CHAPTERS/TOPICS
00:00 – Intro
05:04 – Air Conditioner Breakdown
47:08 – Making Friends in Melaka
01:09:28 – Coins & Melaka’s History
01:24:57 – Heeren Street History Mistakes
02:03:48 – Searching for Festivals
02:23:05 – Vlogger: Life Over 64
02:36:22 – Vlogger: Nomads Trail
03:13:38 – Vlogger: Florence Ryan
04:46:55- Pop Culture Round-Up
05:29:04 – Conclusion
05:32:37 – End Credits
Good morning and welcome back to a Planet Doug behind-the-scenes video, aka Morning Coffee with Doug. It is Thursday, September 10th, and I’m still here in the city of Melaka, Malaysia, and I am still inside my low-budget room at the Discovery Guest House. It also goes by the name of the Discovery Youth Hostel. Depends where you look it up. It uses both of those names. So, yeah, I’m still here. I’m not sure how long I’m going to be able to talk this morning because the heat in this room is kind of out of control. And I’ll tell you more about that story in a minute. And I’ve had trouble with my voice recently. I don’t know why that is. If I’m out walking around with my GoPro, talking to people, meeting people, hanging out for an hour over coffee, I can talk and talk and talk. But as soon as I set up my GoPro in my room for a behind-the-scenes video, I don’t know, my throat kind of closes up and I have trouble talking. I don’t know why that would be. But anyway, I’ve also had difficulty here because in these low-budget hostels, they take a big open space like in an old building and then they just sort of chop it up randomly into rooms. So, the walls between the rooms generally are paper thin. And I’m hyper aware of that because I do not want to disturb anyone. So I have to wait until I have no neighbors. So this morning I noticed the room over there is empty and this room is empty. So I can sit here and talk all I want and I’m not going to be bothering anybody. And I have the door to my room is closed. So I’m not if and I haven’t heard anybody in the hostel this morning. But sound really does carry and it can be really annoying. Like if you’re in a hostel and someone is in their room talking on the phone, they don’t know how loud they’re speaking and they have like this 2-hour conversation with their family back home and it’s like somebody is shouting in your ear for 2 hours because the noise will carry down the hallway, come through into your room. So anyway, I be I’m very careful about that and for a couple of mornings now. I wanted to record a video like this, but I just wasn’t able to because I knew I never saw the people, but the door to those rooms would be closed. And I’m thinking, I bet you somebody’s in there and they’re still sleeping. This morning the doors are all open. So I know I know the rooms are empty. So I’m going to continue talking for as long as I can.
Sipping my cup of coffee. And if my throat gives me trouble, I have a secret weapon this morning that may come in handy. Check that out. 3 liters of full cream milk. I love milk. It It’s really I don’t know. It just I love it. And I like full cream. Like I I’ve never been a big fan of this modern trend of telling people it’s good to get less like lowfat this, low everything that. So like lowfat milk. They take all the cream out of the milk and they sell you watered down milk, charge you more for it and convincing you that it’s better for you. And I’m like, “Nah, no, no, no, none of that. I want all the milk, you know, give me full fat. Don’t be taking cream out of my milk. So, I love to get this full cream. And at the 99 Speedmart recently, they’ve had this deal where you get a three-pack for 15 ringgit. So, it’s five ringgit per liter. And that’s like a full meal to me. So, if I end up having trouble with my throat, I’m going to crack open one of these bad boys and give myself a soothing to my throat and a burst of full cream energy. By the way, if the video doesn’t look that great or as good as it did look in a previous behind the scenes video, that’s because I’ve lowered the resolution on my GoPro to 1080p and I’ve also taken it out of HDR mode into standard mode. That’s because of overheating. I have the GoPro plugged into a USB-C cord. I’ve removed the battery that prevents it from overheating. But in this room, it is so hot that it doesn’t make any difference and the GoPro will overheat and shut down anyway. But I’m hoping that lowering it to 1080p, taking it out of HDR, that will have a good effect. So that that’s what’s going on with my GoPro. So that’s enough for the setup. Let’s dive into this morning’s topics.
The first story falls under the category of Planet Doug drama and it has to do with my new home here at the Discovery Guest House. If you saw my previous videos, you know that I was staying at a place called Mahkota Vibe Inn. And that’s my usual hangout in Melaka because for me anyway it is like the a good balance between location because it’s just like two blocks away from the UNESCO heritage zone which is where I want to base myself. You get a private room with air conditioning, private bathroom. The room is not big but it’s comfortable. So, it gives you pretty good value overall and it comes in at a relatively affordable price for Malaysia, though they do pile on all the taxes and it it ends up being more expensive than you think. But anyway, that is my usual hangout. It’s the best value I’ve come across in Melaka, assuming you want a private room in the heritage zone. I found nothing that matches it, but I got I had to leave because of the Independence Day weekend. The room got booked out from under me and yeah, I just didn’t book it far enough in advance on Agoda. So, I had to check out and then I found this place that was available and then I spent one night here and it was quite a shock to go from relative comfort to relative discomfort. Moving into this place was quite an adventure and I showed all of that in a video. I’m accustomed to places like this, so I mean it’s nothing new to me, but yeah, there’s stuff you can talk about in a place like this. It’s always very entertaining things like no water in the bathroom, right? When you move in, they present that to you as normal. like when you pay such a low price. The base rate for this room when I booked it was 25 ringgit per night. No, actually I got it at 23 ringgit and then there was seven ringgit total in various taxes and the heritage tax. So at 23 for the room, total of 30 when you add in everything else. And since then I’ve gotten the room for 25 per night total. It would be like 22 for the room plus three for the heritage tax and it comes out to 25. So if you’re paying 25 total for a room, you really have no business complaining about anything. You really don’t. Unless you just like to tell stories, which is my Achilles heel, so I will tell the stories anyway because I think they’re funny. And then you run the risk on YouTube of sounding like you’re complaining. And it would be perfectly valid for somebody to write a comment saying, “Dude, you’ve got a room in Malaysia for 25 ringgit a night. What are you complaining about?” And I’d be like, “Yeah, of course I get it.” But when you pay that for a room and you stay at kind of a hostel, part of the bargain for me is you’re living in an interesting world. It’s a low-budget world and you’re going to come across crazy people, crazy things. That’s part of the bargain. I like those stories. I like the exciting environment of places like this. So, yeah, I’m going to tell the stories about how, you know, you book the room, you think you’re staying in the main building. That was one of the attractions for me because I saw the building. It’s like a heritage building, nearly a hundred years old, right on the river. interesting architecture. And I’m thinking, “Wow, what a cool place. I can’t wait to see what my room looks like.” And then you check in and then they walk you across the street down the street and you’re not even staying in that building. They they they stick you in this like warehouse that has been converted into a hostel and you’re like, “Ah, okay. I I get it.” But anyway, and then you check in and then the guy’s giving you the tour. Okay, here’s the bathroom, but by the way, there’s no water. You know, when we’re really busy, there’s no water. So, and they just sort of present you with this like that’s perfectly normal and you’re just like, “Oh, okay.” But that’s a story you can tell. You meet odd characters. So, when I first moved in here, and I was trying to use one of the bathrooms, and I found out that in the the bum gun tap had like a dribble of water coming out of it, the shower was nothing. You turn on the shower, nothing comes out. But out of the tap, at ground level, there’s like a dribble. And if you put a bucket under there and just wait for an hour to let it fill up, then you can take a bucket bath. So, I was in there and then I hear all these men shouting and shouting and shouting. I step out of that bathroom and there’s like three other guests like a group of tourists from China. Three elderly men in their underwear standing right outside the bathroom just having a big shouting match cuz they discovered there was no water at the other bathroom right across from the one I was using. And it’s quite something to step out of your bathroom after struggling with your bucket bath and and your door bumps into one of these guys and you’re trying to get out and there’s these three men in their underwear and they you’re like what what world am I living in? And they turned to me and said in English, you know, water, you know, does that one have water? He says, no, there’s there’s no water over there either. So these are stories you get to tell and that’s part of the bargain. So, I have to tell the stories at the risk of coming across like I’m complaining all the time. There’s a fine line between telling a story and sounding like you’re complaining. And then you get those comments. I don’t get a lot of them, but I I’ll talk about this later. some other YouTuber that I’ve been following and they will say things like h you go to another country and you expect everything to be exactly like it was in your home country, quit your complaining, you know, you’re privileged to be able to, you know, go back to your country. You get comments like that. So, you do run the risk if you’re a bit of a storyteller that you have to you have to ride that line between telling the story and not sound like you’re complaining about it, if you know what I mean. And I offer that that perspective because I’m about to tell a story where I stayed here for one night. This room came with air conditioning. It’s on the wall there. And you don’t get a remote. You just have a switch on the wall. So, it’s set automatically. And you just turn on the switch. The air conditioner comes on. There’s like a blue light. And then it blew it blew out just a little bit of cold air. Not much, but just enough that it made the room bearable. So, okay. Air conditioning for 25 ringgit for 30 ringgit. Pretty good. And then a friend of mine showed up, and this is all in a previous video, and he accidentally booked two extra rooms at a nice hotel, and he couldn’t get a refund, and he had no use for those that the the hotel room those nights. So, I told him about where I was staying, and he says, “Hey, I’ve I’ve pre-booked this room at the Estadia Hotel, and the room is just going to be sitting empty for two nights.” like why let it go to waste and he gave me the key card and said yeah you stay here it’s already paid for so I spend one night here two nights at the Estadia hotel in complete luxury amazing room really really cool place even though in terms of luxury hotel it’s not a luxury hotel it’s like mid-range good value hotel but really really nice the room so I spent two nights there then I came back here which was really cool because I got the contrast between luxury comfort and then back here and that sudden I went from Mahkota Vibe Inn to here to the Estadia to here and it was really interesting to contrast the three places. So I was back here for a couple of nights and I I settled in okay my bucket routine worked out pretty well. I was getting enough water to keep filling the bucket so I could take bucket baths. The shower didn’t work, but that’s fine. And with just enough air conditioning, I was able to sleep at night. But then one day, I was sitting here in the room. I hear this loud crackling. I smell smoke. The air conditioner shuts down. Though a trick here was by shut down, I mean it just stopped working. There was no more fans running, no more cold air coming out, but the blue light was still on. And I was a little bit worried at first because of the risk of fire. When I was in Sumatra staying in Dumai, I had an actual fire in my low-budget hotel room. That hotel had a key card for turning on the power and the key card slot burst into flames. The on my was it the second second night there? Third night there something like that happened at midnight while I was taking a shower and I smell smoke and I go out into my room trying to like where’s that smoke coming from? I couldn’t find it for a long time. Went back into the shower came out again. The smoke was getting stronger and stronger. couldn’t find anything. All my electronics, nothing was running. No, everything was okay. And then I saw the smoke and the flames coming out of the key card by the door. So, I had fire on my mind. And now my air conditioner had snapped, had cracked loudly. Smoke had come out of it. It still had power. So, I’m thinking, hey, that’s a bit of a fire risk. So suddenly no air conditioning anymore. And the temperature in this room just rose and rose and rose to like sauna levels because I’m on the top floor and the ceiling of the roof of the building is right there with the sun beating down on it. So it was getting really really hot in here. But then I have to I’ve struggled with what to do in these situations. I’ve had this a similar situation all my life because for decades I’ve stayed in places like this. And then if there’s something wrong with your room, you have to balance the just living with the problem or the problem of telling somebody about it because this is not a luxury hotel. It’s not like you can go down to the front desk and there’s going to be a concierge in a tuxedo who listens to you and goes, “Oh, sir, thank you for bringing this to our attention. Our maintenance man will be there in 5 minutes and fix the hot water heater in your bathroom.” That’s not what happens. You go in a hotel like this, you can’t even find somebody to tell the problem to. Like you can go down to the office 10 times in a day. Nine of those times there’s going to be nobody there. So you wasted a whole day just trying to tell somebody about the problem. And then if you finally do get somebody that you can talk to, they don’t listen to you. they they’re they’re so busy with their work in general, they’re so overworked that they’re not focusing on what you’re saying and they just give you these robotic responses that have nothing to do with the problem you’re trying to tell them about. And then if you finally get them to understand, oh, the air conditioner broke, now you’re in this situation where you don’t know what’s happening. And you live in terror because you’re in your room doing your life and at any point there can be like this loud bang bang bang bang on the door cuz they they you don’t know when the repair guy is going to come. And normally the repair guy doesn’t come. The guy you talk to will talk to somebody else who talks to somebody else who talks to the boss who talks to somebody else and then some guy you don’t even know. He comes to look at the air conditioner and then they’re they’re fiddling with it and they’re there for an hour doing whatever they do. They’re banging on it. They’re doing this, they’re doing that, turning it on and off. All the things you’ve already done. So all he’s done is come to check it out and then takes an hour and then he leaves and now you don’t know what’s going to happen and then maybe a day will go by and then bang bang bang some guy comes in some workman with a ladder and tools. You get kicked out of your room. He’s in here climbing on all of your gear. You’ve got to make sure you put your laptop away and your camera gear. Keep everything safe. And then they’re working on it. He doesn’t have the right tool. He’s got to leave. And I mean, this goes on for days until maybe they finally get the air conditioner to wee back into life again. So, fixing the air conditioner can be more trouble than living without air conditioning, if you see what I mean. It’s more hassle to get it fixed than it’s worth. So, you’re balancing these two things. My throat is doing okay. having another sip of coffee.
So, I just lived without the air conditioner for day, night, day, night, day, night. And then one day I went out. I was on a I went out and I shot a video and I came back to the hostel, came up the stairs, and the guy who works here, the only one I’ve ever seen really, Rizal, he was outside my room because he’s out there folding laundry. And then as soon as I saw him there, I thought, “Oh, should I mention the air conditioner?” And I thought to myself, “No, it’s a bad idea. It’s it’s going to be annoying.” And that’s because I’d been out all day. I had walked many, many, many kilometers in the hot sun. I didn’t drink enough. I could feel I hadn’t had enough to eat. I could feel I was not in the best mood for one of these encounters. I thought, “Nah, don’t don’t don’t say anything. If everything goes wrong, you’re going to get annoyed. It’s going to ruin your whole day. Just don’t say anything. Wait until the morning when you’re feeling better. But at the same time, I thought the guy’s right here. I’m never going to see him again. So at against my better judgment, I did say the result after some small talk. Even the small talk was kind of annoying. I was I was trying to establish this mood of camaraderie. Hey Rizal, how you doing? Because I had just seen his dog outside, his dog Audi, and I wanted to break the ice. And I said, “Ah, I just saw Audi. He’s outside waiting for you.” Wow, that dog really loves you. And then he looked at me and went, “Huh? What?” And because he didn’t understand what I had said. And I says, “No, Audi, you’re your dog.” and Audi Audi your dog. You know, you have a dog and he’s and then I’m like our small talk I ran into a communication barrier. So, right out of the gate, my whole strategy collapsed. Then I was like, for Pete’s sake, like I can’t even have small talk. And it wasn’t really because of a language barrier. I really want to be clear about that because whenever I tell these stories, people will also say to me, “Well, the guy doesn’t speak English.” It’s not really that. It’s we’re coming at life in different ways. This idea of breaking the ice by chatting about his dog and how much his dog is so loyal to him and like follows him. It just doesn’t He’s like, “Why are you talking about my dog?” And he’s so busy. His brain is elsewhere. He has so many things to do at this. He does everything here. He does the cleaning, the getting the rooms ready to showing guests where their rooms are, giving them their He He does everything here. He has a lot of work to do. He probably works 18 hours a day. I don’t really know. Anyway, he’s not focused on customer service. He’s not looking to befriend his guests. So, he’s not really paying attention. and me coming at him with my folksy Canadian charm, it didn’t fly. So, right out of the gate, the whole thing fell apart. And I thought, well, I’m in it now. I might as well continue. And then I said to him, “Oh, by the way, the air conditioner in my room broke. It’s not working.” And then we got lost in the weeds.
It was like one of those so frustrating conversations calculated to to drive someone like me insane. We went around in circles around and around and around. My logical brain, I saw it unfolding like this. We’re right outside my room. We’re both standing there. I say to him, “Oh, by the way, my air conditioner isn’t working. It broke. There was a loud crack. It started smoking. It doesn’t work anymore.” My brain expected him to go, “Oh, let me look. Come into my room, get on my bed because it’s the only way to reach the air conditioner. Look at the air conditioner. Hold his hand up. Oh, feel it. Oh, yeah. It’s not running.” Huh. Interesting. But that’s not what happened. I said to him, yeah, the I told him, crack, smoke, fire, air conditioner is not working. And then he said to me, oh, your room, no, no air conditioning. I’m like, well, that’s what I’m telling you. The air conditioner isn’t working. And then we went around in loops for a while and he says, no, no air conditioning. Your your room has no air conditioning. I was like, “Well, yeah, that’s what I’m that’s what I’m telling you.” And I eventually figured out what he was telling me is that my the rate I paid for this room doesn’t include air conditioning. So, the fact that the air conditioner isn’t working in his mind, well, that’s normal. You don’t get air conditioning. And I’m like, “No, no, no, no, no. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let’s back up here. When I checked in, there was air conditioning. I’ve been here for what, five nights now. And every day, every night, there is air conditioning. I turn on the switch, the air conditioner turns on, and it runs. So, I have air conditioning. I did for five nights, but then it broke. So, there’s no air conditioning. And then he would, “Oh, yeah, no, no air conditioning.” It’s like, “Oh, for that’s nothing. You’re not listening.” there was, you know, we go around in circles. I cannot get him to grasp this concept that there was air conditioning. Now there isn’t. And he would not come see. I’m like, anyway, and then he did say something about remote. You know, if your room has air conditioning, you get a remote. And and we didn’t give you a remote, so you don’t have air conditioning. And again, I go back to my original point was the air conditioner worked fine for 5 days without a remote. I just turn on the switch and it goes. But then he would go back to saying no air conditioning. So that’s the point we were stuck on. So I thought, okay, if that’s the sticking point, I’ll I’ll roll with the punches here. And I pointed out to him that on Agoda when I booked this room, it says air conditioning. You know how it lists all the features in a room. I booked a room with air conditioning. If it had no air conditioning, I would not have booked it because with my electronics, with my laptop, with my cameras, I can’t stay in a fan only room because everything will overheat and shut down. And I even had that experience in this room since the air conditioner broke. I was working on my laptop and my laptop went crack and shut down. It overheated in the room. I wasn’t even exporting a video. I wasn’t doing anything unusual, but because the heat in the room was so intense, my laptop, an emergency procedure kicked in and and shut down my laptop to prevent damage from overheating. It’s that serious. So, I told him, “Listen, it says on Agoda air conditioning. I paid for a room with air conditioning.” And then he just kept saying, “No, no, no, no air conditioning. So, we’re going around and around. And I probably would have let it go at this point, but this wasn’t the first thing. Like, if everything had been perfect up until the air conditioner, all right, we’re we’re not we’re not making any progress here. I’ll let it go. But, of course, I had all the other previous experiences, like when I first checked in and I had already paid the heritage tax online. It says right on the Agoda, heritage tax included. And then they tried to charge me the heritage tax again in cash. And I had to argue with them to convince them that no, you can’t charge me the tax twice. I’ve already paid. And I had to get the proof on my phone, screenshots, show them, look, you know, it’s a hassle. You don’t want to arrive at a hotel and the first thing you have to do is argue with the guy about how much it costs. That’s always annoying. And then they kind of did a bait and switch where I guess I I did it to myself where I just assumed my room was in the Heritage Building cuz that’s where the Google Maps pin is. You look for the Discovery Guest House. There it is on Google Maps. I went there. Oh, there’s the building. Here’s the reception office. Of course, I’m going to assume that’s where I’m staying. But then there was a bit of a bait and switch and they took me to a different building. I’m like, ah, I I’m not a big fan of that. Plus, I booked specifically a larger twin room bed. I could see the photos of it. And it had a desk and a chair, twin beds, air conditioning. That’s the room I booked. And then when he brought me over here, he gave me this room, which is a small single bedroomedroom with no no table and no chair. So they didn’t even give me the room that I had booked. And this this is important because as he was arguing with me about how my room has no air conditioning, he pointed to my room and said, “No air conditioning.” Then he pointed to all the other rooms beside mine and said, “Air conditioning. air conditioning, air conditioning. This room, no air conditioning. And I says, “Ah, but I booked that room.” Like he was pointing to the room with the twin beds. And I says, “Well, that’s what I paid for. You didn’t give me the room I even booked. I booked that room with the twin beds.” You’re pointing at it and you’re saying that room has air conditioning. And I’m telling you, well, that’s the room I booked. You can look. Here it is on my Agoda listing. I booked a twin bed room with air conditioning. But you didn’t give me that room. You gave me this room and I let it go. I didn’t argue with you cuz I figured, ah, what’s the point? And then he went once I got him to grasp that idea, then he went to the other argument position. There’s always one more. It’s like fighting through a fortress that has levels of defense. There’s the moat, another moat, then a bridge, then a barrier, then a wall. You know, you got to get through every one of them. And he falls back to the previous one, to the previous one, to the previous one. And he fell back to another argument where he said, “Well, I don’t know.” You know, he he looked at the Agoda listing for air conditioning. He I I don’t know. And then I showed him, I booked a twin room, but you didn’t give me a twin bedroom. And he says, “I don’t know. My boss said, “Give you this room.” It was my boss. Right now, they do the blame switching. That’s another line of defense. It’s like it wasn’t me. My boss assigned you this room. So, if you want to, you know, argue about that, you have to talk to my boss. And then I’m thinking, well, where is this boss? I mean, how you know that that is your job. I’m the guest. You are the one taking care of the guests. I’m talking to you. I’m telling you there’s an issue. Now, it is your job to tell the boss. That’s not my job. I don’t know who the boss is. I don’t know where the I don’t know how to contact the boss. That that is your job. And he says, “No, that’s not my job. You know, boss, you you have to talk to the boss.” So at this point you can understand I think my irritation level was starting to rise right and h it was exactly what I was afraid of. My entire day was going to be ruined. My whole night was going to be ruined because I was going to be replaying this conversation in my mind getting more and more annoyed all the time. And then you have that little wrinkle at the end too where you’re like you feel like an idiot because you’re arguing over a room that costs 25 ringgit a night. Like is this what your life has been reduced to? It’s like come on dude, let it go. It’s a cheap room. Be happy you got a cheap room. Just let the air conditioning go. But you know I was already in the conversation. So, you know, I I kept it going.
And then then the blue light came into play and that was the last straw. I I just couldn’t take it anymore because I was sticking to my guns about how I got a little bit direct with him. I never lost my ne I don’t lose my temper. I don’t get angry. I’m almost never even direct because it’s just not my nature. I always preface everything like I believe you know I think as far as I know you know I’m always you know I’m appeasing everybody around me and we all and we know from politics and history you you know when you appease the aggressor they usually just come and take more and more and more but anyway that’s what I do but in this case he was really annoying me because the things he was saying were just patently untrue like he said no air conditioning and there I am with my Agoda listing see air conditioning it says the room comes with air conditioning and it is unusual to get air conditioning for a room that costs 25 ringgit per night. I get that. But on the other hand, on Agoda, you are getting people to book your hotel rooms by telling them it has air conditioning. And I told him, “My room has air conditioning.” And he would just say, “No, it no, no, no.” And then then I got more direct and okay, are you saying I’m a liar? Are you telling me that I’m lying to you? Is that what you’re telling me? Because here it is. Air conditioning. This is the room I booked. twin beds, air conditioning. I’m in a room totally different from the one I booked. Am I lying? Are you saying that I’m lying to you? All right. And then he would tell me, “It’s not my job.” And I says, “Well, yes, it is your job. You’re just not doing your job.” But again, you have that weird feeling like I know how much work he does. his boss probably makes him do a dozen things that are completely outside his job description. So, I don’t really want to give this guy a hard time, but at the same time, he’s telling me it’s not his job, and I’m pretty sure it is. So, I at some point, I have to stand up for myself a little bit. And then I I argued with him and says, “No, it is your job. You’re just not doing your job.” So, we got to that point and then he finally agreed to come look cuz we’re standing outside my room. So, I say, “Yeah, come come come look.” So, you know, the door to my room is open. I come into my room and then he looks at the air conditioner and he sees the blue light because I had the power on and he he pointed, “Oh, it works. Blue light. What are you talking about? There’s no air conditioning. The blue light is on.” I was like, “H, please, please have have mercy on me.” And I said, “No, the blue light doesn’t mean anything.” So, I climbed up onto the bed and I held my hand in front of it and said, “There’s nothing here. No cold air coming out. I touched the air conditioner. There’s nothing rumbling. There’s nothing happening. Yes, it’s getting power, which turns on the blue light, but the air conditioner is not working. So, again, I was expecting him to climb onto the bed, hold up his hand. Oh, yeah, you’re right. It’s not working. But he wouldn’t do it. He just stood in the doorway, saw the blue light, and said, “Oh, blue light. It’s working.” So, then I finally I was on the edge of getting angry. I was going to lose it. I could feel it happening. So then I just got down off the bed and I walked to the door and I said, “Okay, I I really I can’t talk to you anymore. I I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” And I just closed the door. And that was that was the end of that was the end of that particular saga. And this was actually days ago. And I’ve done nothing about it since then. I’ve just learned to live without the air conditioning.
So during the day, if I’m in here and I’m not recording a video like this, I leave the door wide open, there’s an a window that opens onto the hallway and I has a screen on it, so I can open the window. I get a tiny bit of a cross breeze and I’m still in here sweating and it’s pretty uncomfortable because you sweat between your back and your t-shirt and the pillow and then your skin starts to react badly because it’s like soaking in sweat all day. And then at night it takes a while and when the nighttime comes around it’s hard to sleep because it’s too hot. I do have the fan. Without the fan, of course, I I couldn’t survive at all. But basically, I’ve just adapted to life without an air conditioner. And I just I just can’t face another conversation like that. And I suppose I could make a big stink out of it and go find the boss, but then we would just have that exact same conversation all over again. And yeah, I just can’t deal with it. So anyway,
That I think is the the whole story, the saga of staying at the Discovery Guest House. I did see in some reviews online. People on Google like Google hotel listing reviews are maddeningly vague. They never give specific details, but I did I do remember seeing a few where people were complaining about the air conditioning thing that they booked a room with air conditioning, but then they were told they had to pay a 100 ringgit extra to get a remote. I think I saw two comments like that, but that never came up when I checked in. And as I said, when if that was true, when I first arrived, like when I first checked in, the first thing I did was check the air conditioning. I think it’s in the video. Yeah, it is in the video. I turned on the air conditioner, held my hand in front of it, and it wasn’t full blast aircon, but it was blowing out cold air on the right hand side only. Like the right corner had some cold air coming out. None on the left, but on the right. And you know, I’m I’m pretty good at judging these things. It doesn’t feel like enough, but I’ve had I’ve stayed in these rooms all my life, and if you’re getting any cold air at all over time, it will be effective. So, I checked the air conditioner. Yeah, it was working. So, I didn’t say anything about it. I didn’t ask about, oh, do I need a remote? Because it’s a switch on the wall. I turn on the switch, blue light comes on, cold air comes out. Oh, air conditioning. Cool. So, from the very beginning, had I moved in, turned on the switch, and nothing happened at that time, I would have said to him, “Oh, my room has air conditioning, but it’s not working. Do I do I need a remote?” And then maybe he would have said to me, “Oh, yeah, for 100 ringgit per day or per week or per two.” I who knows what that 100 ringgit means, but it never came up until the air conditioner exploded and stopped stopped working. So yeah, I don’t think I’ve had any other adventures in this hotel to talk about. The only other I mean the related topic of course is how much and how often this happens with Agoda. I mean it really is a big problem with online booking because but I’ve learned to live with that. Every hotel just about every hotel I’ve stayed in in Malaysia the room doesn’t match the listing. It never does. Of course, the photos are largely fake. They make everything look much newer, much nicer, more furniture than is actually in the room. And then they list all the facilities. So, there have been times where there was a hotel offering a pretty good price, and that room had a mini fridge, a kettle, things like that. And so, I boost my budget up a little bit. Yeah, it would be nice to have a mini fridge. You can actually save money because you can do things like buy, you know, milk in bulk, put it in the fridge, have it nice and cold, and you actually save money because And if you’re out at a restaurant and you want to take food back to your room, leftovers, yeah, you put it in the fridge, and you can actually save money by having a mini fridge. So, I book that room because it has a mini fridge on Agoda. You get to the hotel, check in, and of course, the room has no mini fridge, no kettle, no blackout curtains. This room is also listed as having blackout curtains, which it doesn’t. So, the light from the hallway comes in. You have to I have to sleep with eye shades on. So, the deeper problem really is the Agoda listings. And I’ve noticed that if you bring this up to the hotel owners, they don’t even they don’t think it’s their problem. Like they’ll you’ll say, “But on Agoda it says air conditioning.” Oh, well, Agoda made a mistake. It’s like, no, you made a mistake. It’s your listing. You have to go in and change it. Agoda isn’t making the listing. You’re the one that chose these items. So, no, it’s not Agoda’s fault, but they they seem to think they have no power over it or they just can’t be bothered or more cynically, they’re willing to lie to people because they know people will book it because it says air conditioning and then when they show up, they’ve already paid. They might complain, but these people are never coming back. They’re on holiday. They’re backpackers. They may stay here for one night and they don’t like the place, but they’re only going to stay for one night anyway, so what’s the big deal? Yeah, things like that. But I I do remember when I first moved in, I had this thought. I was, you know, I had some little small chat, small talk going on with Rizal and he was telling me, he was actually a little bit annoyed with me because I was arguing about the heritage tax and it was taking me some time to call up the Agoda listing to show him where it said heritage tax included. And he was getting a little bit annoyed with me because I was keeping him from doing his work of preparing the rooms. He had all these keys and he’s like, “Come, come on, come on. I got to I you know, let’s hurry this up. But I took my time. So he was already kind of annoyed. And then he he said to me, “Yeah, I have so many rooms to clean because all these dumb people, they only stay for one night.” He’s like, “What’s up with that?” Like all these people, they came yesterday. They stay for one night and then they leave. And now every day I have to clean all the rooms. Oh, these dumb people only staying for one night. I I think I even have it on video, though. It’s not that clear that he said that, but that that’s what I heard him say. And then after I stayed here for a while, I’m thinking, well, dude, the reason they’re only staying for one night is because it’s not a great place. You know, they stay for one night. If it if they liked it, they would have extended for another week. So, you know, can like can you put that together? Can you connect the dots here? the reason why they’re only staying for one night. H like think about it. But I I didn’t actually say that. I just I just thought about it. But anyway, after that whole story again, hang in there with me. That’s just a story. I’m telling the story because I think it’s funny. I think it’s amusing and it is illustrative of this kind of life. When you’re overseas, you’re a foreigner staying in low-budget places. These are the crazy things that happen and they’re expected. It’s not unusual. And yeah, I just want to emphasize I’m not complaining about this. I’m just trying to tell it as a funny story as if I were standing on a on a stage in New York off Broadway doing like a a monologue telling stories from my life to an audience and and you’re my audience right now on video. So I hope you take that story in the spirit in which it was intended.
Another Planet Doug drama story though not so much drama just story from my life here in Melaka. I I left my room one day. I went out I I don’t think I was filming anything. I was going out to get something to eat actually. I remember now. So, I stepped out of my hostel out onto the street, turned left, and I’m walking down the road on the left hand side. And the main building for Discovery Guest House and the courtyard and the reception room is on the right. And this was after all of the drama about the air conditioner and all the things to do with my room. Couple of days after that, and I’m walking along and I hear my name. I hear someone shout, “Doug, Doug.” I look across the road and there’s a man looked to be in his 60s or 70s as I found out later sitting in a chair where Rizal usually sits with his dog. So, it was like inside the courtyard of the hotel. And it was an older man sitting there calling my name and and waving to me. So, I thought, “Oh, that must be the boss. Maybe Rizal said something to him or maybe there’s an issue with my reservation. Maybe they’ve decided that because I made an issue about the room, they want me out of the hotel or they a problem with my bicycle being parked in their courtyard locked up there. It’s getting in the way. Something. I thought the boss wanted to talk to me for some reason. So I crossed the street and I went up to this guy and and then he he indicated a chair and said, “Oh, have a seat. Have a seat.” There were two chairs there. So I, “Oh, okay.” The boss was being really friendly, so I took a seat. And then this man said to me, “Oh, would you like a drink?” And I was like, “Uh, sure.” Like, well, to be honest, at the time, I didn’t want a drink because I was focused on getting to where I was going. I just wanted to deal with this interaction with the boss and then go. I I didn’t want to spend an hour over drinks with him. Maybe I did. I didn’t know. I was a little bit hesitant. And I’m like like what do you mean by a drink? He wasn’t drinking anything. And I’m looking around and like what what is this drink going to entail? Are you just talking about a glass of water? You know, but then he pointed at the next door restaurant. It was like a Lucky King Bun was beside the hotel reception area. He No, I I can go in there like I know you like ice latte. I can get you an ice latte from here from the Lucky King Bun restaurant. I’m like, whoa, wow, that’s pretty nice. It’s like, okay, sure. I I’ll take an ice latte. And he went in there and ordered and paid for an ice latte for me, nothing for himself. And he brought it back out to the table and gave it to me. And then I found out may maybe I had an inkling before this. This was not the boss. This was just a guy who knew me from my YouTube channel. And I was walking by in my red Canada shirt. I didn’t have my GoPro at the time, but and I remembered him then because I ran into him during the dragonboat races. I remember meeting a man during the Dragon Boat races, an older man, and he, “Oh, Planet Doug, I watch your videos.” And we chatted a little bit and then he went away. It was the same man. I didn’t remember him from that encounter at the time. But now he’s telling me who he is. And yeah, he just happened to be sitting there near my guest house, saw me and and waved and called me over. And because he was a YouTube like a Planet Doug follower and supporter, he wanted to talk to me and he offered to buy me a ice latte. So yeah, so I had a chat with him. And yeah, it was very very interesting. I was really curious of course about lots of things. I always love I love the behind-the-scenes stories cuz one thing I couldn’t understand is like why are you like here? I mean, it’s a it’s a very specific place to be sitting a chair inside a hotel’s reception area. Like, how in the world did you end up right here? It’s like, so I was trying to ask him. It’s like, okay, so like, without being too nosy, I was trying to find out like, so you were in this neighborhood just walking around and, you know, I was trying to like, can you, you know, give me the story? And it turned out that he ate a lot. He told me this that he went up and down the streets near my guest house. And for what whatever reason, he had a lot of meals. He started listing them. And I I couldn’t keep track of all the meals he had, but each one sounded like a full meal. He says, “Yeah, I went to this place and I had this and then I found this and I had this and I had this and I had this. It was a lot of food.” And I guess that street and then the little India street is is known historically for having all these great places tucked away in the alleyways for good local food. And he was sampling all this food. And then as he was leaving he he had a reaction. He was like, “Oh, I ate too much.” He was feeling a little bit ill, tired. And then he saw that chair and then there was somebody I think Rizal was nearby and he said to Rizal is like oh excuse me you know I’m not feeling well the heat I ate too much do you mind if I sit down here and rest and that’s how he ended up sitting in that chair and then he saw me and invited me to join him and and got me an iced latte. So, that is how I met him. And, he’s a little bit in one of my videos, like just a a he he shows up briefly because as we were talking, he was obviously open to the idea of us meeting again and and I was open to the idea as well. Well, you know, if he had a suggestion, a restaurant that he wanted to show me, a place that would interest me, yeah, we could make arrangements to go there together, that’d be fine. And then he told me about a Hainanese chicken rice restaurant called Hoi that he he goes to a lot. Turns out I think he goes there every single morning. And he said, “Yeah, I know this place. 8:30 in the morning. we can we can go there to have breakfast. What do you think of that? Like the next morning. And I said, “Yeah, that that sounds that sounds pretty good.” So, we made that arrangement to meet for breakfast the next morning. And that was kind of interesting, too, because you know, we talked for a long time and I got quite a bit of his life story from him. I don’t think he’ll mind if I tell a few details. One is that he was born in Melaka and he’s in his 70s, maybe 73 years old. So you can do the math how long ago that was when he was living in Melaka. So he knows a side of the city that nobody else would be aware of. He saw Melaka 73 years ago when he was born. That’s pretty amazing. And he lived here until he was until he was a teenager, like 16 years old, and then he went to school and or moved to Australia. So these days, yeah, he he spent much of his working life in Australia and his work was with he had a whole bunch of different jobs apparently, but he was also a field hockey coach. And as a field hockey coach, he got to travel with various teams and then he managed to go to other countries all over Malaysia with the team as they had, you know, competitions. So he had very interesting life, a very interesting guy. And then now he was back in Malaysia. And on top of all of that, his family home was one of the long tunnel houses on Heeren Street because I became very interested in the architecture and the design of those amazing houses on Jonker Street and and Heeren Street. I shot a couple of videos about that and went to the Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum and his family home is one of those houses. So, he said he found my video very, very interesting. And then he confirmed everything that I was saying in my videos because I was talking about, you know, how long they were and the those the air wells and the servants quarters at the back, all these different things. The brick walls separating each house from the next, serving as like a fire break to prevent fire from spreading. All these things that I was talking about, the original more simple Dutch style of house had had all these elements but were smaller and simpler and then they were bought by the Peranakan Chinese. His family is a Peranakan Chinese and they bought the plots that used to belong to the Dutch and then they renovated the houses, made them taller, bigger, grander, more decorative, more Chinese obviously. So yeah, we had a great time talking about all of that and then again through conversation I found out that and I experienced for myself that he just loves to talk to people. So he has the habit of going out into Melaka and just goes up to people and asks them like all the visitors to Melaka like oh where are you from? Get their life story have conversations whether they’re Malaysians or foreigners or anybody like that. and he told me that he recently met a French guy who was on a bicycle doing a tour like a world tour and he came through Melaka and then he went to Indonesia and he met this guy this French cyclist. He told me his first name, but it’s slipping my mind right now. And then he he mentioned that yeah, you know, I met this French guy and we were hanging out together and I invited him to go to this Hainanese chicken rice place to meet me. But this French guy kept sleeping in. Like 8:30 was like too early in the morning or something. And then he would I guess he was staying at Mama’s hostel which is right across the road from where Low lives where his big long you know traditional tunnel house is located and then he made arrangements to meet up with this French guy and he says yeah I went there and I’m knocking on the door and I guess he just slept in right so so now he was worried that I was going to stand him up too about this whole chicken rice place and then I of course I assured him trust me if I say I’m going to be there at 8 well first of all he was going to come get me but I’m thinking you know I could see he struggled a little bit with mobility being in his 70s and I’m like well you don’t have to come get me I know Melaka very well so no no you don’t have to come to my hotel forget about that I will meet you at Hoi right and then he was kind of worried agreed again. He’s like, “Oh, you know this French guy.” And I said, “Don’t worry.” I I assured him over and over again that if I say, “I’m going to be there at 8:30 to meet you, I will be there at 8:30. And in fact, I’ll be there at 8:00, which is my usual habit. I’ll go there half an hour early before they’re open just so I know. I hate I hate being late.” So, I I bent over backwards to assure him. Don’t worry about it. I will be there. And of course, I was. And I got there at about quarter after 8, I guess. I didn’t bring my GoPros with me. I didn’t film this. I didn’t ask him in advance like, “Oh, do you mind if I make a video with you in it?” I wanted to because it sounded like this restaurant was in an old original Peranakan Chinese house as well with all the air wells and all the incredible architecture. So, I wanted to film the inside of this restaurant. The food is probably worth filming. And it sounded like he would even invite me back to his house afterwards to get a tour of the house. So, I thought, “Wow, this is an amazing opportunity. If I can take video of all this, that would be great.” But I didn’t really want to push it because that was our first meeting and from his stories, I got the impression that it might not be a great idea to put him in a video front and center. So, I didn’t even ask him and I just went to have breakfast with him and I didn’t bring any camera gear with me. I may have brought it with me. I don’t remember now, but I didn’t have it out. You know, I wasn’t filming. So, anyway, we had a really nice meal there. The he treated me to this meal, and it turns out that his family and the family that runs this restaurant know each other. Like, he’s known this family from when he was a baby. They they they used to run a kopitiam somewhere else on Heeren Street and he would go there all the time when he was young and a teenager and then when they became very very popular and successful they moved to this bigger place and there’s like family connections. So he goes there every single morning at 8:30 to have the same meal sits at the same table and then when I sat with him he he spoke to them and said, “Oh, I have a guest this morning.” and they know I’ll pay for his breakfast. And he ordered for me the Hainanese chicken rice and the famous Melaka chicken balls which are a popular dish here. So we had a great conversation. I learned a lot more about his life. He has a lot of stories to tell. It would have been amazing to have a microphone on him to capture all of these story all of these stories. But to be honest, yeah, I don’t think I don’t think his life is he’s not he wasn’t telling me all these stories because he wanted to have them on the internet. We were we had a lot of things with in common. He told this great story about going to Hong Kong and he told me about the place that he stayed in Hong Kong and I made a joke because I I’ve been to Hong Kong a few times and I says, “Oh, Chungking Mansions. Were you staying in Chungking Mansions? Because that’s where I stayed. A world famous place for backpackers. Like one of the craziest places in the world, Chungking Mansions. And I mentioned that and he looked at me like, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, never. I would never go to Chungking Mansions.” And I walk by there, it looks so dangerous. And like I said, well, that that’s that’s where I stay. Oh, oh, how did you survive? you know, so we had a lot of things in common, a lot of things to talk about. Very interesting breakfast. And then we went out for a Chendol afterwards at the Jambasar Chendol restaurant right on right on Dutch Square. And I saw Low in action where he’s talking to me, but his head was on a swivel looking at everybody else sitting at all the other tables. and he would just he knows who they Okay. Oh, they’re from the Philippines. Oh, they’re Bangladeshi. Oh, they’re Malaysian. And then he would want to know everything about them, where they’re from. So during our conversations, he would lean over to the other tables. Oh, excuse me. Are you from the Philippines? Oh, what city? And then he would go, “Oh, you’re from Johor Baru. Oh, how long?” You know, he would just talk to everybody all around me. And that’s that’s kind of his lifestyle. So that was kind of interesting. He’d be a great guy to hang out with because I’m very reluctant to press people for personal details about their life, but he he does that all the time. So, it would be fun to kind of hang out with him and I could be a like a voyeur getting all this information because he has the courage to talk to all these people. He just walks up to them like on the street and say, “Oh, hello, you know, where are you from?” you know, and have a conversation, which I would love to do, but I never do. And what was the other thing? Oh, yeah. The amazing thing is his daily life. He also has the habit of riding on M100, the city bus that I made a video about cuz he he talked to me about that. says, “Oh, you know, you made that video about the M100 bus, how it goes in a loop, and goes to, you know, Melaka Sentral, the main bus terminal, and then comes back.” And he said, “I ride on that bus all the time.” And he does it for the air conditioning. And he has a special card for senior citizens that allows him to ride on the bus for free. So he’s like, “Yeah, he’ll be walking around in the hot sun, talking to people, just being social, exchanging stories, and if he’s getting tired from the heat, he waits for the M100, beep, hops on, and then he just goes around for an hour in the loop, maybe two loops, I don’t know, and just enjoys the air conditioned interior of the bus. And then when he’s feeling better, feeling refreshed, he gets off the bus. So, that was a great link between us as well because I shot that entire video about bus M100. That was very, very cool. And it kind of tied in with everything that I was talking about because when I was on the bus, I noticed that most of the passengers were senior citizens, people with health problems or like looked like a single mother with three children. all people who take the bus out of necessity because it’s cheap and they have a lot of time on their hands, so they’re willing to put up with the inconvenience of riding a on a bus. They’re not hiring a Grab to take them places. So, the fact that Low I don’t think he was doing it out of budget concerns as far as I could tell. He has lots lots of money. He’s fine financially, but he’s sort of living this senior citizens life of austerity almost by choice. You know, eating the same inexpensive food in the same restaurant every morning, walking around the city, interacting with people, hopping on the bus, you know. Yeah, it was very, very cool. Very, very cool to talk to him. And then a couple of mornings later, I went back to that restaurant. I I didn’t have arrangements to meet him. I just went there by myself. And this time, I brought my GoPro and I shot some video of the interior of the restaurant. But Low, well, he was there. We happened to I happened to go there when he was having his regular morning breakfast there. At that time, I didn’t realize that he went there every single morning like clockwork. I thought he just went there a lot, but not all the time. But it turns out that yeah, he was there the same morning that I went there. And when I first walked into the restaurant, I didn’t see him. I was so busy. I was focused on the GoPro and I walked right by his table and I didn’t notice him. And I’m filming and doing this. And I get to the end of the building, the final courtyard with the air well. I turn around, I come back. Oh, there’s Low at his usual table. So then I joined him for breakfast and he treated me to breakfast again, which is really, really nice of him. Had the same meal because they basically they serve a couple of dishes, but the Hainanese chicken rice and the chicken balls, that’s the main dish that they make there that they’re famous for. So I had that again. And then we went out for Chendol again and and repeated that experience. So that was yeah that was very very cool. One of a very pleasant encounter here in Melaka on planet Doug. Time for another cup of coffee. In fact, I’m going to go take a shower cuz I I’m really getting hot. I think my GoPro is about to overheat. So I’m going to make another cup of coffee. Take a shower. Maybe have some milk and I’ll come back with my next story.
Ah, feeling better. I had to change my shirt because yeah, my Red Canada shirt just soaked in sweat like on the back where I’m resting against some pillows here. It just the sweat just builds up back there. So, I took a took a quick shower to cool down and yeah, change my shirt. And then when this one gets soaked with sweat, then I by that time the Canada shirt has already dried and I just go back and forth between I was saying the other day I went out for a walk to shoot a video. I’ll talk about that a bit later. And I was saying that if I had a 10-hour day of walking around Melaka, I could easily go through 10 shirts. I could have like one shirt per hour. I need somebody following behind me with a wheelbarrow filled with shirts and then every hour I just switch to the the next one and then they hang it up to let it dry and I just keep changing shirts. But a shirt one shirt per hour and now in this room. Yeah, especially Oh, when I went out into the hallway, I have to go. It’s a shared bathroom like I said, so I walk down and they do get a nice cross breeze for some reason in the hallway. There’s open windows down there and it’s so much cooler out in the hallway than in my room when I close the door. So now I’ve I’ve opened the door and I’ve got the window open and hopefully it’ll cool things down a little bit in here. And you might think, well, if it’s so darn hot, why are you drinking hot coffee?
It doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to heat, like body heat. Drinking a hot coffee doesn’t seem to make the heat worse really. I don’t know. But I’ll I’ll drink this and then maybe I’ll have some milk after. So the next story that is on my mind was also an encounter here in Melaka. I doubt it’s going to be a very long story, but it was quite interesting. So I thought I would mention it in a separate a section all to its own. This was on a Friday night. I think things really get busy here on the weekends, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. This whole the heritage zone is bustling and the street right outside my hotel gets very, very busy. The one that leads off of Dutch Square. I went down there for dinner. I went to a schwarma place and I spoke to the guy running it. Really, really friendly man. I’d walk by this place a number of times and every time I see that schwarma outside, right, they have the meat on a spit and then they shave off the meat and they make sure I like, “Oh, I got to go there sometime.” So, I had finally decided to pop in. Really nice guy. Had a schwarma. Really good, really nice. The the issue with things like schwarma for me is I could have three of them, right? So I ordered a meal which is like a schwarma came with fries, some salad, this and that and then with a drink at a regular it’s a regular restaurant, not a typical eatery like I normally go to. So it was a bit of a treat to go to one of these places. So, I went in there. Nice environment. They’re playing. It’s from I spoke to the owner. said it’s Syrian. Syrian food and Arabic music playing very loudly. The decor he said was Syrian Arabic. So, an interesting place. But then, of course, a regular meal in a place like that, even an inexpensive meal is going to cost anywhere from 25 to 30 to 40 ringgit. And then to be honest, to feel full, I’d probably have to have two. Like one schwarma is not going to fill me up. So I would probably have to order two. And then you’re looking at a very expensive meal for my my budget, my lifestyle. But anyway, it was a nice treat to go there and have one schwarma. And then after I left, it was getting dark. It was already dark. And then I walked up and down the street and I noticed a man sitting at a table just like a small table with a chair. No, no music playing, no fancy display, no lights really, anything like that. And he was selling coins, I think coins and stamps. And then he called out to me, “Doug, Doug, Planet Doug, Planet Doug.” So he knew me from my videos. So I went over to talk to him and then he said yeah he said he really enjoyed my recent videos about sort of the untold history of Melaka and then in particular he said he really enjoyed my deep dive into Heeren Street with you know the design of the houses things like that and he said you know he was born and lived in Melaka his whole life but a lot of what I was talking about was new information to him and he that it was really quite interesting. So then I started talking with him and he opened my eyes to an entirely new lens for thinking about Melaka and of course that was the coins like coins. I mean, I’ve been to I went to the money museum in Kuala Lumpur and I’ve been to money museums in other countries and they always have a display about the currency, the paper bills and the coins themselves. And you see a lot of the different designs like the very famous ones from China that have the square cut out of the middle of them. And then you can take a string or a cord and put it through the coin. And then you can put a whole bunch of coins on one cord through the hole to make a larger amount of currency. So rather than just having a big pocket full of coins, you can collect them on string or cord to make up larger amounts of money. So I’m familiar with all of that and I have kind of a a vague interest in coins, but they’re so small and they’re the old ones are usually so worn out and you kind of look at them and you see a bunch of kings and queens that you don’t know who they are and the dates. I don’t know. It’s hard to really connect with them. They just seem complicated. So, I never really thought about coins when it comes to Melaka. But now I’m speaking with this man and his entire he spent much of his adult life. He said he’s been collecting coins for 40 years. So, he knows his coins and he’s been collecting them. has this huge collection and now that he’s in his 60s or 70s, however old he was, he decided to sell them. So, he’s there on the weekend and he sells coins to tourists and local people
and he was clearly passionate about his hobby and very passionate about the coins, very knowledgeable. He point he went through his whole collection showing me some of the pieces that that were very important to him and telling me about their history. And I did ask him like, “Wow, after 40 years when you sell one of these coins, doesn’t it make you sad like you’re losing a part of yourself?” And then he said, “No, absolutely not.” He said now that he’s selling them, he’s really glad to send them back out into the world and had let other people enjoy them rather than just having them all in albums in his room at his house or something like that. Right. So that that was quite interesting. And then I understood the coins a lot better because to be honest, I mean, I’ve talked a lot about the Melaka Sultanate, the golden age of Melaka, when it was a a world trading center, when it was at the heart of trading routes running from China to Java, Arabia, India, even Europe. you know this right in the heart of that flow of trade buying and selling goods of all kinds. Okay, that’s all very fascinating. You see pictures of the markets, everything for sale, but somehow it never occurred to me like, well, they’re all exchanging money, right? Everybody is paying for these goods. What are they paying with? And a lot of the casual history that you come across in the museums talks about how in Melaka there were hundreds of languages being used. I think that figure that they talk about like hundreds and hundreds is a little bit of an exaggeration but you can easily say that a dozen languages like main languages were being used every day in Melaka and maybe dozens of them. That’s cool. But that means all these people come from different parts of the world. They all use different currencies, too. And it’s like, “Oh, yeah. I never really thought about that.” So, he had entire collections of coins dating from the Melaka Sultanate. And he would point out the engravings, the dates, the pictures, all the information. Yeah. the these coins, you know, date back to the 1400s. And then he would move on to the other album from the 1500s, the 1600s, 17. It’s like, whoa, you know, once you know what you’re looking at and you have someone who can tell you about them, now they suddenly become fascinating and you can look at these coins and see the flow of Melakan history throughout the centuries just through the coins and and what they represent, the language used on them, the pictures of them, the material materials that they’re made out of their design. It’s like, wow, that is really kind of fascinating.
And I was thinking, of course, wow, it would be really cool to make a video about that. But of course, what am I going to do? Spend the next year learning about coins just so I could make a knowledgeable video about them. But I was thinking, yeah, it would be kind of cool to put a microphone on him and record him talking about his coin collection in the market, you know. So, something like that is a possibility. But I know from experience doing that really does double, triple, or quadruple the complexity and the energy and the time required to make a video. At least it it seems to be that way for me. So, who knows whether I’ll do that or not, but it it certainly was something, yeah, that I was thinking about. And I did end up thinking after I had this long conversation with him that his display could really be improved because I’ve passed coin collections like that quite a bit. They have a flea market in Melaka, like right off of Jonker Street. And I went there one morning and I shot a bit of video walking up and down the flea market and there were a group of men. It’s always men for some reason. And they were selling coins, you know, and they’re very popular with local men, all hobbyists. You see that in markets all all the time where you see men selling coins. And in this case, like this man’s table looked very similar to all these other tables that I’ve seen. But when he turns on his light, he had a long like fluorescent tube battery operated light that he could click on and then he could shine them on the coins. So he would do that and then he would start picking out individual coins like, “Oh, look at this one.” And then he would tell me about it. “Oh, look at this one. Look at this one.” And he would tell me the history of the coin and the significance of everything about the coin. And then it it was like a light bulb, you know, figuratively went off in my head. It’s like, whoa, that is really interesting. But in order to get to that level of interesting, you need more than just coins in the dark because they’re so small. So I could see how if he really wanted to sell the coins, it would be kind of nice to have some bigger signage like putting them on display, Melaka Sultanate coins with a year like 1400s and then those coins underneath that sign. So then if you’re just walking by his table, it’s like, “Oh, wow. Those are coins from the 1400s.” And now these are as a sign from the 1500s, from the Portuguese era, Portuguese coins from the 1550s. And then the 1750s, Dutch coins, British coins, coins from India, from Arabia, from China, you know, to have some sort of a display to hook people, give them some understanding of what they’re looking at. And then, I don’t know, you really need to make the coins bigger. almost like a photo album with a closeup where the coin is this big on a page and then you can see all the details because you know me in my 60s like even with these glasses I’m like I I really can’t make out the details of those coins. I need a magnifying glass or something like that. But he he didn’t have a display, you know, like that. And that that that’s kind of what made me feel like maybe he’s enjoying selling the coins, but maybe the real enjoyment is coming from sharing his knowledge with other people like me rather than selling them, right? So he gets a lot of enjoyment. Maybe this if I’m I think I’m still here in Melaka this weekend. Maybe I’ll go out again and just film a little bit. Ask him, can I put a microphone on him and then we can talk about his collection a little bit. That would be interesting to do.
So, yeah, another Planet Doug story. I didn’t I didn’t get the man’s name. I don’t know anything about him, but as I said, maybe I can make a video about him and his coins. That might be interesting.
This is another Planet Doug drama kind of story, and it’s not about a person that I met. It’s about a comment that was left on one of my videos. And this is a bit of an unusual story. because I can’t find the comment anymore and the only reason I’m talking about it is because it focuses on my videos about Heeren Street and the tunnel houses. And I think the comment was left by an actual historian and not a typical historian, but maybe even someone from France and maybe even a French historian who lives in Melaka and knows what he’s talking about. I say that because when I met the man Low at the side of the road and he’s he’s the man the local man who lives here and we had chicken rice together and he lives in one of those houses. So, I was talking to him about these houses and we were talking about all the things that I said in my video and he was giving his input and then I don’t know if I mentioned it or he mentioned it, but I said there was a like someone I think maybe he brought it up and he said, “Yeah, there was a comment on your video from and I think the guy’s name is Serge French name and I was like yeah I know that name I saw it in the comments and then Low seemed to know like yeah that man I think he’s the one who told me Serge he’s this Frenchman who lives in Melaka and and knows a lot about Melakan history I guess he’s a well-known foreigner in Melaka so I was like oh really I’d never heard of the guy I didn’t know anything about him. But I did remember this comment. And I keep saying I remember because when the comment first showed up, I mean it was a long detailed comment. And my memory of the comment is that he was telling me that everything I said in my video was wrong, that I was wrong about everything, and he was correcting everything that I said. And I remembered that it was like I read through the comment. I was like, “Whoa, did I screw up so badly? Is this guy right?” You know, so I I started thinking about it, you know, all the points that he made and I was doing all this research into it, going back to all the websites I visited, all the places where I got all the information that I got. And in the end, I don’t know. I I thought everything I said was pretty accurate. You know, there were some things in his comments. I’m like, well, yeah, you can kind of look at it from that point of view, but at the same time, I don’t know. I think I mean if you go on the internet and just search for these topics, every website you go to will give you this information that I talked about in my video. And then Serge would say something. He’s like, well, none of that is true. There is no evidence to support any of that. So I was like, whoa, man. I I hope I don’t have to delete the video and post a disclaimer, an apology, and say that everything I said in my videos was completely wrong. So, I really wanted to get my facts straight. So, I was doing all of this new reading, all of this new research, tracking down all of this information, remembering where I got it from, and I went back to all those websites and Wikipedia pages and tourism websites, and I’m reading all this stuff going, “Okay, okay, okay, okay.” So then I was all ready to reply to the comment and then I couldn’t find it again. I went through all of the comments on my channel and I could not locate it. So a few days went by and then it popped up again. I thought I was like, “Oh, there it is. I just couldn’t find it before.” But at that time it was late in the day and I was too tired to write anything. So okay. So here’s the comment. I’ll come back in the morning and and reply. And then I couldn’t find it again. It’s like I think he left it on my Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum video, not in the longer Heeren Street history video. It was on the museum video, but I can’t find it there. So, it is gone. So, now I can’t really remember what he said specifically and I can’t leave a reply because the comment is gone. But I remember the things the things that I remember that he said. One of the most important was I was talking about how Heeren Street, the street and the plots, the narrow long plots and the original houses were all started built by the Dutch. So if you go all the way back in history when the Dutch defeated the Portuguese, they took over Melaka in 1641. Before then under the Melaka Sultanate and under the Portuguese, most of the buildings on both sides of the river were made out of wood and thatch and they burned down all the time. And then the Dutch started putting in rules and building codes pushing people towards building with brick. They wanted them to build with brick with terracotta roof tiles, clay roof tiles. And there was a lot of talk about firewalls, how there was a firewall separating each of the houses. So over time, like it didn’t happen all at once. I think my original idea was too strong that the Dutch like 1641 and just said all right that’s it everybody build with brick now but it happened gradually over decades maybe even over a century before the full impact was felt and all the wooden houses were gone and everything was built with brick and firewalls. So I was saying that this was put in place by the Dutch and the original houses. The Dutch houses were long tunnel houses, simpler, like very simple plain Dutch houses, but they had the air wells because they’re long houses. They had trouble ventilating them. So they put in open courtyards with open air wells, two or three of them, to each house. And this was all done starting with the Dutch construction. I’m sorry I’m repeating my entire video here. I didn’t intend to do that, but it’s I kind of have to set the stage. And then later on when the Dutch were leaving selling their properties, the the wealthy Chinese Peranakan families were buying up the properties and the houses. And then over time they were like sometimes they would tear down the entire Dutch house and build a brand new house themselves or they would buy the Dutch property with the Dutch house and then expand on it like they add a second and a third floor. They make it more elaborate. They they basically bought the Dutch properties, the Dutch homes and renovated them. So now you have much bigger, much fancier, elaborate mansions built on top of the original, smaller, simpler Dutch homes. So that was my thesis. The Dutch built the long tunnel houses originally. There were these Dutch codes to prevent fires and then the Chinese bought up all the properties and then renovated them. And based on everything I read online, it seemed like a no-brainer. Well, that is exactly what happened.
But I think this French historian wrote in his comment that no the Dutch houses I think he said they did not have air wells. That was a Chinese thing and that when the Chinese Peranakan families built the houses those houses had air wells and open courtyards but that that had nothing to do with the Dutch. And then he also said that this whole idea that the reason the plots were so narrow was because the Dutch taxed the homes based on the width of the property, the street frontage, how wide it was that dictated how much tax you paid property tax. So then people made their homes very very narrow to avoid paying higher taxes. And then he wrote in his comment that everybody says that all over the internet. Everybody keeps repeating that but there is no evidence that this is true. Like nobody has been able to find a document written by the Dutch back in the 1600s that says okay these are the tax codes and this is why people right. But I remember when I was doing my research, I asked that specific question. And then I found websites that said, “Yeah, there is difficulty finding these documents, but they do exist, and here’s one or two.” And I couldn’t read the original document. They’re like an archive in a museum that you need special credentials to be able to access, but they say, “Yeah, this document is here and this document is here.” But then everybody else was saying, well, this is coming from the Netherlands where in the Netherlands all the canal houses were taxed like that. Like having a home with canal access was very very valuable. So all of these in order to maximize the number of homes that you could put on a street, all of them with canal access, the homes got narrower and narrower and narrower and they were taxed on how narrow the plot was. And this was a like a Dutch tradition that was sort of built into their way of building residential districts and homes. And when the Dutch started laying out the streets of Melaka, cuz they were the ones to do that, they started organizing everything. And they started laying out the streets like on a grid pattern. Here’s a street. Here’s a street. Here’s Heeren Street. Here’s Jonker Street. Probably based on some pre-existing streets at the same time. But as the Dutch were laying out, dividing up the land, putting in streets, and then dividing up the land to sell it, they divided it into these long, thin, narrow properties. And people could buy five of them if they wanted to to get one big piece of property, but they didn’t. They bought one narrow strip at a time and then made their house as long as possible. And this saved money and gave them street access. And the streets that were on the one side of Heeren Street, it gave them access to the Melaka Strait because the back of the street was on the water and the front was on the street. But of course, if they bought four properties, they could have that, but they couldn’t afford to buy four, so they would just buy one narrow one. So, you see what I mean? It was like all these elements were still coming from the Dutch. So after I did all of this research, all of this thinking, I thought what Serge said, maybe it’s true that somebody 50 years ago wrote an internet article stating the reason the houses are narrow is because of this Dutch property tax and that’s it. And then somebody wrote that and then everybody started repeating that and it just got repeated all over the internet and there’s no strong evidence to support it. It could very well be true. But after I did all my research, I still felt pretty comfortable in what I said in my original Heeren Street video. It’s like, yeah, I think I think what I said was reasonable. And the same thing with the air wells because if I remember right, I think Serge said that no, this was a Chinese thing, had nothing to do with the Dutch. Yet, in all the reading I did, well, again, it seems kind of reasonable. Yes, if you go to the Netherlands, it’s not a Dutch tradition to build these long narrow houses with open air wells. I don’t think so. Anyway, so it’s true that’s not traditional Dutch architecture, but the Dutch the, you know, the VOC, the the Dutch colonial administrators, the people that were here in Melaka, they weren’t building the houses themselves. I mean, they were Dutch people. They had a property and they wanted to build a house on it, but they were in Asia and there were there’s a huge Chinese community living here. So as they were designing their houses, they’re using Chinese designs, Chinese architects, Chinese builders, Malay builders. You know, the Dutch people themselves were not out there laying bricks and building houses. They hired the local people to build their houses. And if they hired Chinese workers, Chinese designers, architects, whatever, they would naturally use Chinese traditions and they would, you know, well, that’s just normal for us. We in China to deal with ventilation and things, we build houses around central courtyards with an air well opening. And now here in Melaka, the Dutch may have not have had that tradition themselves, but they’re in Asia and the workers that they hired, well, they started building the homes and they built homes with air wells. So, and local people that I’ve spoken to as well, like I was talking to the coin collector, talking to Low and I was talking about his house, how it was originally, was it originally a Dutch design and then was it transformed? And he’s like, “Oh, yeah, originally it was a Dutch house and then we b, you know, people bought it and they renovated it, but they just renovated it around the existing air wells that the Dutch home already had.” And he talked about how his house has servants quarters in the back. That’s where the servants lived. And then because the Baba Nyonya Museum house didn’t have a rear entrance, and I talked about that a lot in my video where the servants quarters had one strip of the house. So rather than the servants quarters being at the back, it was like one side of the house was dedicated to the servants’s entrance and then the servants’s quarters. And then Serge said that was wrong as well. He said that that’s a European vision that we’ve gotten from movies and books and history. Yes, in Europe the servants lived in quarters at the back. But he he said in his comment, if I remember right, that’s a European model. It’s got nothing to do with Melaka. So I thought, oh shoot, I was wrong about that, too. Like did I get everything wrong in my video? I was really panicked there. So again, I I dove into that whole topic and again everything I found on on the internet, the people that I’ve spoken to in person, they all said, “Well, yeah, the Dutch homes had servants quarters. The servants were sleeping in the back. The Chinese homes, servants quarters were in the back.” It that just seemed to be how it was. Everything I read on the internet said that’s how it was and how these homes developed. The people I’ve spoken to that live here said that. So, I don’t know if I was wrong about that. And there were no servants quarters at the back like that. Yeah, I don’t know. Everything I found online told me that and I had no reason to question it.
Ah, sip of coffee.
Oh, yeah. I remember and when Serge left that comment, he I think he referred to Dutch houses in other parts of Melaka and he was talking about how they have all these Dutch homes where that were much they were small. They were they would did they weren’t like these long tunnel houses like I was saying that all these houses that the Dutch built had no walls. So they couldn’t have windows in the walls because the house had no walls. Had a front entrance and a rear entrance and they were stuck against other houses. So they had to put open air wells to add ventilation. But he said no. All these Dutch homes, they’re shorter and they have a front entrance and a rear entrance and they put all these openings and windows and doors and it added more than enough ventilation. So, they didn’t need air wells and I don’t know about that. I mean, there are streets in Melaka where because of the layout of the neighborhoods, you don’t have such like 60 meter long tunnel houses. They are there are lots of streets away from Heeren Street and Jonker Street where the the streets are closer together and the properties do not extend as far. And yeah, I can see how okay that property they probably maybe they don’t need an air well. They they get enough ventilation from the front and the rear because it’s a shorter house. Maybe it’s 20 m long, not 60 m. But again, after I did all of my reading and all of my research, well, I think what I said still stands up to scrutiny because we’re not I wasn’t talking about those tiny houses. I was talking about the tunnel houses on Heeren Street with all the air wells. So, he panicked me with that comment cuz I thought I had everything wrong. And this guy really seemed to know what he was talking about. But then I after doing all that research I was like okay I think what I said was reasonable and the other one was there’s two more. One of them was the firewall because I talked about that a lot. I really harped on it that the Dutch building code said there had to be a firewall between every house and they said the firewall had to extend above the roof line and it had to be made out of brick. Okay, I read that everywhere. So then I went to Heeren Street to shoot the video and I saw them like, “Oh, look at that. There’s a firewall. There’s a f, you know, they had these big thick brick walls separating each house and they all extended above the roof line. So I went, “Oh, wow. Look at that. Look at all the firewalls.” So I said the word firewall, firewall, firewall over and over and over. Talked about it at length, pointed at so many different firewalls and and then I went on with my life. But I think Serge in his long comment he said no those aren’t firewalls that yes there were some firewalls but they didn’t come into play until I think he said the British era when there were laws about putting in a firewall and you can see them but the walls I was pointing at were not firewalls they were party walls and I had never heard the word party wall before but I guess that’s a common architectural term when you have all these houses stuck together, the wall when two buildings share the same wall, I guess they call it a party wall. So again, I was like, “Oh my gosh, I got everything wrong in my video.” You know what an idiot I am. But then I did all my new research and thinking and I started thinking, well, are we just talking about semantics here? Like maybe a firewall is a very technical name, has very specific parameters different from a party wall. So maybe all of these walls on Heeren Street technically don’t qualify as a firewall. But at the same time, I’m looking at the thing and it’s a thick brick wall. that is completely solid separating two buildings and they extend above the roof line. And I’m looking at that and I’m thinking that brick wall is a fire break. I mean like maybe there’s something about it that disqualifies it that it’s not technically a fire wall. Maybe it’s a party wall. But I’m looking at that party wall and I’m thinking, well, if a fire starts over here at property A, it’s not going to property B, that brick wall is stopping the fire from spreading. And maybe back in 1641 when the Dutch put in these building codes, maybe they didn’t say firewall, but I’m pretty sure they said, “Well, build everything out of brick, clay, and let’s put this brick wall in between every house and have it extend above the roof line to prevent fire from spreading.” That was pretty much the idea. So again, at the end of my research, I thought, I think I’m okay. You know, I I don’t think I led anyone astray in my video about Heeren Street. And I was telling people, like telling visitors, wow, if you come to her, come to Melaka on your holiday, come to Heeren Street and look at all these firewalls. Aren’t they interesting? I don’t think I led them astray. I I think the whole the overall scene supports this idea that those walls were designed to prevent the spread of fire and the Dutch made the rules that led to them being there. It didn’t they didn’t come about, you know, a 100 200 years later under the British because I was looking at some of the original Dutch properties and then they have the same thing. They have the same brick wall above the roof line. So, I was thinking I I think I’m okay. I’m still I didn’t delete the video. I didn’t post a correction. And the final one that I can remember right now, again, I was kind of shocked. I was like, “Oh, for Pete’s sake, I’m such a dummy. I got that wrong.” I was really kind of embarrassed because I think Serge said that what I said about these Chinese screens being like the function of these Chinese screens, the function of them and how they tie into feng shui. Serge wrote, “No, that’s completely wrong.” What? and he had a different name for them. Like, let me look this up because I did look up some information about this. I found the information. Yeah, the the original guy. could be Serge. I can’t remember his name. he wrote that that thing that I was talking about. I showed it in my video. He said it is not a screen but he said it’s a pintu pagar or fence door and it has nothing to do with feng shui but I remember this very clearly because to me they’re they’re two different things where I remember talking about the pintu pagar in my Heeren Street video maybe in the Baba Nyonya as well I think it was in the Heeren Street video where the front of the house they have a big door and then the idea is they can open the door and it adds a lot of ventilation a lot of air can get in but then they don’t have any privacy so then the original designs had a half door which is what he’s talking about a pintu pagar I can never remember the Malay name and I shot video of one in particular I pointed it out oh look there is a pintu pagar and if you walk up up and down Heeren Street you’ll see these and they are like a half door made out of metal like a metal metal work screen. So the idea is you can open the big wooden doors but then you have these almost like a a screen door half a door with openings in it like a a a metal door and then it provides privacy. So it’s still this pintu pagar still allows air to flow through but it gives you privacy in the room because people walking by on the street they can’t see into your living room because the half door is blocking the view. So that’s the pintu pagar. But in my video I in that the video he’s talking about I wasn’t talking about that because inside the door like you could have the door the main door and the pintu pagar but there was a third one like inside the room itself was a piece of furniture. It was like a big elaborate wooden screen like with elaborate carvings on it with lots of holes in it. And this screen is sitting on little legs and then they would prop it up inside the room again so that ventilation could get in but it provides privacy just like the pintu pagar can provide privacy but you can open the doors completely wide and then to let all the air and light in but then people walking by on the street their vision is blocked by this screen and I think these rooms in these Peranakan Chinese homes, they would have one at each end. So like if there was a room that had a door onto the street, they put one of these Chinese screens there and then the door at the back separating two rooms would have another screen. And I remember a lot of articles that I read would talk about how the men only were allowed in the front room. The men would meet there to do business and the women of the house were not allowed into that room, but they don’t want to be left out. They want to know what’s going on. So, the women would crowd around behind the screen and then they would listen and listen to the men talking and then they would kind of spy on the men, but they were behind this screen, this piece of furniture. That’s what I was vid taking video of and talking about. And then I also read in many many places that these screens had the function of providing privacy but they were also incorporating elements of feng shui where noisy chaotic energy coming in from the screen from the street. You didn’t want it just flowing into the house. So you put in this screen between the room interior and the street kind of like putting rocks in a stream and then the the feng shui the energy pouring in from the street would hit this screen and then just start to tumble around, move more slowly through the holes, go around to the side and then into the room and then all that chaotic energy would be slowed down and then just grab gradually move in. So it was a principle of feng shui and he was saying the pintu pagar has nothing to do with feng shui and I agree with him that’s true but I wasn’t talking about the pintu pagar I was talking about this piece of furniture inside the room not the Malay pintu pagar I wasn’t talking about the half door I was talking about this traditional elaborate wooden screen and and I think it has a special name. I I’ll look for the name right now. I forgot it. I just looked it up and since we’re talking about Chinese, not surprisingly, it’s not that clearcut. But the information I found is that the general Chinese term for a decorative partition screen is something like ping fang. But a spirit wall placed outside or just inside an entrance might be and associated with feng shui might be called a zhaobi or something like that. And then there’s another type called a yingbi or something like that. But anyway, that’s what I shot video of and that’s what I was talking about. It was one of those three things and I was not talking about the pintu pagar. So again, I felt like I was on pretty firm ground with my video. Even though when I first read those comments, I was like, “Ah, I got that wrong, too.” It’s like, “Ah, what a dummy.” But I I don’t think I was wrong. Specifically in this case where what the commenter said is that no pintu pagar has nothing to do with feng shui. Yeah I agree but I wasn’t talking about the pintu pagar. This was a separate piece of furniture a wooden screen inside the room itself. And again, no, I’m no expert in anything Chinese, anything to do with feng shui. The Chinese language way too complex for me. I never know what’s going on. I can’t even pronounce Chinese words. So don’t listen to me. But that screen that I was looking at and talking about is definitely something different from the pintu pagar. Ah, actually I found a copy of the comment. I actually copy and copied and pasted it into something online just to get some answers about all these things. So, actually I have the comments in front of me. And there was one more that I’d forgotten about and it’s how many points did he make? Eight. No, nine. Nine in total. And I’ I’ve covered a few of them. And this la this other one that I want to mention was number five. And I I can quote from the comment now where he he wrote the Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum has no resemblance with a Dutch house. It was built towards the end of the 19th century during the British era. And that’s true. Absolutely true. But I I my memory is I never said that in the video. So I don’t know why he’s saying that here. maybe maybe by the time I was recording the Baba and Nyonya Museum video, I was moving faster and I wasn’t being as clear because I just, you know, I I talked for like 2 hours in the Heeren Street video itself and I tried to be very clear in what I was saying. Maybe in the Baba Nyonya Museum video, I was in a hurry to just get through the background so I can get to the museum tour and maybe I misspoke. I haven’t gone back and watched the whole video to see exactly what I said. But my memory is that even in the Baba and Nyonya Museum video, I said that the original houses were built by the Dutch starting in 1641. And there’s one house on that street, number eight, which is often pointed to as an example of what the simpler, smaller Dutch houses might have looked like going all the way back to 1641. So what I said in my video, I remember I was standing across from the Baba and Nyonya Museum, which is a very elaborate building, two stories high, and each story is really tall, so it’s much higher than a normal two-story building. It looks like a mansion. Very elaborate architecture with huge shuttered windows and doors and design. So, I was standing across from it and I remember saying in in the video that I wanted my viewers to close their eyes and think about the Dutch house that I showed earlier, the simple plain Dutch house. And I said I tried to say originally like the original homes that would have been here, the three plots, they would have looked like that. that the original homes here were much simpler Dutch homes, smaller, less elaborate, and then the Peranakan Chinese wealthy families bought those properties from the Dutch. in this case probably tore down the Dutch houses that were there and then built their own mansion or they left the original walls of the Dutch homes intact and then built on top of them. So what I was saying is the original homes were Dutch homes and then the wealthy Chinese families bought them and then completely rebuilt them and renovated them. So, I never said this looks like a Dutch home. I never said this is a an example of the original Dutch homes. I don’t think I said anything even close to that. So, I’m not sure what he is correcting there. I’d have to go back to my own video and listen to the whole thing and then it’s like, oh, did I misspeak? You know, did I say something that’s not quite accurate? But my me certainly in terms of my knowledge I know that that’s not a Chinese home. But I know that I wasn’t saying that but maybe I misspoke in the video. I’m not really sure.
Yeah. So yeah, that’s about it. Like I said, I I wanted to write all of this down as a response to that comment, but I can’t find it anymore. Either it was removed, he deleted it because quite a long time went by. I didn’t even see this comment for a long time, and then by the time I saw it, I let a few days go by before I was ready to reply to it. So maybe he said, “Huh, this Planet Doug guy, he’s not even going to reply to my comment.” Well, then I’m just going to delete it. Maybe he did that or maybe it’s still there, but for some reason I just can’t find it. I don’t know. Anyway, I just wanted to I wanted to talk about Heeren Street again. I’ve talked about it so much, but yeah, I just thought I would do it again. And talking about that long comment telling me that everything I said was wrong seemed seemed like a an interesting thing for me to talk about.
Oh, and if Serge, I think his name is Serge, I I can’t remember. If he’s a real French historian, expat that lives in Melaka and I’m able to meet up with him. Yeah, I would love to do that. I mean, he’s obviously far more knowledgeable than I am. sounds like he’s spent a good many years living here and takes an interest in this material. So, he probably knows a heck of a lot more than I do. So, yeah, be nice to meet him, but yeah, he’d have to reach out or I’d have to just sort of run into him by accident and then he can tell me in person why, everything I said was too simplistic and there’s a lot more nuance, you know, that he could add. And he’s probably absolutely right about that.
Once again, I can feel this Planet Doug behind the scenes video spinning out of control and getting longer and longer, but I figure that’s okay. I make these videos for anyone who might want something just playing in the background while they’re doing the dishes or vacuuming the living room or driving, whatever they’re doing, and they want to hear me just babble in the background and keep them company. That’s why I make these videos. So, I’m not trying to capture an audience of millions of people. Anyway, I’ve been talking a long time, so it is time to break out one of my three-pack of milk. Yeah, I’m a little bit worried about keeping these in my room cuz they’re they’re not really meant to be in in kept in storage in such a hot environment. You can keep them on the shelf for many many for a long time, months or even years, I think, but not at 140° or anything like that.
I have had a variety of different brands of this kind of milk and there’s a real difference between them. the in my opinion Dutch Lady is the best. I’ve had other brands when Dutch Lady wasn’t available and I noticed that the other brands the the milk curds would separate. So with the other brands, the milk would separate and then there would be like milk solids gathering on the bottom. So when you open it, you have to drink a little bit, reseal it, and then really shake it. like you really got to shake it up. Otherwise, it’s like you’re drinking water and all the milk solids are down at the bottom, but those are the cheap brands. Dutch Lady is a bit more expensive and yeah, it’s much higher quality. I can even tell the full cream, it just tastes so rich and creamy.
Yeah. Even like I even taste this one keeping it in a warm room. I can feel it that the milk is a little bit gritty like it’s separating. It isn’t completely blended anymore and it’s because of the heat. But I I might drink one of these every day or every two days. So as long as I finish my three-pack within 5 days, 6 days, a week, they’re still okay to drink. And if I take a drink and it’s gone sour, yeah, then I know to stop. Yeah, I need that I need that mini fridge. And oh, by the way, just as an aside, after I posted my video about moving into this place, a kind Planet Doug supporter sent me $100 US using PayPal. and the the PayPal donation. I don’t think it had a note on it, but he left a comment on YouTube. I haven’t replied to that comment yet. but he did earmark saying, “Okay, you can take this $100 and stay in a nicer hotel. Like, go look for a hotel like $25 a night for four nights and then let’s get Planet Doug feeling comfortable again.” So anyway, thank you very much for that. While I’m here in Melaka, I’ll probably just stay here until I leave because it’s such a hassle to move and I’m ready to leave from Melaka anyway. So I will take that donation and put it to good use in the other cities that I go to and earmark I’ll earmark that money to stay in a nicer hotel so I don’t have to fight so much with low-budget places. So anyway, just wanted to say thank you very much for that PayPal support. Really appreciate it. So this next story I’m getting back to Planet Doug videos. Luckily for you, there’s only one video to talk about. And yeah, I haven’t even Well, in real time, like this being real time, I haven’t even posted it yet, but I shot it and uploaded it. But by the time you might see this behind-the-scenes video, I will have posted the v the video. But in this video, it’s kind of funny. I heard that there were two museum, not two museums, museums on the brain. I heard there were two festivals in Melaka taking place. One was the Melaka River Festival. It’s like a month-long festival. And the other one I heard about was the Malaysia Games Festival. So, I was pretty excited about that. It was like this past weekend was the Malaysia Games Festival. So, I started doing research and here I got in trouble because I did firsthand research. I really did. I went online, you know, a typical Google search. I went to the original website for the festival, the Malaysian Games Festival. There it is. There’s the, you know, I saw the poster for it. I saw the dates for it. I saw, oh wow, there really is a Malaysian games festival, but I didn’t have any schedule. Like there was no schedule about where to go, what the events were, any sort of breakdown like what’s happening on Saturday, what’s happening on Sunday, what’s happening on Friday. So I couldn’t find that information anywhere. So I did go to an AI and I I asked the AI. I said, “Hey, there’s this Malaysian games festival happening in Melaka. I heard about this. I saw it online and people have told me about it that there was something going on in Melaka. Can you tell me where it’s taking place and then what’s a good time to go?” And then the AI did its internet search and it laid it out for me. gave all the dates and all the times and all the information and just said, “Yeah, Malaysian Games Festival, here’s where it’s taking place starting at 8:30 in the morning on Sunday and this event is happening. This event is happening.” And it broke it all down for me and said, “They’re also having the awards ceremony. So, if you go there to this field, this park at this time, you can see them handing out the awards.” So, I was like, “Awesome. Great. Tomorrow morning, I’m going to get up early, grab my GoPros, and I’m going to go to the Malaysian Games Festival.” How did I not know this was happening? My mistake was taking the AI at its word because I woke up early and I went there. I I think I arrived at the park maybe quarter after 8. So, and I knew the festival was supposed to start at 8:30. I get to the park, nothing there, nothing at all. It’s just a big empty park. It’s like, what the heck? What is going on? So, while I had mobile internet on my phone, I went back to the AI. I was using Gemini at the time, and I treat Gemini like a friend. I give him a hard time. And so, I’m writing to Gemini out there at the park. the empty park. I was like, “Dude, I’m here. You told me to go to this park 8:30 Sunday morning. I’m here right now and you led me astray. There’s nothing here. It’s completely empty. What’s going on?” And then the AI said, “Oh, terribly sorry about that. There is a Malaysian games festival and it did happen here in previous years but this year it’s happening in Kuala Lumpur. It’s like you say, “Oh, come on.” You know, come on. But I’ve learned lately, as much as I enjoy using AI as a tool, when they warn you that it can be wrong, they really mean it. AIs can be so wrong. Like they say it can be 100% wrong, but it feels like I know it’s mathematically impossible, but it feels like they can be a,000% wrong because when they are wrong, they still speak with perfect confidence, right? Like if you’re talking to a friend of yours and you say, “Oh, do you know where the games festival is?” They might say, “I’m not really sure, but I think it’s taking place here in this park.” The AI doesn’t mess around like that. Even when it is completely wrong, it speaks with perfect certainty and says, “It is happening right here at this time.” And it leaves no room for doubt at all. So, you can get tricked very, very easily. And then I joked with the AI when it told me, “Oh, my bad. The festival is actually taking place in KL. It’s not in Melaka in 2026.” And I wrote back and said, “Well, come on. How in the world can you be so wrong about something like this? like how can I trust you in the future if I ask you a question and you are absolutely wrong and you have no idea that you’re wrong like what’s going on here? And then the AI apologized and said well that’s just how I work. You said in your comment the games festival is in Melaka. Where in Melaka can I go to see it this year? So because you put that in your question, I just ran with it. I it never occurred to me to question the parameters of your question. So if your question is wrong, then I just repeat what you said. And that’s also because I’m programmed to be supportive. It’s my job to help you make you feel good. So when you say that you heard about the Malaysian Games Festival in Melaka and you want to know where to go, well I just want to tell you where to go in Melaka. I don’t question what you said. So I never found out that it was actually not even in Melaka. I just took your word for it because I don’t want to criticize you. I don’t want to question what you say. So the AI said in the future to avoid this don’t say anything positive in your question. Question everything. Give me specific instructions at the end. Please investigate everything about this festival. Go to primary sources. If you don’t tell me to go to primary sources, I will just scan the internet and just throw together a bunch of words to make you happy. And I’m like, oh, for Pete’s sake, you know, the best way to make me happy is to be correct. Like telling me everything that’s wrong, you know, giving me incorrect info, well, that makes me very unhappy. And he’s like, and the AI is like, “Yeah, sorry about that, but that’s just how I’m built.” It’s like, “Oh, for Pete’s sake.” Anyway, so after that, I’m talking with the AI and it said, “Okay, I hope I didn’t ruin your day.” This is the AI speaking, but the day is not over. You can still attend the Melaka River Festival. And then the AI said, “I checked. I went online. I went to primary sources. It is definitely happening in 2026 in Melaka. These are the dates. And it said on that day, if I walk all the way up the river to the the RePA jetty where the riverboat cruises are, there’s a lot of activities happening there today. So, you can go take part in the river festival. I hope you can enjoy the rest of your day. So me being an idiot, I went for a long walk and I walked all the way up the Melaka River all the way to the jetty. I I took kind of a roundabout way, so I walked several kilometers in the hot sun. I get to the jetty, nothing happening, not a single thing. And the AI was just absolutely certain, okay, no games festival. Sorry about that. Here, I’ll make it up to you. The river festival. You’ll have lots of fun. Go here for the events of the river festival. I go there. There’s nothing there. There is no events at all. So, I spent the entire day looking for two festivals and neither one was happening. So, that that was pretty funny. But I still shot an entire video about the day. It’s even a 90-minute video because I was babbling as I always do. But it was a really good day because after I went to the games festival, found an empty field. It was early in the morning. It was 8:30 in the morning. So then I just went to the high chicken place for breakfast and that’s when I filmed the inside of the restaurant. I met Low again and again. Low also kind of led me astray because he was the one who told me originally, “Yeah, there’s something going on this weekend. There’s a couple of festivals happening. You might want to look into it.” So, I did look into it. So, he was the one that started the whole thing. But anyway, I had breakfast with him a second time. Then, I had cendol with him a second time. And then after that, I went walking up the river. But instead of going directly up the river, which I’ve done at least a dozen times by now, I walked up my street right here where my hostel is located. And at the time, I really wish I had done some research now because I wasn’t fully aware of it, but it turns out this street has a really interesting history. Today it’s called Jalan Bunga Raya and I think that’s the name of Malaysia’s national flower which I didn’t know at the time. It used to have a British name that was named after a British colonial governor of some kind. But of course when Malaysia gained independence, it did kind of a search and destroy mission, it took all of the colonial names, not all of them. Penang was a little bit unusual that kept a lot of the colonial names. But in places like Melaka, they took all the colonial names and got rid of them and replaced them with Malaysian names. So now it’s called Jalan Bunga Raya. And it is a very important history important street in Melaka for history because it led out of the historic what is now the historic core and led out of that area into the countryside. So it was a main artery for all the people who lived in the villages and in the interior to move in and out of central Melaka. And it was a really bustling bustling street with all kinds of businesses and service shops and workshops and bars and opium dens and speak easys and things like that. So it has very interesting architecture, a lot of history. So, I went walking down that street and I was talking about all the buildings because they were definitely like almost hundred years old and obviously there was a lot of history there and I went down all these little alleyways and I found fascinating like obviously famous seafood restaurants. One called Capital Seafood. I didn’t have anything to eat at any of these places, but I walked through them and I took video of them. I went behind some neighborhoods so I could get approach the Melaka River at a place where I knew there was kind of a hidden lagoon, a secret lagoon. So, I got some really interesting video of this lagoon area with all these condemned abandoned buildings with these trees, you know, grow the roots growing over and under the buildings. So, on my way to find the festivals, I came across really interesting places. You know, I went had a really nice breakfast. Cendol, fascinating walk up Bunga Raya, the hidden lagoon, the alleyways with all of the spiral staircases and the seafood restaurants. Yeah, really, really interesting walk and another window onto the Melaka on the history of Melaka. And that’s one reason why I’m staying in this youth hostel. Even though it is so uncomfortable here, especially with no air conditioning, just being based in a new neighborhood, you naturally explore new areas that you weren’t aware of before. So anyway, I finished that whole walk searching for festivals, never finding them, and I put together like a 90-minute walk and talk video about everything I saw along the way. And now that I know how important this street is, I probably missed like 90% of its history and things that I could have talked about, but I wasn’t aware of it at the time. I didn’t learn all of that until later on when I was editing the video and putting it together, but that is my only Planet Doug video story for now.
On to the YouTube vlogger segment and another quick change. My Canada shirt had enough time to dry out, and my blue shirt was just soaked all up and down the back. So, I changed shirts, took another shower, even dumped a bunch of water on my head. It’s amazing how big a difference that makes. Like, normally just moving fast, I just dump water on my body. But if you also soak your head, it really cools you down. You can really feel it. And they always talk about how how much energy your brain consumes. So, how much heat your head is generating. You dump a bunch of water on there. I wish that water was ice cold, but I think it’s coming from a tank on the roof and then it warms up up there. So, I wish it was coming straight out of an ice cold well. Oh, that would be that would be heaven. So, yeah. And crazy as it might seem, I’m having a third cup of coffee.
You’d think drinking I mean this is actually my fourth cup this morning. Drinking all of that plus water plus a liter of milk. I’d be going to the bathroom all the time but not one time again just because it’s so hot in here. The sweat just pours off and it evaporates. So you can drink all day long and you never have to go to the bathroom. Very cool. So YouTube stories. I have a few, not my YouTube videos, but YouTube vloggers. I really like to talk about other travel vloggers or daily vloggers, things like that. Because I can, yeah, I can relate to what they’re doing and I like to see the different things people do, how they do it, as well as the reaction of other people to it. And maybe I’ll be developing a couple of themes here. And the first one I wasn’t I didn’t even have on my list, but it just occurred to me because I was watching one of his videos this morning and this is a channel called Life Over 64 and I wanted to give the guy a shout out partially because he’s doing something quite unusual and because it seems like a lot of the things he talks about his personality kind of the themes of his life sort of fit in with themes swirling around my own life and I haven’t done a deep dive into this guy so I don’t know a whole lot about him but he says in his own description born in 1959 I share my life and thoughts living alone in Petaling Jaya Malaysia at 67 years of age and then he has a whole bunch of hashtags. The hashtags can kind of tell you how he views himself. It’s like #babyboomers1959, born in the 50s, life over 65, life over 64, living alone. So, I don’t I haven’t watched enough of his videos to know his full life story. I think I’ve only watched three of them so far. One of them is called Letting Go at 67. Another is what matters most at 67 and not retired things like that. So he’s basically putting his life on display talking about his life and approaching it from the point of view of well I’ve lived most of my life. I’m now in my mid 60s, not long to go really. And after my life, my this life of 65 years, 67 years now, this is where I am. I’m alone, living alone in a small apartment. And what do I think about that? Like, what does that mean? So when I the video of his that I started this morning, he was talking about things that are different now and he talks about, you know, I look in the mirror. I’m losing my hair. I’ve got I’ve gone gray. I’ve gone white. I don’t do this anymore. I can’t do this anymore. And how do I feel about that? So he’s being very introspective, thinking about his life, choices that he made. Do I regret them? My life choices have led me to this point, living alone in a in a small apartment, maybe a studio apartment. How do I feel about that? And what does it all mean? And to be honest, in a overall sense, the topic doesn’t speak to me. I don’t do a lot of navel gazing like that. I mean, I’m 63 years old myself, but it’s not something I think about. I don’t go around thinking, “Oh, I’m 60.” You know, I don’t like to make jokes about getting older, you know, the classic action movie. Oh, I’m too old for this. Shh. You know, I don’t say things like that. I don’t I feel like to an extent by constantly talking about getting older, you summon things into existence. Like I I do things like I set off on foot in the hardest hottest part of the day and I walk to Melaka Central and back like a 14 kilometer walk in some of the most brutal heat on earth and I don’t even think about it. I just think, “Oh, I got to go pick up money at Raya. Where is it?” Oh, yeah. That’d be interesting to walk there. And I walk there and I come back. I I and then when I’m talking about it, I don’t think about it like, whoa, I’m 63 years old and I walked all the way there or think I it just does not occur to me. I just do what I do without constantly thinking about age. I just Yeah, I think for the most part I just let it go. And it feels like yeah, you can make jokes about it, that kind of thing. But maybe by making jokes about it, you mentally put limits on what you think you can do. It’s like, “Oh, I’m in my 60s. I shouldn’t be going. I shouldn’t be hiking up this mountain trail. I’m too old for this.” I again, I don’t even think about it. I just walk up the trail. And it’s probably harder for me now that I’m 63 years old. Obviously, you know, your body starts breaking down. you don’t have the same spring in your steps. You don’t have the same energy as you did in your 20s and 30s. I don’t know. That’s just so obvious. It doesn’t feel like it’s something you need to talk about all the time. But there’s nothing wrong with it either. It’s just not. So, I guess what I’m saying is the subject matter of his videos may not speak to me personally,
but it’s the manner in which he records them that I find interesting because all the videos I’ve watched so far, he’s walking. They’re walking videos, but he isn’t even talking while he’s walking. What he does is he I think he has like a DJI Pocket 3 camera, I’m pretty sure. And he just goes walking around Petaling Jaya and maybe the greater Kuala Lumpur area. And I just find that so funny because I used to do that all the time when I first got to KL. I would because I walk places. I tried riding my bicycle but that was impossible. So I started walking and I would find myself blocked by highways, pedest like train tracks, rivers, and there’s no way to get across them. So, I end up running across highways, climbing over barriers, climbing over fences, walking down streets where there’s nothing but barriers in your way, holes in the ground, like stepping over these gaping holes because KL just did not develop for pedestrians. It’s, excuse me, it’s not a walking city. And then people on YouTube found that really amusing. Like Malaysians watching me. It’s like, “What the heck? Look at this foreigner walking down an eight lane highway and then running across it.” But like, why would you ever do anything that crazy? And it’s like, well, because I don’t know any other way to get there. Like, I’m here. The shopping mall is over there. It’s on the other side of an eight-lane highway. The only way to get from here to there is to run across the highway. There’s no pedestrian bridges. There’s there’s no underpasses. Like, so if I if I want to walk somewhere, I have to walk down the highways. I’m climbing over fences. I’m, you know, I never got that far, but at some point he’d have to swim across the river. It’s just the way KL developed. And then in his now, I’ve got this Malaysian guy doing exactly what I did all the time. And I find it really amusing to see him walking down the highway, running across the highway, all these overpasses and things, and he’s stepping over these big holes in the ground. And what he does is take his camera and he puts he mounts it in different places like on tripods or grips or something. So he walks ahead, mounts his camera, goes back, walks by the camera, filming himself, walks back to get the camera, carries it to the next place, sets it up, walks back, walks by the camera, goes back, get, you know, and he leapfrogs and he must end up walking twice as far every day because he does all this back and forth, back and forth to get the camera. And he tries to be artistic with it. He aims the camera up. He aims it down. He points it at the ground, at his feet. You know, he’s trying to be visually creative in the way he’s framing things, but he’s never speaking at all during these walking portions. And then when he’s editing the video, he puts all these video clips together. And then he narrates, he does a voice over and puts his audio over top of the walking. and he sounds very thoughtful, very introspective, very literary in a way, very slowpaced. So, yeah, I I enjoy it from that that point of view. And I’ll probably go back in time, watch all of his videos because I’m curious about his life. He reminds me a lot of the American hobo of Daniel. very different people but perhaps coming from a similar background and being very open and honest about their history. So this guy I can’t I don’t even know his name life over is this channel life over 64 he mentions that yeah he used to drink a lot. He would drink himself into like blackout drunk. He would take a lot of drugs. he was addicted to drugs. So, he had that part of his life and now he’s left all of that behind and he’s he no longer drinks. He no longer does drugs. So, it’s very unusual to have someone being that open and honest on on the internet.
So, yeah. That’s that’s him. And that’s probably all I have to say about him right now because I I haven’t followed him for a long time. It was a a Planet Doug subscriber who sent me the link saying, “Oh, you might find this guy interesting. He might be a bit of a kindred spirit in some ways because he does all that walking because he’s in his 60s and he’s single, has no family, seems to live in isolation for the most part, which can, you know, describe much of my life as well. I may not be as isolated as he is because I meet so many people through my YouTube channel and I really enjoy that. But yeah, we have a lot in common and I if I remember I’ll bring him up again when I do my pop culture segment. There’s another connection there that I find quite interesting.
The next couple of YouTube travel vloggers that are on my mind might be developing a certain theme here that I’ll keep going for a while. Different angles on the same theme. The first are YouTubers called Nomads Trails. And I’ve been following this guy, the main guy, his name is Peyman, not an English name, of course. He is from Finland and I started following him years ago and he’s quite an unusual character who does a lot of living off the grid. So he would do like in terms of getting food he would do a lot of dumpster diving. Again not living not out of poverty but more out of a philosophy of fighting against the modern world and waste where we have in Europe in Finland as he pointed out huge grocery stores where everybody buys their food and these stores because of the rules of expiration dates and storage and things like that they throw out tons of perfectly good food. It all ends up in the dumpsters in the back. And then a a person who wanted to could just go dumpster diving and find all kinds of good food still perfectly good to eat and you can get it all for free. So there’s this whole culture of dumpster diving and he would take it to an extreme where he talked a lot in his videos and showed eating roadkill. where he he does a lot of cycling like he’s a long-distance cyclist and if they come across a deer, fresh deer killed, hit by a car, so there’s a deer at the side of the road. Well, that we call that roadkill. He would cut it up and cook it and eat it. And again, doing this from a philosophical point of view. And he is into a lot of bushcraft, surviving in the wilderness. the tools you need, how to live off the land, that sort of thing. I think he started a a brand new channel only about bushcraft. And I remember he was going on a long bicycle tour through Africa and I think that journey was interrupted by the pandemic. So I don’t think he completed it. But again, he was living on very little money, camping out all the time, living rough. and he was traveling with a woman, a partner back in those days. She disappeared. I don’t know what happened to her. And now finally getting up to present day, he’s on the road again and he’s traveling with a woman that I think her online name or her English name is Sailor. She’s also from Finland, I believe. And what they decided to do
was a physical challenge. He calls it fiveathlon. And the idea was to start in northern Europe, like the farthest north you can go in Norway, right by the Arctic Circle. He’s going to start there, travel all the way to the southern tip of Africa. And they wanted to get there by skiing, cycling, running, sailing, and swimming. Five sports. And it’s kind of like a like a you know, you’ve heard of a decathlon. I guess that’s is that 10 sports in a decathlon or is decathlon meaning 10 km long? I can’t remember. but he’s calling it fiveathlon. I think it’s a pretty bad name in English. It doesn’t roll off the tongue, but anyway, fiveathlon. And they’ve already started he and Sailor and they finished the skiing part. They already traveled to the north of Norway. And I don’t know how many I haven’t watched all his videos to be honest. I haven’t had the time. I’ve been so busy. But they went all the way to the north in the middle of winter, the coldest time of year. And then they set off skiing, pulling a giant sled with all their food and fuel and tents and camping gear and survival gear behind them on these sleds. And then they got to the southern end of somewhere in northern Norway or Finland or Sweden, somewhere. And then they swam like instead of taking a boat to the rest of Europe, they swam across a big part of that water. I haven’t even watched that video, so I don’t know exactly where they swam, but it was tough. And then they went running for a while. And now I’m watching their videos again because they’re in Africa and I’m interested in Africa. And now they are cycling in Africa. Their original idea was to go through East Africa. So when you watch episode one, they show their route and the route goes the classic Cairo to Cape Town on the east, but then the the fighting kicked off in Sudan and maybe also in Ethiopia, but he I think he definitely mentions Sudan. So he felt they couldn’t go that way. So they switched to West Africa and then they’ve been cycling through Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, heading towards Guinea and and the rest of West Africa. So that that’s where we are right now. And I believe they are in Senegal, the last videos that they posted. And the reason I wanted to talk about them is because a lot is happening in Senegal and a lot has been happening in Africa in general and I just had some thoughts about it.
The overall thought which maybe I don’t know maybe it’s unusual for me is after watching their videos main part mainly because of the ones in Africa I started to think what is the point like why bother even the whole concept he even talks about it at the beginning and he uses words like horrible like this challenge is going to be horribly difficult. It’s going to nearly kill us. It’s And I’m like, well, before you even start and you planned it to be horrible, unpleasant, uncomfortable, and difficult. Well, why did you even do it? Like, you got to give me some kind of a goal. Like, give me some inspiration. Like you can’t just say this journey is valuable because I’m going to be miserable the entire time, but I’m going to do it anyway. I’m going to overcome the misery. Okay, but that doesn’t speak to me. What you have to do is tell me that this is going to be an example of how you can travel the world without paying for a bus or a plane. You can travel using only the power of your body. And we’re going to talk about the world before the industrial revolution. I don’t know. You got to give me something that makes this an inspiring valuable journey. Things you’re going to learn along the way. Things you’re going to investigate. And then you can say, “Okay, it’s going to be inspiring. I’m going to learn all of this. I’m going to see all of this.” Sure, it will be difficult, but I will overcome the difficulties in order to have all of these benefits. But the way a lot of these YouTube journeys are put together and portrayed, it’s nothing but misery. I keep looking at it going, “Well, where’s the fun?” Right? I mean, it’s it might be a little bit of the fault of YouTube because if you post a video on YouTube about how you cycled through Greece and it was wonderful and I had such good food and met such nice people. People are like, “Eh, boring.” You know, moving on. But if you say in your video title, “I almost died in Greece. Food poisoning. We were robbed. We froze to death. Oh, it rained on us. there was a volcano earthquake, you know, then everybody’s clicking. Oh my gosh, it was a miserable, horrible experience. Now people are clicking on your video. YouTubers see that and they’re like, well, all right, I’ll go with the trend. And even if they had a wonderful time, they’re not going to tell you that. They’re just going to make it sound like I almost died every day and it was brutal and difficult and all right. Okay. But I get I get the impression that that isn’t their thinking for Nomads Trails. Somehow they just skipped the part where it’s supposed to be at least partially enjoyable. Like man oh man, when they went through, you know, Morocco and Mauritania, they had a hard time. They were miserable all the time. They ran into difficulties all the time. It was like the world was telling them, “You’re not supposed to be here. We don’t want you here. We’re going to be mean to you all the time. We’re going to overcharge you for everything. We’re going to make crossing the borders as difficult, as painful, as miserable as possible. and the weather conditions are going to be brutal. You’re going to nearly die from the heat. On and on and on. It’s going to be an empty landscape. There’s nothing there to see. You’re not going to meet any people that you enjoy talking with. And if the world tells you all of that, the only sane thing to do is to quit. Like why keep going if every day is nothing but misery with the world telling you nah you you shouldn’t be doing this. So I mean there was one one point where Peyman lost it because they were being overcharged everywhere. Like they’re very they’re not rich people. They’re they’re traveling hard on a low budget, but everywhere they went, they were treated by the local people as wealthy Europeans. He doesn’t exactly look like a wealthy European. He looks like a a homeless dude who’s been living hard for 30 years, but even so, I mean, their bicycles and their gear is definitely state-of-the-art. They have the best, most expensive, hardcore gear money can buy. They do have that, but the local people wouldn’t know how expensive all that gear is, I don’t think. But anyway, Peyman was really getting upset and losing it because the overcharging was extreme. Like they they’re there long enough, they know what the local price is for a baguette, and then he goes into the store, wants to buy two baguettes, and they say, “Oh, that’ll be €8.” And he’s like, “Oh, come on.” Like, don’t in I think that was where he lost it. He could understand the overcharging, but it was like treating him like he was an idiot. Like, dude, I’m not that dumb. I’m not going to pay €4 for a small baguette in Mauritania. I know that’s not like, don’t treat me like an idiot. So, he was he got really annoyed about that. Sailor, she’d be cycling along. Men would be, you know, wolf whistling and they slap her on the butt as she goes by. like lowgrade misogyny and sexual harassment. And then she would pull over to the side of the road and really give these guys a scorching like really letting them have it, telling them that you don’t behave this way. That’s not proper. On and on and on. And then they’re camping out all the time. She got horrible, horrible food poisoning. Just endless vomiting and diarrhea day after day where they can barely make it down the road. And then they get to the border and huge hassle and the everybody being mean to them. So you like I said after a while you have to ask why are you even doing it? You know because this is the flip side of it because they’re cycling and they have so many countries to get through so many border crossings so many visas to get. so many SIM cards to get, so many times to change money. They don’t have much time. They’ve got to go go and they’re passing by some of the most fascinating places in the world, right? Let’s say you’re in Dakar in Senegal, the capital city. You know, me obviously, I could spend a year in that city alone, never run out of things to investigate. I mean, I would wake up every day in that city once I found a little home for myself. It’s like, oh, I’m going to go down to the coast, watch the fishermen. I’m going to go into this neighborhood, that neighborhood. You could live in Senegal for a year and have a really amazing, enjoyable experience by basing yourself there. and in their videos, in cycling videos, you know, I see people just riding by all these places and it seems like a bit of a waste. I mean, I’ve talked about I’ I’ve brought up this topic in the past. I see the advantages, the long journeys, cycling journeys, moto vlogging, but there seems to be an area where a line where you can go too far with it. You have to find a balance where being on the move wakes you up, makes life exciting, new places, you get a burst of energy and inspiration. But if you’re going all the time, that’s bad, too. Like, you don’t want to stay in one place forever, but you don’t want to be on the move forever either. You got to find a balance between those two where you can travel, but also get the best out of that country. And when you’re traveling long long distances through a country and you have like a 30-day visa, that means you have to stick to the main highway, the main corridor to cover as much distance as possible. And without exception, every country in the world, the main highway corridor is the worst place to be for everybody. I mean, local people use it. Like, you know, you think about Toronto in Canada. The main corridor there is Highway 401. That’s the main highway for people to get places. And it’s a horrible place. There’s nothing there. All you do is get in your car, put it on cruise control, and you ride, you know, 100 120 km an hour until you get to the next city. And then if you’re on a bicycle on a highway like that, it’s just nightmarish. But if you’re in a hurry, that’s where you end. Well, you can’t cycle on Highway 401. So, bad example, but you I think you get my point that if you’re trying to cover distance, you end up on busy roads with all the main traffic and those are the worst places to be in every country in the world. So you as a visitor, you’re not being fair to that country, right? You’re showing the worst side of that country because you’re insisting on being only on the main roads all the time with trucks and buses and cars, you know, blasting by you all the time. And it’s not fair to that country in a way if you’re showcasing it to the world on video and then all you’re having are terrible experiences. And I can say the same thing for border crossings. Borders are interesting places, but only if you don’t have to cross them. If you can hang out at the border, that’s a lot of fun. But if you have to cross that border, well, that’s where the vultures hang out, the money changers, the people who are trying to take advantage of newcomers who don’t know any better. They’re trying to rip you off. And that’s where immigration and customs are trying to to apply the rules of that country and they’re generally making it as difficult as possible for you. So if all you do is cycle down the main road, cross borders, you’re you’re seeing the worst that the world has to offer. And and this theme will come up again later on. Anyway, Peyman and Sailor, they fought through all of Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, and their next country was Guinea. And I was really interested because I spent 6 months. Yeah, I spent nearly 6 months in Guinea on my own cycling journey. So I really wanted to follow them and see their videos from Guinea. So they’re in Senegal and they’re trying to get their visa for Guinea. And after all that trouble to get there, they find out that Guinea just changed the rules and now for Europeans to get a tourist visa, it takes 45 days to process. It’s like ah so that that’s another sign like the country of Guinea doesn’t want you. Like if they wanted you to visit, they would make it easy for you to get a tourist visa, but they’re not. They’re now saying we need 45 days to process your tourist visa application and they’re basically saying we don’t want you in our country for whatever reason. So I would say listen to them and don’t go to that country. But anyway, for them it screwed up their plans because now how do they continue? And something to do with their schedule means they can’t wait. My first thought was just go with the punches. If it takes 45 days to get the visa, well, apply and just stay in Senegal traveling around Senegal for 45 days. Take advantage of it. But it sounds like they can’t do that. They’re on a tight schedule for some reason and they have to get to South Africa by a certain day. I don’t know why. So anyway, they actually said in their video, a new video, they’re going to ask their viewers what they should do next. Like they they made a game out of it. Like you tell us what to do. Whatever you vote for, that’s what we’ll do. And I think the choices were to like choice A cycle around Guinea, but that would take them through I think southern Mali, which apparently is quite a dangerous place to be right now, but they could cycle around Guinea and skip it. Option B would be to apply for the visa, I think, and wait in Senegal for 45 days, even though they can’t actually do that. And the third option would be to fly from Senegal to somewhere in East Africa, skip all of West Africa, and then complete the journey through East Africa instead of through West Africa. And then they they I guess they have some sort of a website or somewhere you can go and you vote and whichever option wins the vote, that’s what they’re going to do. And there was a video they posted with the results, but it’s a members only video right now. So, I I don’t know what the results are. Of course, I’m hoping Well, I have two hopes. I’m hoping they’re going to go through Guinea, but I don’t think they will. And if they go through East Africa, I hope I hope I hope they go to Ethiopia as their starting point, but I don’t think they will because I’ve also been to Ethiopia and I’d love to see their life in Ethiopia. They’re probably going to fly to Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, maybe probably Kenya, and start from there. That’s probably what they’re going to do. But as far as I know, the results of the vote have not been posted publicly yet. So, yeah, that’s the story of a Nomads Trails. Interesting people. Tough people. Like I said, I you know, I don’t think they’re even exaggerating about how tough it’s been. It’s all right there in the video. I I don’t see anything positive at all really. But yeah, it’s kind of like a parade of misery and to me, yeah, there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of value in it. Their journey as it stands out. Oh, I I I was delaying here. I was kind of winding drawing out my conclusion because I knew there was one other thing I wanted to say. And this is such a surprise to me. Maybe it says something about YouTube. Let me go to Nomads Trails. Where are they? Website their channel. So we are talking about two people doing a journey like a major expedition from the Arctic Circle to the tip of Africa by you know, bicycle, skiing, swimming, you know all the things that I mentioned. And I’m thinking 20 years ago, if somebody was doing that, wouldn’t they be getting hundreds of thousands of views? It seems tailor made to have a huge following, right? Their their video quality is exceptional. They have very good production value. They’ve got good cameras. They work really hard on their videos. They’re both interesting individuals with great personalities, very outgoing, full of crazy ideas. And then I look at their very first video where they’re cycling, it’s called skiing from Norway to Finland, you know, challenge across Europe and Africa. How many views did that video get? 15,000. Why? Why so few? And the video is not like people will say, “Well, no, Planet Doug, how do you expect to get views when your videos are 90 minutes long? That’s too long.” If you have 20 minute videos, oh man, you’re really going to take off. But this video, 17 minutes long, it looks like it should have a million views. So, what’s going on? What’s I see videos like this all the time. I’m looking at them and I’m thinking, well, I’m posting a video in Melaka where all I did was go out into the city looking for two festivals that weren’t happening. And then I’m thinking, well, obviously that video is going to fail. Who would be interested in that? And then I see this video. Whoa, look at these guys. one and a half years traveling all the way from the Arctic to to the tip of Africa. That’s the type of video that people want. That’s going to be amazingly popular. 15,000 views, 77 comments. That’s all. The next one, 12,000 views, 7 and a half thousand, 7.6,000. What the heck? like why is nobody watching those videos? But then we get one, the very next one. It’s called How to Avoid Cold Hands in Winter. Three main rules, 300,000 views. Like, what the heck is going on? So, same channel, same people, and all of their huge expedition traveling the world under muscle power videos totally failed in terms of getting views. And then he posts a video about, oh, it’s winter. How do I keep my hands warm? And he’s talking I I haven’t watched the video. It’s only 5 minutes long, but I’m sure he talked about different types of gloves, layering, little things you put in to keep your hands warm. I don’t know. And yeah, it’s a nothing little video. 300,000 views. Then suddenly they’re back to 8 12,000 7 12,000 15,000 8,000 7 12 8. Like what the heck? These videos in my mind should each be getting a million views. And why aren’t they? What What is it that’s holding these videos back? Yeah, it’s just like an interesting thought that I had. And connected to that, since their videos are getting very small amounts of views, they’re clearly not making money on YouTube. How are they paying for this trip? you know, I mean that that’s a question that comes up on YouTube all the time. Even I get it. Like how how are you paying for your life? You know, being able to like when people ask that question, they usually don’t know the background. They don’t understand what’s going on. Like they don’t even understand how you’re living. So, you know, things that I could people say to me like they they think, “Wow, this guy Doug, he’s traveling the world for years and staying in nice hotels and this and that.” And then I have to explain to them, well, you know, sure, I was in Thailand for 2 years during the pandemic, but my room cost $100 a month. That’s how I did it, you know? So, it was like $1,200 a year for rent. That’s it. And then I was eating side of the road snacks, which cost a couple of dollars, a dollar a meal. That’s how I survived. I’m staying in the cheapest places and eating the cheapest food. And I’m not going scuba diving. I’m not going skiing. I’m not going to the expensive tourist attractions. So that’s one side of the mystery. But people seem to have this image that if they were traveling around the world for two years, they imagine what they would be doing and it would be very very expensive, but they don’t make the leap to okay, what is Doug is actually doing? What are Peyman and Sailor actually doing? And they they camp out most of the time and they can’t they cook all the time. they’re eating roadkill and then you know in Europe they’re eating roadkill and and doing dumpster diving. So that’s one reason their their expenses are very low. But the other answer most of the time is that before the journey began like in my case I worked for 10 years non-stop and almost all the money I earned went straight in the bank. So I was saving like $1,000 US every month from my salary. So $1,000 in the bank and $1,000 could pay for an entire year of a cheap hotel, cheap room in Thailand. So one month of work from my old job gave me enough savings to cover the cost of a year of my rent in Thailand. So that that’s where the balance comes in. Anyway, I don’t know. I didn’t mean to go off on that tangent, but they got that question that in the latest video like how are you paying for all of this? And to be honest, I had the same question because when they began their journey, I watched the very first video. They spent a year and a half preparing to go skiing through Norway and they had to buy they bought the best of everything. The best skis, the best down sleeping bags, you know, brand name, really, really expensive, the best stoves, gear, equipment, everything they have is the best you can get. And then when they set off from their starting point in Finland, they had a car or a big truck of some kind, loaded all their gear into the truck, drove all the way to northern Norway, and then they hitched a ride from some town from that point to the Arctic Circle. So, I’m thinking, where did all the money come from to pay for all this gear? The most expensive cycling gear in the world. all of their swimming. They did they did a section on a sailboat, even paying for the car, the truck, the gas to drive all the way there. And then what did they do? Just abandon their truck? They had to somehow maybe pay someone to drive it back to Finland. All of this would be hugely expensive. So I was thinking, too, you know, you’re only getting 7,000 views per video. How are you paying for all this? And then someone did ask him, “How are you guys funding this journey?” And then Peyman, he just wrote, “We work with a smiley face.” I found that a bit disingenuous. I hate it when YouTubers are vague like that. I mean, if you’re going to answer, answer. Like, I need more details than that. He should have said, “Oh, we, you know, Sailor and I, we’ve both been living at home with our parents, paying zero rent. We live in the basement. We sleep in the garage. We both have two jobs. We work 16 hours a day. And we saved all of the money we could for 3 years. We put all the money together and now we’re doing this journey.” Ah. Oh, that makes sense. Is it that hard to answer that question? Like I hate it when a YouTuber just says, “We work.” I like behind the scenes information, you know? I like details.
I’d like to know as well how they managed to save up as much money as they did. Yeah, that’d be very interesting to know. So, I think that is all of my thoughts about Nomads Trails. I’m going to keep following their journey, find out where they’re going to go. East Africa, Guinea, maybe Ethiopia, and I’ll follow their journey.
All right. Oh, no, there is one more. I have notes here. I forgot that when they were in Senegal, they ran into another problem that I mentioned that their bikes are the best you can get. So what they have they don’t they don’t have a bike like mine which just has regular derailleurs run on cables and things like that. They have modern bikes with internal transmission and then a belt drive. So they have belt drive pinion systems. It’s the best you can get these days. Very high tech, very reliable, very expensive. And that’s what they have. But they discovered that when they were going through Mauritania, the mud, the roads were very, very muddy, like red clay. And for some reason, they they were saying that this clay mud interfered with the belt mechanism. So it turned out that for going through muddy Africa, they decided that the belt pinion system doesn’t work. So they decided to convert their bicycles to metal chains and derailleur. No, not derailleurs. They still have the pinion system like internal transmission, but instead of a belt drive, they’re going to convert to a chain drive. And they say that’s going to be better. But how do you do that in Senegal? So now they had to contact businesses in Europe, make these purchases and have them ship the parts to Senegal. But of course, packages that go to Senegal get stolen, go missing, take months to arrive. So then they were trying to find, you know, people maybe followers of their YouTube channel who just happened to be flying to West Africa and maybe they can arrange for them to pick up their spare parts and deliver it to them. So while they were in Senegal, yeah, they had to do that as well, which was another big problem when it comes to cycling through Africa, just maintaining your gear is is very very difficult. Yeah. Yeah. I I don’t see the value overall. You see the journey when when someone plans one of these journeys and they put it on a map and they draw a line from Cairo to Cape Town. It looks amazing because it goes through 20 countries, but it doesn’t really show you 20 countries. It only shows you this thin strip in the middle of that country. And from the road, from the main highway, all you see is 20 meters to one side of the road and 20 meters to the other side. So you haven’t seen Kenya at all if all you’ve done is that one strip down the middle. Better would be to base yourself in the heart of Kenya and then do loops. A loop over here and a loop over there and a loop here, always coming back to the center. Now you’ve seen Kenya and you probably had a much more valuable experience. So I would rather do 10 loops in one country instead of a straight line through 10 countries. 10 border crossings. That would be that would be kind of nightmarish. I don’t I don’t have the mental fortitude to deal with that. All right, moving on to the next travel vlogger story.
You have sharp eyes. Did you notice new shirt? This is my old Manchester United shirt. I don’t wear it outside very often anymore. It’s just all the all of the labels and the stickers, everything is peeled off. So, it looks looks pretty old, but it’s a really comfortable shirt. I like it a lot. So, I still have it. And my yeah my my shirt got soaked in sweat again. So, I took another shower, dump some water on my head. It’s so hot in here. And I even I even swap out the pillows. I have two pillows and I have to put one pillow back there and then it kind of gets drenched in back sweat and then I switch it for another pillow and then wait till that one dries off and I switch it again. Yeah. And I’m slowly working my way through my liter of milk.
Ah, yes. Full cream. So, the next YouTube travel vlogger ties in thematically with Nomads Trails. And this one, the channel and the woman are the same name, Florence Ryan. And I find this whole this topic is has got so much food for thought for me because a lot of it has to do with Ethiopia and cycling in Ethiopia. And cycling in Ethiopia is one of the big adventures of my life that yeah, it’s a big big part of my life. So I’m fascinated by Ethiopia and cycling there is such a crazy experience. If I see somebody else cycling in Ethiopia, I’m I’d love to watch their videos. But this is a very fascinating story because Florence Ryan set off with a another cyclist a guy named Roberto Helu. Roberto I think is from Lebanon but I he speaks perfect English fluent like native level English. So if he didn’t know he was from Lebanon you know you never would guess. But I think it was Roberto’s idea originally to embark on a cycling journey and he chose the classic Cairo to Cape Town route, which so many people do. It just sounds good, too. The the letter C and the letter C, you know, Cairo to Cape Town or Cape Town to Cairo. and you start your journey in Egypt in Cairo and you ride all the way down through East Africa, ending your journey in Cape Town or you know near Cape Town or in Cape Town, the Cairo to Cape Town road. So Roberto had been planning this for a long time and for him it was a huge project. They called it project Africa which was going to go on for maybe 2 years and planned it for a long time and they were going to shoot video the entire time document the whole thing in v like professional film making level not you know cheap vlogging like I do but fullon making films they were going to make travel films rather than just daily vlogs, if you know what I mean. And they were going to do photography. They had great cameras. They were very, very dedicated and very, very professional. And then Roberto and Florence, they set off at the same time on their journey. And they started in Egypt and they rode through Egypt into Sudan. They actually made it, they completed the entire journey by bicycle, which is pretty incredible. So they completed the Cairo to Cape Town, but both Ryan, both Florence and Roberto, they both gave up on the video side of things. They didn’t give up on it, but they they essentially quit posting videos because as they found out, and I I could have told them this had they asked me, there just isn’t enough time and energy. You can’t do it in Africa. the especially the quality of videos that they wanted to make in terms of the editing and the graphics, everything about it, professional level. If you’re riding a bicycle all day through the Sudan, that’s all you’re going to be able to do at the end of the day. You’re not going to sit down and start editing videos. So, at some point you have to make a choice about what you’re going to do. You can either cycle every day or you can make videos every day, but you can’t do both. I mean, I think they had this idea that they could cycle through a country and when they get to the capital city, they could find a comfortable place to live for a couple weeks, get all caught up on the editing, and then start cycling again. And it’s it’s a reasonable plan more or less. But I guess even that didn’t work out for them because I remember Roberto, he posted I think five videos from Egypt, maybe four. Four or five from Egypt. Very good videos like with really good production value. And they had ideas and themes and subjects. It wasn’t just, oh, I’m gonna go get coffee now and, oh, here we at the market. You know, he wasn’t doing daily vlogging. He was making a film. And so he made a few videos, posted them from Egypt, maybe one from Sudan, and then he disappeared. And this was back in 2023. So this was more than 3 years ago that he had this experience. Over 3 years ago he cycled through Africa and he still hasn’t posted a single video other than the one from Sudan. So I know he continued he completed the cycling ride through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, on and on and on. But even 3 years later he still hasn’t updated his videos, his YouTube channel. No more videos from the journey at all. And Florence kept going a little bit longer. She has she managed to post a video from Ethiopia 2 years ago. And then after that first video, she disappeared again. So it was like 2023 years go by. She posts one video. Then two more years go by until the next video. And just now she started posting videos again. And even though it’s been 3 years since then, it takes her 2 months to edit every video. So it’s like 2 minutes or 2 minutes 2 months between videos. So at this rate, it’s it’s just going to take her the rest of her life to finish, you know, the videos for a project Africa. So that’s part that’s one reason why it’s a fascinating story that they went on their journey in 2023 and they still haven’t posted videos from it. It’s taking them that long to do the editing. So if anybody out there thinks all this talk about how long it takes to edit video thinks we’re exaggerating, well look at these people. Of course, in my humble opinion, they don’t need to be that professional. And I’ll talk more about that in a minute. They really hamstrung themselves. They set their standards so high that there’s no way they could make these videos on the road. And then you run then you run into trouble because they made a decision like Rob made a decision in Sudan. Okay, I’m not going to edit any more videos. All I’m going to do is film. I’ll keep filming for the rest of the journey and I’ll stockpile. I’ll get all these SSD drives and I’ll stockpile all this video and then I will edit the video when the journey is over. And that’s a very seductive idea. And it seems like, wow, that’s a great idea. That’s really going to work out. But it really doesn’t because once you get in the rhythm of shooting video but not editing, it feels so easy. And then you just go crazy, right? You film all the time. You film everything and you end up with terabytes of video, terabytes and terabytes, terabytes of video from all kinds of different cameras. And when the journey is over and you’re looking at that Mount Everest of stockpiled video, what do you do with it? It’s it’s overwhelming. There’s nothing you could do at that point. It seems like such an insurmountable job to take all that raw video and wrestle it down to a YouTube video. So, yeah, like I said, it’s been 3 years, more than 3 years, and Rob still hasn’t posted a video. So yeah, the if he’s still working on them, yeah, he’s working hard and he’s made the job much much harder than it needed to be. And then Florence, she ran into trouble because I felt so bad when I heard this story. She was in the Sudan. They were in Khartoum and staying there for a couple of weeks, arranging their visas for onward travel. editing video and she was invited to a family’s home for dinner and she went there and I I don’t know she was probably showing them video like people drive me crazy when they don’t give the details of a story but she has a MacBook you know an she she had an expensive Apple MacBook a powerful one for editing her videos and she was at this family’s home having dinner there. And then while she was there, one of the young children, she said in her video, dumped like two or three liters of fruit juice onto her laptop, right? So you you can just imag I don’t like I don’t know why she had her laptop. Why did she bring it to their house? Why was it open? I’m guessing she brought it with her just because she wanted to show them some video from their journey to sort of, you know, they they give us dinner. I can entertain them with stories of my journey and I can show them video and she happened to have, you know, the video the laptop for whatever reason it was out and it was open and I guess it was running and then some kid knocked over a picture or poured it. Again, she doesn’t give any details. Anyway, all this juice destroyed her MacBook. Destroyed it. She tried to get it fixed. She was doing what we all do. She tried to dry it out. She was going on the forums. How do I fix it? And she went to the Apple Genius store or whatever they have in Khartoum. And she eventually got the news. It can’t be repaired. I mean, even if you could, it would cost more than just buying a new laptop. And of course, this hit her extremely hard. She talks about this in her videos about it was just like a gut punch. All this time, all this energy going into planning this journey. And she took the money that she had and all of her life savings, she said, poured all of her life savings into the gear. She needed cameras, a laptop, a good bicycle, good camping. She spent all her money on her gear, had almost nothing left over. She said at that time she had €200 in the bank and that’s all the money she had for the rest of the journey and she was going to live month to month on whatever income she could get through YouTube and Patreon. So all of her savings were gone. So she couldn’t buy a new laptop. She was done basically. And so that that was her situation and that’s one of the reasons she just quit making videos because she didn’t have a laptop anymore. And now that the journey is over and she has a new she eventually got a new laptop somewhere. She might even have gotten it in Kenya. I can’t remember now. But she did get a new laptop at some point in the middle of the journey. But then again, she never did start posting videos again, even though she did get a new laptop. So that that’s one part of the story. And just to back up a little bit here, the one thing I remember thinking about when she was telling this story was as as much as I understand everything she says in her videos, everything she does, I did have a little bit of this feeling of being a little bit too committed to the YouTuber video editing lifestyle. So, for example, her laptop died. She didn’t have a laptop anymore, but that doesn’t mean she had to stop posting videos. She still had a smartphone. She had a high-end powerful smartphone. And I know from experience back in 2023, you can edit video on a smartphone just fine. So anyway, in her videos, she was talking a lot about how passionate she was about making videos. It was her dream. It’s her drive. It’s her passion. And now that she couldn’t do it anymore, it was like such a horrible thing. And she was crying all the time because she couldn’t continue with her dream. But I was thinking a little bit ah if you were that passionate, that driven, that committed, you could have found a way at the very least start editing on your phone. I mean, I had to I’m not like I’m not on her level in terms of her skills and ability and the quality, the videos she makes. I’m not as tough as she is because she did that whole journey through Africa regardless. But when I was in Myanmar, when I first started my YouTube channel, I had this $300 Dell Inspiron, you know, like a student laptop. I only bought it for surfing the internet. I wasn’t making videos when I bought it, so it was never meant to edit video, but that was the only laptop I had. So, I was using it to edit video using Windows Movie Maker. And then my laptop died when I was in Myanmar. I crossed over into Thailand and I found out my laptop couldn’t be repaired. Like you couldn’t even get like it was the motherboard and you couldn’t get a new motherboard for that laptop. So basically my laptop was finished and like I don’t know a day later I was editing video on my phone. Like it didn’t take me that long to make the switch. And I found out to my surprise that editing on a phone is really, really easy. So, Florence could have just kept going. The only wrinkle is, yeah, probably editing on a phone. She couldn’t make the high-end really polished movies that she wanted to make. if she wanted to switch over to a smartphone, she would have to lower her standards. And I but I think that would have been the perfect choice to make. It would have been taken a huge weight off her shoulder because it takes her years, months to make one of these polished videos, but now she’s forced to edit on a phone, forced to make her videos simpler, and that would have been easier for her. And she could have been posting videos in real time all the way through Sudan, Ethiopia. You know, the American hobo Daniel, he’ll tell you he’s never used a laptop. He doesn’t have one. He doesn’t want one. He doesn’t want to carry around a heavy laptop. He doesn’t need the keyboard. So, his entire YouTube channel, two of them now, is based entirely on just sitting in his tent editing on his smartphone. Works great. So Florence could have done that and I did have that feeling a little bit and even without that she had a big following on Patreon and on YouTube. She was very popular. A lot of people especially because she has this image of woman cycling through Africa and posting videos. You know people are going to be drawn to that story. And I’m pretty sure that if she were in Khartoum and her MacBook was destroyed, had she posted a video on her main YouTube channel telling the story, disaster. My MacBook is gone. My MacBook has been destroyed. Made a funny story out of it. I can guarantee you to 99.9% certainty she would have gotten 50 offers from people to send her a new laptop because I’ve had that experience myself. I don’t have nearly her following. But when I was in Mesa in Thailand and my laptop broke and I edited video on my phone I think I did it for like a year and a half, two years, something like that. long time. And then suddenly a box arrived at my hotel and it was a YouTube follower, a Malaysian who saw my struggles and he had an extra laptop in his house, a MacBook, and he says, “Ah, you know, Doug could probably use this. I don’t need it anymore. I’m I’m going to I’m going to upgrade and buy a new one. What do I do with my old one?” H selling it is such a hassle. Ah, I’ll do a nice thing. I’ll send it to Doug. Next thing I know, I’m living the dream and I’m editing videos on a practically brand new MacBook. So, someone sent me a brand new almost brand new I in terms of its condition, a brand new laptop. And then that one eventually died when I was in Port Dickson and Kuala Lumpur going back and forth between those places. The MacBook became unusable. It kept blowing up. I got it repaired and it would blow up again. It was basically finished. It would be more expensive to fix it than to buy a new one of the same type. So, that laptop was down. Next thing I know, I got an email from a Planet Doug subscriber in KL saying, “Yeah, you know, we’ve got a laptop here in the house. Nobody uses it. It’s not state of the state-of-the-art. It’s not brand new. It’s got a lot of problems. It’s kind of slow. But if you want it, it’s yours.” So, next thing I know, yeah, this man drives all the way down to Port Dickson, meets me for lunch, treats me to lunch, he’s there with his son, who is the computer expert, and then he they pull out this laptop. Here you go. And suddenly, I had a laptop again. So, if people are that kind and generous with me, imagine someone like Florence. So again, maybe in Khartoum, a donated laptop, she’s not going to get the most powerful MacBook on the market, but she would have gotten a laptop that would get the job done and and would have allowed her to to continue. But anyway, I I don’t really want to harp on that because I understand where she was coming from and she was committed to that workflow using that MacBook and she just didn’t see a way around it. So, she made the decision to just not edit video anymore. Same as Rob. Maybe because Rob made that decision, it made it easier for her. They both said, “Ah, let’s just stockpile video and we’ll edit when the job when the trip is done.” So, that kind of leads into the last half of my story here because she just posted videos from Ethiopia. Unfortunately, from my point of view, I think there was only two of them. So, I think she originally posted one video from Ethiopia, then she quit, and now she’s posted maybe two new ones, and I I want a hundred videos. Like, they were in Ethiopia for 3 months. So, I want a video for every day. Like, I would be insatiable. Like, if she Oh, I wish she posted a video every single day. I would love to see everything they did, everything they experienced, everything that went on in Ethiopia. But she’s so committed as a filmmaker that she would condense huge amounts of time and experiences down into a polished, you know, 30 minute film rather than a daily vlog kind of video. So that was a little bit disappointing. But I noticed that the comments to her videos have been horrific. Like there’s no other word for it. I I watched her videos, really enjoyed them, understood everything in them. Thought they were good. I mean, great, actually. And then I went through the comments and I was shocked to my core about how negative the comments were. I couldn’t believe what I was reading to be honest and I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be Florence reading all of this negative feedback. I thought it was really extreme. I I mean I’m not talking about profanity and death threats or anything. Nothing on that level, but the constant criticism, negative feedback, it was just neverending in the comments for so many different reasons. And oh man, I felt so bad for her. And I really hope she doesn’t take it too much to heart because now we’re talking about a woman who spent years planning the journey, invested all her money in the gear, completed the journey through all of Africa. That was, you know, years and years ago. And now in 2026, she went back, edited all of her, you know, Ethiopia video, probably blood, sweat, and tears went into the, you know, the editing and the production and then finally posting it, and probably in her mind, it’s going to be a huge success. Like, why wouldn’t it be? She’s a woman traveling through Africa, cycling, sleeping outside, having all these amazing adventures, finished her dream journey, and produces these really amazing travel films. And I imagine she a thought, I’m going to post this video and then I’m going to bask in the applause. like people, this is really going to be all my hard work, all my time, all of my dreams is finally going to be posted and this is going to be so much fun and then waves of criticism, waves of negativity. I I oh, it must have been heartbreaking. At that point, a reasonable person would probably just say, “Well, then I’m not going to post any more videos.” Like if if this is the abuse I’m going to get, I’m not I’m just gonna leave all that video on my hard drives on my SSD drives and I’m not going to post anymore. But no, she kept working and has posted new ones from Ethiopia and then one more from Kenya. So why were the why was why are the comments so negative? Various reasons. I mean, there was one constant theme where people realized how old they are, and I get it why people might be annoyed by that, but at the same time, it’s just a detail. So, like, if you throw yourself heart and soul into a travel experience and making the videos, and sure, she’s posting the videos 3 years later. That is a bit odd, but it’s got to be heartbreaking to finally post the video and everybody focuses on that. Hey, wait a minute. Was this 2023? Why are you posting them now? What’s going on? Oh, I wish I knew. If I’d known, I wouldn’t even have watched it. Why do I want to watch something 3 years old? And then Florence would try to explain to people, well, I was in Khartoum and I had my MacBook, but it was destroyed and I didn’t have enough money. I couldn’t buy a new one. And then, you know, she explains that, yeah, it takes a long time to make one of these videos, but nobody cares about those explanations. So, there’s all of her recent videos, like people realized, what? These videos are 3 years old. I’m not going to watch this garbage. You know that kind of reaction. But the more interesting thing, well maybe two more interesting things is that Florence is very emotional and also very honest. So she was not putting a coat of varnish on the experience. If it was tough, if it was difficult, she said so and she wore her heart on her sleeve. And Ethiopia is probably the toughest country in the world for cycling by leagues like no other country in the world even comes close. And I can say that with some authority because back in 1998 1999 I went cycling through Ethiopia and I’ll talk about that in a minute. So, I have personal experience and I can tell you that in her video, her videos, Florence was not exaggerating. She was not focusing on the negative. From my point of view, she was barely scratching the surface on the negative. She was telling some of the things that happened, but I’m pretty sure she held most of it back. So in her videos, I think she was really trying hard to be fair where she didn’t focus on only the negative things. She tried to show positive things, but she did talk about the negative things. And there were nights sprinkled throughout the videos where she was in her hotel room, like she cycled all day in Ethiopia, and then she was finally in a room like this, and then she would break down in tears. She would set up her camera like I’ve done here and then talk like do an epilogue to the day and then she would be crying the entire time because the day had been so hard.
So you can just imagine how people reacted. So many people in the comments like gh you all you do is complain. You complain and complain about everything. What did you expect? Do you think Africa is going to be like your home country in Europe or United States? Why don’t you know go home to your country? You know, you’re so stupid. What did you think was going to happen? Did you know on and on and on and everybody misinterpreted everything that she did, everything she said? Nobody was paying attention and they just didn’t get it. And it was like an avalanche of victim blaming, telling her that everything she experienced was her fault because she chose to ride her bicycle through Ethiopia. And I guess at that time there had been fighting in Ethiopia, like civil war kind of stuff, a bit of a war zone. And she chose to ride her bicycle after this fighting had ended. And she knew there was unrest. And of course, people were saying, “Oh, you white people, you stole everything from Africa. You colonial masters stole everything from us, and now we’re poor and you expect to come here and just have a wonderful time. Ah, go back to your own country. You know, you don’t, you know, on and on and on.” And then people would say, “Oh, all you do is cry. Why are you crying so much? Stop your crying and complaining. What? Oh, you’re not strong enough. If you’re too weak, go home. Go back to your own country, you know.” And again, from my point of view, having been to Ethiopia myself on a bicycle, I’m amazed she wasn’t crying 24 hours a day. I mean, it was that tough. You know, I’m I’m not exactly a weeper. So even though I was in Ethiopia and I was riding my bicycle and I lived through everything she lived through and I get the sense what I lived through was actually even tougher because it was a long time ago and then just based on her stories and things. So, personally, no. I’m not going to end the day, you know, crying in my hotel room. But, man, the brutal experience of cycling in Ethiopia would do anybody in. And if you are a bit emotional, a bit sensitive like Florence, crying in your hotel room, that is that is a common sense reaction. That is absolutely normal. To be honest, a sane person would have left Ethiopia. You know, anyone who goes cycling there after 2 days, the only sane response is to head to Addis, get on a bus, and get out of the country as fast as you can. And this, if you don’t know my stories, this may not may make a lot of sense to you, but just to back up a little bit, the main problem is that in Ethiopia, for some reason, the sight of a foreigner on a bicycle instills a certain madness in the local people, particularly the children. So when I was cycling through the mountains, the northern loop of Ethiopia, every single day from morning till night, the children would chase me and they would, you know, you’d be, if you’re all by yourself, maybe just for a few minutes, there’s nobody around me and I’m like, “Oh, oh, this is so amazing. Nobody has seen me yet.” And then some young child out in the field working would spot me. I call them the yuyu birds. And they, that kid, would start sprinting for the road as hard as they could to catch up to me. And while they’re running in my direction, they’re screaming, “Faranji! Faranji!” You know, it’s like a call that went out over the countryside and every child that heard it would start screaming, “Faranji!” up the road until every child for miles around knew. It was like a smoke signal that they would send out to warn all the other kids. There’s a foreigner coming on a bicycle. Let’s go get him. And they all rush to the road. They would run around me and behind me screaming at the tops of their lungs like they scream, “You, you, you, you, you, you, you.” Just on and on like nonstop. They never stop. Faranji, Faranji, Faranji. And they say money, money, money, money, money, money. One birr, one birr, pen, pen, pen. But it was the you you you that really got you after a while because it was so nonsensical. Like, what is the point of screaming the word you a thousand times over and over as loud as you can? Screaming money, money, money. Well, yeah, okay, there’s logic there, but what’s the what’s the deal with the you youing? I never understood it. And then these kids would start hitting me with rocks. They just start picking up rocks and then just flinging them at me, hitting the bike, hitting me. And we’ve got these kids out in the fields. Their job is to chase the birds away from the crops. So they sit up in these towers or at the side of the field and they have a sling like a cord and then they put a rock in the sling, you know, and chase the birds away. So that’s all they do all day every day. So they’re experts in the use of this sling. So they would hit me with rocks from 100 yards away. You know, they see me cycling by the road, they hear faranji, faranji, and oh, they’re so excited. and they get a pile of rocks and they wait for me and then bang. You know, I was hit by rocks all the time, screaming at me. They’re screaming profanities at me. And these kids would grab thorn bushes, run ahead of me, and put thorn bushes on the road ahead of my wheels, trying to puncture my tires so I get a flat tire. They had these sticks and they would try to stick them into my bicycle wheel to try and, you know, jam it in there, break the spokes, and so I have an accident. When I got to a steep hill, like really, really steep, where it’s all you can do to grind your way to the top, the kids would grab my bicycle, like five of them, six of them at a time, and then just pull me backwards. And then I’d chase them away. And then I’d Oh, don’t do that. Don’t do that. You know, I’m trying to be nice. I’m trying to be friendly. I get back on the bicycle and I start pedaling. They dive in, grab my bike, pull it back. Anything on the bike that was available, they would steal it, try to steal it. Like if I had a towel, they all try to steal the towel. It’s like a game for them. I could go on and on and on with my stories. And it wasn’t just the children. It was adults and teenagers. Deep in the mountains, there were these really, really tight switchbacks going up and up and up and up these mountains. Really crazy roads. But these switchbacks would also have a pathway going straight up. So when the teenagers and the men, even women did this, now that I think about it, when they saw me cycling up the switchbacks, they would run up the trail and they could go faster than me so they got ahead of me. So they were above me on the mountain on the switchbacks and then they would wait until I cycled by below them and then they would pick up these big rocks, throw them over the edge of the hill, the cliff, and then try to hit me. I assume hoping to knock me unconscious so they could steal everything from me. I mean, it was basically robbery attempts. I had men attack me with sticks. I had to fight them off. I had individual like men in crowds, like groups of men. I had individual men stand in the middle of the road when they saw me coming and they would just block the road. They would not let me pass. and they grab the bike and I had a handlebar bag at the time had camera gear in it and they’re trying to open the bag and grab the camera and they’re trying to steal everything and they will not let me pass until I get off the bike, grab the guy, you know, throw him off the side of the road. I had to get physical to defend myself and then keep cycling. I had times where I was going downhill, going a little bit faster now because I’m going downhill. And men would be carrying bamboo that they cut down the roads. And then they would see me coming and then they would wait until I was right beside them. And then they would swing these huge bamboo poles, you know, trying to knock me off the bicycle. And I would see it coming and I have to duck and the bamboo just go. So that’s what I experienced in Ethiopia all day every day. I mean it was the one of the most nightmarish experiences a human being can go through. And I remember when I was there I met two other cyclists. I think they were from Belgium. Two women and one of them bleeding from a head wound. And I you know we were going in opposite directions. I stopped to talk to them and they said, “Yeah, we just got hit with a bunch of rocks. Now I’m bleeding.” They said they were robbed and they were done. They were just leaving the country. They were cycling to Addis as fast as they can get back to the capital and they were leaving. You know, they just gave up. So that was cycling in Ethiopia back in 1998, 1999. Just to just to soften that a little bit. I feel like I should. It was only when I was cycling that the children really lost their minds. There were other times like if I arrived in a small town and I want to stay there and I’m looking for a place to stay and then maybe I’m walking my bicycle and might even park my bicycle and walk around. Crowds would still follow me. I mean that’s just normal for Ethiopia. and they were loud, but they were no longer hitting me with rocks, hitting me with sticks, trying to, you know, puncture my tire with thorn bushes. So, suddenly I’m riding along. These kids are attacking me like savage hordes. But as soon as I stop the bike and I’m not moving anymore, they’re like, “Oh, how are you? One birr, one pen, money.” Suddenly, they calm down. I was like, “What the heck?” And then as soon as I started pedaling, now the rocks come flying again. It was something about the bicycle that just made them think, “Oh, target practice.” So, it was the strangest thing. And then when I was in these Ethiopian towns, the Ethiopian people themselves were just lovely, lovely people with centuries old, millennia old traditions of Arabic hospitality because they the the location geographically of Ethiopia is very close to Arabia and the culture is kind of mixed a little bit. And then they have strong traditions of hospitality towards guests, particularly travelers. So I’d show up in one of these towns and if I’m staying there at night and I go out for a walk, everybody was friendly. Everybody invited me to join their family for the coffee ceremony. So all of that was wonderful. But next morning, back on the bicycle, the gauntlet begins again. and it just never ends. So that’s what cycling in Ethiopia was like for me and according to Florence and her stories, that’s what was happening to her. So at the end of the day when she finally managed to collapse into her hotel room and turn on her camera, she would start crying because it was just too much. She just couldn’t bear it. And she told the stories a little bit on video about how the children were behaving. This constant screaming, throwing rocks, grabbing the bicycle, harassing her, screaming at her, she just couldn’t take it. And then because she told that in the video, was honest about it, of course, everybody in Ethiopia took offense to that. says, “Oh, you stupid foreigners complaining about how we behave here. Like, don’t you know that those children are just being curious? Those children are friendly. They’re being curious. Why do you think you know?” And again, I I’m I’m reading these comments and I’m just shaking my head going, “You don’t know. If you have not gone cycling in the remote parts of Ethiopia on the mountain roads, you don’t know. You have no business commenting until you go there. Now, talk to me about how these kids slamming rocks into you were just being curious. They’re being friendly. Like, uh-uh. These kids, they knew what they were doing. They were trying to inflict pain, fear, anxiety, even injury. That’s what they were doing. And they knew what they were doing. it was fun to them to torment foreigners and of course they were hoping to get money too. And then so I read all these comments about oh it’s it was Florence it was your fault because you’re too sensitive you know they’re just being friendly. All you had to do was give them money give them candy give them pens and it would have been wonderful. And again, uh uh uh uh I can tell you absolutely not. That would have had no effect at all. And going back in time, not I have to check whether my microphones are still working here. I think they are. I have to monitor the battery power. Yes. Going back in time, Ethiopia, of course, was well known decades ago for having famines. And Ethiopia became kind of the poster child of Africa for western aid. So for many many many many years every foreigner who went to Ethiopia there were so many aid groups like NGOs donating money building schools building hospitals doing all these things and all the foreigners who went there were handing out money like crazy like just giving money to people and then they were told that oh that’s not a good thing you shouldn’t be don’t give children money what you need to do is give them pens and that that is one way of contributing by giving them a pen and you’re helping with their education. So the children of Ethiopia, they quickly figured that out. They stopped asking for money because nobody would give them money anymore. And now they’re saying pen, pen, pen, give me pen, give me pen. And every time, you know, a foreigner will give them pens, the child, I was there. I saw this. I know this happened. They run straight to the store. They got a brand new pen. They trade it in at the local pharmacy or the local stationary store and they get a little bit of money for the pen. The the store owner makes a profit because they they pay like half price, you know, pennies on the dollar. And the kids just collect all these pens from foreigners. And when they have a big collection of them, they go to the store, trade them all in, and and get the money. They’re they’re not dumb, you know, these aren’t dumb kids. And then foreigners figured this out. It’s like, oh, okay, don’t give pens directly to the children. Go to the school, give them to the teachers. Like if you have a big package of pens you want to donate, go to the school. So then that’s that’s what was done for a while. And then the children would guide you and you would, you know, the children are like, “Pen, pen, pen, pen.” Chasing the foreigner in their Land Rover or whatever they’re driving and the foreigner is like got a big bag of pens, packages of them to give out. It’s like, “No, no, no, no. I want to give them to the school.” So then the kid would say, “Oh, come with me. Come with me.” And the kid would bring them to the school, introduce them to the teacher, and then you give the pens to the teacher. But the teacher and the student, they’ve got a kickback scheme going. The stu the teacher also takes the pens straight to the store, sells them, gets money, gives a kickback to the kids. Again, they’re not dummies. This is how it works out. And I remember I’ve told this story a million times, but maybe if you haven’t heard it before, I spent quite a long time in Lalibela. I don’t think Florence went there. That part of the country maybe wasn’t open, wasn’t safe or something. But I went to Lalibela. It’s like one of the biggest most incredible places like tourist attractions in the country. And I stayed there for a while and I noticed these kids every day playing soccer in a field, but they’re playing with like a rag ball, like a ball they made themselves with rags and rope and tape. So they just took a bunch of stuff and made it round and that’s what they’re kicking around the field. And here here comes a group of tourists there to see you know the stone underground churches of Lalibela and they want to have their foreigner experience of you know playing with the local kids like YouTubers do it all the time. It’s like classic YouTuber video fodder and then they join the kids play a game with them and now they have a story to tell when they go home. And then while they’re doing that, they notice there’s a sports store right beside the field with a soccer ball in the window. Ha. So the foreigner goes to the store, buys a brand new soccer ball, gives it to the kids, and then they go on their way and they have another story to tell. The kids, of course, are encouraging them like, “Oh, look, look, soccer ball. Soccer ball.” So they buy it for them. Foreigner leaves. The kids run straight to the store, give the ball back to the store owner, he puts it back in the window, gives the kids some money, and they just wait for the next foreigner to come along, and they just keep selling the same soccer ball over and over again, and it goes right back into the window. And I saw it happening. So again, this is not a third-hand story. I saw it myself. So again, yeah, I mean, his kids are clever. They’re they know what they’re doing. It’s just so what I’m saying is all of this generosity from tourists and aid workers over the years like Ethiopia was flooded with money. You know, we are the world raising money for the famines of Ethiopia and the country as a whole and the children in particular, they now associate foreigners with giving stuff away. So it’s it’s kind of the fault of history here. So now all these kids every time they see a foreigner on a bicycle, pen, pen, pen, pen, money, money, money, money. Why not? It’s what foreigners do. We hand things out. And then if you don’t give them pens and money, then they hit you with rocks. So now it’s like an extortion scheme in a way. All right. Anyway, I didn’t intend to go on for quite so long about that, but that was my experience of Ethiopia. So, when Florence had the exact same experience and talked about it, she wasn’t even being as extreme as I have been in this story. She just sort of hinted at it and about how bad the children were and, you know, throwing rocks at her and insulting her and screaming at her all the time and how you could never get away from them. And then she did mention a few times that, you know, they would be cycling, but then they need to stop at the side of the road under a tree for some shade, just to rest and have a drink. And then all these Ethiopians would gather around them in a circle and just stand there staring at them. Which again is perfectly understandable because not a whole lot happens in these villages. It’s not like there’s a circus in town every day. A foreigner on a bicycle, especially a woman like Florence. That’s interesting. Let’s go watch them. Let’s go watch the foreigners and see what they do. and they can’t speak with you, so they can’t have a conversation. So, you get all these people standing in a circle and they’re just standing there and staring at you. And those people were being curious and friendly like the comments said, “Oh, though they were just being friendly and curious, I’ll give them that.” The rockthrowing children, they were not being friendly. These people are just looking at you. They’re just curious to see what you look like. And every time you, you know, one of you, you know, you open one of your bags, like if I were there today, I’d probably have this bag. I take it out of one of my pet bags. It looks like a spaceship, right? My bicycle with all the bags and zip, zip, zip. I pull this out. I go zip, zip, zip. I open it up and it’s jammed with camera gear, you know? It’s like, whoa, look. GoPro Hero 9 and my 360 camera and a battery and a charger and memory cards. You know, the local people, they’re going to find I would find this interesting. Like if I see a foreigner in Melaka, you know, sitting at the side of the road and he opens up his knapsack and he pulls out a bag like this and he’s going through his camera gear. I’m coming over going, “Oh, what you got there? What is that? A new DJI Pocket 4? Oh, wow.” you know, I would be staring at the guy, but of course, I have access to more entertainment than that. So, I’m not going to stand 5 feet away from the guy and just, you know, just stare at him and not say anything. But it kind of makes sense that these Ethiopians would. They’re not being unfriendly in their mind. They’re not being rude. But at the same time, Florence riding her bicycle through Ethiopia is being stared at like that all the time, like nonstop. And if people aren’t just staring at her, they’re screaming at her or throwing rocks at her. And then in her video, she just said, “This is what happens all day, every day, and I just can’t take it anymore.” And then now she’s on camera and she’s crying. And I’m like, “Hey, hey girl, I get it. I understand exactly what you why you’re feeling the way you are.” But the people in the comments, they they don’t get it. And then she was just abuse was heaped on her from all directions. I really felt bad when I saw the comments. And there it’s even goes beyond that. Oh yeah, a lot of people said it was her fault because she didn’t hire a guide. Like saying, “Oh, if you had a local guide, none of this would happen.” Implying that you’re just too cheap. You know, you didn’t want to spend the money on a local guide. You’re too cheap. What do you expect? And of course, I have problems with that argument. one being she’s on a self-supported cycling tour. And the reason she’s doing that is because she does not want to be herded around by a guide. She wants to go exploring on her own, have adventures, be in touch with the country directly. And even if she wanted and had the money to hire a guide, a guide isn’t going to come with you on a bicycle, right? What are you going to do? buy a $3,000 touring bicycle for this Ethiopian guide and buy him pannier bags and a tent and you’re going to be cycling together all day, camping out together. It’s just completely unrealistic. And even if you did all that, from experience, I can tell you the guide would be no protection at all. The guide would be hit with rocks all day. The guide would be screamed at all day. That’s just what they do to cyclists and adults couldn’t control the children. There are many many times I was in Ethiopia where I was being just overwhelmed with a crowd of children just being torn apart practically eaten alive and some adults were sitting nearby and they would look at that and take pity on me and oh man we got to help this guy out. And the adults would come and shout at the children. These are Ethiopian men, full-grown men from the village and they would chase the kids away. Ah, leave the foreigner alone. And there was nothing they could do because the kids, you know, they would just sort of part and then get out of the way of the Ethiopian adult, but then they just go around him to come back to me. The adults, there were a couple of times, would go after them with sticks, like driving away the kids, and the kids would just avoid the stick, run around the man, and just come right back at me again. Nobody could control them. They they were that energetic. Let’s put it that way. So, even if Florence paid thousands of dollars for a guide to come with her, the guide would just be another victim of the children. It wouldn’t have done any good. So, all these people blaming her by saying, “It’s your fault because you didn’t hire a guide.” I was like, “Give me a break.” And yeah, I felt so bad to see all these comments. And then there’s the video where she crossed the border from Ethiopia into Kenya, and that’s a very desolate area. Has a reputation for being dangerous. It’s like there are bandits there. It’s very isolated, very wild, very windy. It’s a It’s known as a tough place to cycle. Tons and tons of foreigners have done it. Like the Cape to Cairo route, that’s like the only way to get from Ethiopia to Kenya. So, cyclists do it all the time. And for foreigners like us, it really isn’t that big a deal. you know, it’s going to be isolated, windy, and tough, and you prepare for it, and you just camp out wherever you can. And there was one night where Rob and Florence, they set up camp in a culvert underneath the road, you know, that it was like a a gully, an opening where water would flow, but it was completely dry. And they put up their tent there, and they’re going to spend the night there. But then some men came around who looked pretty scary and they had guns in the middle of the night. So they ended up being a little bit nervous about that and they packed up and they cycled in the dark. You know, they cycled away from there. They decided it was too wasn’t safe to camp there. The men freaked them out. And there was another time where Florence again while riding her bicycle was crying because she just got hit with a bunch of rocks. three like teenage boys had attacked her and they were chasing her and she just rode as hard as she could and then they were hitting her with rocks and a big rock hit her right in the middle of the back. So, she’s upset and she’s crying to get away from these guys. But in the comments, everybody was telling her, “H, why are you crying? You know, why you’re so weak, you foreigners. what’s wrong with you? And you know it’s your fault. Didn’t you know this area was danger? What you should have done was get off your bike and confront them, chase them. Here in Africa, people were saying all these crazy things. You know, here parents are really hard on their children and if you if you told off those boys, you know, they would have left you alone. Or you should go to the village, find their parents, tell their parents what those boys did. They will protect them. like are you out of your mind? Like nothing these people make makes any sense at all. She was a a young woman, pretty tiny woman by herself. Rob had cycled several kilometers ahead of her. So she was completely alone in the middle of nowhere. Three teenage boys hitting her with rocks. What you want her to get off her bike and confront them? It’s like, oh, these people in the comments just they’re nuts. They have no idea what they’re talking about. And then in the video, everyone was telling them that, “Oh, you should never ever camp there. It’s so dangerous. It’s way too dangerous. I am Kenyan and I would never even dare to go there.” A lot of comments like that. when they talk about the wild animals, the lions, the hyenas, the snakes, and I kind of shake my head at all of that as well. Let me check audio. I’ve been talking a long time today. I’m going to have to switch out my microphone pretty soon. Running out of power. I had the same experience myself because I flew into Addis, Addis Ababa. I didn’t ride across the border or anything. I flew into Ethiopia with my bicycle. It was on the plane and at the airport. I reassembled it and then I rode to my hotel. Stayed for like a month in Addis, I think. And then when I told people like friends that I made in Addis, I would tell them they’d ask me, “What are you what are you going to do?” It’s like, “Oh, I’ve got my bicycle here. I’m going to ride my bicycle through northern Ethiopia, go up onto the plateau and ride through the mountains.” Everybody in Addis told me I was insane. I stopped telling people what I was going to do because they told me without any hint of doubt that I would be eaten alive by lions. Oh, there’s so many lions. They said, “Oh, you can’t ride your bicycle there. The lions will eat you. The hyenas will eat you. You can’t sleep in a tent. At night, the lions will come.” You know, in their mind there were lions everywhere, hyenas everywhere and bandits. They went on and on and on about bandits. Oh, you will be robbed. You will be killed. You’ll be Everybody told me that. And I’ve had that experience in every country I’ve ever been to. People are so afraid of everything. Afraid of their own country in particular. And local people were the most afraid. and they were the least informed. I mean, after a while in Addis, I mean, they freaked me out so much. All of my friends, I was practically, you know, my heart was like pounding when I was leaving from Addis. And I had planned ahead for all kinds of like the worst case scenarios. So, I thought, okay, I’m definitely going to be robbed all the time. Someone is going to steal my bicycle. So, what I need to do is take money. Like, this is back in the days of travelers checks. There were no bank, you know, I wasn’t going to ATMs to get money, things like that. So, I had emergency cash and I was hiding it everywhere. Every hiding spot I could think of in my sandals, every, you know, in my pockets, a money belt underneath my clothing. I was anticipating that there were going to be men with machine guns. give us your bicycle and they’re going to steal it. And so I was like I had all these fantasies in my mind of how I was going to survive the lions and the hyenas and the bandits. And I can tell you now I never saw one. Never saw a bandit. Never saw I mean if you saw a lion in the highlands of Ethiopia, count yourself lucky. The only people who see lions are the tourists who spend thousands of dollars to go on safaris. That’s where the lions are in protected parks. There are no lions out there hunting foreign cyclists. Same thing with hyenas. But the local Ethiopian people, they were convinced they were sending me off to my grave. It’s like, “Oh, there goes Doug. lion food.” And anyway, so these people in Kenya were saying to Florence in the comments like, “Don’t you know, like, didn’t you do any research about how dangerous it is there, the hyenas?” And I’m like, “There’s no hyenas there.” The thing is that the real dangers in these countries, the local people never warn you about those because they don’t know about them. All the time I was cycling around the highlands of Ethiopia. I’m thinking back like, you know, I’m I’m having these fantasy conversations in my mind with these people that I met. Hey guys, you warned me about lions and hyenas and bandits. You know, thank you for your concern. How come you never told me about the children and how the children were going to attack me every single day? that warning I could have used. Like, what’s up with that? But of course, they don’t know about that. They they they didn’t know. They’ve heard about lions all their life. So anyway, to get back to the video comments, I remember there was when Florence and Roberto camped out underneath the the road in the culvert, she did say something in the video about, oh, it’s still, you know, 45 or 85 kilometers to the next town and the sun is going down, so we can’t get there. There’s no way we can make it to the next town. So, we’re going to camp here. And for a foreigner like me, long-distance cyclists, adventurous backpackers, that’s normal. We we camp out in our tents everywhere all the time. It’s not that a big a deal. But to all these Kenyans and Ethiopians, to them that’s like signing your own death warrant. They people from those countries just don’t do these things, especially if they’re from the city. And then they were heaping abuse on Florence, saying, “How come like why don’t you have a map? How stupid are you that you go to this country and you don’t even do research and you don’t even bring a map so you don’t know? So you end up camping. You thought there was a town.” And Florence being very patient in some of her replies was like, “I had maps. We have Google maps these days. We we know exactly where we are. In the video, I said it’s 83 kilometers to the next town. I know where the next town is. We just didn’t have enough time to get there because it was so windy that day. We were going so slowly. We couldn’t make progress because of the heavy wind.” And these people, well, you should have, you know, you should have done research. Why didn’t you have a map? And she’s like, like, how dumb do you think I am of We had Google maps. We had satellites, right? Have you not heard? We had smartphones. We knew where we are. We knew exact, you know. Oh, so all those comments to those videos just drove me absolutely crazy. I could go on and on and I really felt bad for Florence, as I said, having to, you know, project her heart and soul, everything into these videos, invest so much of herself and her time, and then the majority of the people in the comments just didn’t get it. Like, just missed the point. And everything they said missed the point. And then there was all of this criticism and negativity. And I think a lot of it, to be honest, was because she’s a woman. You know, I I don’t really want to run to this idea that everything is either sexism or racism or something like that, but I think I I picked up on a lot of that in the comments that if it were a guy doing those things. If I shot video of that same experience, maybe people would say, “Wow, you’re so brave. You’re such an adventurer.” But because she’s a woman, it just opens up a lot of abuse on the internet. And I’m hoping that this is only in the comments. You know, I haven’t left a comment on her videos. I wanted to tell her all these things. I wanted to write a comment saying, “Florence, I’m so sorry about all this negativity and criticism. I rode a bicycle through Ethiopia. I understand. I know exactly what you’re talking about.” And I wanted to tell her like, you know, your video got 80,000 views. These 300 people in the comments, they are morons. Don’t listen to them. Just imagine that they’re just Yeah. Don’t pay attention to them. 99% of the people, the 80,000 people who watched her video, they understood and like what you’re doing. This is just a very small minority. I wanted to tell her that in the comment, but I never did because somehow it felt almost like adding that comment was just as bad as the other comments. Like I want to make her feel better, but somehow by trying to make her feel better, I would just end up making it worse somehow. And I’m pretty sure that all the people in the comments, I even wrote out a long comment. I did I I spent a lot of time drafting one and I told all these stories about my experiences in Ethiopia. So I was basically writing for all the other people to read and say to them, “Oh, you said the children were being friendly.” I can tell you from experience they were not being friendly because I went to Ethiopia in 1998, 1999. I rode my bicycle on that exact same road that she was on. And this is what happened to me. The stone throwing, the sticks in the spokes, the thorns, the slings, the abuse, the stealing, the screaming. That’s what happens. That’s what happened to me. That’s what happened to her. But I’m pretty sure all the idiots leaving comments, they would even read what I wrote and they would just dismiss it all. It’s like, “Ah, you’re just a dumb Canadian. You don’t understand Africa. Those children were doing it this way.” And they were doing it because they’re poor and they were doing it, you know, because you’re rich and they’re poor. And they would say, “Oh, there was fighting in this area, so that’s why it happened.” And then I would say I would get in an argument with all the idiots and I would say hey I was there in ’98 999 and there was no unrest in that part of Ethiopia. There was no fighting and I was getting it worse than Florence. So don’t blame it on the fighting that has got nothing to do with it. This is just part of the the the children’s culture of Ethiopia. This is what they do. But then you know like I did not want to insert myself into the argument. So, even though I wrote out this long comment, I still haven’t posted it. I kind of wanted to write to Florence directly in an email, but I I don’t see a way to contact her directly. But anyway, so anyway, that is the story of Florence Ryan, and I really wish she posted more videos. Yeah, going back. Sorry to babble on for so long about this, but it’s what I do behind the scenes. one of her maybe her first video from or maybe her second one from Ethiopia like from long ago. This is one of the videos she actually posted at that time I think. Anyway, she was in the city she was in the city excuse me she was in the city of Gondar and she posted a full video from Gondar and I watched that whole video again yesterday. And I had some thoughts about it because it the video opened with her trying to explain to people what’s going on. She was actually filming it in Gondar and she wanted to tell people that her laptop had been destroyed and she was telling people, “Oh, I can’t make videos anymore.” So, this problem and she was kind she was in tears again while she was telling the story because the loss of her laptop hit her so hard and she said that yeah, she was like crying at night every night for the past month or something as she was thinking about the loss of her laptop. So, she opened the video that way and she even said at the beginning of the video, you can hear her voice was breaking. She was on the edge of tears the whole time and she started talking and she says, “Oh, this is like the fifth time I’ve tried to tell this story to make this video, but I can make it through it. So, I’m going to try one more time and I’m I’m going to tell you, you know, what happened in Khartoum.” And it wasn’t just the laptop being broken. There was so much more to the story where they had to get to the border, the land border between Khartoum and Ethiopia. A lot of trouble getting there. And there was fighting going on. There was rioting in the streets like on the Ethiopian side. I’d have to go back. Was it on Ethiopia or I think it was I think it was on the Ethiopian side. and they had to spend the night at the immigration post because it was too dangerous to cross the border because there was rioting and gunshots and fighting going on. And so that was their introduction to Ethiopia. Must have been terrifying because you’re out in the middle of Sudan, Ethiopia. And I think she said that yeah, when they were in Khartoum, I think there was no internet. The government had turned off the internet so that local people could not follow the news. You know, that’s page one of the dictator playbook, right? Turn off the internet, keep everybody uninformed. So, they didn’t know what was going on. There was nothing but rumors and and how much danger there was. But they kept cycling and then they got into Ethiopia and that part of the road was incredibly steep. Just endless climbs up and down. brutal, brutal route to follow. And the children started chasing her and throwing rocks at her and screaming at her. This was their welcome to Ethiopia. And all of that was on top of breaking the laptop and having no money and being worried about the future. So yeah, she had things to get a little bit emotional about, but the thing is that that was the title of the video. That’s how she opened the video. She told that story, but then after she told that story, she switched into actual documentary film making. So, I I can’t remember how long the opening was and how long the rest of it was, but if you sit through the storytelling and then you get to the part where she’s actually making a film about Gondar, the culture, the people, the streets, the life. It’s astonishing. It is so amazing. And it brings me back to Gondar because I went there myself and I didn’t know nearly as much about Gondar as she did because when I went there in 1998, 1999, I didn’t have anything. There was no internet. There was no Wikipedia. I didn’t have a smartphone. I didn’t have anything. So, it’s not like I could look up information. All I could do was wander around the streets of Gondar in awe and just go, “Look at this place. These people the I mean the visual nature of Ethiopia in the in the highlands is mindblowing.” And she was there right before Easter. And the celebrations of Easter in Ethiopia are incredible. and the leadup to Easter, Easter itself. She filmed all of it. She talked to local people. She was using a big camera to get closeups, portraits of people, their faces, the tattooing, the And she would go to all these churches, go inside the churches and show the incredible Christian paintings on the inside of these churches talking about the history of Christianity in Ethiopia. And then the castle, you know, the castles of Gondar, she went in there. It’s amazing. It’s an incredible piece of video. I couldn’t get enough of it. And it just it made me want to go back to Ethiopia right now. All of that visual that stunning nature of northern Ethiopia. There’s nowhere like it on the planet. the people, the culture, the streets, everything going on is incredible.
But the weird thing is the way she structured that video, right? I think most people, they started watching from the beginning where she’s crying and telling the story. They don’t know that this amazing film is coming next. So, a lot of people probably don’t even make it through the beginning and they just go to the comments. Oh, why are you crying? Why are you so up? Oh, get over yourself. If you can’t take it, why don’t you go home? Didn’t you know Africa was different from Europe, please? You know, so she got all this abuse. Anyway, it just it just struck me that, oh, poor Florence didn’t give didn’t get any credit for all that filming that she did later on. And again, from my point of view, my criticism is why didn’t you just stay in Gondar as a filmmaker? I mean, look at where you were and with your skill shooting video, your courage to go out and and talk to people directly and record them with audio and video and then do all this incredible editing. And the cycling is such a nightmare. If I could go back in time, I’d be like, don’t cycle. Just quit. Get rid of the bicycle. Stay in Gondar and just make movies here. document this world and I want a hundred videos from Gondar and then go to Axum. I don’t know why they didn’t go north like the full loop up to Axum. I don’t remember anything about the Simien mountains. I’ll have to go back. But man, yeah, you could spend a lifetime in northern Ethiopia. you know, Bahir Dar, Gondar, Axum, the Simien Mountains, Lalibela. That’s the beginning of the Nile River. You know, the the source like the Nile has two I’m going to get this wrong, but there’s the White Nile and the Blue Nile. I think there’s two rivers and they meet. I think in Khartoum she even says this in her video. And the source of the of the Nile River, I think it’s the White Nile. And most of the water that flows through the Nile River to Egypt, comes from the Ethiopian highlands. That’s where most of the water comes from. And I think 90% of the people in the world don’t even know that. So she’s going down like near the the Nile River, the source of the There’s so much to see and do in northern Ethiopia is what I’m saying. So, I wish she had just stayed there, forget about this cycling nonsense, get out her smartphone, and just document everything she’s doing and seeing in Gondar. Give me a hundred videos from Gondar. I would I would just absolutely eat it up. But yeah, that’s just not how things worked. And she yeah, kept cycling on from there. Let me just check my notes briefly if there’s anything big I also wanted to say about Florence. I don’t think so. I think that’s the end of the story. Nope, that’s it. I feel like I might have gone too far. I might have exaggerated about the critical negative comments, but I’ll have to go back to her videos and just review them again to see whether I exaggerated. Like I said, nobody was like using profane. Well, maybe people did and she deleted the worst of the comments, but I don’t know. When I went through the comments, I I was shocked and surprised at how negative they were how much criticism there was. And that’s why the story stuck with me so much. And I’m really looking forward to the rest of her videos. I hope they get a better reception now that she’s left Ethiopia behind. The hardest part might be behind her. Like I think Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Northern Kenya, from all the videos I’ve seen, all the travel books I’ve ever read, that I think is the toughest part. You start in Egypt, and these days, if you’re a cyclist, that means you get a police escort. And that drives cyclists mad. They hate it. But you can’t get away from it. So as soon as you start riding, you pick up a police escort and they control where you stay at night. They keep trying to tell you you can’t camp out, you can’t go here, you can’t go there, you must stay here. And they just follow you all the way through Egypt. And psych it just drives cyclists mad. And of course it’s that’s understandable because tourism is like what a multi-billion dollar industry in Egypt. And if one dumb cyclist gets kidnapped by some bandits or local terrorist group, that shuts down that hits the media and it shuts down tourism for all of Egypt for a year and they lose tens of millions if not hundreds of millions or a billion dollars. Right? So, as soon as the authorities in Egypt see a dummy like me or Florence, I’m going to ride through Egypt on my bicycle. They’re like, “Gh, not one of these guys.” Police have to follow them, make sure they’re safe. And you know, you can understand their perspective, but again, it’s so annoying. Just drives you crazy. And Rob and Florence, yeah, it just drove them nuts, right? So they deal they dealt with that all through Egypt. And then Sudan of course is on another level of difficulty. And then she had Ethiopia, northern Kenya. That was tough. And that’s yeah that’s like one of the reasons when I did I I started my cycling trip there. I flew directly into Addis and you know the normal thing to do would be to go to Egypt and then cycle from Egypt Sudan into Ethiopia but everything I saw everything I read was like ah I’m more interested in the mountains of Ethiopia I like hilly terrain I like mountains and the history of Ethiopia I was like wow that is amazing it’s so different it’s very unusual in Africa so I just decided to fly directly into Addis, base myself there, and then do what I talked about. I did a loop through the north, a loop to Harar, a loop to the border with the Sudan. Spent a lot of time. Then I started hiking because cycling was so difficult. I put my bike into storage and I had a backpack with me. And then I just started backpacking through the mountains, sleeping in the villages at night. So I I I tried to avoid cycling after a while. it was just too unpleasant. So that I did all of that because my understanding was it’s better to stay in one place and Egypt and Sudan was just too difficult. But then she did the whole route. But now that she’s through all of that, I’m hoping everything will get easier from there and people will stop giving her such a hard time in the rest of her journey. So anyway, we’ll see what her next videos are are like. Winding down. Another quick bath to cool down. And another shirt. I I rarely wear this shirt outdoors. It’s gotten so so thin. And but it’s a good shirt for lounging here in my room. So yeah, my other shirt got soaked through with sweat. I’m running out of shirts. But yeah, final thought about Florence. This kind of brings me full circle in a way to what I was opening the video with. Maybe it feels like a long time ago now. Where where do you draw the line between describing and complaining? Like how do you avoid people criticizing you or thinking that you’re complaining all the time? Yeah. Now I remember I was I came up with that idea when I was talking about Yeah. this hotel room and how you know all you know that whole story about how the air conditioner broke down and then trying to get it fixed but being unable to communicate that to the local staff and on and on and on. It’s for me it is a story and yet I’m pretty sure that there will be lots of people or not lots whoever sits this long through a Planet Doug video that you know could leave a comment saying something like you know why are you complaining all the time you know if you have to complain so much why don’t you stay in a nicer hotel and that kind of thing. And then if you are riding a bicycle long distances, just describing the day will sound like complaining, but really all you’re doing is describing because it is physically hard no matter what. Like you wake up in the morning quite often, you know, you’re in your tent. So getting ready to face the day coming out of a tent is already more difficult than waking up in a hotel, going down to the lobby for a breakfast buffet, nice shower, and I mean that’s all very easy and fun. So, of course, if you’re sleeping in a tent, packing up your bicycle early in the morning, maybe it’s raining, maybe it’s hot, maybe it’s freezing cold, maybe it’s windy, maybe the road is really, really steep, maybe there’s lots of traffic on the road, it doesn’t matter. No matter the situation, just describing your day is describing hardships. But that’s just because that’s what bicycle touring is. It’s a physical thing. And you’re on the bike for 8 hours and then your butt starts to hurt, your legs get tired, and you’re get a little bit sunburned and the flies are buzzing in your ears, whatever the day involved. If you just all you’re doing as a cyclist is describing the day and yet it can come across as complaining because the value in the day maybe isn’t immediately apparent. These are all physical discomforts that come with cycling. They’re just normal and natural and then you get a lot of benefits from cycling. Otherwise, nobody would do it. So again, I’m thinking of this in terms of Florence where she was criticized frequently for complaining too much. But if you have also done what she’s done and you’re a bit of a storyteller, you realize, well, she’s not complaining. She’s describing. And when you look at the days that she experienced, like the days when she crossed the border from Ethiopia into Kenya, how can you not do what she did in terms of showing and telling the story? Because what happened is what happened. She’s just describing the events, the weather, and the terrain as they were at the time and as they occurred. So what’s the alternative? To film nothing, to say nothing. So for example, I I luckily I didn’t have to experience this. When they crossed the border from the Sudan into Ethiopia in customs, they had to leave a really large deposit for the bicycle, like to bring the bicycle into the country. Again, drives me crazy because they never said the actual amount, but Florence said it was hundreds of dollars. So, they had to pay hundreds of dollars at the border in order to bring their bicycles into the country. And they were told that, well, you get the money back when you leave the country. It’s a guarantee that you’re not going to bring the bicycles in and sell them. You have to leave the country with it and then you get your money back. Sounds good until you get to the land border with Kenya and now it’s time for them to give you money. And of course, when you give them money, that’s a lot easier. Now, for them to give you money, well, okay, now we’re talking something that’s far more difficult. They don’t want to give you any money and the systems in Ethiopia won’t be organized. So they had to spend I don’t know two days at the build at the customs office just sitting in the lobby waiting and waiting and they oh go to this room go to that room get this stamp and that stamp and that phone call that phone call that email that paper that you know on and on and on and on. So that is what happened. But if Florence tells that story, oh, you’re just complaining about Ethiopia all the time, right? It’s like, well, dude, what do you want me to do? This is exactly what happened. And I I can’t remember now. I don’t think she even said at the end that they got any money back. Maybe they didn’t even get any money back, but she did. They did eventually leave. Something happened. And then when they were cycling in the north of Kenya, day after day they were facing these huge winds and there were signs everywhere saying, “Okay, this area is known for like powerful dangerous winds. Be careful.” Like if you’re driving a truck or something, these winds coming from inside can tip the truck right over. And so it was like day after day of cycling against these be these brutal headwinds or side winds. And it was hot and there was nothing there. No towns, no villages, no hotels, no stores. So if you’re just telling that story, all you’re doing is describing. But then people will say, “Ah, you’re just complaining all the time.” It’s like, “Dude, no. It was windy, so I said it was windy. The road was really, really steep, so I said it was steep. It was really hot, so I said it was hot. There was no hotel, so we had to sleep in a tent in a culvert. Like, I’m not complaining. I am just telling you and showing you what happened. Like, like this drives me nuts that that conflict between so if you if you listen to the commenters on the internet, if Florence listened to them and said, “Oh, well, I better stop complaining all the time.” then there’s nothing to say, you know? It’s like, well, what else do I talk about? It’s not like I was sipping a piña colada at poolside being waited on hand and foot. Yeah. It’s not like I had an air conditioned room with a sauna, chilled wine, like the none of that happened. So, if I don’t tell you about the the wind and the heat and camping outside, then what am I supposed to tell you? This is only what happened. Anyway, I will end my rant about Florence Ryan right there. And yeah, as I said, I’m really looking forward to the rest of her videos and I hope she posts a lot of them.
A quick Planet Doug pop culture roundup. In all my recent behind-the-scenes videos, I always have pop culture notes, things I want to talk about, but then I end up talking so long before I get to the pop culture segment. I always say, “Ah, I’ll cut it off here and I’ll do pop culture next time.” And I was just about to do that again and just not say anything about pop culture. But instead, what I’m going to do, considering I’ve made this video so long, I’m just going to do a hopefully rapid fire roundup. basically Planet Doug’s pick for good entertainment that I’ve enjoyed recently. So, pop culture roundup Planet Doug picks. I watched season 3 of Silo. It wasn’t my favorite season. I loved seasons one and two. I I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Love the story, love the characters, fascinating ideas. I liked everything about it. Season 3 carried me along. I still enjoyed it, but it was not my favorite season. It felt a little bit like it was just spinning its wheels because we needed backstory. We needed to go back in time and fill in some gaps in our knowledge and then we can finally get to the conclusion. But before we could get to the exciting conclusion, we got to get through this. And I know from some reading I did that they made some changes from the books in order to accommodate that because the books didn’t really translate that well into this medium for this transitional period. So, they had to come up with some ideas in order to keep Juliet in the story, for example. And I don’t know, they did some things and it just sort of felt like I felt like I knew everything like everything they were showing me in season 3 is like, well, I already I knew all of this. I I didn’t know the exact details maybe, but I guessed that this was what the history was. I’m not being surprised by anything. and all these characters were having adventures and but we drifted away from the central story of Juliet and Solo and all that kind of stuff and I I was just kind of waiting. It’s like, can we get back to the main story? And they never did really. Like the final episodes, maybe 8, nine, and 10, definitely nine and 10, they were the strongest of the season because the story kicked in again to lead up to season 4, the concluding season. So anyway, but I I recommend it if you haven’t seen Silo and you do like kind of sci-fi futuristic stories, stories that make you think, but with amazing characters. Yeah, Silo is great. Season 1, season two are exceptional. Season three is just good. But yeah, so one planet Doug pick silo. Can’t wait for season 4. Hope we hopefully we don’t have to wait too long. In the same vein, there’s a show called Dark Matter. And I remember Dark Matter season 1 just ate it up. I mean, I stumbled across that show. I hadn’t really heard much about it and then I just absolutely loved it. It’s not a great show for a behind-the-scenes video because I can’t talk about it. I can’t say anything about it because anything I say will be giving away too much. Don’t watch the trailer. If you’ve never seen Dark Matter, don’t watch anything. Don’t watch a trailer. Just get hold of the first season, the episodes. Start watching. Let the story unfold. And if you’re kind of a sci-fi fan, you know, you kind of like Black Mirror style stories, Severance, Pluribus, Silo, I think you’ll love Dark Matter, especially the first season, but the second season just started. Two episodes have been released so far, and yeah, I like them. I can’t I’m so happy to be in this world. I have a few nitpicks so far with season two and it seems pretty obvious. I think season 1 was based on a book and the book was a self-contained story. So, Dark Matter could easily have ended like a one season show would have been perfect. Tell the whole story in season 1. The ending is a little bit open-ended, but you can easily fill in the blanks with your imagination. The main story ended really in an amazing satisfactory way. So, season 1 could be the whole show. It could be a standalone series. It didn’t need a season two. So, now that they made a season two, but there’s no book. The book was only one story. They told that story and it’s over. There isn’t a book two. So you can feel it. You can feel the change that okay, we don’t have the direction of a tight book story anymore. So the writers started making up stories. And what they ended up doing was dividing it. The first season was very focused on just a couple of the main characters. But now that we’re in season two, all of our main characters have been split and they’re each getting a separate storyline and you know they’re going to come together again. They’re dropping in the breadcrumbs, the seeds of this idea about how they’re going to meet again and their stories are going to intersect. But at the beginning, they’re all kind of off doing these other things. And some of the story lines they came up with are big in my opinion. They’re just too much. The first season was kept very small. It was all about big technology, but it was the effect on one person’s life. It kept it very focused and very relatable. Now that we’re in season two, the focus just got bigger and now it’s sort of fate of the universe kind of stakes are involved and some characters are operating at that level and it’s just it feels a little bit like it’s spinning out of control. It’s just on the edge. Maybe episode three they’re going to get get the story under control and I’ll be happy again. You know that they pull everything back together. But I’m still enjoying it. Highly recommended. Dark Matter season 1. And once you watch season 1, well, you have to watch season 2. You don’t have a choice.
Another show that I watched which I loved, highly recommended, is called The Audacity. A O Audacity. Audacity. The Audacity. And yeah, it’s I’ll read a little bit right here. Basically, it’s an original dark comedy drama, a satire about Silicon Valley. So, the Silicon Valley bro like tech bro culture. These people that invented an app and then sold the app and made millions if not billions of dollars. It takes a look at that world and it is from this guy Jonathan Glazer and he is the creator, writer and showrunner and he was behind shows like Succession and Better Call Saul. So if you have Succession in your pedigree and this is another show about the uber wealthy people that and it’s a comedy like a dark satire though when you watch it it feels almost like a documentary and at the very beginning this idea that they’re showing me the documentary about their lives really bugged me because I hated these people. All of these rich people were despicable human beings. Everything about them was despicable. Everything they did was horrible, selfish. Like ah I hated all of those characters. And for that reason, I had a little bit of a negative reaction to the show. And I pulled out of it a little bit and started reading about its history, its production, who the creators were. And then I realized, ah, okay, it’s a satire. I’m not meant to believe that this is all real. We are It’s a comedy and a satire. It’s like, ah, okay. Now I can understand that. Now I I no longer hated these people because I realized they weren’t meant to be real people. They were meant to be figureheads, like symbols of the worst of this culture and the craziest side of this culture. And once I got that straight in my head, I went back to the very beginning and rewatched the opening episodes. It’s like, ah, okay, now I get it. And I really started to enjoy the characters, the nuttiness of them, the craziness of this world. It’s a lot of fun. sharply written, very very sharp, very very entertaining. So, eight episodes in the first season. Yeah, I I thought it was great. The Audacity, Planet Doug Pick. Next one. Oo, yeah. Chaos, spelled with a K. KAOS. And this is another show that’s a little bit on the fringes where it’s not for everybody, but if you have a certain set of interests, a certain p personality, you might love it. But maybe give the first episode a chance, maybe you’ll hate it, maybe you’ll like it. It’s hard to say, but it is set in a kind of alternate world. It’s not a real world, though. It is Earth. It is our world based in Italy and Greece I believe for the most part like it’s actually shot there but it’s a kind of a dystopian world where Greek mythology is real. So we’ve got a human world but in this world the Greek gods you know Zeus, Hera, Hades, all the and what’s the guy from the ocean? Prometheus. No, Prometheus is the guy who is chained to the wall. Zeus condemned Prometheus because in the history in the legend he gave fire to mankind and Zeus punished him for that, chained him up and had vultures or eagles, maybe eagles pecking at his liver and eating his liver for all of eternity. Basically, that was his punishment and his torture. So, we’ve got him, Hades, who’s who’s the ocean god? I can’t think of it right now, but anyway, all of these gods are real. Poseidon. Poseidon. And Dionysus is in here. And these gods are not pure. They’re flawed. They’re bad in a way. and they have real effects in the lives of humans. So the humans in this show, they worship these gods and try to plate them in order to get benefits from them. But these gods are nuts. I mean Zeus is played by Why is my brain not working this morning? His he is played by Jeff Goldblum. So, picture Jeff Goldblum with all of his ticks and nuttiness. Think of him in Guardians of the the Galaxy series, you know. A Thor, basically, the Thor movie where Jeff Goldblum is playing the guy that rules that garbage planet. I forget his name, but anyway, take that character and make him Zeus. So yeah, he’s a bit nuts and he’s very wrathful that if humans don’t worship him or they insult him, he gets his revenge. So it’s a very cruel, very savage world. But it’s basically a modern retelling of Greek mythology. And there are some famous actors like Jeff Goldblum playing Zeus. David Thewlis, I never know how to say his name. He plays Hades. But beyond that, those two big big names, there are other actors, the main actors who are completely unknown to me. And I love that. I love it when a show has like an ensemble cast and a lot of them are brand new to me. So I I more easily accept their characters as real. Very imaginative, very unusual world that the world building, very thoughtful. Anyway, Chaos with a K may or may not be for you. It’s just it is what it is. and creator Charlie Covell and he wrote the majority of the series and you can really feel it that this world and this story came from one mind. It feels like it could be a play like a stage play and I love TV shows like that. Yeah, really liked it. So that’s Chaos and then it got cancelled. So, there’s only one season. There was supposed to be more, but it was cancelled. I guess it was very expensive to make and the the producers, the studios, whoever paid for it decided it wasn’t worth it. So, only one season, but that first season really good. I thought another show I can recommend a Planet Doug pick. Absolutely love this. Ripley. Ripley is based on a book by Patricia Highsmith from 1955. And you might know the story already because it was made into a movie with Matt Damon, I think, called The Talented Mr. Ripley. It’s basically the same story, but this is a completely new telling of the story. And I was doing some reading on it and the guy who the brainchild of the TV series Steven Zaillian he was the writer and director of all eight episodes. He basically pitched it like the story in the book. There was too much to put into a movie. So the movie didn’t do it justice to tell the whole story of Ripley. It needs to be a TV series. and they accepted his argument, paid for it, and he had the budget to make eight an eight episode season called Ripley. And I loved this show for so many reasons. One is the character of Ripley thematically. It was like perfect timing for me to watch it because this isn’t giving anything away. Don’t worry about it. It’s you kind of need to you know this in advance that the character Tom Ripley he’s an American and he’s like a small town a small time crook a he’s a con man where he makes a living by scamming people but back in the 60s and he lives alone. He’s like one of these single men who lives alone and he lives in a place like this in New York. He lives in a flea hotel in a tiny room with a single bed, a hot plate, no bathroom, so he has to use the bathroom down the hall and there’s a pay phone in the hall that all the people in the hotel have to use. So, there’s always somebody on the phone screaming and yelling, fighting with someone. And the opening scenes are amazing because it shows Tom doing what he does, scamming people, making, you know, stealing mail and then opening people’s mail, getting information about them, then writing them forged letters and getting money from them, going to the banks, tricking everybody with He has a lot of special tools for forging documents and stamps and forging signatures and things. So, he’s not a nice guy. He’s a a amoral crook. But what really was kind of fun was for me to see his fleabag hotel in New York at the exact same time I was moving into the this place. There was this great scene where they’re establishing the world he lives in. How dismal it is, how dark, how uncomfortable, how mean people are, how cruel. There’s no courtesy. There’s no politeness. It’s a hard life. And then he goes into the shared bathroom and he’s in there taking a shower. He gets all soaked up and then there’s no water. Like the water starts come stops coming out of the shower and he’s looking at the pipes, you know, like turning the tap on and off and it’s like and I was here in this room with the shared bathroom. crazy people in the hallway walking around in their underwear where people are not exactly polite or nice or courteous and there’s no water in the bathroom. And it was like, “Hey Tom, we’re living the same life right now except I’m not a con artist ripping people off.” Anyway, I just thought that was so entertaining. And then of course the main story begins. And if you know the story of the talented Mr. Ripley, it takes place in Europe where Tom Ripley has the chance to go to Europe and he’s now hobnobbing with wealthy American expats, right? The uber wealthy children of rich families from the United States. And back in the 60s, the 50s and 60s, there was like this artist community all over Europe where all these American expats were living in Paris and Italy. They rented their palazzos on the cliff of the Italian coast, you know, stunning, absolutely gorgeous, amazing life. And they all think they’re the next Leonardo da Vinci or they’re the next Hemingway. the next will they’re they all think they’re writers, artists, sculptors, painters, poets, and basically they’re just living off daddy’s money as long as daddy will send them the money, taking a gap year in Europe, but the gap year has lasted for 10 years. So now Tom Ripley goes there and now he is rubbing elbows with these people and of course he can’t help himself. He sees them all as victims and he starts his scamming and conning the people that he meets and then the story goes from there. I loved it. Love the characters. Love the story. Love everything about it. But best of all is the cinematography. Blows my mind. Again, you know, I’m I’m not any kind of a genius when it comes to these things. I have no pretensions to being a knowledgeable person when it comes to art or anything else, but you know, things jump out at me. And this show, they made very deliberate choices. Choice number one, black and white, all in black and white, which for me was the perfect choice for Italy in the ’60s. It looks stunning. Not just black and white, deep focus, black and white. No blurry backgrounds. And I’m like, that is Planet Doug. I want everything in sharp focus. Foreground, midground, background, everything’s in focus. Okay. Black and white, deep, deep focus. Now, the camera is stationary. The camera almost never moves. So when they shot the the TV show, what they did was take a tripod with a camera on it and they just put it in one place and they frame it like it’s an artistic black and white photography. Every scene to me is stunning. It’s like a beautiful, incredible black and white photograph of of Italy. All the Italian art and the streets and the palazzos. It’s just amazing to look at. So, the camera is like taking a black and white picture and then Tom Ripley and the other characters, they move in and out of the screen. They walk into the picture, do something, and then walk out of it again. And the camera doesn’t follow them. Like, it’s a static scene that they go into and then leave again. I I just I cannot get enough of it. I’m just like absorbing it. Every shot that they’re showing me, I’m like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I just love I It just looks amazing to me. And not only those things I mentioned, the richness of the black and white is incredible. It’s high, high contrast. They’re not messing around with gradual grays. It’s white and it’s black. Black and white with sharp edges everywhere. It’s a stunning image every single time. So anyway, I’m enjoying Ripley very very much and I’m getting towards the end of the season. I can’t wait to see how it all wraps up.
The cast, I know them by face, you know, Andrew Scott, he plays Tom Ripley. Dakota Fanning, very, very good. She’s playing the main woman in the story. Marge Sherwood and then the guy who plays Dicky Greenleaf, I don’t know, Johnny Flynn. I know something else that he was in but I I don’t know the actor that well. So, and then there’s a lot of Italian actors playing police officers, bank clerks, customs, immigration officials, train like train conductors, things like that. Abs. I just love it to death. Yeah. Called Simply Ripley. And there’s 10 or eight episodes. Let’s see what it says. I’m sure I made a note about that somewhere. Eight. I wish there were 20 episodes. I really, really do. And I don’t know if I if this this won’t really give away anything. Like I told you, he’s a con artist, so he’s a criminal. So, you know, the story is about crime. Trying not to get caught. But one thing I find really interesting about watching the show is that it was set in the 60s and yet I can’t help but watch the show from a 21st century perspective because in my lifetime I’ve watched hundreds of true crime stories, detective stories, thrillers, all these things. So I am my brain is packed with all these images of super criminals like Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes anyone like Jason well they’re not criminals per se you know but Jason Bourne right all of these people are playing 12dimensional chess and they’re three steps ahead of the police and when they commit a crime they know everything they need to do to cover their tracks and do all these amazing things. And of course, in the 21st century, all we think about is forensics, right? You could you can commit what you think is the perfect crime, but you leave one fingerprint, one drop of sweat, one hair, you’re done. DNA, fingerprints, digital tracking, ID, internet, credit card, you know, they’re going to find you. So, I’m used to all these stories about super criminals that are so far ahead of the police. They’re like masterminds, right? And then Ripley the show starts and okay he is a skilled criminal in what he’s doing scamming people conning people false identities things like that and then the show starts happening and the whole time I’m thinking you know Ripley you’re not really that smart like he’s not doing the things I was expecting him to do and and I realized, oh, okay, okay, okay, that’s not what the story is about. This is the 1960s in Europe, and he’s kind of just an ordinary guy. He’s not a spider in his lair, thinking in 12dimensional criminal chess, plotting every move. That’s not what the show is about. It’s about reacting in the moment trying to survive for the next 10 minutes. He’s not making perfect choices every time. You know, he’s making mistakes. He can be discovered at any minute. And there’s so much tension in the story. I’m just about losing my mind, you know, because he’s trying to get away with his crimes. And he just never catches a break, right? He is being hounded all the time. He’s always on the run and he has to think on his feet. And he’s so good at that. He’s so good at thinking on his feet. He’s being interrogated by the police and he’s calm and cool and collected. But even though he made a hundred mistakes, he’s still just managing to get away with it because he’s so good at being confident and talking to the police and getting away with I don’t know. I love absolutely love the story. But this whole idea of we’re talking about a criminal from the 60s in a different world where you can’t be tracked on Facebook or credit card bills. Everything is paper. Everything is a hand piece of paper that you put in the mail. Signature cards are kept in file cabinets, right? So it’s a completely different world. And yet in this story, his main downfall is technology, which I absolutely loved because he’s living in this world where technology doesn’t really exist yet. It’s just starting to appear. And yet, two pieces of technology in his life that he didn’t even want or need that just happens to be there. Those two pieces of technology are is what’s tearing him down, giving him away all the time. And me as a viewer of the show, I’m I’m with Tom. I know he’s a bad guy, but of course, he’s the main character in the show, so I kind of want him to to get away with it. I I want him to escape. You know, the police are going to catch him. So every time one of these pieces of technology something happens and I’m like no no not again you know oh Tom and you can see I’m I’m in Tom’s brain he’s looking at this technology oh for sake oh what did you know it’s like oh what are you doing to me what are you doing to me and the main problem betraying him to everybody is this piece of technology that was just introduced. It was actually kind of rare at the time. That’s what we were told by the characters in the show. It’s like, “Oh, you know, we have this. This is very unusual. You’re very lucky to have this.” And then Tom is like, “Okay, you know, I have no use for it, but okay, you tell me. I’m very lucky to have it.” And that stupid piece of technology is the one thing that just haunts him day and night. I I thought it wasn’t meant to be funny, but I thought it was pretty funny. So, you can see how much I like the show. I’m getting very animated. Ripley, highly recommended here on Planet Doug. Two more quickies and then I’m done. Movies now. For whatever reason, I watched Minions and Monsters. Kind of a pleasant surprise. It’s not good. Well, it’s not great. It’s not even good, but it’s it’s okay. It is what you think it is. It’s the minions doing minion things, and it’s not that well done really. And yet, they did do some unusual things that really speak to me where the Minions get involved in Hollywood. They actually get sucked into the world. I mean, what I really loved about the minions is the way they their whole purpose in life is to serve an evil master, right? That that’s what they do. That’s what minions are. And that is their history in the original, you know, shows about Gru, right? Is it not Gru? It’s I want to get this right, so I’m going to look it up. I was close. Gru, right? Despicable Me, the the bad guy, the evil villain, his name is Gru, played by Steve Carell. And the minions, their whole purpose in life is to help him with his evil plans. And then in Minions and Monsters, the minions don’t have a master. So, I loved that part of the movie where they’re wandering the world looking for evil people, an evil mastermind so that they can do his bidding. And I almost wish the whole movie followed that, but then they kind of made a quick right-hand turn and suddenly the Minions are the darlings of Hollywood and they’re acting in movies and making movies and the way they got them into that world was really quite clever. So there was a lot of meta humor like we’re it’s a movie about making a movie about making a movie inside another movie. you know, there are many, many layers to it by the time you get to the end of it. And I thought that was very, very clever. It was almost a little bit too clever for its own good, if that makes any sense. But it kept me engaged all the way to the end, the Minions in yeah, the early early days of Hollywood. I’m not talking about modern Hollywood, but the old like before the silent movie era, that’s what it is. they they encountered the silent movie era and then they were there as talkies started to encroach on the silent movie production business. So it was a much smarter movie than I expected. It was a lot dumber than I expected. It was also as dumb as I expected, but then it was also more clever than I expected. I don’t recommend it. I’m not saying you should watch it, but if you’re stuck on a plane and it is playing in front of you, h you you might find some interesting things in it. So, Minions and Monsters and the last one, Toy Story 5. And in a way, I might even put it in the same bucket as Minions because I mean, it was good. I mean, it’s Toy Story. But it wasn’t the best. You know, it’s following up on a lot of really amazing movies. The original Toy Story series and now we’ve got Toy Story 5. So now, how do you come up with another story? And again, I don’t think I’m giving anything away here because you’ve probably seen a trailer for it. If you haven’t, it doesn’t matter. I’m giving something away. They had to come up with a new idea for Toy Story. Like the emotional theme that plucks at your heartstrings that makes life painful for the toys. I mean, the whole story of Toy Story is that the toys live through the pain of all of their children outgrowing them. Right? That is the heart of the Toy Story universe. The toys are loved by the children. They love their children. But all children grow up and move on. And the toys get thrown in a box under the bed in the garage in the attic and all the toys get abandoned. And that’s the heart of Toy Story, right? And they followed that me in many different directions. Now we’ve got Toy Story 5. We’ve done that to death. How do we do it again, but with a new twist, you know, and to be honest, the twist they came up with is genius. It is the obvious one that’s right in front of us. And yet, I never thought of it. But they did. They thought of it, so they get the credit. And the new danger for the toys is what I’ve got here. What I what is all around me, all around you? Screens, right? Mobile video games, Facebook, online chatting, everything to do with the internet and children spending their entire lives staring at a screen. Right? So that is the new nemesis of toys like Woody. And this one doesn’t focus on Woody. It focuses on the Jessie. Jessie the cowgirl is the main character along with Buzz Lightyear and Woody Tom Hanks. He’s more like a sidekick. He’s a side character now. So it’s mainly Jessie and Buzz Lightyear. And the re and the problem they’re having is they happen to be owned by a young girl who still loves toys. She plays with them. She does all of the her own imagination. The whole thing that Toy Story is famous for. And the toys, of course, they love it. That’s that’s their destiny is to help children play out their imagination with dinosaurs and this and Buzz Lightyear. and they make up their own stories in their head whether they make any sense at all and they’re always having fun. But then the girl that plays with the toys, she never had a tablet before. She never had a screen or a smartphone. And then that comes into their life where suddenly now she has this, it’s really clever, a tablet, but it’s a tablet for children called Lily Pad. And I guess all that’s the it’s the big toy for kids. All the kids have a lily pad now. They all have the same device. It’s like the iPad of this world for kids. And every child has a lily pad and they all play games. So instead of meeting in person and playing with toys, they all sit in their own homes and they’re on their lily pad playing online games. They’re still playing with their friends, but their friends aren’t even there. Their friends are at their houses, and you’re interacting through the screen and how that impacts the lives of the toys and then where that story goes. Really good. So, now that I’m thinking about it and going over the story in my head, I guess I’m more positive about it than I sounded at the beginning. I think what threw me off is that there is a Buzz Lightyear side quest. And I admired it in a way because some of the funniest things in the movie are to do with the Buzz Lightyear side quest. It’s funny all by itself, but it feels separate from the main story. And yet they had to bring it together. And you could feel the wheels turning. You can feel the mechanics in the writer room. Okay, here’s the story of Lily Pad and Jessie and Buzz Lightyear and Woody and the girl who’s outgrowing her toys. Okay, that’s our story. And now we’ve got this Buzz Lightyear thing going on over here. And they’re they got nothing to do with each other. And then the writers said, “Well, we like this and we like this. How do we bring them together?” And there was no natural way to do it. They had to come up with some pretty out there coincidences and weird logic and they just they forced it. They forced the two story lines, the A story and the B story. They didn’t come together naturally because they didn’t start together. They basically started completely separately and then they forced them to come together for the finale of the story. And I’m like, “Yeah, okay. I I see that you had to do it. There was no other way to do it.” And I was like, “Okay, I get it. I’ll let you have that one.” But it still left me feeling like, yeah, it wasn’t entirely organic. It didn’t really work the way they did it. You saw the mechanics, you know, you you could see the writer’s thinking, how do we get them together? And some guy and the writer, ah, I know how we can do it because of this and this. And everyone else goes, yeah, I guess that would link the stories. It’s not doesn’t make the most sense. It doesn’t have any heart, any emotion, but yeah, we’ll go with it. It works. It’s good enough. They bring the stories together. I could feel that. But it was okay. And as awkward as it was, at least it was. The Buzz Lightyear stuff was funny. It reminds me a little bit of the movies The Ice Age and the Squirrel, like the squirrel always trying to get his acorn. It’s like that. It’s sort of tacked on, but it’s all incredibly funny all by itself. You could have a whole movie just about that and it’s a little bit like that. But anyway, that is Toy Story 5. Yeah, it’s recommended. Planet Doug pick as well. It is definitely good enough to watch. And that’s all I have written down for my pop culture notes. I have more, but I’m not going to go in that direction. How long have I been talking? Too long.
All right, it is time for the conclusion of this behind the scenes video. Again, I feel like I have to conclude it with an apology for the length of it, but at the same at the same time, I don’t apologize at all. I I I felt like talking, so I talked. You don’t have to watch all of it. You can just have it playing in the background. You don’t even have to watch it at all. And I’ll put in a menu structure with the the sections listed in the menu. You can jump ahead and when you get tired of me talking about one thing, you can jump to the next. And of course there will be a PDF download like when the movie gets posted. What I always do is I take the YouTube automated captions and I take the captions which are horrible. They’re so bad, so inaccurate, but I feed them into an AI and the AI fixes them and makes them nearly perfect. So, it’s almost like a full transcript of the video. And then when you look at a transcript like that, you can easily feed it into an AI and say, “Okay, Doug talked for 5 hours. Can you please, Mr. Gemini, Chat GPT Grok, Deepseek, can you please take this 5-hour long transcript and summarize it for me? What did Doug say?” And then the AI will do it for you. They’ll condense it into one page, two pages, and you can actually read everything that I said. And the AI will say it far better than I said it. So yeah, so that you can do that. You can eventually go to Patreon eventually. There will be a downloadable PDF. The whole transcript will be right there on Patreon. You can just copy and paste it directly into an AI and tell the AI to summarize the main points. Be done like that. Save yourself a lot of time. So, because you have that ability now, I don’t apologize for talking for so long. Yeah, that’s it. All right, I am shutting down now. Hope you enjoyed me babbling away. If you made it all the way to the end of this video, woo, probably took you a few days, like an hour at a time, just played in the background. But if you did, put CC in the comments to let you to let me know. That makes you a member of the probably the Crunch Club Elite if you watched all of this video. And of course, a shout out to all of the supporters of Planet Doug, whether through PayPal, you know, link in the description as always, through Malaysia’s Touch ‘n Go e-wallet, which works really well, buy me a coffee platform, and of course all of my long-term members of the Planet Doug Patreon. You guys are amazing. You’ve been hanging in there with me all this time. Hopefully I give you some value back through my videos, some entertainment, some ideas, some thoughts, and yeah, your support does not go to waste. I hope not. All right, that’s it. Shutting down. See you in the next video.