Beautiful country with lots of Restrictions — No Internet! | Asmara, Eritrea Vlog

This video is about a country that is filled  with some unusual characteristics, and lots of restrictions. It's known for its tough army, good  food, beautiful people, and a president who refuses to give up his power. I set out to learn about this  little lesser known country for myself. Welcome to Eritrea. I am now on my way to the Embassy of  Eritrea to try to get my stamp for my passport.   this is my third time going. so third time was not a charm. I started the Visa process in the U.S.A and then flew to Ethiopia and had to go to  the Embassy five times before getting this Visa.   it's one of the hardest visas in the world  to get. Eritrea is a country located in East Africa, touching borders with Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti, and right along the Red Sea. Eritrea is the seventh youngest country in the world, with  only gaining its independence in 1993. It's also one of the least visited countries in the  world. it's been nicknamed the North Korea of Africa  because it is ruled by a dictatorship since  gaining its independence.   this is the craziest thing I've ever seen. I've been here for, I think, an hour and a half. they just throw the luggage out. Eritrea wins the prize of craziest baggage  claim I've ever seen in my entire life! I'm in the taxi. outside of the airport all of these taxis  are waiting, and that's the only way that a tourist is allowed to get from the airport to the city.  it will cost you $20 for the 10-minute ride. I had this really cute taxi driver that  just kept on laughing even though he did not understand a word of what I was saying. and then I'm just going to fast forward to the next day because the hotel situation was not that good, so we're going to just start fresh! Now this is the morning on day two and I'm going  to go look for some coffee. so yesterday after I left the airport I got checked into two  different hotels. neither one of them are   exactly what I am wanting at this time. I will  continue to see if I can find a different room.   it was once colonized by the Italians so there's  a lot of Italian architecture here, and a lot of   Italian food which is really interesting. so I  think I just found a a coffee place. and let's see Hi. good morning Salam. Salam. yeah good. yes. My first coffee in Eritrea. it's good yeah. good coffee. hi It's very famous about coffee Eritrea. really? traveling through Eritrea can be really challenging because   there are so many restrictions, and this includes  even finding a hotel. I'm on my way to try another   hotel. so the last place I was [Music] in just  isn't going to work for me so I'm going to go. I   got a recommendation last night for another hotel,  so I'm going to go try to find this one and see   what happens. in Eritrea there's no internet, no  Wi-Fi, and tourists are not allowed to have a   local SIM card. and you really can't book anything  in advance because there's only two hotels online, and   both of them are between $90 and $100 per night.  so I can't call these places, instead I have to go and try to find them on my own.  I downloaded the offline map for Eritrea on from "maps me". thank goodness I did that before I I came here because there's no internet, right. so there's no internet,   there's no phone card, there's no ATM, so that's  what makes traveling through this country   a little bit challenging. but then the people  make it up because the people are so friendly here.   so that's good. the neighborhoods are actually  really pretty here, though. everything is very clean in Eritrea, which is nice. you can only use either American money or Euros from what I heard, and then you can exchange it into the  local currency which is called, "nakfa". okay so  I found the place, Imperial, for 460 Nakfa, which is like 31 American dollars. and now here is my new room. two single beds, which is fine. I  would show you the bathroom right now but I   think the Load shedding is going on, which means no electricity. hopefully, I'll have electricity tonight. I even get an outdoor patio my view they said that I have hot water from 6:00  to 8:00 in the morning and then I think 6:00 to 8:00 at night so, it's definitely not on booking  or Airbnb. but yeah, I found a place. thank you God! I'm in the lobby of my hotel, and I found  out here in Eritrea the electricity goes out,   consistently, at I think she said 8:00 in the  morning until 6:00 at night, every single day.  so moving on now that we got the restrictions  out of the way, we got my hotel. let's go explore the city. Eritrea was colonized by Italy  for almost 60 years, and because of this   Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, was dubbed as "The  Little Rome". there's all kinds of pizza  places, spaghetti, bolognese, gelato places. in fact,  Asmara has even been designated as a UNESCO   world heritage site because of the Italian Art  Deco style architecture. this was the first gas   station in Eritrea, owned by an Italian. and one  of the things that people say are really   cool is the big slab of concrete over here. 30 meters  long. that has no supporting columns at the end.   there's a lot of bicycles here, so it's  definitely one of the main means of transportation. everybody's  extremely, extremely friendly   and more people than what I thought  are speaking English, so that makes it a little bit easier for me. I am on  my way to I think a market [Music] [Music] [Music] this is the Medeber Market. it's famous for  its innovative blacksmiths and welders, who   recycle anything from pieces of metal, iron,  rubber, or wood, and turn it into a useful product. As you can see in here, this is an  extremely loud and busy place. Everybody is   doing some sort of job. They literally  turn scrap pieces of material into   something useful, whether it's pots, bicycle  parts, tools- you name it! They are extremely resourceful . And then on the other side  of the market are the women with the spices.   this woman is preparing the hot peppers called  Berbere, which is used in the traditional food. [Music] okay Ciao! they wanted to see themselves in the  phone. So cute!   I am kind of on a mission to find like old jewelry. it's just something  that I like to collect while I'm in other countries.   so I just showed the ladies a  picture of some really old bracelets, and   she said go down the opposite way I was going,  pass the bus station, and make a right. that's what I got out of it anyway. hi Mr Goat! over here is the bus station, so I found it. Hi, how are you? Hi, good, how are you? another landmark that I was told was  the mosque. they said go to the mosque   and there's shops over there. so here  I am. the first place I went in didn't   have what I wanted, and so I went into  another one. I just found another shop   and he actually in the window had  some things, and this is an old old bracelet. very cool. you take it out like... wow! I don't know it's exactly what I'm looking for, but we're going to see how much. and then look at this. I found this, which is kind of what I was looking for. but I didn't realize  it was going to be so big. this is from the Rashaida tribe. it's it's like exactly what I was trying to find, and I found it.    it's just not, I don't think... I think it's a little  bit too big for me he's going to do his calculations. 1,740 oh oh wow so the bracelet  which was 1,750 nafta. Nafta, how do you say? what   What you say? Yes, yes 400. nafka?... Nakfa, Nakfa. yeah uh which  equals about $116. 3,120 yes which would be about $250 This is Waldov. he has amazing amazing  stuff in here. I'm going to show you some of the stuff that he has here. it's  really cool-  a shield. he has all of  these arrows, and then here's all the  jewelry. oh my gosh, I feel like I'm in heaven I am at "Spaghetti and Pizza House."  it's all about Italian. it's Italian everywhere!   it was really a bit of a mind twist of how much  the Italian influence really permeates here. At first it was hard to wrap my head around the  idea that I was in Africa, but I was hearing Italian, and seeing so much Italian characteristics.    but I realized whether I liked it or not, it was  truly a part of the Eritrean culture. and as hard  as it was to deal with all of the restrictions--   the water, electricity, the internet-- I had to  understand that this is something that the   beautiful, friendly people of Eritrea had to deal  with every day. and my advice to travelers is to   come here with an open heart, and a flexible "go-with-the-flow" mindset. The people are what make this country. And in the next videos we get to  meet some locals, and immerse in the local culture even more.   Please like and subscribe to support  my channel and see more from around the world.