Work Related : First Self-published Travelogue 2

My love for far-off places started when I was 14, after my first Fukuoka homestay program in 2000. I decided then, to collect as much money as I can, to distant myself from my friends (so I wouldn't feel bad when I need to say goodbye) and to love being alone (in case I never meet any like-minded life partner) in order to fully commit to the idea of travelling in my whole adult life. 

When I was small, travelling was only something rich people/international students would do. Without money, we can't really go to far places because flight tickets alone was so expensive. As I mentioned, I started collecting money when I was really young, by the time I finished my degree when I was 25, I managed to collect RM 10,000 from all my duit raya, daily school money, and part-time works. Those were collected since I was born, because I hardly touch the money from my ASB and I am a very dedicated person. It wasn't much la, but collecting money that much without any help from parents or full-time work, RM 10,000 was a LOT.

So by 2009, I started travelling every year. 

I think I started by going to Umrah, and every year afterwards, I allocated money to go to at least 1 new place each year. 

And because I am really thankful for achieving my life-long dream to travel to new places, I also put an effort to record my stories while travelling by writing, taking photos and doodling. So that I won't forget that I've been dedicating my life to see these wonderful places in this world and I'm hoping to share it with the world back.

*  

I love books, I love writings and I love illustrations, eventually I knew I wanted to share my own travel journal. Of course, anyone can write a travelogue, or buy a guidebook from the bookstores. But what I wanted to share was something more personal. Little tit-bits, little stories, random mini adventures. 

When I read a visual travelogue, I want to know the person, their stories and how the place + adventure affect them. So I started collecting travel journal, and visual travelogues from illustrators & comic artists.

The first visual travelogue I bought was in 2012 : French Milk by Lucy Knisley and soon afterwards, I bought all visual travelogue each time I found out an illustrator made one. I love their stories, I keep them as an inspiration, I read them over and over again. 

The list of my travel/illustration related books :

• French Milk by Lucy Knisley (France)
• Displacement by Lucy Knisley (a Cruise)
• Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson (Europe & Morocco)
• Memento bento by Alessandra Criseo (Japan)
• Tokyo on Foot by Florent Chavouet (Japan)
• Maneshima Island Japan by Florent Chavouet (Japan)
• Perfect Tree Shapes by Frannerd (France)
• Orange Ginger Jam by Frannerd (Chile)
• Natsu by Atelier Sento (Japan)
• Jejon di Jepun by Jonsuraya (Japan)
• We bought a bus ticket from KL to England by Black Jellyfish

*

You see, passionate people make things that they are passionate about. As for me, combining stories, travels and illustrations in a book is something that I want to do mainly for myself (syok sendiri). 

That's why I finally finished digitizing the last year's travel journal and self-published it. I knew I don't have something solid to purpose to publishers and I hated the idea of being controlled by what-can-sale and what-not-so-'in' the market. So I just made it myself. Some of the books from my favorite illustrators produced were self-published, and I did bought it online straight from them. So I thought, why not?

In this Indonesia-Singapore travel journal that I recorded, I kept those little stories in the simplest form of writing and doodles (because I am not a comic artist, I don't do stuffs in comic boxes, and I don't have rules to follow). It was just a travel journal that I recorded during that time, only. So it wasn't perfect, and collecting 22 pages of random doodles thinking that I might want to share with the world was hard. BUT, as I would always say, "JUST START" with whatever you have and whatever know, you'll learn to improve along the way.  

Here's to my first self-published travel journal ❤ :

Anyway, if you want to read and also add my book in your collection, 

you can now buy it from : My Online Shop ⭐⭐

And if you want to help me making more illustrations and more books, you can support me from my Patreon account , I usually post early videos, secret projects, and post random gifts and latest zines to my Patrons ❤