UPDATE: Not much time has passed, yet it feels like it’s time for a quick update. Planet Doug is still spinning in orbit around Kuala Lumpur. KL has a strong gravitational pull, and it’s always hard for me to break free.
The big event for today (Thursday) was moving from the Crossroads Hotel in Chow Kit back to the humble Hotel Raja Bot around the corner. I’m really glad to be back at the Raja Bot. I got new neighbors at the Crossroads Hotel, and they were also heavy smokers, and the cigarette smoke seeped into my new room, too, and I found it just as hard to sleep as before. It’s crazy how that cigarette smoke seeping under the connecting door sets my whole body aflame with an almost allergic reaction. I escaped to the Raja Bot looking for cheaper weekend prices AND a smoke-free, quieter environment. I’m happy to say that I found both and more. I’m very happy in my new room at the Raja Bot.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting a Planet Doug subscriber from Australia. His name was Jamie (a different Jamie from my friend from the US), and he was on holiday in Malaysia. Jamie was a great guy, a great conversationalist, and he invited me out for lunch at a wonderful Burmese restaurant in Kuala Lumpur called Zayyar. On Google Maps, it is listed as “Zayyar Restoran (Halal Myanmar cuisine)”. It has great food from Myanmar, great atmosphere and decor, and (if my lunch was an example) large portions at a good price. Jamie had been to this restaurant in the past, and I’m so glad he introduced me to it. The traditional Burmese tea is fantastic. I shot a little bit of video of the food and the restaurant, and you’ll see it in an upcoming “Kl Vignettes” video.
Another long-time Plant Doug subscriber from India sent me a Burger King dinner via Grab a couple of nights ago. That worked out great because I could track the driver on the Grab app with the link he sent me, and I could be on the street waiting for the driver when he showed up, and I could see the exact direction he was coming from. What a wild world we live in. Someone far away in another country can place an order for a food delivery right from their phone. So I am being kept well-fed.
Now that I am in a much nicer room at the Raja Bot, I hope to get a good night’s sleep and wake up fully refreshed tomorrow. And that’s because I’m meeting another brand new Planet Doug subscriber for brunch. I just got to know this kind Malaysian man recently, and he is driving by tomorrow morning to pick me up, and we will be going out for a meal. I don’t know if he will want to be on camera at all, but I will at least take some video of the place we go to for brunch. Even better, this man and his family operate a durian orchard, and there is a chance I will be able to visit this durian orchard in the future and get a close-up look.
As for videos, I am always working on those. Currently, the Planet Doug Video Pipeline contains these upcoming videos:
- Malaysia Mystery Tour Day 6 – EXTENDED CUT
- Malaysia Mystery Tour Day 7 – Return to Kuala Lumpur
- KL Vignettes 1 – Tons of food adventures in KL
- KL Vignettes 2 – Indonesian food at Rose Restaurant, Tripod Unboxing, & More
- 5-Snack Challenge at Taman Connaught Night Market
- My Neighborhood Is Better Than Yours Challenge
- KL Vignettes 3 – Keng Nam Hai Hawker Center & More
- KL Vignettes 4 – Ongoing Adventures in Kuala Lumpur
I probably missed a video in there somewhere. But off the top of my head, those are the videos that I am currently working on and uploading. As always, the editing ends up taking far longer than I expect. I keep thinking it will go faster this time, but it never does.
I’m still tracking the American Hobo on his bicycle journey around Malaysia. Last I heard, he finished a complete loop around Peninsular Malaysia and could be arriving back in Kuala Lumpur soon. Depending on when he gets here, I might even be able to meet him in person. That would be interesting. If he follows through with his plans, he could be putting his bicycle on a ferry to Sumatra. I’m really hoping he does that because I would love to see Sumatra through his camera lens.
I’ve also been watching the videos from a German moto vlogger. His channel is called Marc Travels, and recently he has been posting videos from Malaysia. I posted something about him recently because it seemed like he had just arrived in Malaysia. Now, I’m starting to wonder. I had heard from other people that his videos are usually quite old. So I was doing some video investigating and trying to figure out when exactly he was in Malaysia. And at one point, he shows the home screen of his iPhone, and I spotted the date “Sat 25” on the calendar app. It’s a bit hard to read, but I think that’s what it said. And if that date is accurate, then the video that he posted today was actually shot over eight months ago on January 25.
I always find that fascinating. I know that a lot of big YouTubers are very careful to hide any personal details that people can use to figure out where they are and when exactly they shot the videos. They do that for personal security and privacy reasons. But they also don’t want people to know that their videos are eight months old. It’s a strange thing when you think about it. According to the videos, it looks like Marc just rode his electric motorcycle into Malaysia this month. So lots of Malaysians in the comments are welcoming him to Malaysia and giving him advice about places he should visit and things like that. Yet, if that date on his phone is accurate, none of that advice and information can help him because he left Malaysia long ago.
I always figure it must be weird for the YouTuber to live in these drastically different timelines. Who knows where Marc is now? He could be anywhere in the world riding on any kind of new motorcycle and having all new adventures. Yet, on YouTube, he has to interact with people in the comments while sort of pretending that he is physically in Malaysia. He doesn’t actually lie and say that he is in Malaysia right now. But he is very careful not to say anything specific. In fact, the vast majority of his replies to comments seem to be the AI-generated canned comments that YouTube provides. Most of his comment replies consist of five or six words, such as “Glad you enjoyed the ride” and “Thanks for watching” and “Thanks for subscribing and following along!”
I’m pretty sure he just scrolls through the comments and clicks on the automated YouTube comment reply buttons here and there. It gives the illusion that he is reading the comments and engaging with his viewers. But he isn’t spending any time on it. Of course, I am basing all of this on the quick glimpse I got of the calendar app on his phone’s home screen, and I THINK it said “Sat 25”. And the only time this year that the 25th was a Saturday was back in January. But I could be completely wrong. Maybe his phone app is broken and shows the wrong date. So who knows what the truth is?
Personally, I like to keep things as close to real time as possible. It only makes sense because I treat my YouTube channel as a kind of video journal. And I like to be able to post photos and thoughts and ideas from events that are happening right now. So the videos also have to be as current as possible.
Mentally, I don’t think I could maintain a YouTube channel that was eight months behind reality. That is too much of a separation. If I were posting videos from eight months ago and pretending it was happening right now, then I couldn’t write updates like this. I couldn’t post photos of the meal I had today or the thought I had today. And I couldn’t meet people that are watching my videos. And I enjoy doing that.