by cyleodonnellUpdate: Travel Geek Documentary: Philippines (New Updated Version) Out Now!
Update on the latest activity at the Travel Geek Studios in Malaysia: Your viewer response in action!
A new, updated version of Travel Geek Documentary: Philippines is out now.
Due to lots of awesome comments on how to make my first feature length film even better, I have!
As many people noticed, a lot has changed in the last couple years. Among them the exchange rate has gone up in the Philippines. So, in keeping with the truest documentary standards, I have updated the blurb at around 8:42 talking about the cost of entering the Pinatubo National park. In addition I also changed up the latter sections of the film. Watch both and see if you can find them all!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBTF5ymgRZo&w=560&h=315]
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If you liked this video: 
Be sure to also swing by and visit the Moving Stills Media films page to check out what else I have been up to.
And, as always, check out the photos from the Philippines in the Photo Gallery.
Journal 67: My Awesome House in the Country
So, as part of my new job, I will be working both in Kuala Lumpur and in Serimban, a large province with small villages throughout the south and east of KL.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXZ2Jx9IlP0&w=560&h=315]
There’s not a lot going on in these parts, so I will have plenty of time to do what I have set out to do for this year. And with all the traveling, book editing, film production and photography edits that I need to do, I am sure all that down time will come in quite handy.
I will be adding a journal about the local area and when I get my car I will be able to drive around to the neighboring places and find out more. But in the mean time, I wanted also to talk about my new place in the country.
Not being a very populated place, there’s not much need for high-rise apartments and skyscrapers. So they tend to be one- and two-story condos that are built in long rows. They generally don’t build them longer than 10 or so homes. And they are almost always covered in terracotta roof tiles. It’s a pretty common site throughout Asia in general.
My place is an “end unit.” Which means that it has the whole side of the house as a yard or patio area. It’s made more for a larger family, so I am not sure why I was the one chosen for this particular house, but here I am — me and my huge driveway.
It’s partially covered. It has a large security gate. And it can fit several cars — as if I would ever have that need…
They love bars and security measures in Asia. So my very large entryway has a giant cage to keep people in (or out, depending on the perspective). And with 15-foot ceilings, there are lots of fans throughout.
There are four bedrooms, mine being the master suite with private bath.
The other bedrooms enter directly off the dining area and kitchen.
Then, there is the living room, which is actually more of a vestibule. Someone’s come along and mounted a flat-screen TV on the wall, and all of my eight channels are unwatchable except for the subtitled Asian drama channel. And I probably won’t be watching that one much anyway.
The second bathroom is at the other end of the house and beyond that, the backdoor opens up to an alleyway behind the local merchant shops.
The area around my neighborhood is pretty quiet — except for the random, adventurous youth — all of whom seem to desire the loudest motorcycle and to speed it up and down the main road every few hours.
Along the main stretch of the town, there are plenty of restaurants and a couple of housewares markets. But just about any variety of Indian food, Chinese food and Malay dishes can be found here. So I will enjoy trying them all.
Last night — my first night here — I set out to find a mobile phone and a mobile modem so that I can get the internet. And I found a really nice Malay food restaurant nearby.
It was an open-air joint with about 20 tables. And by the time I got there, there were only about eight patrons. Three of them sat smoking and talking behind me as I ate. They asked me where I was from and made some small talk, affording me ample time to enjoy my food. I ordered Ayam Padan Nasi — Spicy Chicken with Rice. I am already picking up the local lingo!
Beyond our little town lies an endless sea of mountains. And atop these, neatly planted rows of palm fronds bowing in the wind.
Malaysia has long since cut down nearly all of its primary rainforests replacing them with palm oil, rubber tree and palm seed plantations. So while these amazing mountain vistas are pleasing to the eye, they are lined and layered with organized rows of these trees that sort of break up that natural feel that once graced these horizons.
I haven’t quite gotten the feel for the area yet. But the people seem nice enough, the area is mostly quiet and the accommodations are… well, accommodating.
I suppose I will have to go out with my camera soon and find out more.
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Journal 53: The end of my Southeast Asian Travels
Well, this journal ends almost three years of wonderful travels throughout all but one country in Southeast Asia. In order, I have visited Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia, Borneo-Malaysia, Brunei Darussalem and the Philippines. In the fall, I will be headed out to East Timor to begin my video trek which will bring me east and then north as I make my way up to Myanmar, the last country on my documentary goal of hitting all eleven countries on one shot.
In a way, this blog marks the end of a period of wonderful memories in my life. It also stands as a series of lessons that I have learned. It also resembles the broadest expansion into my photographic and journalistic efforts. And through it all, I have been able to do enough in-country studies that my documentaries at the end of this year are sure to be complimented by experiences throughout these great countries.
All told, I have collected more than 10,000 fully edited images (almost half my career total); created a feature length documentary along with many outtakes, interviews and shorts; two published books on research from two separate countries in the region — and about to publish my third; eight manuscripts awaiting publication ranging from the religious and cultural, to the traditional and historical aspects of the diverse micro-societies in each nation; traveled nearly 14,000 miles; and lived and worked here the entire time.
But while seeing all this in my rear-view mirror might inspire pensive appreciation, it is the future that brings me more joy. As I look with anticipation to the year ahead, I know that it will be just as memorable and meaningful as these many months in my past.
Coming up this year is a full lineup of some really great things that I plan on incorporating into my focus for the blog, for my commercial website, cyleodonnell.com and for my travel lust.
Firstly, I will be releasing tons of new books. I have been writing for the last eight years (as you know) throughout my travels about all sorts of things. And in the last year I have been able to bring many of them to completion. So in the next year, as more of my works become completed, I will be releasing ebooks in droves. These will mostly be articles that I have written for magazines, articles I’ve written for myself and the enjoyment of my close friends and, of course, this blog.
I have also written several full length novels. And as soon as I am more settled, I will be sending them off for professional editing and then publication. But I wanted to release all the smaller works first so that by the time the larger works arrived, I will have established a wider reader-base and hopefully a larger audience.
I have also been working with designers for a few ideas that I have had to incorporate my photographic and video exploits into apps for the iPhone, the iPad and Android phones. I won’t ruin the surprise, but they should be finalized soon and I will be really excited to see them come to life. It will provide a lot of people access to the photography that might never have knew that travel photography could be so interesting.
Additional books planned for release on the iPad, Kindle, eReader, and others, are photo books of specific regions that I’ve gone and taken some amazing images. These photo books will be available in hard copy, but the primary mode of publication will be within the obvious future of book publishing — electronic copy. So look for those to start coming soon.
Also, because I have been spending a lot of time filming for my most recent film, Travel Geek: Documentary Taiwan, I will be releasing snippets and teasers of that in upcoming blogs. It will be really exciting to finally release that. The date, by the way, that I have slated to release it is set for May 10th. If I can get it out before then, I will definitely do that. But because I will be going to Macau and filming for the Hong Kong/Macau documentary and editing double-time, that might not be possible. But, again, I am working on it!
Here in Taiwan, they have some really strange holidays. For instance, every year in a new place the entire town dons protective gear and has an all-out fireworks war where they shoot each other with flaming, exploding firecrackers. Some people stand atop huge pires of billowing flames and rockets shooting out all around them. Some people spin in circles while swinging enormous ropes of M-80 fire crackers blowing up as they move and filling the streets with huge pockets of smoke. It’s really amazing. And that is the type of thing that I have traveled all over Taiwan and filmed for this latest one. It’s going to be pretty exciting.
And finally, the big one: For the last six months, I have been preparing for the grandest of all my exploits. Over the summer, I will be returning to the states and take a refresher course in film studies. Then, when I have finished the intensive (and expensive) six-week course, I will be putting the hands-on studies to the test.
This fall I will be headed back out to this are of the world to complete four months of filming documentaries in all eleven countries of Southeast Asia. I am slated to start my journey in the country that I missed on the first run, East Timor, and then make my way west and north until I reach Thailand. Midway there, in Malaysia, I will be flying out to Borneo to tackle both Indonesia and Malaysian island life, but also to Brunei Darussalem which I wanted to see more of the last time around. And then after a run through the southern islands of the Philippines (which I sourly missed this last time) I’ll continue my trek back through peninsular Malaysia. Once I’ve reached the mountains of Chiang Mai, Thailand, I will be headed over into Laos, south to Cambodia, east and then north through Vietnam and then straight over to Myanmar.
Because visas expire and require careful planning, I have chosen to do Vietnam and Myanmar back to back. So that will be the end of my trip.
After this trip I will likely be settled in Thailand while I edit the content for the videos, tackle the gargantuan task of compiling the library of photos from the trip and updating the website, completing the journal entries and begin marketing the release of all these materials.
I hope that by the time I am finished with the films I will have enough support with ad sales and book purchases that I can simply release them for free right here and everyone can enjoy them. But not everything works out the way we hope. I have been keeping this blog for more then 7 years and have even transferred an old blog that I used on Blogger to import it into the new and improved WordPress format.
But in all that time, it’s never been quite as expensive a hobby as it’s become in the recent past. So I am asking all of you who enjoy this blog to visit as often as you can, to spread the word to others about the site and to bring the site stats up so that I can offer advertising and help replenish the expenses that have gone into the content that you see here.
It won’t cost you anything to come back and visit, read through and click on all the photos. It’s free to send a link to friends who might enjoy the blog. And I have never charged for any of the content I put up. So return the favor and keep the blog alive by visiting everyday and spreading the word around.
Hopefully I will get enough followers that I can move to a bigger site that will support more traffic and I will be able to keep blogging as more than a hobby — a passion that pays!
Below is a video of my fond farewell to the Southeast Asia Journals and the welcoming in period of this year’s coming projects from other parts of the world. I also discuss my slated return to the region to compile several more Travel Geek Documentaries. Exciting stuff!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C5Xwuo6Nys]
Update on the upcoming e-Book
My trip through the Philippines will be coming to a close soon — at least in this journal. And I wanted to let you know that there is more to look forward to in the coming week.
Along with the upcoming journals from my travels throughout the islands of Taiwan, I will also be releasing the various parts of my next film, Travel Geek: Documentary Taiwan — just as I have here in the Philippines section of the blog. However, before I get on to that, I wanted to announce another very special treat — for the readers of this blog and for me as well.
After the final day that the last of the Philippines journals are published, I will be releasing my new book, Postcards from the Pavement: Southeast Asia, the book that follows my Southeast Asian travels all the way through to the beginning of this blog. So if you ever wanted to enjoy the entire ride and read about all the places that I have visited since moving to Asia — and all in one sitting — this is the book for you.
Publishing a book is not easy business. But the process has been made much easier in recent years by the free market competition against the Big Six publishers. And in even more recent years, the big wholesalers like Barnes & Noble and Amazon have even come into competition of their own. The ePub market has exploded with independent writers like myself. And we’ve created such a demand for easy publishing, that the response has been overwhelming.
But before the book gets its ISBN and goes on the bigger distribution websites, I wanted to offer it here to my subscribers first.
This book — released here in PDF so anyone can read it without the eReader, Nook, Kindle, etc. — comes with fully interactive links to videos hosted on the site. So as long as you’re near an internet connection, you can watch the videos right from the book!
It’s also completely collated with jump-to-chapter and jump-to-page links and search options. You can even highlight, mark, bubble-text and page-save just as in the latest PDF options!
What’s more, I have added scores of new photos that aren’t offered on my blog or on my photography website. So when you get the copy of the book, you will literally have a collection of my photographic works that aren’t available anywhere else on the web!
There are nearly 1000 external reference links in the book as well. So you’re guaranteed to get everything that I have online, plus all the additional content that is only available in the book.
But probably the best part is that, because it’s available for download right to your computer, you can print off an entire copy for yourself, buy one and print it to give away as a gift, or just pick and choose which photos you would like to print and hang them as a memento from the last few years and many thousands of miles we’ve spent together.
When you buy the book, you can also be sure that no big corporations or production companies will benefit in any way. They have enough money already. This money will go right back into the blog. There’s something big that I have planned, but up until now, I haven’t been able to talk about it.
But, since we’re already talking about it; I plan on a monumental trip in the fall of this year, including a documentary filming excursion that will cover ALL ELEVEN COUNTRIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA! So the funds gathered by this book will be given right back to you in all the films, photos and journals that will be created throughout that trip.
It’s a very exciting time for me. I am one of the few media professionals that is completely online. Of course, if you want hard copies, those can be created. I only print books and photographs from my commercial website, cyleodonnell.com, when orders come in. So there is no paper waste, no stockpile of cardboard and plastic packaging sitting around in a warehouse somewhere, no chemicals from printing — nothing but my green books, blogs, images and articles. Even my website is hosted with iPage, a company whose servers run from wind-generated power!
I am setting the cost of the book at just $4.99 — and only for the readers of this blog — because I want everyone to be able to afford one. The later release on the ePub giants will cost more because they take a cut right off the top. So you get the cheapest rate, the freedom to print off the book and you get it BEFORE anyone at Amazon or Smashwords even see it!
And if you’re a friend on my private Facebook page who enlisted in the recent event to sign up for the blog, don’t worry I will be announcing the free password on that event to get your copy as soon as I release the book later this week. I haven’t forgotten about you guys!
But having said that, I can honestly say that I need subscribers more than I need the money. So if you’re reading this and can think of a handful of people who might enjoy my blogs and photography, I will give you something too: If you can get five (5) people to subscribe to this blog, and they send me an email verifying that you got them to sign up, I will send you a free copy of the book as well. But it’s gotta be pretty fast because the offer ends as soon as the ISBN is assigned and it’s published in the commercial market. (that email is cyle@cyleodonnell.com)
Remember, this is just the first book in a series of many more to come. In fact, before the end of next month I plan on having released more than 50 short stories — all within the collection of stories from the Mishaps in Motion series, which includes this upcoming book, Postcards from the Pavement: Southeast Asia.
Watch the video below, and see what I have planned for the future.
Until then, enjoy the last journals from the Philippines!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poAecxtbp3o]
