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THE WEEKLY #119: THE FILM IN EAST JAVA

THE WEEKLY #119: THE FILM IN EAST JAVA

As always I am off on a new adventure. This time I left Adelaide and boarded several planes to finally arrive at Surabaya City in East Java. The plan was to spend 10 days filming and editing a 4-minute film for Polar Pro about solo travel.

When I arrived at the airport, Nic was sprawled on the ground working on the computer waiting for me. We headed straight to a local warung where we met up with Roes, a local, who helped us plan our itinerary for the week. We were doing everything DIY so there was a lot of planning involved, especially considering lighting and routes.

We rented a car and headed out to Malang for the first night at one of Roes’ friends’ houses. I’d never driven a car in Indonesia and the streets were mental. We managed to make it through the day. The house was full of lads who were all in the travel and photography industry. 8 mattress covered the floor at night and that was how the trip began.

We woke up for sunrise the next morning and stepped over the sleeping bodies. I love traveling DIY and low key. You meet so many interesting people and you are challenged in situations. Sometimes we just laugh at where we end up or what is going on around us.

For the next week, we headed to some of the most amazing waterfalls and volcanoes in East Java. It was incredible and incredibly tiring. We put in an insane amount of effort into capturing the scenes to help us tell this story. I don’t think there is another videographer I know who would be capable of putting in the effort required to pull this trip off from both a videography but also a DIY and budget travel perspective.

I’ll save all the photos for the next Weekly as we are still editing away but I can safely say, East Java is one of my favorite destinations in the world. It’s been an amazing week. There are no scratches on the car and despite one crashed drone, we had an amazing week of exploring, challenges and amazing views!