Bus Coffee Shop Brings New Coffee Experience in Mondulkiri

While the outside suggests it is a normal bus, the inside has been turned into a coffee shop, offering of wide variety of hot and cold drinks, and comfortable seats to hang out. Photo: Chhum Chantha

SEN MONOROM – In the Southwest of the Kou Prey roundabout, in Mondulkiri’s provincial capital Sen Monorom, lies a bus unlike any other. While the outside suggests it is a normal bus, the inside has been turned into a coffee shop, offering of wide variety of hot and cold drinks, and comfortable seats to hang out. 



The vehicle was completely redesigned three years ago to serve its new purpose. The shop runs as a café during the day and transforms into a cocktail bar with a rooftop at night. The automatic doors of the bus, which used to see people hop on and off for transportation, stay open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. 



While the bus-coffee shop can move from one location to another, just like a regular bus, it usually stays close to the city’s main roundabout, which has been a popular spot among the local youth to hang out. 



The café barista Khat Theara, 34, said the good location and unique facility have helped the place gain in popularity from both local people but also international visitors who visit the province for its renowned landscapes, and waterfalls.



“Tourists say the decoration and the shop are unique to them,” she said, adding that most of its customers were foreigners. 



From the seats inside, customers can enjoy the view of the Sea Forest on the west side, or of the new independence monument that crowns the roundabout, on the east side.



While it sees regular customers all year long, the shop becomes really popular during Khmer New Year and Water Festival celebrations, the barista said.



Building a coffee shop inside a bought bus  



The bus was originally bought by Theara’s cousin, Khat Youk, in 2021. With his creativity and love for coffee, he rearranged the furniture and made some changes to the interior design. 



Some seats were replaced with tables, so that the customers can enjoy a face-to-face conversation, like in a regular coffee shop. A small toilet was also added at the back of the bus. 



Two stairs were made to ease the access to the coffee shop. One goes from the ground to the inside, and the other from the inside to the bus rooftop, where customers usually go for cocktails at sunset and beyond.



The rooftop seats are surrounded by a fence for safety, which are decorated with colorful lights. 



Bus coffee shop 2.0 in Stung Treng



Theara, the barista, said a branch of her bus coffee shop opened four months ago in Stung Treng province. Surfing the wave of success, the new location also offers a trendy in-bus place for coffee lovers, with a similar decoration to that of its predecessor in Sen Monorom.



Even though it is located some 170 kilometers north, the new location also brews coffees made of Mondulkiri’s beans, which are one of the many delicacies the province offers.



The brand can be recognized with the logo picturing the Kou Prey roundabout on one side and two Bunong people, an ethnic minority from Mondulkiri, on the other.


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