by Matthew Allison | Oct 9, 2005 | Asia
Why Visit North Korea My First Step into North Korea: A Longtime Obsession Realized A Fascination Born in Seoul In October 2005, I finally fulfilled a dream that had been growing inside me since 1999, when I first moved to Seoul, South Korea to teach English. Living...
by Matthew Allison | May 19, 2005 | Asia
May 2005: For years I would stare at the map and wonder about the uninhabited archipelago of islands in the south of Myanmar and the sea gypsies, their only occupants who tend to live longer on the sea in their makeshift boats than on land. The islands were one of...
by Matthew Allison | May 17, 2005 | Europe
May 2005: My friend and I rented a Dacia, a small Romanian-made car, and spent a week driving around Romania, focusing on Transylvania. This mountainous region in central Romania, with an average elevation of 5,000 feet, is steeped in superstitions about werewolves...
by Matthew Allison | Mar 31, 2005 | Middle East
Damascus, Palmyra and Bosra A Glimpse of Syria Before It Changed Forever March 2005: As part of a larger Middle East journey, my friend and I spent three days in Syria, determined to see as much as possible in our limited time. Even then, we sensed that visiting as...
by Matthew Allison | Mar 18, 2005 | Europe
A Stopover in Amsterdam and Haarlem: Bicycles, Canals, and a City of Contrasts March 2005: As part of a 10-day trip to Jordan, Israel and Syria, and even a short layover to have dinner with my family in my childhood neighborhood in Minneapolis, my friend and I visited...
by Matthew Allison | Mar 8, 2005 | Asia, Middle East
Chasing Legends: My Journey to Petra and Beyond March 2005: Jordan had been calling to me for years—its ancient ruins, biblical history, and vast mystical deserts igniting my imagination. But above all, one place stood at the heart of my wanderlust: Petra. Like many,...
by Matthew Allison | Mar 6, 2005 | Middle East
Walking Through History: Three Days in Jerusalem March 2005: As part of a larger 10-day journey with a friend—one that took us through Jordan, Syria, and even Amsterdam—I spent three days in Jerusalem, Israel. From the moment I arrived, I was acutely aware that I had...
by Matthew Allison | Nov 1, 2004 | South America & Antarctica
November 2004: Few places pack as much adventure as Peru, with its Incan and Amazonian indigenous cultures, ancient ruins, soaring 20,000-foot peaks, dense rainforests, and vast stretches of desolate coastline. This rich diversity is what made Peru one of my first...
by Matthew Allison | May 17, 2004 | Asia
May 2004: Ironically, it was the Vietnam War movies I grew up watching, like Platoon, Hamburger Hill, and Forrest Gump, that inspired me to visit Vietnam as one of the first countries in my quest to see the world. I wanted to learn more about the devastating war that...
by Matthew Allison | Nov 25, 2003 | Africa
Uganda 2003: My First True Taste of Africa Even though it was my second time visiting Africa after a brief trip to Egypt, my journey to Uganda in November 2003 was when I truly fell in love with the continent. This was my first experience in Sub-Saharan Africa, and it...
