Patricia Piccinini is an incredible artist and her exhibit at the Singapore ArtScience Museum was nothing short of inspirational and motivational!
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* My award winning photo of the Saigon Skyline! Check out Bonsai Cruises to book an incredible night!
Strangers in Saigon
A year ago, a kind stranger swooped into my life and showed me the best skyline spot in Saigon. For the full story, tons of snazzy snaps, and details about travel safety, check out this latest blog post.
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The Thrill of Uber Moto
Forget skydiving, or bungee jumping, Uber Moto is where it's at! In Vietnam, for as low as $1 you can ride the gnarliest thrill ride!
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Floating Village and Forest
After temple running at Angkor Wat and seeing the circus in Siam Reap why not check out the “Floating Villages” tour at Kompong Phluk? I was skeptical about this at first, but was pleasantly surprised by the beauty and tranquility of the experience.
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Hot Air Balloon in Bagan
My 10 day vacation in Myanmar was marvelous! Traveled with some Europeans: Jacek, Kasia and Viktoria. Myanmar just opened their tourist doors a few years ago and it felt like the wild West. The highlight was the hot air balloon ride over Bagan, the ancient city with thousands of temples.
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Phare, The Cambodian Circus
Siam Reap, Cambodia was a breath of fresh air compared to Phnom Penh, literally and figuratively. I ventured off on a solo trip for a few days to get out of the city and see the Angkor Wat temples. Angkor Wat was certainly impressive, but it was the Phare: Cambodian Circus that captured my heart!
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Super Bowl Monday in Saigon
6:30 am. Monday. Sun's coming up and it's Super Bowl time! GOOD MORNING, VIETNAAAM! Yes, it's wicked weird but with wings and Coca Cola, feels just like 'Merica. Kinda. 'Same same but different'.
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The Killing Fields
Traveling the world is not all rainbows and waterfalls. It's a course in world history and sometimes history is horrifying. The hardest day of the year was visiting the S21 Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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Chiling Falls with Mr Baby
MEMORY MONDAY - One of my favorite days on RY was the Chiling Waterfalls in Malaysia. We took buses ~1.5 hours outside of Kuala Lumpur and I was lucky enough to sit in front with our driver: 'Mr Baby'.
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Elephants on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve was quite different this year. Instead of being in Boston dreaming of sugar plums and reindeer, I was in Thailand, eating sugar cane and playing with elephants. I definitely miss family, but this was as sweet as Mom's homemade butterhorns!
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Borneo's Wicked Wildlife - Pt 3
Want to know what millions of bats flying out of a cave looks like? Check out part 3, the finale of Borneo's Wicked Wildlife, featuring the bats in Gunung Mulu National Park!
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Borneo's Wicked Wildlife - Pt 2
No trip to Borneo is complete without seeing wild orangutans. Seeing animals in a zoo is depressing. Seeing them in the semi-wild is wicked sweet!!
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Borneo's Wicked Wildlife - Pt 1
The island of Borneo boasts the most wicked wildlife! Because of the climate, the rainforest is home to the most species of life on Earth. I went to Borneo for Thanksgiving on a solo journey and here is part 1 of Borneo's Wicked Wildlife!
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Motivating Malaysian Middle Schoolers
I met some of the brightest leaders from KL at an RY networking event with YSEALI (Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative). One young lady, Sherry asked me to speak to the students at her middle school (15-16 yr olds). My mentor once told me, “Take every speaking opportunity you can get, Matthew.” CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
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Rubber Trees & Duku Fruit
Did you know rubber comes from trees? I must have been daydreaming about Kelly Kapowski back in science class when they covered this, because I thought rubber came from factories. I guess that’s synthetic rubber? Mind blown!
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Asia Travel Day and Doha
Our last big travel day for Remote Year was a >2 day, epic-long, exhausting journey from Europe to Asia. RY did a great job of breaking up the trip into digestible chunks with a sweet 7 hour layover in Doha, Qatar---which turned out to be a completely fascinating cultural experience!
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