Egypt Travel Nightmare!! Why I’ll Never Go Back!!

[Music]

this place there is no system here

there is no step by step

it's pure chaos

and hierarchy layers and layers of

people nobody knows what's going on it's

a idea

this video was recorded in egypt two

days after arriving if i sound sick it's

because i'm exhausted and i barely slept

because of the late night questioning

from the egyptian police

let's talk about egypt one of the

problems with making videos like this is

that when i come to a country that

doesn't have freedom of speech where

there's a lot of authoritarian rule from

the government if i speak out freely

about my experience those opinions can

be led back to the person within the

country who helped us shoot in the first

place and they could possibly be

reprimanded punished or killed i have no

idea it depends on the country let's

talk about egypt egypt is confusing

because the people here tell me that

there's free speech i guess as long as

it doesn't piss off the wrong person

egypt's slogan should be leave your

camera at home but bring your money they

don't want you to shoot here that's very

obvious one of the things i like about

shooting in africa in general is that it

is a bit of a challenge and that i'm not

going to be competing with a lot of

other youtubers or people for content

because most people aren't willing to go

through the pain and difficulty and

challenges to shoot here but i i'm

willing to go through all that but here

it's been a little bit too much let me

start from the beginning

where we got it we were greeted with a

surprise coveted test that cost 265

dollars for the team and it took an hour

and a half that's fine we landed at 1

a.m by 2 30 a.m we got to the baggage

claim one of our bags was missing

because ethiopian airlines is a pile of

garbage they're still working on

delivering it days later after that we

went through customs customs here is

intense literally everyone gets x-rayed

and they poke through your stuff they

don't care they asked us if we had a

drone i did not want to f around so i

said yes and i handed it over

voluntarily that itself took probably an

hour and a half because the system i

mean the system there is no system it's

so disorganized i got passed from guy to

guy at least 10 different people

involved somehow they had to take the

drone they had to wrap it up somehow

they had to get multiple forms of

documentation even as they said i was

done i was like i need like a receipt or

a number or something you just hear

people yelling at each other in arabic

because um no one knows what's going on

so finally our items have made it

through customs it's 4 am we get to a

hotel around 4 30 something like that

hotels here are very different from

other countries the hotel is like an

airport the security is super intense

and not like you go through a metal

detector that's the least of it they had

to x-ray all of our bags again to get

into a hotel customer service zero they

don't treat you nicely they're just like

put your crap in the x-ray so we put our

bags in there one of them sees wires and

they're alarmed by this we have wires

because we have battery chargers as far

as i know there's nothing legal about

this we have consumer gear that anybody

traveling as a tourist might have we

just have a little bit more of it so

they demand we open the bank mind you

we're at a hotel i open the bay and then

what's revealed is a bunch of chargers

and sitting on top of them why walkie

talkies we travel with walkie talkies

because it helps us as a production team

oftentimes there's bad wi-fi or people

can't hear their phone ringing but if

they have a walkie-talkie here when

we're shooting on a busy street we can

quickly communicate about what shots are

needed or where we need people to be so

the person who saw the walkie-talkies

was just a hotel manager and i don't

know what it is with gear or certain

technology here but when some people see

it their brain goes back to the stone

age they're like what is this why could

you possibly want to have a

walkie-talkie unless you're planning to

overthrow our government literally it

felt like that i'm told there have been

two revolutions in this country in the

last 10 years to say there's a bit of

paranoia in this country would be an

understatement there is an intense sense

of paranoia and control that is wanting

to be kept by certain people i want to

make a quick aside here to say we've

just been here a few days the people

largely have been great the food's been

great and i love the vibe of the city i

just want to shoot it the thing is

they're worried about me talking crap

about the country we came here to make

food videos they've given me a reason to

want to talk crap about the country from

there a hotel cop came out the hotel has

a comp too and they start one by one

going through our stuff what is this i

go that holds lights okay so this holds

lights it's like yeah i'm

is that profound or shocking yes it's a

light stand so they went through all of

our stuff and they started picking out

certain pieces of gear that they deem

suspicious based on their complete lack

of knowledge of anything everyone's

taking pictures of it it's very

dehumanizing at this point because

they're going through my personal items

picking stuff up or telling me to pick

stuff up and then saying what is that

and i was like

this what is this it's a back roller why

do you need this why do i need this how

about go i go because i exercise and i

like to roll up my back and the whole

time i had to pretend to be nice because

i don't know the consequences if i'm not

so from around 4 30 a.m to 10 a.m we

were outside the lobby in the cold it

gets very cold in cairo by the way with

the police and more and more police

coming asking us all types of questions

treating us like criminals and

suspecting us of something but i don't

know what it's like i can show you

here's a youtube channel seven and a

half million subscribers i can't make

those numbers up this is a well-founded

channel i'm clearly on camera the end

they were asking for us to show proof

that we'd been to different countries

together so on this trip with my channel

manager and two camera guys from vietnam

and they're asking show us in your

passports times that you've been in

other countries together at the same

time and the dates should match up they

better match up and in my head it's like

why does this matter even if we're

meeting today for the first time i'm not

bringing anything illegal apparently the

walkie-talkies are illegal or banned

that i did not know and immediately i

said take him throw them away i don't

care but no that would not suffice so

they took our gear and they said that

they're gonna hold on to it until we can

find a permit i know there's people

watching this who think we just came to

egypt randomly and we're like oh this

will be a fun romp we've been preparing

for this trip for 10 weeks well before

we got here we applied for our permits

we weren't supposed to be shooting for

two more days the shooting is supposed

to start today guess what we finally got

our permit yesterday but now we can't

get the police to give us our stuff back

they gave us a receipt a receipt for the

gear that says that we have a weapon

what's the weapon a walkie-talkie that's

a weapon this is what i mean by stone

age thinking it's not everybody but it's

certain people in authority when they

see that you have a piece of equipment

so evidently that's a weapon so today

right now i'm about to head to the

airport where they've taken my gear and

we need to try to negotiate show them

our permit we have from the press office

permission to shoot in this country and

we have to hope that they will actually

give us my stuff back and if not i'm not

sure what the solution is we have to try

to rent gear shoot it on a phone i mean

that's the last thing i want to do we're

spending over a hundred thousand dollars

on this africa trip it's the most i've

ever invested into any series i knew it

was going to be challenging but i didn't

expect to spend this much money and be

posed with the option of potentially

having to shoot it on a freaking iphone

so that's still the quick version of the

story that's not all the little details

in between but that's where we're at so

far i've stated what is objectively true

what's objectively happened i don't want

this to get anyone in trouble and i hope

it doesn't from this point the story

continues i want to document this

because i know this is not the end even

if we get our equipment this is not the

end this is going to be one of the most

challenging countries we've ever been to

and i've been to places like iran

nigeria iran was a cakewalk compared to

this because they had clear instructions

for if you want to shoot these are the

hoops you have to jump through you have

to pay these permits and we did it all

and we got there and no problem no

problem but here i don't uh it's unclear

if they have systems it's unclear if

they have regulations it seems to go up

the flagpole a broad hierarchy of

individuals and somebody declares an

order from somewhere based on what i

don't know gut feeling assumptions

paranoia so i'm headed to the airport

right now i'm going to bring the phone i

cannot bring this mic because

we don't have our other mics and i don't

want them to take this mic there's some

gear they didn't see or didn't see fit

to take they already know we can't shoot

because we don't have cameras so i don't

think they cared about the rest

hopefully we can get our gear and our

shoot isn't ruined too much for sure

this is already costing us more money

what i was told late last night is that

the police want more money they want

money for a import tax or import fee i'm

gonna have to show them how much the

gear is worth and they'll charge a

percentage of that ten to thirty percent

it's gonna be a few thousand dollars it

sucks but we have to do what we have to

do the last thing i'm gonna do is leave

this country with my tail between my

legs i came here to shoot we have a

right to shoot and not like a right like

i'm an american like no we have a right

from this government from the press

office to shoot videos so god damn it

that's what we're gonna do let's go to

the airport

i need to be a little bit quiet i'm not

supposed to be recording i'm in the

airport

in customs we've been here already two

two and a half hours just going back and

forth with paperwork i needed a permit

just to re-enter customs tons of stupid

stuff finally i'm here i've handed over

my receipt for the gear my passport i

had a fancy badge made so that i can

enter

customs look that seems like a

worthwhile thing to have to do and so

now i wait and we have no idea what's

going to happen first they have to

locate the gear and then will they give

it to us or not

no idea are they gonna ask for money

no idea we'll see

[Music]

i'm outside the airport now trying to be

a little secretive again after four

hours i'm told they cannot give me my

equipment because it's been given to a

different department and we need to hire

some intermediary business to work with

customs to get our ship back this place

is what i'm talking about for people who

said oh you have to do your due

diligence there is no system here there

is no plan there is no step by step it's

pure chaos hierarchy layers and layers

of people like you have never seen

nobody knows what's going on nothing

gets done it's a nightmare

after this moment it was clear we were

not going to get our gear back until we

left the country so i went to a store i

bought an iphone and i bought some

lights the next day production began

let's go

oh my god

[Music]

after shooting four episodes and finally

leaving the country

i recorded the following video in a

hotel in rwanda while we're shooting our

local producer is making us pretty

paranoid he keeps saying we should try

to stay inside we shouldn't erase any

interest in people around us and i

didn't realize why until halfway through

the day we're outside and we're shooting

a bakery as we were filming that the

police stopped us and by the way it's

not like you see them coming it's just

some bald guy with a leather jacket and

half a cigarette in his mouth and he

pulls out some dirty id card that was

the police so the police start to gather

more of them they tell us to get in our

van and follow them to the police

station we spend probably an hour at

that police station first they talk to

all the local people they talk to our

local producer and then finally they

talk to us after about half an hour the

police officer wanted to go through the

footage on my phone so i show him the

footage he goes hmm

delete that delete that delete that one

delete that one delete that one shot by

shot a police officer is telling me what

to delete based on what on his feelings

oh but what law did i break none oh but

there must be like a rule nope no rule

this is what it's like to shoot in egypt

and by the way this is somebody with a

permit when we asked our local producer

what purpose did the permit have he said

well we're not in jail

lovely country this is why i have an

obligation and a responsibility to tell

you guys to not go to egypt this country

earns 12 percent of its gdp through

tourism and they treat tourists like

trash it would be something different if

i was going to the congo does congo

advertise themselves as a

tourist-friendly destination no but

egypt does and they're anything but so

you might be asking yourself wow sonny

you deleted a whole shoot no of course

not these guys are very dumb what i did

is while we were on our way to the

police station we air-dropped a bunch of

the footage from one phone to a dummy

phone i had the dummy phone i showed

them the dummy footage as soon as he

said i had to delete it i didn't go okay

cool i said

really

are you sure i mean is there something

different we can do for next time it's

just we're just trying to make the show

about food in egypt he's like yeah sorry

gotta delete it so i deleted it and we

still have all the footage the rest of

that shooting date was pretty awful

because now i'm not enjoying it and i'm

always looking out for police and then

our local producer is just making us

more paranoid if we try to stick the

phone out the window to get a shot he's

like no police put your phone down we

finished the day we get back to the

hotel and i'm feeling pretty defeated

the next day we left cairo and we were

hoping things would be better we were

heading to a cable market and the camel

arcade was interesting it's a very cool

place you can see footage of it right

now very fascinating but i mean even on

the way there there's so many

checkpoints in egypt we crossed a

checkpoint and then the guy just looked

at all of us and was like no you can't

use this road there are freedoms in the

usa that i've just completely taken for

granted my whole life like the freedom

to just drive from minnesota to

california if you want to but in egypt

if you cross a checkpoint and they don't

want you to go they don't need to tell

you why there's no rule there's no law

you just don't get to go so we had to

circle all the way around adding hours

to our trip and finally we got to the

camel market at the campbell market i

bought a camel and after interacting

with the different local people there

and buying the camel and paying a lot of

money fourteen hundred dollars for a

camel we tried to leave and then

something happened there which happened

a lot in that country the local people

tried to stop us until we gave them

money from there we took the camel to an

oasis a city far far from cairo and we

luckily didn't have any issues with

police for a little while just because

we were so far away from the population

epicenter many of our experiences were

bad there just because we had a bad

local producer i mean he got a terrible

lodge for us which was near freezing and

we were all not feeling well anyways so

i don't want to get into every little

nitpicky terrible thing that happened

and maybe i will one day and i'll do a

big long podcast and you can hear about

it but instead of focusing on him i want

to focus on the big picture and

something that could really have impact

and hopefully create change in egypt and

that is how awful they treat tourists

after our shooting we head back to cairo

we shot another video in cairo without

that producer we shot it with a

different local tour guide who actually

his name was joe and his company was

fantastic and very helpful and so

luckily meeting joe it was just a

completely different side of the country

i was like oh wait people like can be

organized and communicate together and

can be clear and communicate something

i'd not experienced up to that point

they exist the last final terrible

moment happened when we tried to leave

the country we didn't know how to get

the gear back and they never clearly

explained they just say when you leave

you'll get it so we go to the airport we

check in and then i have to go through

the process of getting all my stuff back

the problem is i have a limited amount

of time because our plane is going to

take off soon so they have my drone

that's in one terminal and then all the

stuff they took from me at the hotel is

in another terminal and so i am just

walking around with a local guy who's

really taking his time no one can

clarify what are the steps what's

happening and so step by step just like

dropping the drone off i have to go

through all these steps again to get my

stuff back in the end i paid them

roughly 350

for the pleasure of taking my stuff away

and holding it in a locker so finally

i've got all my gear i'm so relieved

because i really thought i might have to

leave without it and i've got big bags

bags full of cameras big lithium

batteries they've tied and sealed every

bag shut because their feelings are we

do not want you to open this bag at all

until you're on the airplane or in

another country because they perceive

the items in that bag to be of some sort

of threat so we have my bags and they go

well you need to check it in i go well i

can't check it because it's full of

lithium batteries i can't check it we go

back and forth about eight times in this

conversation before someone's like oh

oh

right lithium batteries i say just let

me open the bag and pull out the

batteries absolutely not i had to stay

with security and my bags up until the

time i boarded the flight they walked me

to security now the security guy says

hey open these bags and i look at the

security from the airport i'm like what

am i supposed to do you guys say i can't

open it he says open it so they look at

him and they go no he doesn't open it

awesome so he scans it he says all right

well it's fine i'm gonna keep your

passport you go sit down

you're gonna keep my passport who though

but from this point i'm like i'm am i

arrested am i a prisoner like what is

going on so i'm told to sit near the

security guy while he finishes checking

everybody else in eventually everybody

is done going through security i say hey

can i get my passport back this guy

walks me to the front of the line and

then at that point he gives me my

passport and i have never been so

relieved in my life to leave a country

in the end why am i making this video i

want to tell you my story so that you

can avoid the same situation i think a

lot of people are naive about egypt and

they think well it's a tourist country

they have this big massive tourist

attraction they would probably treat me

like a tourist or at least be neutral

but these people were actively awful i'm

telling this story because something

needs to change in egypt now do i have

any hope that egypt is going to change

no absolutely not but we can change we

can stop going there we can stop

traveling there we can stop giving them

our dollars or whatever currency you

have in your country the only pressure

most people understand and most

countries understand is losing money

until things improve i recommend don't

go to egypt yeah you might be one of the

lucky ones maybe you get away with

nothing happening and people might say

well just don't bring cameras okay but

don't take pictures with your iphone

either because that's what we did people

might say oh you should have known the

rules um i had a permit given to me by

the government what you're thinking of

is a society that makes sense that has

rules and laws that people understand

and play by this place is a complete

mess maybe one day they'll improve maybe

one day they'll try to restructure or

retrain or or find a better way to treat

people maybe implement some actual

systems that make sense and work until

that date far far away or until they

actually demonstrate some willingness to

want to change and improve don't go to

egypt i've been a travel host

professionally for six years i have

filmed in over 25 countries this is the

first time i've ever recommended you not

going somewhere that's my story guys

that is it for this one right now we are

also publishing our egypt series on the

main channel and you can see some of

these crazy moments play out in real

life plus see all of the food really

interesting food anyways check it out on

the main channel that is it for this one

thank you so much for watching i will

see you next time

peace