Adventure 
Midget Boxing in Manila(2)
Share “Who’s the winner?” The tattooed Filipino man holding the microphone asked me. I couldn’t make up my mind. Neither midget had tried very hard. As far as I was concerned the whole fight was a sham. But everyone in the bar, which included seven drunk tourists, thirty bored-looking strippers, one greasy Filipino announcer, and [...]
Full Story»Riding the Crocodile V2.0
Share Note: This is a heavily reworked version of an article that originally appeared in Highway 11 Magazine. Don’t miss the photo gallery from the farm at the bottom of this page! I tipped back my cowboy hat, which I had brought to wave in the air while riding the crocodile, and sized up the [...]
Standing in the Fireworks: A Trip to the Yenshuei Beehive Fireworks Festival, Taiwan
Share On Febrary 27, 2010 a Chinese New Year fireworks celebration in the Guangdong province went awry and killed 19 villagers. On February 28th, 2010 I was in Yenshuei Township in southern Taiwan facing a several hives containing tens of thousands of fireworks set to fire into the hundreds of people that were crowded around [...]
A Good ‘Ol Fashioned Boat Burning
The story of my misadventure documenting the ancient Wang Yeh Burning Boat Festival for Highway 11 Magazine, which begins with erroneous advice from an internet bulletin board, and ends with me driving hundreds of kilometers across Taiwan on my motorcycle at night and not sleeping for nearly thirty-six hours.




I'm a travel writer and photographer currently based in Tainan, Taiwan where I founded and edited Xpat Magazine, one of Taiwan's largest and longest-running expatriate periodicals. My writing and photography has been published in various print and online publications including Taiwan Today, the Taiwan Fun Magazine Group, and TransitionsAbroad.com. I speak English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese (to varying degrees) and am available for assignment. I can be reached through the form on the contact page of this website, or at xpatmatt (at) gmail.com.









