Headed for Penghu

Finally headed back out to the long-awaited Penghu Islands where I will conclude the second-to-last film gathering set from Taiwan.  Here’s the sending off video and all the gear I’m bringing along.

Website updates

Greetings all,

I am not sure if you’ve noticed my absolute withdrawal from anything resembling the social spectrum lately.  But there’s been a ton of stuff going on.  But that’s good.  It means there’s also a TON of stuff to report.

On top of my recent release of my latest film, Travel Geek: Documentary Hong Kong & Macau, I’ve completely revamped and rebuilt the entire website.

I’ve updated lots of the older galleries and added at least 12 new ones (that I can think of).  I’ve compiled a new menu set and a massive main page slider that scrolls the latest featured photos from the Philippines.  When I get back from my filming excursion to the Penghu Islands (leaving tomorrow and coming back on Friday) I hope to go through my entire catalog, select one or two of my best photos out of each album and make what will seem like a never ending slider of super badass photos for your viewing pleasure.

I’ve also updated the blog section and included posts not found here.

There are new plans for releases in the Books section.  This includes  many of my photo-books for the iPad.  And I will be unveiling my plans for a monthly magazine complete with a reader section for submitted travel photos from all over the world.  And that’s in addition to the text format books that should be released on ebook later this year.

There’s a new About page, and I’ve also hosted a brand new Documentary Films section (with two additional pages for the Hong Kong & Macau film and the Philippines film)  The Taiwan film should be out by the 15th or so of this month.  So that will find a home on it’s own page in that section as well.

There’s a lot more that has gone into it.  But I’d be typing for days if I put it all here.  And I feel like it’s been all I could do not to go cross-eyed from staring at the computer screen these last few weeks.  But it’s finally paid off.   The website is not complete.  But it’s ready to be revealed because I am coming around the last corner of having it all put together.  Besides, I couldn’t wait any longer to announce it anyway.  So there ya go!

To view the page, just go to http://www.cyleodonnell.com/ or just click HERE.

Thanks in advance for checking it out.  And if you see anything you think could be better, catch something I missed or know of anything you’d like to see added, just lemme know!

New Travel Geek Documentary Out Now

Today is a great day.  Nothing is different in the community.  There are no celebrations taking place in the area.  The sun isn’t even shining — in fact there’s a week-long out-of-season monsoon ravaging the west side of the island.

But the silver lining to the lenticular wave of clouds pushing in from China shines through.  And that’s important to note because:

Today I’m releasing my latest film, Travel Geek: Documentary Hong Kong & Macau!

It’s finally finished post-production and is now available for download!

This 45 minute documentary follows me through both Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of China; Hong Kong and Macau. In them, I visit two islands and the mainland of Hong Kong and all the islands of Macau.

In Macau, I jump off the world’s highest bungy jump, more than 250 meters! I eat from the local restaurants, navigate the labyrinthine streets to see all the museums and even get caught filming illegally in the casinos!

In Hong Kong, I sneak into the underground markets with my hidden camera at the Chungking Mansions and buzz around the old city and the financial district on a photo walk and city tour.

This film is not to be missed.

Be sure to grab a copy.  Here’s the link.

//

Back from Macau

So I just returned from the Macau and Hong Kong trip and I feel like I have been walking through the desert for weeks.  I can’t believe how exhausted I am.  I don’t know if it’s because I am getting older or because the area is so small that visitors feel they can walk the entire thing and not be completely wasted afterward.

But I can assure you, I am completely wasted.

Having said that, though, I can also say that I have seen the entirety of what Macau has to offer and, as always, I enjoyed my time in Hong Kong.

I only spent one day in Hong Kong this time, but it was great to get out and do a photo-walk of my favorite places thereabouts.

I visited an old friend in the market north on Nathan Road and I got to do one of my favorite things on Hong Kong Island, which was to ride the double-decker buses and shoot the views from above.  And I even ate at one of my coveted places – Agave.

I haven’t eaten good Mexican food in a long time.  So it was a welcomed visit to the restaurant.

As always, it was very expensive.  But I think that I came away with some great experiences.  And the film that is currently in post-production will be released soon – hopefully by Sunday.

Well, this is just a short journal to highlight the upcoming media from the trip.  And I also wanted to make the point of apologizing that I have not been able to release my book as planned.

I guess I just bit off more than I could chew with everything going on and also trying to stay on top of the release.  I will hopefully be able to squeeze it in there with all my edits (photo and film) for the upcoming documentary.

And then, of course, there’s the long-awaited Taiwan Documentary that I have been filming for and working on since January this year (2012).

So there’s lots happening.  And I hop that this weekend greets you all well and that I can get this film out, get the book released, give away my free copies to all promised recipients and then get on to finishing the Taiwan documentary.

Until then, I will be steadily and dedicatedly working!

Headed for Macau

Greetings all.

As the journals from the Philippines unfold, I will be headed to yet another filming trip in the Chinese Special Administration Region (SAR) of Macau.  I hope to be taking a chopper over to Hong Kong.  But that might not be in the cards.  But that might pale in comparison to the plans I have for diving off the tallest bungee experience in the world — the Macau Tower.

The video below details the gear that I will be bringing along for the ride and using for filming, blogging and hopefully releasing a video while I’m there.

The journals from the Philippines will still be released.  In fact, the last journal is slated for April 4 at 1pm EST.  So at that point I should be prepped to announce the book release and be finished with all the journals from the Southeast Asia portion of the blog.

Far East Asia is being filmed and documented now and I hope to have much more of that by the end of the year.  But until then, enjoy the rest of the SEA journals and I will see you stateside!

Journal 47: Philippines Days 8, 9 and 10

Day 8: Arrival at Sagada

In between the muted calls of song birds in the distance and quiet gale making its way through these peaceful mountains, I found myself finally able to take in the tranquil notions I’d been hoping for thus far on the trip.

I was extremely lucky in choosing my lodgings the night before in Bontoc.  Because the organization that ran that guesthouse, also had a sister hostel which happened to have the very last room available in any of the homestays in the entire town.

Creeping up on the New Year, this area becomes a hippy mecca in terms of its festivals and celebratory traditions.  Almost every morning people cook up a storm and have their shops open selling all manner of trekking and camping gear.   Almost every afternoon you’ll see people coming back in from long hikes in the surrounds.  And almost every night there is a bonfire festival.

There are pockets of scattered masses moving in their own dust clouds up the dirt streets through town.  And they appear to be a pleasant mix of foreigners, locals and hippies — and various combinations of the three.

And upon arriving and noticing all this, I also noticed that it was well past due for a relaxing day doing little to nothing, save showering and scrubbing the last few days of dirt from my pores.

First order of business: Shower.  Next: the bunk.  Evening time: beer.

So that was my first day.  It’s quite easy to sleep in a town like Sagada.  The dreaminess of the place almost keeps you in a perpetual state of laziness anyway.

Upon arriving at St. Joe’s, I was confirmed for the reservation that the lady from the Bontoc hostel had arranged for me and promptly shown to my room.  But it wasn’t two minutes into the conversation that I was interrupted multiple times by desperate backpackers trying to secure a room for the night.  So along with the horror stories that accompanied trying to sleep through the last week’s rainy nights, I was also told about how there were quite literally no more places to stay anywhere in town.  People had started to go around asking the locals to take them in for a fee.  I am sure that some of this was arranged.  But I would still hate to have been in that position in such damp climes.

The restaurant was as peaceful and cabin-like as the surrounds.  All the woodworking from the entire grounds was done by local artisans with quite a western sympathy.  It seemed like it was more influenced by Norwegian winters than the more common tropical humidity.  But it nevertheless brought in a feel that was well accepted by the patrons.

The food was good.  It took quite a while, but when I went to find out where the staff was at with the preparation of our meal, ordered no less than 45 minutes before, I found the head cook: a vicenarian mother of two (one of which was strapped to her rump like a huge humpback with curious eyes).

I let it pass.

On to bed to plan my next day.

Day 9: Humping through the hills

Being a top-heavy lad of 33, the longer, more technical, more demanding hikes I’d pounce through like a gazelle in my younger years, I am finding the excuse to shy away from nowadays.  Thankfully, Filipinos are among the like-minded citizenry who make an effort to place their most important cultural relics within a stones throw of the main arteries that gnarl the mountainside around Sagada.

Besides the miraculous echos that pander themselves along the jutting karst formations, gaining depth and definition as they bounce around the area, the Hanging Coffins of Echo Valley are just the right counter to break their flow.  And as you descend the mountain to reach them, the echos of even your conversation-level tone can be heard answering back at you like phantoms escaping the limestone erosion.

Seeming so foreign even to this unfamiliar corner of the Southeast Asian wilds, these stoic boxes clinging to the sheer cliff faces at the base of the hike offer an otherworldly glimpse of the deep spirituality that has existed here long before Magellan plotted his course and imposed his Portugese slant on Catholicism here.

Off in the distance was an amazing looking mansion overlooking the entire valley.  That house, my guide told me, was at the end of the hike that we wouldn’t be doing today.  Oddly enough, I knew that I had paid for that hike.  But this news came after an all-important phone call of his to which my day unfortunately took the back seat.  So it was to be back into town with me without word on when I would be completing my hike.

Throughout Sagada, you’re not supposed to hike without a guide.  That’s what the sign says when you perform the other required task of registering as a foreigner to the town hall.  I couldn’t tell if this was for safety purposes or for commerce.  Well, I couldn’t tell until I read the part of the ledger that asked the budget, rather than the number of days, that you had planned for their lovely hamlet.

Pacing and feeling like I was wasting my day to the badly prioritized teen guide, I decided to hop in a jeep and take the long hike through the Fidalizan village to the Bomod’ok waterfall on the other side of the crescent valley.

Up at the top, I met my other guide.  Equally expensive.  Equally young.  We set off down through the village which rounded banks overlooking the valley in 180 degrees of crisp, sunny views.

The village, itself, was quite and serene.  But infrequently, we would hear gun blasts or some such oddity coming from an undetectable direction.  My guide would tell me that it was dynamite from the copper mining near the river to the south.

Making our way along the only concrete path in the layered rice terraces, we eventually weaved through the pass and down to the foot of this magnificent waterfall.  The water was a brisk and perfect contrast to the hot day working in on us from behind the mountains.

I swam for about a half-hour at its base.  But all one need do is stand near it and become drenched in its powerful sheeting swathes of fall-spray.  It was a wonderful experience to see that kind of power from mother nature even in this remote, unexpected place.

Once out of the water and dried off in the sun, we headed back.  But not before my boots lost a sole.  to this day, I have no idea what took them down.  But whatever the case, I was forced to run through a new pair of socks on the climb back through the other side of the village.

Back in town, we found out that, because of New Year’s traffic, all the tickets would be booked for the next two days.   So if I was to have any hope of making it to the islands before my departure time, I would have to cut my mountain escape one day short.  So I packed and woke up to the early bus for a day-long trip back to Manila.

There, I would run into all sorts of problems.  But that’s going to be another journal.

Check out the rest of the images from Sagada, but don’t forget to watch Part Four of the Philippines documentary below:

At about 3:00 into this movie, you see Sagada from where we arrived, at St. Joe’s.

All-Time High! Thanks everyone for my 50th ‘Like’ on the blog.

Hi everyone.  I wanted to send out a very special THANK YOU for your support in recent days.  Enough people went on and checked out my blogs and thought enough of it to show their support by clicking the ‘Like’ button more than 50 TIMES!!  My current total now sits at 52.  To give you a reference on this, I only have less than 47 journals on travel.  And because I have been adding more to the blog lately, I think that’s a great motivator to keep branching out and creating more interesting content.

Maybe now I might get nominated for one of WordPress’ coveted blogger awards…  [fingers crossed]

Thanks to everyone who came on and read the blog.  You can be sure that I will be keeping up the hard work to bring you the best in travel photojournalism diligence.

Calling All Koreans!

Hello all, I have a piece of fabric that I collected when I was in Korea that has a poem on it. It’s from the Hangul and it would be really great to know what it says. It was given to me by a monk outside the Seoraksan Temple and I haven’t been able to get it translated. If anyone receiving this blog knows how I might get a hold of someone to do this for me, that would be great.  I told a friend of mine, whose kids have a project for their class, that I would give it a shot.  Thanks a lot.

 

Here are the photos:

-

Click to enlarge, and feel free to right-click, “save image as” and edit as needed to turn it in the correct direction if you need to do that.

Gourmet Camping with the Travel Geek

In this Travel Geek Short, I talk about the easiest and most delicious way to highlight your trip into the wilderness. Just because you’re camping, doesn’t mean you have to settle for day-old hot dogs and warm cans of fruit. Bring just what you need to create a masterpiece even Bobby Flay would appreciate.

Travel Geek Short: Speaking with Ben: An Interview in the Philippines

During my trip to the Philippines, I created a feature length film, Travel Geek: Documentary Philippines. While I had to keep the interviews to a brief, few minutes on the film, the actual footage of the interviews were much longer. And because of their telling and impactful insights they offer into the Filipino culture and daily life, I wanted to also release this footage.

Thanks, Ben for your informative and candid conversation.