I should have written this weeks ago but time has once again been flying by and I've done nothing to stop it. It's been really joyous around her lately. Summer is coming in fast, the last few weeks were spent prepping the kids for sports day and I've just come off a four day weekend. Also, I've been paid. Pretty good so far, especially when you factor in how I got paid. Some of my friends and family are already familiar with this story but just in case anyone isn't here's a quick recap. Back in 2008 I took a job at a Korean Hagwon(Private School) and moved to Seoul for the first time. I was told when I got there that the school was just a little behind schedule for opening but it would be ... read more

Months had passed since I'd left my little Seoul apartment. I'd taken off after two years with my girlfriend to see what the rest of Asia had to offer and after that back to the western world. It was a much needed break and came with a deep sigh of relief. I remember that first week listening to the sounds of the Vietnamese jungle and not hearing a car horn of K pop for miles. No flashing neon, no storeclerks on bullhorns, just the quiet rustling of palm trees in the cool breeze and clear skies. Eventually I started to think back on my experience in Korea. The food, the people, the late nights at the bar drinking dongdongju and heading for the noribang. The hiking, the rafting, the pure enjoyment of not knowing what would ... read more

As we headed for the bus station as the sun rose over the mosque my head was full of questions. Most pertaining to our destination of Semporna. Would we find a place to sleep? Would we find a place to take us snorkeling? Would we see a shark? More importantly I thought, would a shark see us? We headed out for our long hot trip to Semporna. As we set off down the dirt road on our way back the highway we passed several raised longhouses, one of which our driver stopped at to pick up his jacket. Why he needed a jacket in searing equatorial heat is beyond me. Maybe he was used to it and feeling a bit chilly. The three of us however were rapidly filling a swimming pool in his car. As ... read more

After about a year since my last adventure outside Korea I was ready to head off. It's not that I needed to get out of Korea but that I needed out of Seoul. This could have easily been remedied with a quick little trip down south or somewhere near a National Park. As it was, I had a week vacation and it seemed like the best thing to do was get out to some other part of Asia and see what it had to offer. It didn't take much time at all to decide that I wanted to be somewhere that didn't resemble a large city. That's one thing I've noticed during my life in one of the biggest metropolises in the world. I need some green. I need some trees and grass. I need some ... read more

Our one and only day spent in Phnom Penh would turn out to be a very hard and depressing day. If you don't know about the Khmer Rouge it's because this atrocity seems to often get overlooked. The Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot regime of the mid 70's is one filled with death and violent crimes against humanity. In a mere three and a half years this regime was responsible for the slaughter of over two million Cambodians. Just to put that into perspective, that was roughly 30% of the Cambodian population at the time. I admit myself that I didn't know much about this when awoke that morning to a sweltering heat and my first glimpse of this city during the day. Joe and I headed out with our Tuk Tuk driver that we ... read more