In the third week of June, I made my first site visit to Napakiak (nuh-PAH-key-ack). Napakiak is a rural ALaskan community located in the Western region of Alaska along the Kuskokwim River. I first flew in to Bethel, which is a hub only about 15 miles northeast of the community. I took a small Cessna 207 that was packed full with 3 passengers, the pilot, all of our gear, and what looked like about a week’s worth of mail and packages. The plane ride over was a short 10 minutes, and we passed over the lagoon and marsh-like landscape, well below the clouds. Napakiak is a second class city, made up of about 356 people. It has a post office, two general stores, a fire department, a school, a clinic and organized tribal and city governments. ... read more

Summer is here. It arrived with cool breezes and bright sunrises in the early mornings of May. Last summer the ice and snow didn’t melt from the Chugach Mountains until the early/middle of July. This year the sun has swept the mountains; the rivers and streams run ramped with the eager thrill of melting winter. I started hiking up the snow banks on Flat Top the first week of May. The snow was soft and compact leaving enough grip to make it to the top and enough cushion to slid down the face of the mountain in snow pants. In my eager excitement to indulge in what seemed to be an early summer, Chad and I took a canoe out of town to Lake Eklutna . Lake Eklutna is about 35 miles outside of Anchorage; it ... read more

Welcome to fall in Anchorage (which is NOT the capitol of Alaska, as several journalists have wrongly regurgitated in recent articles I have read). The leaves have already turned and the fireweed has bloomed and burned past its flame like color into a fluffy white fringe. Since mid September, layers of snow have slowly been creeping down the sides of the Chugach Mountains as a constant reminder that summer has ended. In fact the first snow is falling in the city as I write this, in the form of a mushy slush blurring windshields and striking fear into the hands of already poor drivers. Fall in Alaska ends just about as quickly as it starts. The vibrant colors don’t hold out for two weeks as they do in Tennessee and the weather is not mild, it ... read more

The intense responses and interest kindled by the blog from North Korea has brought me full circle into the realization that this is a living subject that needs to be updated on (to see origional blog go to: http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/North-Korea/Kumgangsan/blog-53381.html). I have had many responses and many questions that have all left me not only grateful for this experience but also feeling inadequate to answer many of the questions asked. On one occasion I was sent a message by a mechanical engineer from IRAN wanting to know what I though of him taking a job at a shipyard in North Korea. I was both honored and shocked by the email at the same time. In my response I told him that I knew little of what the REAL North Korea was like and talked about how I ... read more

For all of those I met in Korea, this is for you. I Left Bangkok on Wednesday morning, and flew back to Seoul after a short layover in Hong Kong. The last weeks have been ones of adventure, of breathtaking temples, torrential rain, burning whiskey, muddy schools, spicy foods, and smiling faces that shadowed tears. The thought of returning to Seoul was like the thought of returning home. Seoul, in many ways, had become my home over the last months. I found shelter in the temples, peace in the eyes of the strangers, and comfort amidst the towering skyscrapers. The street venders knew my face and the buses knew my stops. I was, at heart, a Seoulite. Previous to my travels in SE Asia, this was where I had spent 5 of the last 6 ... read more