I thought it fitting to end my Mekong River journey across Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, by providing  a grand finale similar to the end of every fireworks display  where the sky is ablaze with a cacophony of colors, shapes and sounds. Continuing with the area’s diversity, there is a dizzying array of flora, fauna and celestial offerings.

Let’s start with one of my favorite subjects, animals. You have seen some of the more exotic examples in my previous posts but the domestic beasties also gave me plenty of photo ops:

Southeast Asia is ablaze with colorful flowers of every imaginable size and shape – and I have never seen so many varieties of wild orchids:

 

Just to say these are pretty white flowers is a gross understatement:

The cannonball flower is a local favorite and I can see why:

These lilies  project a quiet serenity:

 

The skies of SouthEastAsia provided their own many layered natural fireworks, from sunrises, like this “BangkokHenge”

To this duet between the sun and the wispy cirrus clouds:

To this eerily enchanting sunrise on a misty morning:

 

To this haloed glowing orb:

 

 

The moon was not to be out done, offering up its  full blood orange version:

The most truly magical celestial display that I luckily got to capture was on my way home at 39,000 feet above earth at 3AM.  I humbly submit it was not just luck as I spent a good hour atttempting to block out any light from inside the airplane’s cabin with my sweatshirt (it wasn’t easy) so I could get these views of the Aurora Borealis:

Now THAT is a finale!

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