Southeast Asia Redux

I don’t often return to places I’ve gone. Well, that’s not quite accurate. I’ve criss-crossed the U.S. many times and gone back to the meaningful places as much as time and money allows. But that’s the trick. I don’t often have the time and money to return to places outside America, no matter how much I enjoyed my time there. There’s just so much to see in the world that it seems wasteful not to explore new territory. As I get older, the items on the bucket list are clamoring to get checked off before I check out.

But when a planned trip to Egypt, Israel, and Jordan suddenly became a lot less secure, my travel buddy and I were scrambling to find something to fill in. She had always wanted to see Cambodia and Vietnam and I was an easy mark for returning. And neither of us had been to Thailand. So away we went.

Tramping over already visited territory gave me the opportunity to be less gobsmacked by the new, firing away at everything and more able to take my time and breathe through the lens. It wasn’t all new and I still got twitterpated in the face of giant buddhas and taking in the countryside from the back of a motorcycle or getting lost in the crowd of Hanoi’s Old Quarter. But it was good to not be too much of a stranger in strange land.

Some of the images I took will end up in my upcoming book, Road Songs, a follow up to I Will Not Hurt Myself/I Will Not Hurt Others. Some will end up in a project that I’ve been playing with, Into the Crow Lands. And there will be more coming on those. Until then here are a few of my favorites…