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.

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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

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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 ❤ 

Mini Escapism : Putrajaya + Mines Lantern Festival *video update*

I guess this is Af's way to treat my exhaustion from work. I know I've been a bit too whiny lately - now I understand why people say woman talks too much :D 

I'm starting to wonder my validity in staying as professional as I claimed I am. Whether it's true that I'm taking too much time in submitting my works, whether I do perform, whether I'm giving my full efforts during the working hours. Or not? All my hard work, almost 90% time spent focusing in ticking the finished tasks, all hours spent on the wobbly chair, those hours of missed lunches and exhausted mind were all just my imagination? 

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We went to Putrajaya last weekend. I spent some time sitting and sketching new illustrations for me to illustrate that night while Af went for a short parkour training. We've been lazying off a bit, gaining a bit of happy fats and feeling a bit 'tepu'. 

As always, Putrajaya has always been a huge spot for us to wander around. 

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That night, we stopped by at Mines. They are having the biggest lantern festival since last Dec until the end of this Feb *if I'm not mistaken. We didn't use the promotional tickets we got from the previous BBW tho. We just went around the area - it doesn't seem worth to spend RM 35 to see the lights. You will understand if you personally go there and see the area yourself. 

So these are images taken by two cheapskate jakunist outside of the place :

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And here's a video done by Af from the lantern festival :D


ESCAPISM #8 from Farikarim on Vimeo.
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And weekend spent well. 

Extended to another off-day for Hari Wilayah :D

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Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. ― Apple Inc.

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Doodle : While in Beijing

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While in Beijing, I managed to take note on things that happened daily. At night, after our long days exploring the city, my brother and I will sit at our bed and scribble away things for the day. It's a bit different from my travelogue ; which became a book that keeps all my little trinkets from those amazing places. This book was more like a visual diary. 

It's a bit of a long post of pictures, so, click on the link to read the whole post ya :D

My Travel Memory

Hello,

Let me share my visual travel memory and some little things 

that I've collected over these few years.

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Singapore 

2010

Those are some stickers, 

tickets, postcards,

rubber stamp *quite expensive (>.<)"

and

photo booth's pictures.

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Melaka 

2010 & 2011

Took the pictures at the same place, but different years.

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Pipit 8th 

Those are MiniFanFan's postcards, 

Pipit's sticker pass,

Zamzammee's phone strap, 

Charms : Bird & clock,

My previous wooden magnet,

Individualism badges, 

Wooden camera phone strap, 

another phone straps by my little friends.

Hope to spend time at Pipit again in future!

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Bandung 2011

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Melaka & Concerts

2012

It was Kak Mas's wedding and we took the opportunity to have our small trip around the old town. Those concert tickets were David Choi's - twice and Kina Grannis ! Both my favorite youtube artists. 

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Cameron Highlands

2012

It was supposed to be work. We were working on Tourism Pahang website. 

So my team and I went there to take lots of pictures.

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Perhentian Island

2012

With my colleagues.

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Melaka & My Raya

2012

Melaka again ! with my colleagues.

And photos for our first day of Raya at Johor.

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Pipit 9th :

2012

Click to get a bigger view.

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Beijing
2012
Page 1

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Beijing
Page 2

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Beijing 

Page 3

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Hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)