Vlogs
Creating travel videos is my passion. There’s no better feeling than capturing moments of life from another culture, and then trying to churn that out into something more tangible. Sharing the positive reality of distant lands from my perspective helps to bridge certain gaps of awareness between differing societies. All too often, destinations are wrongly depicted. Whether that’s in the media, or from unfair cultural stereotypes, usually we have a distorted image in our minds of the places we haven’t visited.
If I had to describe the style of my travel vlogs, I would say they are generally raw, informative, and uplifting. I try to focus more on the places that I’m in, rather than myself. Check out my most viewed video below (over 4m views), where I stayed with a Turkish family in Izmir. We don’t actually go outside, or visit any attractions in this one, but I think the sense of place, hospitality, and genuine warmth comes across well here.
The travel videos I create can generally be broken down into a few different categories:
First Impressions
City Tour
How Expensive is?
Food Rampages
Most Interesting Sites
Living with a Local Family
Journey/Transport
When arriving in a country for the first time, I’ll usually share my First Impressions. These vlogs are fun to shoot, because they don’t require any real planning. By nature, they’re spontaneous and fun. I just try to share my initial reaction to everything that is foreign, new and exciting. My first day in Algeria took me from messing around with children on the streets of Algiers, to playing football with locals, to a beautiful ancient Roman site - nestled on the calm shores of Mediterranean Sea. Video below.
Before visiting a big city, most people want to know what there is to see and do. These city tour videos are essentially a vlog format of that, guiding you around the main points of interest. I know many of you don’t have the time to personally visit all of these places either. You simply want to know what’s worth seeing and what isn’t. And that’s what I try to convey in my City Tour videos.
I aim to capture the atmosphere of a city too. That way, you can grasp what sort of vibe to expect - especially if it’s somewhere relatively untravelled. I’d hope that for many people, after watching one of my vlogs they might feel motivated to travel somewhere they’d never previously thought of giving a shot. A good example of one of these vlogs is from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s cool and underrated city.
How Expensive is it? A common question surrounding far flung parts of the world, and something we normally want to factor in before jetting off. It’s helpful to get a proper breakdown of the prices. I aim to hit every day costs such as accommodation, transportation, food, and sightseeing. Knowing these will make a big difference to whether it’s yay or nay for a certain city or country.
These videos have been some of my most popular - and I guess it makes sense. Money matters, after all. Not only do I try to provide a realistic idea of the prices, but at the end of each video I provide a total of one day’s spending. This helps put into context how far you can stretch your cash on a daily basis. Below, I cover the expenditure of one day in South Korea’s capital city, Seoul.
Food captures a country’s character, flavour and identity. It’s the simplest way of getting to the true heartbeat of wherever you are. Especially so, when it’s a tiny stall, lurking in a dark corner of some bygone back alley. On my first visit to Mumbai, I was mesmerised by the amount of street food around me. It was everywhere I turned my head, and it was 24/7. I thought about how fun it’d be to just spend an entire day chasing the very best of what was on offer. And so my Food Rampages were born. Believe it or not, trying to stuff in as many local delicacies as possible is quite fun. Until the next day when you’re regretting it all. Anything for the vlog. The one below is from Lahore, Pakistan.
The Most Interesting Sites outside of the main cities are sometimes a major reason for travel decisions. People often choose India for the romance of the Taj Mahal, or China, to say they’ve ‘conquered’ the Great Wall. But in these videos, I try to allude to the areas that are more off the beaten path, in addition to the household names. The places you’ve never heard of that’ll make your jaw drop. The ones that take an 11 hour bus ride to reach, and where the locals haven’t seen a British tourist in 7 years. I think these vlogs can be huge deal breakers for some people. I often get messages saying that a relatively unknown destination I covered was the reason they decided to visit a certain country. One of the most wonderous places I ever made a video like this was a small village in the arid south of Tunisia - going by the name of Chenini.
People > places. If you want an immersive experience on your travels, then look no further than Living with a Local Family. The kindness and hospitality of others might be the single greatest shining light as to how much good and kindness there is on this small planet of ours. These experiences also leave the greatest impact on you over the long term, too. I’m consistently humbled by the generosity of strangers - wherever I go in the world. Usually, when you think of happy memories, you think of the people you shared that time with. One of my Indian friends Naman, who I stayed with in Kolkata, had a quote hung up on his wall. “Happiness is only real when shared.”
I suppose the final category of viog I can sum up, are videos documenting a Journey within in a country I’m travelling in. Whether that’s on buses, trains, shared taxis - I aim to show you what it’s like first hand, and the best way to go about getting from A to B. I’ve always stood by the fact that most viewers would take an interest in seeing me make a simple journey on public transport in another country. Why? Because it’s so damn alien and different. To see the route taken, the cost involved, and the hiccups along the way, can sometimes be enthralling. It prepares you for travelling when it’s your turn. The video below shows a day’s travel from Manila to Baguio in the Philippines.