Back in 1998, I went on a bike trip to Ethiopia. I had a film camera, and film was expensive, so I didn’t take very many pictures. (Digital cameras and smartphones hadn’t been invented yet.So strange to think about that.) And people were so inquisitive and so demanding, that it…
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Sansa Clip – Have I Ever Managed to Fix Anything?
Have I ever managed to fix anything? My life seems like an endless series of broken things. I try to fix them, and in the fixing, I destroy them. The latest in this long series is the Sansa Clip. It was a great little MP3 player until suddenly it wasn’t….
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YouTube: Melaka at Night: Stunning Lights, Trishaws, Screaming Ghosts, & Jonker Street Walk
VIDEO DESCRIPTION: Exploring the beautiful and historic city of Melaka (Malacca), Malaysia at night! I took my GoPro out after dark to capture the completely different atmosphere once the sun goes down. The biggest change from daytime Melaka is that you suddenly realize just how much of the historic center…
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YouTube: Tracing the Lost Walls of Melaka: A 500-Year-Old Mystery – Where Did the Ocean Go?
Welcome back to Melaka, Malaysia. That’s the Melaka River on my left there. The Strait of Malacca is like half a kilometer or more behind me. And today’s video for me is all about putting Melaka into geographic perspective, because when I was here last time, I went out to…
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YouTube: I Got the Wrong Stamp! (Dumai to Malacca Ferry Adventure)
Good morning from Dumai, Sumatra. And today is an interesting day for me because I’m heading back to Malaysia today. I’m actually saying goodbye to the Ohana Hotel here in Dumai. I’ve been staying here for the last couple of weeks. And yeah, there’s the hotel. Yeah, it’s kind of…
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YouTube: Why I’ll Never Forget this “Mango Smoothie” in Dumai
I imagine if you check the dos and don’ts for YouTube, one of the strongest don’ts would be don’t start your video in complete darkness. But if your life begins in complete darkness, well then it’s an accurate representation of what is going on. So I’m here in my hotel…
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Malaysia’s Touch ‘n Go Goes International: An E-Wallet Experiment with QRIS in Indonesia
Good morning and welcome back to Planet Doug. I’m here just standing outside of my hotel in the city of Dumai, which is on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Dumai is a pretty large city, maybe 350,000 people. I read that online and it just occurred to me. I’ve…
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YouTube: Goodbye Wisma Cemara, hello Ohana — a Dumai hotel adventure
VIDEO DESCRIPTION: New hotel, new neighborhood, new adventures in Dumai, Sumatra. In this one, I move from the Wisma Cemara (fully booked, so no choice really) to the Ohana Hotel, a place I found tucked down a dark alleyway. I wasn’t actually moving yet when I filmed the first part…
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YouTube: I Found a Digital Nomad Paradise in an Unexpected Indonesian City
VIDEO DESCRIPTION: Welcome to Dumai, Sumatra – a city I wasn’t expecting to love quite this much. I stumbled across a cafe called Monochrome just down the street from my hotel, and it turned out to be exactly what I needed. Great coffee, fried bananas covered in cheese and chocolate…
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YouTube: Dumai, Sumatra: Rough Around the Edges, Warm at the Center
VIDEO DESCRIPTION: Welcome back to Dumai, Sumatra! In this episode, I’m exploring the outskirts of a city that I’ve visited before but don’t know that well — Dumai, a coastal industrial hub on the island of Sumatra. I came here by ferry from Malaysia when my tourist visa ran out,…