Monday AM, Bangkok

At the Bankok Airport

Bankok

Our Bankok Hotel

Breakfast in Bankok

Complimentary breakfast chef

Our van drivers took us from our hotel to the World Concern Asia office to meet up with their staff and to get an orientation. World Concern Asia is basically a central network hub for numerous ministries and NGO's (Non-Govt. Organizations) in the Southeast Asia area. They help connect and resource groups, as well as bring accountability and long-term vision to the partners they work with. They also seem to have great vision and strategy.

After our orientation and some time to ask questions of various projects, we went to a local "hole-in-the-wall café for lunch, Thai style. It was rustic, but the food was very good. Outside of the hotel breakfast this morning being so-so (gross in my book, but I can be picky), we have not experienced typical "mission-trip" style food and experiences (this makes my vacations look bad!). This was about to change…Bangkok (or Tokyo) is not a good representation of the normal life of Southeast Asia.

Following lunch, we took off in our vans for Cambodia. It was a very long and tense drive through flat, but green areas, full of rice fields (patties?) and random food-booths. Vehicles make the most of a two lane road, passing and swerving in ways that would give most Americans a heart attack. Many of the vehicles (like our Toyota passenger vans) run on Compressed Natural Gas, so the fueling stations were a little different…but pretty impressive and green. As we left the Bangkok, the wealth quickly disappeared, with the exception of an occasional massive factory like Toyota, Stanley Tools, etc.