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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New Year, New Pic Process!
Month 11 of Remote Year, and I’ve only published 5 months of snaps. It kills me, cuz I want to share them! But, pic processing takes time. So, New Year, new pic process.
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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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It's a Wonderful Christmas Gift!
It’s a wonderful world and it is a wonderful life! And, yesterday, thanks to my wonderful family, I got to live my own It's a Wonderful Life movie scene. Thanks to ALL friends & fam who shared Christmas wishes from home!
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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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Belgrade Street Art Movement
It’s almost impossible to not notice the Vegan street art around Belgrade. The cute and colorful characters and the simple slogans are brilliant. I’m NO VEGAN, and I’m not planning to GO VEGAN, but I do appreciate a movement and I love street art.
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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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Chasing Croatian Waterfalls - Pt 2
Round 2: Krka National Park. Plitvice was pretty, but I had heard good things about Krka. Krka is literally on the way back from Plitvice, right off the E65. So, I set out and took my time getting down there.
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Chasing Croatian Waterfalls - Pt 1
Croatia is home to some wicked waterfalls in: Plitviče Lakes National Park, and Krka National Park. I set out on a solo adventure and it was very nostalgic. It’s fall in Croatia and the leaves were changing color. The foliage reminded me of the US...a little...
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Serbia's Church of Saint Sava
The Serbs love them some Saint Sava! As I’ve written in a previous post, St Sava is one of the most important figures in Serbian history. And the Church of Saint Sava is one of the most treasured structures in the city. She is a beaut! (from the outside)
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Looking Back at London
I loved London. Maybe it's because it felt 'safe' after 4 months in South America? Or, maybe it's because I'm a Sherwood, and my ancestors are British? But, I loved it, and felt quite at home there. Sadly, I did not spend much time there, as I did 3 weekend side trips. But, the time I was there was lovely and here's a long overdue recap of some of the highlights!
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Prague Film Project: Princess
My friend and fellow Remote: Patrick is making one short film per month of Remote Year. As an experiment in Prague, he invited us all to pitch a story idea. I wrote 3 ideas and he chose 1. Here is a behind the scenes look at: "Princess".
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Serbian Sightseeing Scramble
It’s my last week in Belgrade, and per usual, I’m running around trying to see sights that I put off seeing the first 3 weeks. In one day, I visited two museums and one art gallery. Success!
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Greek Salads are Great in Greece
Go figure, the Greeks got this down. I’m a huge fan of Greek salads (sans olives). Maybe it’s 'cause I grew up with tons of fresh tomatoes n cukes from the garden in the summertime? Or, it’s probably the big chunks of feta cheese. But, I could eat one every day...and, that’s exactly what I did for 8 days in Greece.
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