt - it is nowhere as refined. Most happy water is made at home or by an individual restaurant and is similar to moonshine. As you’d imagine, this stuff can definitely warm up a cold night.
Our first real encounter with happy water was on our Ha Giang loop tour where we also learned the traditional toast of Mat Hi Ba Yo! Which directly translated is 1, 2, 3, 4/drink! However the toast has a hidden meaning - a wish for “1 wife, 2 kids, a 3 story house, and 4 wheels (ie not a 2 wheel scooter)”!
Rice wine aside, Vietnam also had a selection of locally made beers all of which are light and refreshing. These were clearly made to curb the year round heat. This was very much needed especially in the South where the temps were pushing 90F+ some days. And, in Saigon we had cocktails at the Rex Hotel which is reknowned as the AP News Vietnam War 5 o'clock briefing site and the now famous cocktail the "5 o'clock follies" named after their antics at the time.
Loas
Happy water here in Laos really takes on two forms either rice wine or rice whiskey. With the primary difference being the percentage of alcohol. Rice wine is around 15% alcohol and is typically sweeter where rice whiskey is around 50-55% alcohol.
On a day trip from Luang Prabang we stopped at a village that specializes in making rice wine and rice whiskey. They had a very traditional/rustic distillation process but the product was very good.
They made three types of rice wine in the “rice whiskey village”:
Yellow rice wine made from white sticky rice. It was 15% alcohol and was sweet and smooth drinking.
Red rice wine was made from black rice and also had 15% alcohol. This one was a purple color and tasted very sweet, similar to red grape juice.
White rice whiskey was 50%+ alcohol, stuff is harsh. However, we tasted some warm whiskey straight from the still and it was much smoother.
That all said, rice whiskey or Lao Lao Whiskey as they call it here in Laos is basically moonshine. Many local people and bars make it themselves and at 50-60% alcohol the homemade stuff can be real tough to drink. And if you are really brave you can just go straight to the “traditional medicine” which is Lao Whiskey with a twist… complete with a snake, giant centipede, or scorpion. Apparently, this is designed to provide extra virility.
Also, no discussion about Lao Happy Water would be complete without a warning, especially since in November 2024, six young backpackers died and six others were hospitalized from methanol poisoning after drinking contaminated alcohol at a bar in Vang Vieng, Laos. The victims were tourists from Australia, Denmark, Britain, and the United States. What we tried was from a trusted source (avoid the “free drinks if you come to my bar/hostel”) and that is the way to go.
The other option… just stick with the beer for which Laos has its own BeerLao brand. Similar to Vietnam, all are light and refreshing. My favorite was the BeerLao Dark but just for the sake of my fans I also tried the BeerLao Gold, BeerLao Green (made from rice), and micro brews from Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang. Ahhh, the effort I put in for my fans.
One other note of caution for those who need to be Gluten Free. We found Somersby cider served everywhere. However, close inspection of the ingredients label revealed malt barely as an ingredient. Apparently, ciders in Laos are brewed with a process similar to beer… so, no GF ciders here. Bummer. However, with a Laos being a popular destination for Korean tourists we did come across Soju which at 15% alcohol so an even better option.
Cambodia
After coming from Vietnam and Laos I fully expected to find much the same in Cambodia. Especially since I had read a couple blogs mentioning traditional Cambodian rice wines.
However, rice wine proved to be elusive… we never once saw it on a bar or restaurant drinks list which was the exact opposite of Laos. Even in the “backpacker haven” areas rice wine was not to be found which was dissimilar to Vietnam. So, my dear fans I have to report this as a big fail. That said, I also came across a couple articles about rice wine being outlawed in some Cambodian provinces due to alcohol/methanol related deaths in 2021. So, maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t find any!
I did come across a number of Cambodian produced beers with most being similar light, refreshing style to Laos and Vietnam.
Also, most restaurants and bars had a big selection of traditional cocktails with mojitos and margaritas being a mainstay. However, my favorite bar had to be at our hotel (Rikitikitavi) in Kampot. The owner was English and was clearly a Scotch connoisseur as he had a wide selection of Scotch on the menu. A very much appreciated change of pace at this point in our travels!
And of course, I have updated my highly sophisticated, proprietary AI ranking model to account for regional bias and incorporate the latest in Deepseek published techniques to render results in record time. At this time, however, I've decided not to open source the model even though there seems to be demand.
Comments