How This All Started

I started this blog in January 2014 when I took a job that moved me to Seoul, South Korea. What started as a Facebook update to keep family and friends in the loop turned into something I’ve now kept going for over a decade and 600 weeks.

The Blog, Explained

At the time people looked at me like I had volunteered for a hardship posting — and I suppose by some measures it was. But my view was the opposite. I wanted people to see that experiences outside your comfort zone are good, that the world is genuinely different when you’re embedded in it rather than just visiting. Explaining the differences between Korean and American culture, complaining about the traffic, marveling at the food — it turned into something I’ve now kept going for over a decade.

The blog is called JC Travels, subtitled “Thoughts from working and travelling outside the USA.” I am not a travel blogger in the sense of someone who makes it their business. Travelling is not a business for me — it is a necessity of my profession. Over a career in the energy and engineering sector I have worked on projects in over 40 countries, and the working experience has been just as rewarding as the tourist side. Often more so. When you spend a week in a place working alongside local people, you learn things no tour guide will tell you.

Posts are numbered by “Week” — a running count that started at Week 1 in January 2014 and is now past Week 606. I try to be honest about when things go wrong — cancelled flights, ATM cards getting skimmed in South Africa, booking the wrong ferry in Tahiti, walking into a rotating door in Melbourne. The glamour of international travel. I am also a big Oklahoma State fan, which explains the orange color scheme. People love the orange.

Where It Began

Seoul, South Korea  ·  2014–2016

My first two years of the blog are all Korea, with business trips radiating out from Seoul. I arrived in January 2014 — a 14-hour direct flight from DC, or if connecting through Tokyo or San Francisco, considerably longer. The first posts are genuinely disoriented — I’m writing about getting a haircut in Seoul, navigating the metro system without reading a word of Hangul, watching Korean baseball, and visiting the DMZ. There are two DMZ tours — I did the “lite” version initially. We signed up for the full tour for when the girls came to visit in summer, but my daughter Alexandra couldn’t cross with us because she was US military. That kind of thing happens on the road and becomes a story.

What I underestimated going in was how genuinely welcoming Korean people are — both at work and in the community. It is amazing how much less stressful life can be when people around you are just nice to each other. The assignment was supposed to be two years and it was exactly that. I left in January 2016 having learned more about a different way of life than any other posting I have had. I will always be a strong supporter of South Korea.

Korea also gave me access to the rest of Asia in a way I’d never had before. Business travel from Seoul took me to Bangkok, Phuket, Ko Phi Phi, Japan, China, Singapore, and Vietnam. My Thailand trip was a compressed, chaotic, Type-A disaster involving four major transitions in eight days, cash problems, language barriers, and trying to figure out who was helping versus hustling us. Great fun. I’d go back tomorrow.

Europe, Again and Again

London · Norway · Mediterranean · Ireland · 1999–2025

I lived in London from 1999 to 2002 — before the blog existed — and added a retrospective series during the COVID shutdown of 2020, drawing on internet research and the Creative Memories albums that Sharon had made over the years. My memory is not that good, so Sharon’s albums were essential. Barnes, the southwest London neighborhood where we lived, has barely changed in 25 years. I reconnected with it briefly on a 2023 layover and it was like going back in time.

The European posts I’m most proud of are the Norway series from 2019. We drove the country for ten days — Oslo, Pulpit Rock, the fjords between Stavanger and Bergen, the Hardangerfjord, and Bergen itself. The 17th of May in Stavanger — Norwegian Constitution Day — starts as a wholesome children’s parade with everyone in traditional dress and ends like Preakness midfield. Sharon spoke with a woman who had spent $6,000 on her traditional outfit.

The 2025 Mediterranean cruise was one of the better-planned trips we’ve done — Venice, Trieste, Split, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Ljubljana, Santorini, Mykonos, Ephesus, and Istanbul, finishing in Athens. Sharon and I had been to Athens in 1994 and I always wanted to go back, so we tacked on an extra day after the cruise on the way home to DC. We even recreated a photo from 1994 in front of the Parthenon. It was only a little embarrassing.

Ireland — 2023

The 2023 Ireland trip was entirely the western countryside and coast — County Kilkenny, Cork, the Ring of Kerry, the Cliffs of Moher, and Galway. Alexandra had just started a two-month journey through Europe and we joined her in Dublin. The Cliffs of Moher were everything the photos promise and then some.

The 25th Anniversary Trip

South Africa · Zimbabwe · Zambia · UAE  ·  2018

Sharon and I chose South Africa for our 25th anniversary because it had more variety than almost anywhere else on earth — coast, wine country, wildlife, history, different cultures all in one trip. We flew Emirates, which I strongly recommend if you’re going to southern Africa. The stopover in Dubai was worth it on its own. I had been to Dubai in 2001 and it was outrageous then. In 2018 it was completely over the top. The primary activity is shopping, and I am genuinely not sure how the endless high-end stores make money, but they do.

Cape Town was extraordinary — Table Mountain, the Cape Winelands in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, Cape Point where the two oceans supposedly meet, and the whole complicated history of apartheid and colonialism that you can’t avoid and shouldn’t. The safari at Pilanesberg was stress-free in the best possible way — I booked an all-inclusive for the first and almost only time in my travel life, and it was worth every penny. Victoria Falls turned out to be more interesting than expected. Our local contact was so knowledgeable and engaging that we learned as much about Zimbabwe’s current economic situation as we did about the falls themselves.

Morocco — 2022

Marrakesh, Fes, and Chefchaouen. The blue city in the Rif Mountains was recommended by a friend of my daughter’s who is not an Instafamous type, which made me trust the recommendation. She was right. The blue is real and the town is genuinely extraordinary.

The Biggest Chapter

Melbourne · Perth · Tasmania · Sydney · Queensland · South Australia

I started a six-month assignment in Melbourne in June 2023. The six-month assignment ended up lasting about a year and a half, followed by three months in Perth. Total time in Australia: nearly two years. Melbourne has become one of my favourite places I have ever lived. The people are great — professionally and socially. There is always something happening. I think it is because Melbourne is so remote that people focus on making it the best city possible.

My first apartment was on the 66th floor of Australia 108, the tallest residential building in the Southern Hemisphere. I had to get that out of the way before Sharon arrived, as she is not a fan of living in what she calls a shoebox in the sky. We eventually settled into St. Kilda — the edgy, beach-adjacent suburb three miles south of the CBD. Everyone I told I was moving to St. Kilda had a reaction: cool, dangerous, overrun, good restaurants, crappy food, cute for an expat. All of the above were accurate at various points. We loved it.

Perth was different — quieter, hotter, more self-contained. Because of the mining wealth, Perth has more to offer than a typical city of two million people. Our host told us on the first 110-degree day not to worry because we had the Fremantle Doctor — the daily sea breeze — and he was right, until March when it stops. I flew solo to Ningaloo Reef for Easter weekend, 13 hours north by road. I’d never heard of it before I got to Perth. Most Australians consider it comparable to the Great Barrier Reef and for snorkelling accessibility I’d argue it’s better.

Queensland — Great Barrier Reef

A dedicated trip to the Great Barrier Reef out of Cairns — with a side excursion to the rainforest town of Kuranda. The reef exceeded expectations. Ningaloo may be better for snorkelling, but the Barrier Reef at scale is something else entirely.

Concerts, Wine & Everything Else

The concerts thread runs through the whole blog. I’ve seen Oasis once — in Mexico City in 2025 at the F1 circuit, which is a uniquely Mexican venue for a concert, with dozens of unofficial merchandise stands selling bootleg t-shirts for under $10 outside the gates. I’ve seen Noel Gallagher solo twice and Liam solo once. Oasis live was the best of the four. I’ve seen Paul McCartney in Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, and nearly saw him in Seoul in 2014 — he was ill and cancelled.

The wine touring category speaks for itself. I take it seriously. The Cape Winelands. Margaret River. Yarra Valley. Mornington Peninsula. Barossa and Clare Valleys. Waitheke Island in New Zealand. I approach wine touring the same way I approach any trip — research the logistics, have a backup plan, and be honest about whether it delivered. Usually it does.