This post has very few pretty pictures. In fact, it has some images of the team looking less then our prettiest. However, mission trips, especially those with large amounts of overnight busing and small amounts of running water in between, are not about looking pretty.

After an overnight ride from Vientiane to Pom Saavan, catching some breakfast. We left in a few hours on another bus, for another 12 hours or so. Brutal.

Bus

The same day, our lunch stop.

Same lunch stop. Note the wild boar at the top. It was actually quite good, if a bit over salted.

My buddy Orlando and I. It was here that I, in my astute brilliance, dubbed him Moses, due to the long and flowing beard.

Another village, another curve. The scenery was actually quite spectacular. The bathroom breaks never seemed to coincide with wide-open, photogenic, vistas, which may surprise you until you think about it a bit. In other words, I was unable to capture any of the landscape satisfactorily.

Arriving at Xam Nuea

On the move again

World Famous

A Bike Date

Reflection

Mediterranean Weather

SMART

Crucifix

Walking Date

The Forum

Crucifix II

Arena of Death; Flowering Life

Purple Graffiti

Movement

Movement II

A Close Conversation

Joe and I have the coolest cars for miles around. In honor of that, we decided to take some pictures together. Aaron Mast is a great guy a super, up-and-coming, photographer. He’s got some really cool stuff on his blog. Check it out here.

Fortunately for me he was in the area and we’d wanted to shoot together and Joe and I wanted pictures of our cars, so it was a good fit. He shot. I got to insert a few of my lame ideas, which he humored, just to be nice. These are the results.

Again, Aaron took every last one of these amazing pictures.

Coming Down

The Airport

The morning after we flew in we caught a taxi to downtown Bangkok from the hotel. Our taxi driver was a very friendly man and recommended a canal boat ride. We decided to try it and were very happy we did.

A Quick Stop to Look for Fish

Playmates

A Waterfront Property

Wat Arun

For those Lord of the Rings fans out there, these steps reminded me of the endless stair, not in length, but in steepness.

Steep Steps

From the Top

Russet Spires

Blue Accent

Pink Umbrella

BW or Color?

A group of young men were playing soccer on the temple grounds and I got an urge to ask them if I could play, and even thought they didn’t know English, they made it clear I was welcome. I was surprised that I was able keep up with them. Admittedly the only reason probably was because they were in stitches every time I did something aggressive.

Rickshaw Ride

I took this by setting up the camera on a make-shift tripod (a stack of garden pots) setting a 30 sec exposure and manually firing and moving the flash around the card to create a fairly pleasing light, IMO.