Walking through the old Dutch Quarter of Malacca, I snapped these photos under the Banyon trees. I put them into this timelapse sequence just to add a bit of glamour on my otherwise normal photo-walk through the old town. The trees were lit up and really beautifully with the colored lights pointed up from underneath.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbtiVI_38uw&w=560&h=315]
Malacca: Day 1
Recommendation number one: Don’t drive to Malacca. Take a bus, take a train – hitchhike. Just don’t drive here. The maps are wrong, the locals are directionally impaired and when you finally find the one road that is supposed to be a straight shot from the highway, it turns out to be a zig-zagging version of a city planners bad joke. It winds through suburbs, combines with other tandem roadways and if you ever need to make a u-turn, forget about it unless you’re willing to take the 5-mile detour needed to get back on track.
But once you’re here, it almost seems worth it. Just kidding. It’s quite awesome, I must say. I have only been to China Town and Little India so far, and I arrived at 5pm today. So even in the short time since being here (currently around midnight), I’ve already had a great time.
After booking a nice, quiet hotel off the beaten track, I was able to find this nice little sectioned-off parcel of road that closes it’s access to cars and sets up shop for the foot traffic. I ran into this kooky, little, old lady with a mask shop containing enough wood carvings to answer for the mysterious bare spots in the various rain forests of the world.
I’m not kidding. This woman had more masks than the prop closet on Broadway. I was in heaven. I love masks so much that I nearly asked her if I could set up a cot in the back and spend the night checking them all out. I didn’t, though. Instead, I talked her into letting me film all throughout the shop and even got an impromptu interview – though, I am not sure that she knew it was happening. And I think that she really didn’t like being on camera once she found out.
At first, she told me to stop filming. But I whipped out a business card and told her that I’d put her in my latest documentary and she loosened right up. So I will try and put the outtakes on my YouTube channel and in this blog (time allowing).
I ate what they said was a “large” pizza on the corner of the main statue in front of this makeshift night market and kept cruising the shops until late in the evening.
Once I realized how hungry I was from not having filled the coffers on the quasi-large pizza, I headed over to this Pakistani restaurant that the hotel manager suggested for me. The food was excellent and I was happy that I took his advice.
The spicy chicken tandoori that I tried was de-li-SHUS! And it should have been, because I was told by the hotel management that it was the best in Malacca… e’hem. Uh, that’s, the best in Malaysia.
The chicken is open-roasted on a spit. They rub the spices on it that you order and give you a choice of dipping sauces. I took the “herb dip,” which included garlic and Italian spices. In addition, the reason that people are actually attracted to this Pakistani restaurant in the first place is the bread. They make it in a clay oven heated from the bottom and slap the flattened bread, spices already wiped on, right inside the giant caldron of an oven, and let it cook for about a minute. You can add cheese to this, in which case they will roll it up into the inside and it will melt along with the rest of the ingredients at the sweltering 700-degree heat .
They serve it on a plate, normally still steaming, with a various pallet of dips which can be ordered to come with the bread. I tried the bean curd. And I can’t say enough about it. It was a splendid contrast to the bold and spicy punch that the chicken packs.
Washing it all down was the famous Malaysian tea. Just say “tea” and it is already assumed that you mean “Malaysian” style. Normally just a black tea with either milk or soy, this tea comes hot. But you can order it with ice as well. I generally don’t recommend the iced version because you can never tell whether or not the water for the ice is filtered – though, the assumption is that it’s unfiltered. But on this warm night, I figured I’d just dive in and worry about the repercussions later.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E3EJmsD3ek&w=560&h=315]
(In this article) Highly recommended: stay at ABC Hotel. The rooms are comfortable, but don’t plan on a discount (single/double RM70 – RM90 on weekends). The showers are hot, the AC is cold, and the management is friendly, knowledgeable and accommodating. Contact Mr.Selvam at Mobile: 0126396577 or Email:abchotel1954@gmail.com. Address: No:34, Jalan Kota Laksmana 3, Taman Kota Laksamana, 75200 Melaka. Phone: 062816670.
Update: Headed to Malacca
Coming up this next weekend (Mar 15-17, 2013), I’ll be headed out to Melacca for my first visit to the country’s cultural and historical hub.
There are a lot of places throughout Malaysia that have a truly unique feel and look. There are many places with their own distinct line through the recent past. But in no place is this idea more encapsulated in such a condensed area.
In fact, Melacca is the third smallest state in the country. It’s been dubbed the “Historic State,” and it’s located on the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia.
It’s placement and history here have even so entrenched in the history of global trade that the Strait of Melacca got its name from the millions of international goods that entered its port every year during its height as a trade mecca during the colonial era.
In 2008 it was named as a UNESCO World Heritage site. And though it was the home of the first Malay Sultanate, the monarchy was quashed with the Portuguese claimed rule here in the 16th century.
But you can read more about all that when I return from Melacca with a new photos and footage in tow.
Till then, enjoy this short documentary and get an idea of what I’ll be enjoying when I head there for my three-day weekend!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc50CAvnUJw&w=560&h=315]
Malacca Update:
This weekend, starting March 15th, I’ll be headed out to Melacca to check off one more of the amazing filming junkets that I have planned for the Malaysia Documentary.
I’m very excited about this trip since Melacca is one of those old-world places that should be on every anthro-nerd’s to-do list. It’s got something for everyone.
There’s history, culture, great sights. There’s even a lot of old architecture for the eyes to feast upon. It’ll be a great experience and I look forward to coming back with not only some great interviews from the locals, but also a nice gallery of photos.
I’ll be taking my time, since this is the first three-day weekend of which I will be actually be spending its entirety in one of my Malaysia destinations.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc50CAvnUJw&w=560&h=315]
Adventure on a Roll
This past weekend, I headed out to Serdang and had a blast at the Giant Hamster Ball. I also met some amazing new friends and shot some really cool footage for my latest documentary here in Malaysia.
GAC Adventures Malaysia, hosted the event which included a water orb, bumper orb and, of course, the downhill orb (and even had an archery set-up while you wait!). I suppose that calling them “Giant Balls” might have brought on the wrong impression. So they ended up with “orb” instead.
In any case, I met Wan, the environmentalist pictured above, and his cousin, the lovely and bubbly, Amaal, who have both been wonderful contacts to meet along the way.
Wan works as a conservation forester in one of the oldest forests in Malaysia. They call this the virgin forest because of its untouched beauty. And Wan said that I will be welcomed to join him on many weekends when we can explore this wonderful place. So I will definitely be taking him up on that.
Amaal has sent me some amazing contacts for going out all over Malaysia and seeing the country that most people don’t get to see when they visit here. So I am happy to have met such enthusiastic and knowledgeable folks that can show me the ropes.
So, thanks to her, I will be looking forward to filming wild elephants at the Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Center, doing zip-lines with SkyTrex Adventures, checking out the National Museum and seeing what kinds of amazing masks they have on display, visiting a plethora of breathtaking waterfalls all over the country (including a 4WD trip to the Jereng Kang Waterfall), going to the largest continuous rain forest complex in Peninsular Malaysia, Belum- Temengor, and even hope to do the famous North Borneo Railway through the jungles of Sabah!
And let’s not forget the skydiving that I still have planned! CJ, the owner of GAC Adventures, has even told me about the motorized paragliding that he and his friends do. So I’ve also been invited along for that.
It looks like I have my work cut out for me in the coming months. And it’s gonna be an absolute blast traveling all over the country to get this amazing footage.
Don’t worry; I will be blogging all about it and bringing you along with me. But don’t forget that this will all be going into an ultimate documentary that exposes the Malaysia that only shows itself to those willing to live and stay here long enough to meet the right people (like Amaal and Wan) to make it happen!
Check out the short video below to get a sneak preview of the downhill orb and other events that went down this past weekend.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtEGWAMp26Q&w=560&h=315]
Penang for the Chinese New Year Part One
Travel Update:
This past week was the Chinese New Year. And since it’s one of the biggest holidays for public and government workers, I spent almost an entire week on the road. It was so nice to get back out and explore my favorite place in Malaysia: Penang.
Penang is one of those places that presents a near opposite persona to the rest of a country. In the case of the very conservative, very Muslim Malaysia, Penang is much more liberal. It caters to tourism in a way that most other places in this country do not – or at least will not. And because they have become more dependent on this form of income, they have long since started to “put up” with the more unpleasant backlash to including many foreigners in their commerce – at least they’ve done so in terms of the way that the foreign element is seen in a majority Muslim country.
My trip started on Thursday morning and because it’s the monsoon season, my trip took more than 12 hours! I left my home port at around 9am and changed buses in Seremban. Then I traveled on what should have been an eight-hour bus ride to Butterworth. From there, I took the ferry across to the island of Penang. And then it was a short city bus to India Town inside of the Georgetown area of the city.
Being that it was the first evening of the New Year break, it was pretty difficult to get a hotel. But I finally checked in at the “Red Inn” on the historic colonial street, “Love Lane.”
Love Lane is the road where one’s “love life” took an expansive turn when the city was first established by the British in the turn of the 20th century. And the name quickly changed from its original designation, which predates the finality of the settlement – and which clearly was not instituted by the colonial era British settlers.
As the story goes, young men from the Catholic school (then named the School of the Assumption Church) would come to this street to meet with the girls of the Farquir Street Covenant School. This street, even today, because of its narrow, high buildings abutting either side, was a clever and opportune location for escaping much of the risk of meeting in other highly visible locations nearby.
As the students grew up, they simply named it “the Lane of Love” which then stuck as this generation was the first to expand upon the building of the infrastructure. Later still, it became even more iconic as more and more westerners used Penang as their jumping-off point to Thailand and parts south in Malaysia. Because many of the old buildings were converted into hotels, it became a hotbed of prostitution and confirmed its appropriate title in the city maps and history books.
Today, this area likely resembles what it must have looked like back then. Only now, the prostitutes have penises and the only clergy in this area aren’t out hunting nuns.
Penang’s location so close to Thailand has poised it to be the one-stop shop for all visa-runners and renewers from the country to the north. And when they (and all the other through-traffic that frequents this island) come here, they bring with them a hint of their party lifestyle from Thailand.
The local shops here have adapted to selling passport photos, …
[Continued on Penang for the Chinese New Year Part Two]
Travel Geek: Documentary Taiwan Out now!
At long last, the film has been edited, finalized and uploaded.
And here it is:
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UjwVuDBwas&w=560&h=315]
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Original YouTube description:
Follow Cyle O’Donnell, the Travel Geek, along more than 5,000 miles of trains, cars motorbikes, planes and boats — not to mention 20-or-so miles of hiking — through Far East Asia’s hidden gem. With filming spanning more than nine months, this trek covers everything from Chinese New Year in Tainan’s fireworks battle to Changhua’s legendary Lantern Festival; from windsurfing Penghu’s gale-force winds to eating raw pigs with Lanyu’s aboriginal natives; from high atop Taipei’s tallest towers, to the hinterland of tribal Taroko Gorge, this ultimate travel documentary is sure to inspire the mind and ignite the travel lust.
Travel Geek Documentary Taiwan has taken more than a year to complete. In the cutting room, the editors spent two-and-a-half months sifting through 114 Gigabytes worth of files spread out among 2,866 fils from 68 folders. And when it was finished, the final cut was one-hour-and-59-minutes long with more than four hours of outtakes, extra footage including marketing and subscriber media.
The experience of living and filming in Taiwan was amazing. And during the time the I spent in Taiwan, I also visited North and South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and the Philippines. So this film is the culmination of much enjoyment and success. And throughout this time, I also changed a lot as a media professional, a photographer and even as a person.
It’s bittersweet to see this particular film released because in addition to finalizing the edits and releasing it, I have also closed off another important and learned time in my life. And as I watch this film, I can’t help but be nostalgic and reflective of all the times in between the shots that no one else will feel quite so moved by but me. And while this film was captured before I left for film school (meaning, I didn’t have quite the gear that I have now in order to make it a little more “professional”), I still think it turned out pretty well.
In any case, it is my pleasure to announce the latest release of films in the Moving Stills library, Travel Geek: Documentary Taiwan. If you enjoy it half as much I did making it, I will be able to call it a success.
A special note just to subscribers is sent out that offers how to get free downloads and discounted packages of the Full-HD, 1080p version of this film, along with director’s notes, a signed script and the entire photo gallery that I shot from this trip.
Be sure to subscribe and get free stuff and inside tips from all my trips, and the videos that follow.
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New Extended Cut of Travel Geek Documentary Hong Kong & Macau out now!
In addition to the newly published Travel Geek Documentary: Philippines, I have taken my reader response and YouTube subscribers’ comments seriously. And in that, I have spent many hours re-editing, refashioning and finally re-releasing this new, extended version (call it a “Director’s Cut”) of the original Travel Geek documentary from Hong Kong and Macau.
Like the documentary from the Philippines, this film has been hugely successful (by my meager standards, anyway) on YouTube and Vimeo, collectively bringing in more then 10,000 views and 40 new subscribers since its release in June, 2012. That’s 1,400 views per month! Almost 50 per day!
So I am very excited about this new edition. And hopefully, this will motivate new attention and attract new subscribers (wink, wink) from this blog and it will be passed around and enjoyed in its new, longer rendering.
Below, it is my pleasure to announce Travel Geek Documentary: Hong Kong & Macau (Extended Cut, Feature Length).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF3zfPcAEns&w=560&h=315]
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If you liked this video: 
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Original video description on YouTube:
The director’s new release of Travel Geek Documentary: Hong Kong & Macau, includes, among other things, the ability for YouTube to broadcast it worldwide.
This extended cut of the Hong Kong & Macau Travel Geek documentary features extended scenes, a copyright-free soundtrack and additional footage not shown in the original version.
Original Description:
Follow Cyle O’Donnell, the Travel Geek, as he visits China’s two Special Administrative Regions. Nearly being arrested for filming in casinos, jumping off the world’s tallest bungy jump and sneaking around a black market in Hong Kong’s notorious underworld are just a few of the sights in this edition of the Travel Geek series.
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More videos at https://www.cyleodonnell.com/films
Subscribe to Cyle O’Donnell’s travel blog at http://www.cyleodonnell.wordpress.com
Follow on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cyleodonnell
and http://www.twitter.com/travelg33k
Find the Travel Geek on Facebook at:
Personal page: http://www.facebook.com/thetravelgeek
Travel page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cyle-ODonnell-The-Travel-Geek/368380403177097
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Update: 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.