I fell in love with Meti Island and its people during my visit, so much so that I extended my stay by a week. Such an innocent way of life there, smiling kid...
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so good morning everyone I am walking
along a pathway to the village of Mitty
island this island is just offshore of
halmahera which is the northern molecule
province of eastern Indonesia it's
probably one of the nicest islands and
villages that I've come across yet it's
really in tune with with nature they've
got a real good vibe here the kids are
really happy they don't all want to
leave like other islands it just seems
like there's a good balance here so I'm
walking around today watching trying to
film a bit of how life is still on the
island a lot of it is just doing coconut
work and fishing and gardening so I'm
going to show you a bit of that and then
probably later tomorrow morning I think
I'm going to leave and sail up a bit
more north so anyway enjoy
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so cool to see that kids involved in
this process as well they're the young
girls they were learning how to to get
the meat out of the shelves now pretty
cool the whole family's just sitting
around you know all working all doing
their thing the men have climbed the
trees and collected the coconuts and the
women sawed them and cut them in half
and empty the meat out of them and the
husks get thrown on the fire and all the
meat gets thrown up on the top and that
burns about 24 hours or maybe 30 hours
and it smokes and dries the kapre the
meat and that's the product that they're
selling in the end this is cassava and
behind it here is sweet potato with the
purple leaves they don't just eat the
fruit stayed make some of the leaves as
well and then you've got banana coconut
more Passover they've got nutmeg here
there are also many cows on the island
just roped up through their noses and
they use them to keep the grass down and
amongst the coconut groves and the cows
are just very calm and just wander
around
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middie island was actually a big
Japanese base during World War two I'm
not quite sure of the exact dates and
that there's not really much information
on Wikipedia about that but the whole
village today 1,900 people was actually
built on the old airstrip and as you can
see here there's still cannon around in
the forest there's bunkers there's a
there's a downed warplane in the lagoon
it's in 25 meters of water so I have
actually tried to dive on that pretty
interesting you see a few people here
with real Japanese looks so I'm guessing
that the Japanese soldiers did what they
have been known to do and raped and
pillaged a fair bit and left their DNA
here on the island this is one of the
few Islands that I've been to out here
where you can drink the water out of the
ground the Japanese put down some really
deep bores so the ground water here is
it's drinkable and there's plenty of it
mostly on these islands that the bore
waters is brackish they just use it for
washing and cleaning and things like
that so that's been quite handy they
have big gardens here because of that
because they've got ample fresh water
these kids are so coolly as they follow
me all around the island and whenever I
fly the drone they freak out completely
because they do not know what that is
but and then they watch their they watch
the screen when I'm filming and see
their village and the other huh they
finally realized that that's their
village and there's a camera on the
trailer
it's pretty cool kids here are awesome
the kids everywhere awesome but these
kids awesome
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so today I printed out a bunch of
pictures I've shot in the last few days
here in the village and my little photo
printer on the boat and I'm walking
around the village trying to find the
kids to give them to here's a couple of
happy customers they're so photogenic
I'm just taking photos and lots of them
and they're really stoked to get a paper
copy of them for sure
the so photogenic you I took so many
pictures that sort of lends itself
better to photos and film so so here's a
decent slideshow for you I shot a lot in
black and white even though it's so
colorful here the black and white is
just looks amazing with the textures so
here's a bunch of them to look at
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you that grain it helps us falling
between
why is it so hard
when there's old sky
Hey
another tournament
we always forever
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okay still
we both think alike yeah we seem to buy
dinner
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ting is difficult grading is just a
child
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trust in me
that you
we cheer
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together
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still
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or skirt
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honestly
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in the afternoons mostly around here
there the kids sell doughnuts outside
their houses while other things to
savories and things but my favorites the
doughnut they cost one thousand rupiah
each which is 10 cents Australian well
it's been amazing here I've been nearly
by actually I've been over a week here
now I don't normally stay in one place
that long but it's been sort of a a
little bit magnetic for me this place be
sad to leave tomorrow it's just the
people the people were so good here so
nice and fascinating for me how they
live and their happiness levels are just
on on through the roof compared to
Western standards I must say you know
doesn't come because they they've got
the newest Mercedes Benz and they go to
Majorca on holiday comes because they're
to have simple satisfying lives and they
have love of the family and they have
connection with nature and this is what
they need for happiness and it seems to
work and it makes me happy just being
around them so that's that's why it's a
little sad to leave but I mean there's
obviously you know there's a more good
places coming up but this does give me a
good perspective on what I'm doing and
why I'm doing it not a lot of sailing in
this video but that's okay I don't sail
for the pure pleasure of sailing
although I do love it I use my boat as a
yeah as a a time machine takes me to
places that I want to visit and allows
me to stay there on location and that's
worked out perfectly here hope you
enjoyed this video I really enjoyed
making it obviously this is only a
fraction of what I experienced I could
never capture everything I hope I do a
good job at least giving a bit of an
insight into into this this experience
that I'm living anyway thanks again
to the patrons has been a couple of new
ones this week welcome on board thank
you very very much to the new ones and
to the existing ones the your donations
go towards buying new drones every now
and again as you've seen and thanks to
everyone who's watching and liking and
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see you next time