00:00:01
I am standing in the middle of a
00:00:03
geographical anomaly. We are in the
00:00:06
inner part of this donut on the map. So
00:00:09
we are in a country inside a country
00:00:12
inside of another country.
00:00:14
[Music]
00:00:17
When searching the globe for interesting
00:00:18
places, we always get drawn to these
00:00:21
lines on the map that seem out of place.
00:00:24
little anomalies that tell us that
00:00:26
something interesting must have happened
00:00:28
there in the past. We've flown around
00:00:30
the world to investigate some of these
00:00:32
anomalies before, but in all of our
00:00:34
travels, we've never heard of one as
00:00:35
unusual as this. This unconventional
00:00:38
spot on the map is an enclave inside an
00:00:41
enclave. The UAE inside of Oman, which
00:00:44
is inside of the UAE again, like some
00:00:47
sort of geographic Russian doll. When we
00:00:50
first heard about this, we were
00:00:51
obviously confused. Unusual borders like
00:00:53
this are usually very tense. But
00:00:56
searching the internet for information
00:00:58
didn't yield many answers. And seeing as
00:01:00
we were already going to be in Oman for
00:01:02
another video, we decided we would take
00:01:04
a 2-day side quest to find out for
00:01:06
ourselves how this paradox of a place
00:01:08
came to exist and who lives inside of
00:01:11
it.
00:01:16
[Music]
00:01:19
We are sort of winging it, but we don't
00:01:21
really know how this is going to go. Our
00:01:24
first stop was to pick up our friend
00:01:25
Tuma, who we'd met in 2022 when we
00:01:27
filmed our Syria video for the first
00:01:29
time. He now lives in the UAE, and he'll
00:01:32
be helping us film this adventure while
00:01:33
also acting as translator for the Arabic
00:01:36
speakers we'll be meeting on this trip.
00:01:38
Hello.
You get a bigger car. Hi.
We have
00:01:41
no idea um what we're doing. Yeah, me
00:01:44
neither.
Okay, perfect. I think we go
00:01:46
with the flow and try to attract some
00:01:47
interesting characters. Like that's the
00:01:50
plan.
00:01:53
With team assembled, we began the hour
00:01:54
and a half road trip across the UAE
00:01:57
desert towards these strange borders.
00:02:00
So, this is on the right.
Wait, here's
00:02:03
just a sign.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So,
00:02:04
basically just this last turn that we
00:02:06
took, we've entered uh Oman.
That little
00:02:10
sign.
Wait, we're in Oman right now?
I
00:02:13
think so. Wait, we are.
We are. We are.
00:02:15
It says Oman right there. That was the
00:02:17
border.
It just It just happened. So
00:02:20
there is no border.
Okay. Wait, wait,
00:02:22
wait. Look, look at look at the flag.
00:02:23
See it?
00:02:25
Okay. Omani flag and the leader of Oman
00:02:28
right here. When you look at the map, we
00:02:30
are right here. We pulled off the
00:02:32
highway and we just entered Oman
without
00:02:35
even blinking literally.
00:02:37
Yeah, this is like a ghost town. It
00:02:39
looks like a movie set. Why is nobody
00:02:41
here? Is this like a nighttime thing?
00:02:43
The thing about unusual geographical
00:02:46
locations I find in like countries that
00:02:48
don't exist, they're often like weirdly
00:02:50
deserted. There's like always something
00:02:53
kind of weird about it. Like where is
00:02:54
everybody?
Well, here we are, guys. Um,
00:02:59
and that's the end of the episode. Thank
00:03:00
you so much for watching.
00:03:05
And look from here. You are in Oman, but
00:03:07
you see the UAE flag over there. Should
00:03:09
we drive into this neighborhood? Hello
00:03:12
people of uh Oman Madha. You can show
00:03:15
yourselves now.
Reveal yourself in
00:03:17
three, two, one.
00:03:21
There's actually a person standing over
00:03:23
there.
All right, that's perfect. Let's
00:03:26
talk to that guy.
How are you?
Welcome.
00:03:29
Thank you so much. Thank you. What? What
00:03:31
is this?
This cupping. Come, come, come.
00:03:34
Yeah. Here we said come. But he wants us
00:03:37
to do cupping. We're not going to do
00:03:38
cupping right now, are we?
00:03:40
How are you?
How you doing?
Good.
Where
00:03:42
are you from?
Copen. I am from Sudan.
00:03:45
Sudan.
Sudan. Okay.
Ah, no, thank you.
00:03:47
It's okay.
But are you
Ah, okay. Thank
00:03:50
you. So, you live in Oman?
Yes. My visa
00:03:53
in UAE.
Your visa is in the UAE.
Yes.
00:03:56
But you live in
UAE? Yes. No problem.
00:04:00
Uh, this is the
00:04:03
I'm so confused
00:04:05
now.
Then out of the blue, we were
00:04:07
approached by a local. Although he was
00:04:10
extremely friendly and happy to answer
00:04:11
all of our questions, he politely asked
00:04:13
us not to film him. Nevertheless, he
00:04:15
proceeded to tell us where we could meet
00:04:16
people from the town who could tell us
00:04:18
how things were before these strange
00:04:20
borders were drawn.
A guy just pulled
00:04:22
up. Where did he even come from? The
00:04:24
Sudan guys. They waved to him and he
00:04:26
stopped and they started to talk. We
00:04:28
were worrying that we wouldn't meet a
00:04:29
local and then a guy just pulls up and
00:04:32
starts talking to us.
And as soon as we
00:04:34
parked, he immediately handed us off to
00:04:35
another local that was happy to chat.
00:04:38
keep
00:04:52
are people here just really helpful or
00:04:54
are we really lucky? I don't know which
00:04:55
one is happening. Where are you from if
00:04:57
I may ask?
From here.
So you Omani or
00:05:00
you're Omani?
Omada. Yes. Oman.
Okay. So
00:05:02
you Wow. Okay. So you belong to this
00:05:04
little circle here that is Oman.
Wow.
00:05:06
This is for self-defense.
00:05:09
Viking.
Viking. I am biking.
00:05:13
Viking. Sweden. Sweden.
00:05:17
We should also talk to these guys. He
00:05:19
said that he's an engineer and he knows
00:05:20
a lot about this area. So, we're
00:05:21
basically just jumping from one guy to
00:05:23
another.
00:05:25
So nice to meet you, man.
Welcome.
00:05:26
Welcome to
Thank you so much. Thank you.
00:05:28
Our goal with this adventure is to
00:05:30
follow an invisible thread and see how
00:05:32
deep within this community we can go.
00:05:34
So, we have not booked a place to stay
00:05:36
tonight, hoping to maybe stay with some
00:05:38
strangers. And with each new
00:05:39
introduction, we were taken further down
00:05:41
the rabbit hole without any idea where
00:05:44
we'd end up.
00:05:46
Thomas from where Thomas
Sweden from
00:05:49
Sweden.
You speak good English. Little
00:05:52
little
00:05:54
inside the farms. It's very nice to make
00:05:58
interview for anybody there.
Perfect.
00:06:00
Now on to our third connection of the
00:06:02
day. Halad guided us deeper into Madha.
00:06:05
This feels like a video game quest, you
00:06:07
know, where like one character takes you
00:06:08
to another character, it takes you to
00:06:10
another character. Everyone is like
00:06:11
extremely open and like welcoming.
And
00:06:14
suddenly we went from the Omani desert
00:06:16
into a lush green paradise. Oh wow, this
00:06:19
is beautiful.
00:06:24
I've read about cultures holding hand
00:06:26
like this in the Middle East, but it was
00:06:28
my first time. Yeah, we stepped into a
00:06:31
new world because it was desert desert
00:06:32
and very warm and now it's a bit more
00:06:34
cooler here and also a garden.
Do you do
00:06:36
you feel any different being from here
00:06:38
or
is there a sense of community here?
00:06:40
Same same the community. Yes. Maybe
00:06:42
political not same but uh I'm
my wife is
00:06:47
yeah okay okay
same same
same finger
two
00:06:50
fingers in one hand.
Okay okay okay.
00:06:55
You would never have found this place.
00:06:56
This is a private farm.
This is the
00:06:58
private farm. private farm for the
00:07:00
people from
00:07:03
I guess the sign indicates how lucky we
00:07:05
really got. You have to be invited here.
00:07:07
This is like a private property. Like
00:07:08
this is someone's private farm. It's not
00:07:10
like a park that you can just step into.
00:07:12
We just walking, holding hands, seeing
00:07:14
all of it.
It's pretty comforting
00:07:16
actually. You know, it feels like feels
00:07:18
like
I have to say
I will I will take
00:07:20
you. Have no fear.
And just as we were
00:07:22
getting familiar with Halad, we were now
00:07:24
for the fourth time about to be handed
00:07:26
off to another local to guide us.
00:07:32
How are you?
So, okay. First of all,
00:07:34
okay, you are here for
00:07:38
so we make travel videos on YouTube and
00:07:40
we like to explore unique corners in the
00:07:42
world and look for the humans who live
00:07:45
there.
Oh my.
And then we came to Dubai
00:07:46
and we saw this you know
Yeah. small
00:07:48
area in the middle of UAE and it's small
00:07:50
area inside.
So it's UAE inside Oman
00:07:54
inside
UAE. Exactly.
Yeah. Actually
00:07:56
there is more. Yeah. more than one
00:07:58
story.
Yeah.
And I didn't know even
00:08:00
which one is the truth. Which one is the
00:08:02
right one?
I don't know. You want to sit
00:08:04
here? You want to go inside or
let's go
00:08:05
inside. Yeah.
But so for you to go to
00:08:08
Oman, you have to leave Oman, go to UAE,
00:08:11
enter Oman, then go UEIE and then Oman.
00:08:13
See, actually it's complicated a little
00:08:16
bit.
Yeah, that's fine. It's very
00:08:18
interesting like piece on the map.
Yeah.
00:08:20
How how you know this gentleman?
We just
00:08:23
met him.
Oh, you just met him? I thought
00:08:25
you have connect or something. Not at
00:08:27
all. We just met him.
00:08:29
Cousins.
Cousins.
Okay.
All of a sudden,
00:08:34
we found ourselves with one of the local
00:08:35
leaders whom we could finally ask why
00:08:37
the borders ended up the way that they
00:08:39
did and how the region has maintained
00:08:42
peace.
Thank you so much for
welcome.
00:08:44
Welcome.
00:08:47
So, he he's here like a boss in this
00:08:49
area. So, he know more.
00:08:54
Don't hurry.
00:08:56
[Music]
00:09:06
[Music]
00:09:16
To understand how this weird little
00:09:17
pocket of land came to exist, we had to
00:09:19
turn back the clock about 100 years.
00:09:22
Back then, the Arabic Peninsula didn't
00:09:24
really have any solid borders like it
00:09:26
does today. Instead, the separated
00:09:29
regions were based on loyalty. Tribes
00:09:32
and villages following the leaders they
00:09:33
trusted most.
00:09:54
In the 1930s and 40s, the larger region
00:09:56
of Madha decided to align itself with
00:09:59
Oman. But inside of Madha, there was one
00:10:01
small village, Nahwa, that made a
00:10:04
different choice. The people there
00:10:05
stayed loyal to the ruler of Sharah,
00:10:07
which is now one of the biggest cities
00:10:09
in the UAE. So when the official borders
00:10:12
were officially drawn in the 1960s,
00:10:14
these old loyalties became official
00:10:17
permanent lines on a map, making NWA one
00:10:20
of the world's most unique territories.
00:10:22
Usually oddlooking borders still have
00:10:24
conflicts today. You know, we've been to
00:10:26
some places that have a bit weird
00:10:28
borders and then there's a lot of, you
00:10:30
know, walls around the different borders
00:10:32
and here it's just open
00:10:55
in a world with a lot of conflicts. What
00:10:57
do you think the world can learn from
00:10:58
Mada and the connection to UAE?
To live
00:11:02
peacefully, to live as a family. There
00:11:05
is nothing like this country and that
00:11:07
country. He's from this. In the end, we
00:11:09
are a human being. Okay? We are a human
00:11:12
being and we should live together. We
00:11:14
are living how many years here? 50
00:11:16
years, 60 years, 70 years, then who
00:11:18
knows? So, we should live together as a
00:11:21
family.
00:11:23
nothing worth
to you know I don't know
00:11:27
how to say it
to fight about
yes to
00:11:29
fight ex you get the right word
well
00:11:32
said
yeah thank you very much thank you
00:11:35
thank you so yeah
after our sitdown
00:11:38
without us asking Muhammad took it upon
00:11:40
himself to be our tour guide keep in
00:11:43
mind this man had no idea we were coming
00:11:46
and dropped all of his plans to take
00:11:48
care of us for the whole day
where would
00:11:50
you recommend if we want to go eat
00:11:51
something I can show one place but not
00:11:54
here in Madhab because we don't have a
00:11:55
restaurant actually. Ah, we have we we
00:11:57
have we have one.
Oh, you have one?
I
00:11:59
have one restaurant. We have one
00:12:00
restaurant after lunch. You have
00:12:02
something?
No, we don't have any plans.
00:12:04
You don't have Okay, then I can show you
00:12:06
Meda.
Yeah,
I can show Let's go
because
00:12:09
I I want to show you even
00:12:12
the small area that it's in the middle
00:12:14
of it's belong to UAE. When they did the
00:12:17
border between Oman and UAE, even the
00:12:19
mountain was divide. If you can see the
00:12:21
road Yeah. Half of it belong to Oman.
00:12:24
Half of it belong to UAE. Voila. This
00:12:27
one.
This one is the restaurant.
Which
00:12:29
one?
This one.
Oh, alset
00:12:32
asset kitchen restaurant. This is the
00:12:34
number one restaurant in Madame.
The
00:12:36
only restaurant in Mad.
Nice.
We're in a
00:12:40
Sweden.
Swedish.
00:12:42
Ye.
Ye. Oh, nice.
Welcome to our to our
00:12:46
room.
00:12:50
Oh my god. Bismillah. Bismillah. Let's
00:12:53
go.
00:12:56
The rice is unbelievable.
Oh wow. That
00:12:58
is really good rice. The food in the
00:13:00
Middle East is always everywhere. Very
00:13:02
good.
Yes.
After enjoying traditional
00:13:04
Omani food in the traditional Omani way,
00:13:07
we also experienced some traditional
00:13:09
Omani generosity.
I just paid for the
00:13:11
food.
What? Yeah.
Oh, you paid for it?
00:13:15
Yeah. Yeah.
Muhammad.
Muhammad.
See,
00:13:18
come on. You are my guest, man. What the
00:13:21
hell? You made the food.
Come on. You
00:13:24
are my friend. See, you are you are my
00:13:26
guest here.
Thank you.
Okay, let's go to
00:13:29
Nawa.
Yeah, let's go.
So, no, normally
00:13:32
to enter Madha, you have two ways. Let's
00:13:34
go now out and then we can enter. So,
00:13:36
can I show you? You are in UAE, then you
00:13:38
can come out to Oman.
Okay. So, we're
00:13:40
going to we're going to be leaving Oman
00:13:42
back to Oman.
Exactly.
00:13:45
[Music]
00:13:46
And before we go any further, I want to
00:13:49
share some personal insights and
00:13:51
struggles and also thank today's
00:13:53
sponsor, which is better health. Some
00:13:55
people see me as someone always out
00:13:57
there meeting people, smiling, living
00:14:00
life fully. And I like to believe I am.
00:14:03
But I also get tired of always being on,
00:14:06
always giving, always showing up. There
00:14:08
are days I don't want to inspire. I just
00:14:11
want to exist without any expectation.
00:14:14
For a long time, I thought that always
00:14:17
saying yes made me valuable. But therapy
00:14:20
helped me see through that. Now I'm
00:14:23
practicing something even harder. Saying
00:14:25
no. I'm still learning to protect my
00:14:28
energy, to rest, to be honest with what
00:14:30
I need. And it's not about pulling away.
00:14:33
It's about returning to the world
00:14:35
without losing myself. That's why I
00:14:38
believe in BetterHel's mission to make
00:14:40
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00:14:42
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00:15:00
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00:15:02
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00:15:04
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00:15:07
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00:15:09
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go to betterhelp.com/yest
00:15:20
to get 10% off your first month. Okay,
00:15:24
let's go back to the adventure. We were
00:15:27
now finally about to make our way to the
00:15:28
center of this map's donut to explore
00:15:31
the only village inside Nwa. But to do
00:15:34
so, we had to cross back into the UAE to
00:15:37
make a U-turn onto the highway, which
00:15:39
meant we were about to change countries
00:15:40
three times in the next 30 minutes.
Oh,
00:15:42
so this is the border right here.
Yes,
00:15:45
exactly. This is the border.
So now,
00:15:47
right now, we're in Oman.
We are in
00:15:48
Oman.
Okay.
Yeah.
00:15:54
Welcome to UAE.
We are now in
It feels
00:15:58
so different. Everything Everything
00:16:00
changed now.
Exactly. Everything
00:16:01
different.
00:16:03
I'm having a very good time here in UAE,
00:16:05
but I do miss Oman again.
So, wait,
00:16:08
wait, wait one minute.
No, few seconds.
00:16:10
Wow.
So, from this side, you are
00:16:12
entering Oman.
Now, we're in Oman.
Yes.
00:16:15
In Madha,
there's no border. There's
00:16:17
nothing. It's
nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
00:16:19
Only my face.
00:16:21
The road.
How many people live inside of
00:16:24
this in the Oman part here?
Around maybe
00:16:27
2,000.
Okay.
Has anyone ever called this
00:16:29
a donut? this area we are in now
a
00:16:32
donut.
Ah okay. You mean the shape?
00:16:34
Yeah. Actually you are the first one who
00:16:37
say it's a donuts. So
so from today it
00:16:40
will be a donuts.
00:16:46
So now we are in Oman.
Oh
and now we are
00:16:50
entering. See see the flag here Oman
00:16:52
flag and that one is UAE flag.
Oh. So
00:16:56
this is the last U Oman flag.
Oman. See
00:16:58
you can see here. Welcome Shara.
00:17:01
Wow, it's so fascinating. So now we're
00:17:03
in the middle of the circle.
So this is
00:17:05
the small area as I told you maybe
00:17:07
around 20 house, 25 maybe less.
We will
00:17:11
see. This is the border. You can see the
00:17:12
different about the street itself.
Yeah,
00:17:14
the concrete looks different.
The
00:17:16
concrete and also this one.
So this one
00:17:18
Oman, this one UI. So you are here in
00:17:20
Oman, you are here in UAE. Now you are
00:17:23
in the middle.
00:17:25
I am officially standing between the two
00:17:28
countries. Oman UE. Whoa.
I feel totally
00:17:33
different every time I move.
Even the
00:17:35
air
air everything. So this one you will
00:17:39
see it even in the mountains. Divide
00:17:42
between
00:17:43
everywhere.
Shall we go and get some
00:17:45
friends in Nava?
Yeah. Let's go. Let's
00:17:48
go.
00:17:50
Our goal now is to find a local living
00:17:52
in this center part of the donut to
00:17:54
better understand what life is like
00:17:56
here. But before we head back into
00:17:58
Nahwa, we wanted to see what the other
00:18:00
border on the other side of the donut
00:18:02
looks like.
So this is the border on the
00:18:05
other side. There's nothing like on the
00:18:08
other side there was very little but
00:18:09
there was something. This one is there
00:18:11
is nothing.
So this is the border now.
00:18:13
Yeah. So now
now we are in Oman.
00:18:17
See before it was mountains.
Now again
00:18:20
mountains.
00:18:24
A there's people playing football. So
00:18:26
there is actually life here.
00:18:28
Yes.
00:18:30
Something something like that. But you
00:18:32
see what I like about this they provide
00:18:34
for them for these few houses.
Yeah.
00:18:37
Park, police station and health center.
00:18:40
Everything.
Yeah. These houses look new.
00:18:43
Yes. There's a mosque here.
Yeah. Down.
00:18:48
We see someone
who can guide us.
See
00:18:52
there is someone I don't
we can
00:18:54
interview him. I don't trust him.
He
00:18:56
looks suspicious.
Like a Viking.
Yeah.
00:18:58
Yeah.
00:19:01
What are you guys doing in my
00:19:02
neighborhood? Who are you?
00:19:06
It's such a paradise to live here
00:19:08
because you live around the mountains.
00:19:10
You have the sunset. You see the light
00:19:12
on the mountains.
It's interesting. A
00:19:13
lot of the houses here look in
00:19:15
construction. 30% is occupied, maybe
00:19:18
50%, then the other half is still kind
00:19:20
of being built. But the houses look
00:19:23
super nice. I mean like they're not
00:19:25
small houses.
Where is he?
He often
00:19:28
breaks into places and steals stuff
00:19:30
because I'm afraid by by by what he's
00:19:32
doing maybe they will think that he's a
00:19:33
thief.
No, he always steals stuff. I
00:19:35
never seen him go to a country and not
00:19:36
steal something.
Why? Why you still you
00:19:39
know going with him? How is still s just
00:19:42
traveling with him?
I know. I ask myself
00:19:44
that every single day
after this road
00:19:47
there is nothing. Okay.
00:19:50
And I'm assuming that most people who
00:19:52
live here probably, you know, work
00:19:54
outside of this little nook, but have
00:19:56
gotten a home inside of it. Look, you
00:19:58
can see he's talking to his mobile
00:20:00
camera right now,
like a crazy person.
00:20:02
Yeah. Yeah. And he's planning like, "How
00:20:03
shall I break into these buildings now?"
00:20:05
And he's talking to himself. Self
00:20:06
motivation, you know, like I can do it.
00:20:08
I can break in. I can steal the string.
00:20:10
I was thinking that he's a good man. I
00:20:11
don't know why.
Yeah. Don't think so.
00:20:14
How are you, my friend? Hi.
00:20:18
No, no, no.
00:20:20
We continued wandering the streets of
00:20:22
Maha in search of a local to speak to
00:20:24
and hopefully learn more about life
00:20:26
here. But it was appearing to be a bit
00:20:28
of a ghost town. Oh, nobody is here.
00:20:33
This is inside the local mosque. It's
00:20:36
quite nice in here. It's always
00:20:38
peaceful. Buildings are just open, but
00:20:40
there's nobody there's nobody here.
00:20:47
Abu Dhabi.
00:20:49
Okay.
Trying to find a citizen of Navan,
00:20:52
but we are struggling.
I met an elderly
00:20:54
man who gave me a fig. Just came up to
00:20:56
my car. He gave me a fig and I was like,
00:20:58
"Are you from Emirati?" He goes, "Yes,
00:21:00
let's go."
00:21:03
How are you?
00:21:28
up.
00:21:48
I can touch my
00:22:13
He gave me a fig from his tree here. Oh,
00:22:16
after our day of exploring the center of
00:22:18
the donut, we returned to Madhav and it
00:22:20
dawned on us that we had no idea where
00:22:23
we would be sleeping that night.
You can
00:22:25
sleep on the street.
00:22:28
We haven't booked anywhere to stay, but
00:22:31
his uncle has some kind of a guest house
00:22:33
here.
You're saying we should head there
00:22:34
now?
Yeah. Yeah, it's here.
We used
00:22:37
being tossed around and we love it. So,
00:22:40
they called you and said that we should
00:22:41
drive over.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:43
Yeah. Yes. They told me bring the boys
00:22:45
here.
00:22:50
Oh, okay. It's a Syrian dish. It's a
00:22:52
Syrian gift.
No different between UAE
00:22:55
and Roman. All of us, brother.
As we
00:22:58
were eating and chatting with Khaled, we
00:23:00
kept being offered more and more
00:23:02
hospitality.
This place is for free for
00:23:04
you.
Okay. Stay here till the morning.
00:23:08
No problem for you.
You drive us around.
00:23:10
You give us food. You give us
00:23:11
accommodation. Come on. As fate would
00:23:14
have it, we happened to be visiting
00:23:15
Madha on the night before their annual
00:23:17
carnival. So, we went in to visit some
00:23:19
of the stalls, all run by women who are
00:23:21
small business owners from this region.
00:23:24
They produce perfumes, art, and
00:23:25
traditional food, preparing for a
00:23:27
festival starting this weekend, and
00:23:29
we're having a soft launch we were able
00:23:31
to attend.
Perfume.
Oh, smells amazing.
00:23:36
You You have to remember it. Of course.
00:23:39
Of course. Okay. Wow. That's the kind of
00:23:41
them.
00:23:48
Her mother, my auntie, everyone family.
00:23:51
Same family. One from UA from Oman.
Ah,
00:23:54
are you sure? Oh,
00:23:57
take my mother.
Thank you so much. Yeah.
00:23:59
No, no, this is not three.
She's she's
00:24:02
asking us to take the whole thing, not
00:24:04
just one. People look so kinder. We are
00:24:06
living in paradise here. I'll tell you
00:24:08
that.
How is your feeling? Tell me how
00:24:09
is your feeling.
Love it. And staying
00:24:11
true to his promise of showing us
00:24:13
around, Khaled led us to yet another
00:24:15
undisclosed location.
Um, sir, where are
00:24:19
we?
We don't know where they're taking
00:24:21
us. Hospitable Arab men controls our
00:24:23
lives. Where are we?
00:24:26
I love it.
Look, they're barbecuing
00:24:29
here. A bunch of food. I don't know what
00:24:31
we're doing. We're just walking into
00:24:32
these places.
And literally, we have no
00:24:34
idea about this. They're just taking
00:24:36
nothing.
Nice to meet you. Nice to meet
00:24:38
you.
This is my farm.
Your farm? Yeah.
00:24:40
Okay.
Tourism operation, hiking and
00:24:43
camping.
So, you take people hiking and
00:24:45
then they come here and eat and
and
00:24:47
eating. Yeah.
Hi. How you doing? There's
00:24:48
so many people here. What's going on?
00:24:51
Just hanging out, eating food.
It's just
00:24:53
happening.
It's just happening on
00:24:54
winter. Every everyone here is sitting
00:24:56
with everyone.
Master chef right here.
00:24:59
Took this off the grill and gave it to
00:25:00
me. Incredible. I'm speechless. Like a
00:25:02
movie set. I don't know. I don't know
00:25:04
what's happening anymore.
00:25:08
But I want to ask you what do you feel?
00:25:10
We feel lucky to be able to be here but
00:25:13
then we also feel a very much of
00:25:15
hospitality
because people when come to
00:25:17
us we feel like it's it's a gift come to
00:25:20
us.
So we need to thank you because you
00:25:23
come to us
really really really
so nice
00:25:27
to meet you.
00:25:29
Another bar waiting for you.
Another
00:25:31
party waiting for us.
I I don't know
00:25:33
what to expect.
Okay we follow.
00:25:37
See you guys.
Bye-bye.
How many things
00:25:40
can you get invited to within the span
00:25:42
of 24 hours? The idea of like a bed
00:25:44
sounds amazing, but we don't have one
00:25:46
yet. We don't
because they said they're
00:25:49
hosting us somewhere. So, we can't go to
00:25:52
bed until we keep following their
00:25:54
parties.
I'm so happy. I I'm literally
00:25:57
This is my happiest day in my life.
00:25:58
Welcome, brother.
Thank you, brother.
00:26:00
Let's go.
Let's go. Uh, it is 10:00 p.m.
00:26:04
officially now. Uh, I have no idea where
00:26:08
we're driving at the moment.
And little
00:26:10
did we know, they had actually prepared
00:26:12
a special accommodation for us in the
00:26:14
mountains.
00:26:17
Do you understand now why I love
00:26:19
traveling in the Middle East? Pretty
00:26:20
dope. Wait, what? There's a bonfire
00:26:23
here. See? Oh, wa.
00:26:27
[Laughter]
00:26:29
Wait, is this where we're staying? This
00:26:32
is incredible.
Just a guest house
only
00:26:35
to host people for free. You didn't
00:26:36
build it to to make money out of it.
No,
00:26:39
no money out of it. Nothing.
Wow.
It's
00:26:42
just for free.
Yeah.
In yet another
00:26:45
surprising act of kindness from the
00:26:47
locals here who had already taken us
00:26:48
under their wing to give us a tour and
00:26:50
feed us. We were given free
00:26:52
accommodation without them even having
00:26:54
any idea about what our YouTube channel
00:26:56
really was. Simply out of their cultures
00:26:58
enormous commitment to hospitality. I'm
00:27:01
going to just go accept all of this now.
00:27:04
This is all happening.
Wait, this is a
00:27:06
pool.
This is the last party.
This is
00:27:09
the last party. Okay.
You have to
00:27:11
transfer from one party to another
00:27:13
party, but not the same.
Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:16
Hard to put words to what's happening
00:27:18
now. But it feels like once again it's
00:27:21
proven that kindness is all around the
00:27:23
world in every corner and there is
00:27:25
kindness in every human being. We just
00:27:27
need to create space and safety for it
00:27:30
to flourish.
Especially coming from a
00:27:33
really warn war torn country and people
00:27:36
fighting over borders and whatnot.
00:27:38
Borders here are literally just lines.
00:27:41
It really makes you question about other
00:27:43
borders in everywhere in the world
and
00:27:46
and how we we make them part of our
00:27:49
identity. Even though a human a human
00:27:52
being just like us just drew a line on
00:27:54
the map one day in history.
Come on.
00:27:56
Well said, Tom. And you know that more
00:27:58
than anyone else because of your story
00:28:01
with coming from a country with
00:28:02
unfortunately been suffering a lot of
00:28:03
war.
This is giving you me.
Sorry.
This
00:28:07
is also creating peace on earth.
Yeah.
00:28:13
Cheers to that. Cheers to that.
00:28:17
[Music]
00:28:24
Do not take the news as the accurate
00:28:26
full representation of humankind. We
00:28:29
showed up to this confusing border on
00:28:30
the map with only the hopes of asking
00:28:32
some questions. And within literally
00:28:34
minutes, we were taken in, showed
00:28:36
around, hosted, fed, and housed at
00:28:39
literally no expense. No expectations
00:28:42
for anything in return, and no idea what
00:28:45
our channel even was. It was just humans
00:28:48
in a unique part of the world that few
00:28:50
ever make it to. Seeing a curious group
00:28:52
eager to learn, deciding to do what
00:28:54
humans do best, extending their hand.
We
00:28:58
have to make
00:29:00
here or in Paris or in Stockholm.
So we
00:29:03
will come back and visit you.
See you
00:29:05
guys.
00:29:07
We get reminded so often of all of the
00:29:09
bad there is. So much so that we forget
00:29:12
that this is our natural state to be
00:29:15
generous, to be kind, and to be open.
00:29:17
And I have to say that few places are as
00:29:20
hospitable as the Middle East. And no
00:29:22
place contrasts more in the reality on
00:29:24
the ground versus what you'll see in the
00:29:26
news. Let's continue breaking down these
00:29:29
perceptions of each other. Refuse the
00:29:31
divisive narrative that we're fed and
00:29:33
always remain skeptical of someone
00:29:35
trying to convince you otherwise. The
00:29:38
enemy isn't across the border as these
00:29:40
lovely people here have taught it. It's
00:29:42
the ones desperately trying to convince
00:29:44
you that they are.
