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 | 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 | 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 | May 3, 2000 | Asia
A Backpacking Journey to Cambodia May 2000: For my second trip to Asia, following my first adventure in China, I booked a standby ticket through Mesaba Airlines, where I was working as a baggage handler in 2000. With a cheap ticket to Bangkok in hand, I set off with a...
by Matthew Allison | Dec 4, 1999 | Asia
December 1999-March 2000: For four months, I taught English to South Korean students ranging in age from preschool to high school at an English immersion school in Seoul. My school was located in suburban Illsan, and I lived in a small room rented from a Korean family...
