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Travel Geek Update, Penang, Malaysia, December 19, 2013

I arrived in Malaysia yesterday and took the afternoon to relax, read my book and escape the dry heat in the paradoxically located “dry heat bubble” of Penang, a small island and financial capital of the country’s northern state of the same name.  And if you don’t know (or haven’t read the gobs of other blogs about my visits here since 2009), it’s just off the coast from the mainland industrial shipping complex of Butterworth.

But today’s little jaunt through Penang offered me the same thing I get every time I go there: an amazing peek at a new side of the city. I rented a bike and finally rode throughout the day as I’ve wanted to do for so long.

But why would I want to ride through an arid city center in the hottest time of the day, you might ask? Well, Penang is located on the westernmost side of Malaysia. So the sunrise, and all it’s “golden hour” light is robbed from it by Malaysia’s central mountains. And then, because of the city is located on the eastern shadow of the largest and most prominent mountain on the island, Penang Hill (as it’s colloquially known, or Strawberry Hill as it’s historically known, or Bukit Bendara as it’s officially known), there’s also no sunset.

Why is this so important? Well, if you’re not a photographer, it’s probably not — especially since the only beaches, which might otherwise make it’s emerald-green seas enjoyable, are shored by polluted waters. The removal of just a few hours on either side of the mid-morning and late-afternoon sun, the light that photographers live for, makes for harsh shadows and bitter, wincing faces, and pale, shallow color pallets, and generally unattractive shots all around.

But, knowing that going in, it makes exploring and taking risks as a photographer much more amicable. And even in the stark heat that beats down on this island city, it’s actually winter here. So it would still be much worse in the northern hemisphere’s summer months. So what better time, I figure.

In any case, I rented a bike and made my way down Beach Road to Midtown, where I found a construction crew had left the gate open to the property they had been charged with cleaning. So, naturally, I welcomed myself in and began filming and photographing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNjtrGIOWgs&w=560&h=315]

A note about this video: This would be the first actual time that I am using my DSLR to make a video that I intended on uploading to my YouTube channel. So you might notice that the focus is off on the A-Roll sections of the film. That’s because I had the focal length set on what I thought was my head. Being along and having no one to set it on me in-frame, this was the result.

I’ll have to work on that. But I must say, I did enjoy only carrying around one camera body and getting all my photography as well as my video content for today’s blog. Quite exciting. So perhaps look for more of that in the future. I do like the versatility. But the constant focusing was driving me a bit nuts. No tripod either. Again, just went out shooting for an update. Nothing special!

Coming soon, I’ll write up my experience with the visa scam situation (and what to look for, as well as how to minimize your costs) and watching the transvestite hookers at work. Interestingly, the Indian guys really seem to like them. Who knew!?

The album from today, as well as from when I was here earlier this year, should be coming out soon on www.cyleodonnell.com.

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Insights from the Pavement: Choosing When

On the road, we have nothing but choices. Where will we visit next? What type of cuisine are we in the mood for? Will it be a bus or a train? Should I go and talk to that interesting group of locals?

Regardless of where we find ourselves in the world, we are always going to be faced with a choice. Whether that choice is to go left, or right, or to stay put right where we are, we are indeed making a choice. However, there are a few things in this life that none of us gets to choose.

Not a single person alive or dead got to choose where or when or to whom they were born. We don’t get any say in what language we will learn first or what color we are. We don’t get to choose when our natural lives will end.

The good news is that in between our births and our deaths, most of us will have a world of choices to mull over and mete out before our time comes. We can fill this time with amazing memories, or we can do very little. We can charge after our goals and aspirations, or we can take up space and resources. We can choose to help and to give things back to the world and to the community that supports us, or we can simply consume.

Whatever we choose, we should all be keenly aware that we are indeed choosing one of many options. Because even choosing to do nothing is still a choice. And the best compass for gauging whether or not we are living up to our potential is if, when we look at the lives of others, we see ourselves behind, in the middle or ahead of the game.

Death is our final show. And it arrives to most of us without taking our schedules into consideration. And in the grand scale of geologic time, none of us lives very long. So it can truthfully be said from that perspective that we all can choose right now to act or right now to do nothing.

But we should make no mistake – we are indeed choosing when it will happen.

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Insights from the Pavement: Being Decisive

It’s only when we choose our path that we will see where the road leads. And this is as true of our time on the road as it is in our personal lives.

The power to make decisive action is often the difference between seeing something new and seeing the same things over and over. And it’s in our nature as the offspring of a nomadic species to seek out new experiences, learn from them and grow into better people.

Making choices is always difficult. Whether it’s sending our children to a better school, taking on a new job or simply which route to take to work. Decisions are difficult because we know that they will each have a lasting effect on our day, week, year, or possibly even further.

But while this is something that most people might seek to limit as much as possible, it’s those of us who have made the most decisions in our lives that are rewarded by the widest range of experiences, and therefore the most knowledge gained through these experiences.

Being indecisive, on the other hand, will always limit us, keep us stagnant and hold us back from the progress that is awaiting us with the lessons that we need to better ourselves in this life. And whether or not we wish our choices to present themselves to us at the time they arrive, we still must all face them as we have all the others in the past.

So we must weigh our options responsibly, taking into consideration what will make us happy, make our decision, and stand behind it vehemently — knowing that ultimately this one decision is not the difficult part; it’s the follow-through that challenges us the most. And so it may not be the decision that intimidates us. Breaking down the post-decision activity, then, may well make things easier.

No matter what we choose, we must never look back and think regretfully of our effort to make the decision. The action of pursuing our choices passionately, is the natural conclusion to having worked so hard at choosing appropriately.

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Insights from the Pavement: Be a Failure

Along our travels, we will undoubtedly run into a variety of people. Among them will be people at various places and opposing sides on the teetering scale of success. Some people will exude success as if it were a glimmering coat of armor. Others will seem lost and simply working on challenges that would seem minuscule by comparison. And the rest may fall somewhere in between.

It can be said of the more successful people among us that our failures are many, and our victories are few. And this is not because we are failures. This is rather because our motivation for success greatly outweighs our worry of failure.

And never could this be more profound than when realized as an end result of many years of successes. Because for each successful venture, we’ll know that the many attempts that we made to achieve it has taught us how to do things better.

Growing only happens when we make mistakes. And the more we take risks at attaining our goals and dreams, the more opportunities there are for wins and losses. So it should logically follow that the most successful of us are those who have tried and failed the most (the operative word being “tried”). Unfortunately, though, this is not the mentality that most of us attach to our failures.

On the contrary, the stigma is that once we’ve failed, we are failures – we’re useless. Most of us feel terribly defeated when we’ve tried for something and not seen it come to fruition. We get down on ourselves and become unambitious as a result.

But if we look back over the process of finding success in our lives, it is not the success that teaches us our strengths. If anything, success not borne by hard work generally leaves us weaker and less capable of handling the challenges that our failures would have easily taught us about.

It is important to set goals. But it is just as important that we see them through to completion. And at first our paths will be riddled with wrong turns, missteps and miscalculations. But once we realize that these hurdles are teaching us how not to go about achieving our aims, we will quickly get the footing of what we should be doing to succeed.

This process, if continued, will undoubtedly find us winning battle after battle and learning lesson after lesson about our ever-expanding capacity for greatness. And it all starts with failing.

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A little help here?

Recently, I released my latest film, Travel Geek Short: Documentary Gopeng.  And unfortunately, I have to upload it again in a re-edited version because I overlooked some copyrighted content.  I dunno how I could have let that slip, though I imagine it’s just a technical error.  But the way I see it this is a good thing.

For starters, I don’t like any of the cover images that automatically popped up when the first version finished uploading.  So this little hiccup allows me an opportunity to make this next version a little bit better.

As a YouTube partner, I am allowed to upload a cover image to each of the films that I release.  And I have been running an experiment on my channel to see which videos get the most views based on the images I select.  Some of the videos have clip shots from outtakes or extra scenes.  And recently, I have decided to start clipping the cover images directly from the same film just to ensure that I am advertising the film adequately.

In this latest short film, I’ve selected a few frames that I think would be cool to be the cover image for this film.  Take a look at them and let me know which one is your favorite.  Which one should I use (and remember, it’s going to be much smaller on YouTube, so the detail will be a factor).

Let me know in the comments, or email me at cyle@cyleodonnell.com.

 

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On the Road Filming in Borneo: An Update

Hey Travel Geekers,

A personal note to give you an update on what’s happening here:

I’ve flown my new producer and myself out to Borneo to get the concluding footage for my latest film, Travel Geek: Documentary Malaysia.  It will be released in two main parts, with extras and outtakes as well as short film releases over the next couple months.  I will also release Travel Geek: Documentary Borneo as a separate video, but will collectively create the video that is inclusive of all parts of the film once it’s all put together.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPszWO5eVTA&w=560&h=315]

Cristina Owen is a blogger and travel enthusiast that I met over a podcast interview.  Those that follow this blog will remember her as the longest Travelcast that I’ve done so far.  We definitely got along well on the podcast and we’re doing good things here as well.  She flew out from San Francisco on her way through Asia for a chance to come filming with me.  We left from Kuala Lumpur last Sunday and already we’ve gotten some good footage.

There’ve been some interesting challenges along the trail so far.  For starters, Borneo is not the most agreeable place for weather, the most reliable place for travel plans or the most relaxing place to visit.  But that should, in now way, hinder your plans to come here if you want to do so.  The people, the epic, natural backdrop in all directions, the amazing and adventurous things to do and the geological and biological diversity all more than make up for what seem like troublesome challenges along the way.

Another factor for me is that I have picked up the cough that my producer brought in from Taiwan (not that anyone’s pointing fingers).  So it’s been a little more of a struggle to do the same types of hikes that I am used to doing due to muscle and bone soreness as well as a lung full of mucus that constantly needs to be coughed out.  But even with that in tow, I still (may have) got out to an amazing waterfall hike yesterday where I (might have) swam in a pond fed by an absolutely breathtaking 40-foot-tall waterfall in the middle of Lambir National Park.  I (possibly) had the park all to myself, too, because I (kinda, sorta, might have) showed up after the park had closed for the day… and (kinda, sorta, might have) happened to hop the fence and enter the park without a pass, a filming permit or even registering my name at the park office.  That might have happened.   I dunno.  The footage will have to speak for itself.

So, here I am on day four of my trek and I have seen and done enough things to satiate my travel bug.  And I’m only halfway through.  I’ve gotten a locally crafted tattoo from the local Iban artisans, I’ve filmed wild proboscis monkeys leaping from tree to tree, seen 3-meter-long pythons and deadly pit vipers amid the inescapably beautiful backdrop of Borneo’s wilds.  And I’ve still got Class IV rapids at the Padas River, a Mosque walk through the tiny country of Brunei Darussalam, and to make it back to Kota Kinabalu to possibly fit a mountain climb in before heading back on Sunday morning.

This is turning out to be one helluva film.  I can’t wait to see the edited version.

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Intro Outtakes and Bloopers for Travel Geek: Documentary Malaysia

Eventually having to scrap an entire evening of takes, my introductory commentary for Travel Geek: Documentary Malaysia was plagued by forgotten lines, honking cars, noisy birds, pedestrian traffic and even the Muslim Call to Prayer from a nearby mosque.

Luckily I found a much more suitable location with less challenges in the town square of Malacca’s Dutch Quarter. Be sure to watch the feature length film when it comes out in August, 2013.

Intro Outtakes and Bloopers:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydUh76BlBf8&w=560&h=315]

For all the extras from Travel Geek: Documentary Malaysia, visit www.MovingStillsMedia.com.

Friend me on Facebook: facebook.com/thetravelgeek

Read behind the scenes info on the blog www.cyleodonnell.me

Follow me on twitter: @cyleodonnell

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Learning to Detach

One of the many pleasures of travel is that it takes us out of the daily grind, removes us from the office and whisks us away to a new and exciting place.  The joy that comes to us even before we leave is largely centered on that very idea.  And as our travel date approaches we often find ourselves lost in our thoughts of what this change from the norm will provide for us.

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It is a naturally occurring phenomenon that we as a species need bouts of change in our routine.  For some, this change needs to be constant and continuous.  For others, a random smattering of island hopping over the course of a decade will do.  But for most of us, breaking up the routine is something best timed on a yearly basis.

This begs the question; how do we know what kind of change and in what quantity is good for us?  And as I have traveled I’ve found out that many of the times when I felt that change was needed, I resisted and stayed the course.  I started to feel unsettled, but when I voiced this concern people only told me that I needed to settle further – that all I needed was the safety and security of a good job, insurance and a nice credit score.

And who was I to question all these people who seemed to sing in unison the praise of a steady lifestyle?  But ultimately, this was not my path.  And once I left I found a kinship with the road that I had always known was there.  Because of that, I feel the most settled on the move.

I have always regretted not taking the initiative earlier in my life when I felt that draw to the nomadic lifestyle.  How many years of my life were wasted working in this job or that job only to see nothing more of my efforts than my closest neighbor? what could I have done if I’d taken the opportunity to go abroad?  How might my level of experience and personal wisdom have been influenced?

We can generally count on our friends and loved ones to have our best interests at heart.  And certainly it’s no stretch of the imagination to say that we reciprocate that notion.  But just because we receive advice from others it doesn’t mean that that’s what’s best for us — just like our well-meaning advice might not be the best for them.

Learning to quiet ourselves enough to receive the message that lies within is something that is just as important as assessing the guidance we receive from others.  And so it’s vital that we also separate ourselves from this inner information as well — giving ourselves the best chance at seeing this message clearly and applying it to our lives.

Looking at all the information that we have available to us from the perspective of objectivity will aid in coming to the right decision at the right time.  And in doing this, we also take the reins on our own path – another keepsake of the process of responsible detachment.

Join the discussion: When did you start traveling?  If you’ve never traveled, what do you think about focusing on your travel plans?  How will you be affected by your decision to listen to that inner travel lust?

Follow me on twitter: @cyleodonnell

Like the image from this journal?  Click HERE to visit the Naksan Temple photo album that I took in 2011.

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Youtube Update May 5, 2013

Happy Monday everyone. I wanted to start this week off by beginning the process of integrating my other media into the blog. So I thought I’d share my YouTube intro video with all the readers and maybe get more of you to subscribe to my channel.

Normally I try to average a release of one new video per week. Some weeks I upload three or four in preparation for those weeks when I know I’ll be traveling or filming. These videos are podcasts (which I call Travelcasts) with other bloggers and travelers. Others are Travel Geek Top Ten videos, where I talk about the top ten tips for travelers on a new topic each time. And some are the outtakes and extras from filming junkets I’ve recently taken.  It really just depends on what I am working on.

Whatever I am doing at the moment, I am almost always sure to be making a video of it or talking about it in front of the camera, or something video related. So my channel is never too far from fresh content.

Watch my channel intro video and then head over to subscribe. There should also be a link at the end of the video to subscribe directly.

Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7_ulYq5eDg&w=560&h=315]

Wanna connect further?  Look up at the top left of the page and find me on Twitter and Facebook, too!

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My New Book Has Been Published!!

Once again, I am humbled and overwhelmed by the amazing sense of fulfillment that I have been honored to receive this year.  It’s been my most successful year in a very long time.  And it keeps getting better.

To top it all off, I have released my latest book, Portraits from the Pavement: Slices of Life in North America.

It’s available for iTunes and for the iPad HERE.  This version is $3.99.

And it’s cheapest version, $2.99 on PDF, is available HERE.

It’s also available as a hard copy in softcover, hardcover and with ImageWrap HERE.  These prices start at $37.89.

If you visit the BOOKS page on my website, you can preview the first 30 pages or so.  So head over and check that out.

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From the back of the book:

The first of more than a dozen image-driven narratives, Portraits from the Pavement: Slices of Life in North America, showcases my first four years working as a media professional in the U.S. and Canada. Represented in more than 160 inspiring images across 92 fully illustrated pages, this book exhibits a collection of the most breathtaking images taken as a budding photographer and undergraduate journalism student.