Good afternoon, welcome back to another video!
I hope you're doing well. Welcome to the English countryside!
Can you hear? Yes, it's very quiet and tranquil I really love it!
I thought of giving you an update, because probably
or not, you're wondering where is another video after I finish the Turkey series.
To give you a little bit of context, I actually
finished my Turkey filming series in December 2020,
and I flew to the UK straight away to be with my boyfriend and his family.
At the same time, I had been editing Turkey series from the UK.
Since then, nothing's actually happening because
the UK and England specifically have been on lockdown.
I don't think I can escape lockdown no matter where I go.
From Nepal, Turkey, and now in England, it's pretty much the same.
I thought of going to Scotland, Wales, or just
surrounding English countryside to give a bit of laid back type of video,
but I am actually running out of time because my visa will expire sometime in April.
I have been actually researching
the next travel destination that I can go to. Not only because of the of course
pandemic situation but also more importantly because of my passport.
I've mentioned a lot in this channel that the issue of Passport Inequality,
in which in my case, as an Indonesian passport holder,
it doesn't create a lot of flexibility in terms of my travel freedom or freedom of movement.
It also definitely affects the way how I create content.
It's not like I can go to any kind of country I desire, on
a last-minute basis without having to think about the visa consideration.
To give you a little bit of perspective, being in the UK itself feels like an achievement.
To be able to have this visitor visa granted, was something that was a bit emotional.
My boyfriend and I worked together in submitting the documents and
I think we submitted over 30 files or documents to sort of proving my eligibility to come here
which also identifies the difficulties for a lot of
passport holders like me and probably you who understand this kind of travel.
This kind of challenges sometimes if I'm being honest motivates me to keep on going on creating
because of the hassles, of not only trying to prove my employment being a YouTuber, my income,
also travel insurance, the accommodation, this feels a bit more like proving myself
that I am worthy enough to visit particular countries.
I think sometimes it can be very frustrating because it feels like you're applying for a job.
Not only that you have to have an upfront fee visa, like for example the UK
we had to pay about $150 dollars non-refundable visa fee.
A couple of weeks ago, I've actually been trying to apply for an Albanian
visa because that would be the next destination.
But then again,
twice my visa got rejected because first being as an Indonesian I have to apply for an Albanian visa
from the Albanian embassy in Beijing, China. I don't know how does that gonna work!
So I was redirected by the embassy in London to go through an electronic visa platform of Albania.
I tried applying here and there proving with a roundtrip ticket, as an indication that I
was going to leave the country, as well as accommodation, travel insurance, etc.
And still, I got rejected.
I think I was very frustrated to a point, I was like,
I'm gonna try it again the next time, probably in the coming few months.
I thought why not try to look for other Balkan countries,
that I definitely can go to, and one of them is Serbia.
I just booked my Serbia flight for
mid of April. Hopefully, in a coming couple of weeks, I'll be flying
out of the UK and hopefully, we'll be able to create a travel series from the Balkan countries.
I hope to really create a comprehensive Balkan countries type of videos, you know.
Sometimes as a travel creator, I mean, I'm a traveler at heart, but this desire of wanting
to explore the world freely and easily to just learn about different cultures doesn't come into
realization as easily if that makes sense? When you have come to a reality and
have to face the reality, in my case like for example,
my idea is to create this Balkan series and to have a lot of experiences and
videos coming from the series meaning like Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania,
and the surrounding countries, But then realistically I can't
go to those countries yet, because the visa situation is a little bit more complicated.
I can only try my best to be realistic in creating travel content on this channel
because behind the scene I think that's the struggle that many don't talk about.
Eventually, in 2021 I'm just hoping and trying to speak from my heart that
I can travel more in the sense that I hope to bring out more content that is more meaningful.
That is sort of proving and showcasing what a person can do with the struggles that this person
carries with the passport, with the weaker currency, where she's from.
I hope it sort of indicates that
eventually, this will bring inspiration, not that I want to be an inspiring person, but this
will bring inspiration that no matter what you do despite the struggles, we can always try our best.
Regardless of sometimes, I get demotivated a lot,
sorry about the sound! I just want to try my best to keep creating
more travel content, so that we can all learn together from the travels that have to offer.
Sorry about that! This is my third attempt at filming, probably fifth!
It is the way it is, I'll try my best to bring
stories, travel stories, or here and there from wherever I go.
Hopefully, you can learn together with me
and grow together with me throughout this journey that we experience, sort of!
Thank you so much for watching. If you have the means to support more for creators
like me, the production cost to create travel series definitely is not something that is cheap.
If you think that this kind of travel content
brings out so much more positivity or something we can learn together,
if you wish to support in a way that makes travel content creators become more sustainable,
you're so so welcome to check out my Patreon page, the link in the description box.
Other than that, I am very thankful and grateful for everything that you have been showcasing
in terms of support and positivity, and the open-mindedness to learn together.
I hope to see you again soon! I am excited about what travels can bring.
Let me know what you think in the comment section below, bye!