About Joseph

I work as a Chief Mate on U.S.-flagged oceanographic research ships . The voyages and expeditions I have worked brought me from the Yangtze River of China, to the icebergs off Cape Horn South America, Antarctica, and many other points around the world.

My passion is world travel and I have spent the last 13 years working and independently traveling through over 90 countries. I have no home and live out of a backpack (although a girl in Taiwan has me settling down for the first time in my life). I also love to read literature, study history, and make trouble where and when I can.

Traveling to North Korea has been a life changing experience but it’s far from being my only one. I have hiked at Mt. Everest, worked as a white water rafting guide, hung out with rebels and liberation armies in various war zones, been killed off in a Chinese kong fu film, studied Vietnamese at a university in Hanoi, and most recently I received the US Coast Guard’s highest license, Master Unlimited.

2010 science trip to Easter Island

My travels – work and play

visited 95 states (42.2%)
Create your own visited map of The World or Free android travel guide

Pictures of me in North Korea 2012:

With girls in Wonsan City.

At a Pyongyang folk festival.

With my “secret North Korean girlfriend”.

Group photo in Pyongyang.

With Jordan Harbinger at the Pyongyang Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il statues

With a North Korean guide.

With a North Korean guide.

With North Korean guide Mr “crazy” Kim.

At the USS Pueblo.

Revolutionary art at the Hamhung Fertilizer Plant.

At a South Korean brothel at the Pyongyang Film Studio.

Photo with the director of the Korea International Travel Company.

With a North Korean guide.

With my lunch at the Pyongyang gun range.

With my lunch at the Pyongyang gun range.

Waitresses at the North Korean restaurant Dandong, China.

Pictures of me in North Korea 2011:

With the singing waitresses of Pyongyang, North Korea.

Cute times with the singing waitresses and myself at the Youth Day Celebration , Pyongyang, DPRK, North Korea.

With the singing waitresses of Pyongyang, North Korea.

Dancing with the singing waitresses of Pyongyang, North Korea.

Group photo at the Reunification Statue, Pyongyang.

Group photo with colorful Korean natives outside the Kim Il Sung Mausoleum.

Our crew outside the Kim Il Sung statue in Kaesong.

Taking on the North Korean strong man – arm wrestling at the Pyongyang fun fair.

The group at the DMZ.

After one too many at the Pyongyang BBQ duck restaurant.

I was trip leader!  Here I am showing off our North Korea group visa.

Just a little drunk after a night of North Korean karaoke.

She hates American soldiers but “love(s) American civilians!” – with the guide at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.

I’m a sailor, I dig anchors! Three Revolutionary Ideas Exhibition, Pyongyang, North Korea.

Hanging with Kim Jong-il.

View of Pyongyang from the Grand People’s Study House.

With the guide at the International Friendship Exhibition.

Below the Kims at the DMZ.

Tour of the US spy ship Pueblo

Tour of the US spy ship Pueblo