Hi mate good to hear from you. In response to your question, the the term Barista is relatively unheard of here. Espresso is really in its infancy stages. All the people I teach, I introduce them for the first time to espresso stuff, so its all new. Also the precision and quality of beans and equipment necessary for good espresso is few and far between there. That being said, I do have one client with a LaMarzocco GB5 so its great working with them. However, one thing I learned from working at some of the best cafes/roasters in Australia is that really high end equipment such as a Synesso, GB5, Mistral, Mirage, double-boiler, etc... is not necessary to make great espresso. I have worked with many machines such as ECM, Faema, and other single boilers and produce awesome esresso.

The thing about Vietnam is that most people cannot justify spending more that $3000.00 for a machine, and don't even want to buy a water filter. Most filtered bottle water in Vietnam is sub-standard so this all affects the quality of the coffee.

I may be interested in the room your friend has for lease, if its not too expensive.

Talk soon,

Nat