Let’s dive into the unique aspects of Walkabout Asia with Nurashikin Zaharuddin, one of the founders, as she shares insights into this groundbreaking storytelling platform reshaping the landscape of sustainable tourism.

Documentaries are often perceived as serious and topic-heavy. At Walkabout Asia, we aim to challenge this notion by creating factual content that is light, easy to consume and entertaining. As such we experimented with many different types of content to test audience interest, engagement, and feedback. This has helped our storytellers in the search for stories that educate, inspire, and entertain.

Photo by Walkabout Asia.

In the early 2010s, my husband and I founded Happy Campers Productions Sdn Bhd, a production company focused on travel documentaries and storytelling. Through our travels, we experienced forgotten traditions and mystical rituals, learned new cultures, visited beautiful places, and met the most interesting people. We were captivated with everything we saw and thus began our journey to film and document our newfound interest.

Inspired by Great Big Story, a micro-documentary channel, we began to put up our stories on Facebook and called it Happy Campers Blog. The response from our audience was encouraging–the content inspired and piqued their curiosity. What had started as a passion project evolved into a serious undertaking. And so, Happy Campers Blog became Walkabout Asia.

Reshaping the Landscape of Tourism

Walkabout Asia focuses on short stories, between three to five minutes long, covering topics on culture, heritage, people, community, nature, and environment. We want to share stories that make people feel good and want to do good. We want to connect people, one story at a time.

“Travel with a spirit of discovery,” became our mantra wherever we went out to film. Our stories are intended to transform tourists into travellers, to discover new places, meet locals, and understand what makes each location unique and special.

Despite being one of Malaysia’s most visited islands, Langkawi’s cultural and geological richness remains relatively unknown. Our Langkawi Stories Series aims to shed light on these hidden gems, offering travellers a deeper understanding of the island, and a more meaningful visit when they arrive.

Some of our audience’s favourite Langkawi Stories include:

Laktud

A delicacy amongst the many in Langkawi. Photo by Kedah Tourism.

A favourite delicacy among the locals in Langkawi. Laktud is a type of seaweed from a species of green algae found mainly around the Indo-Pacific region. It is eaten raw and served as a salad. Watch the short series di sini. 

Mahsuri 

Mahsuri binti Pandak Mayah, a young woman who lived on Langkawi Island. 
Gambar oleh Iluminasi.

The Curse and Legend of Mahsuri as told by Pak Ku Ahmad, the storykeeper at Kota Mahsuri, Langkawi. Watch the short series di sini. 

Jikey, a traditional folk theatre in Langkawi. Photo by Illuminasi. 

Likewise, we were honoured when one of our stories, Jikey from the Langkawi Series received an Honourable Mention at Germany’s Natourale Film Festival in 2020. This traditional folk theatre in Langkawi has a history spanning over 200 years. The last surviving troupe in the village of Ewa, led by 85-year-old Tok Bibon along with his brother Tok Chan (78) and friend Tok Cho (94), holds the fading knowledge of Jikey. Originally performed for community entertainment, Jikey is now a dying art desperately needing support from the youth for its survival.

Building a Learning Community

In today’s fast-paced world, we believe in the importance of pausing to learn something new every day. Which is why each story we produce is thoughtfully chosen to ignite curiosity among our audience. 

Here are two personal favourites throughout our years of filming:

Keeping the Game Alive: The Flying Top of Kelantan

Competing only for state pride, these young men of Kelantan partake in a game known as the Flying Top or “Gasing Uri” among the locals. Watch it di sini. 

Hari Moyang Puja Pantai

A traditional ritual to appease the spirits of the sea that is still being practised by the Mah Meri, an Indigenous group native to the west coast of Selangor. Watch it di sini. 

As we continue producing stories, it is our vision to make Walkabout Asia the first Malaysian content brand dedicated to building a learning community by watching films and stories with impact, for free.

Find out more about Walkabout Asia di sini.

Writer: Nurashikin Zaharuddin (Co-Founder of Walkabout Asia)