One of the toughest dictators
in the world rules here. The local president's counterpart from Somalia, Mogadishu,
came to visit, so there are a lot of police on the streets. It's best not to take your camera out here. People live without internet, water and electricity. A fridge really is a luxury. What's this? Oh, so you turned on the battery
and the light came on. The conditions here are hard,
because there's dust, dirt, it smells like paint,
nothing is ventilated As you can see, they work in the dark. Military service can last a lifetime even for women. At least as far as I know,
this service can last forever. The service time's
not limited in any way. Well, officially there are certain limits,
but in fact it all depends on the commander. Welcome to Eritrea! Guys, I have arrived in Eritrea. The country that is at the bottom of
almost every ranking in the world. We will see how this country country lives and I will try
to talk to the locals and see what they have to say. Although,
as you understand, it's not very easy to film here. People get quite nervous when they see the camera.
I don't mean ordinary people, but the authorities, police, and other important guys,
because, again, they are afraid that someone will say
something that's too much. The only thing that makes me feel better
is that all social networks are blocked here, including YouTube so I hope the locals won't see my video and won't get too upset with me for telling you what life in Eritrea
is really like. First of all, of course I visited
the capital of Eritrea, Asmara. It used to be a village,
but then the Italians came and in 1897 they decided to build the capital. Here's an example
of a bicycle. They don't usually
lock them with a padlock. They just leave them
here like that. Wow, look at all this light, coming from this
incredible-looking lamp. And this is the central street of Asmara, the noise of the generators
can be heard everywhere because there are problems with electricity. Look at the variety of products! There's a huge variety of products,
but they tell us that you can't enter without a mask. But here you can. Cosmetics... Old mail boxes...
By the way, they don't work, but they keep them here to make the city look nice. The main street is very beautiful, there are spectacular palm trees. As you can see, there's not a lot of traffic. We are in the middle of the working day,
there should be traffic, but there is no traffic. Half of the cars are taxis. There are yellow taxis, sometimes
the buses pass by, and some people walk around. Most of the buildings here
in the centre are Italian. They clearly look after them well. You can see that globalisation's
not here yet, there are no dodgy business centres, chain restaurants, McDonalds and the like, and this gives the city
an incredible atmosphere. Here come the local fashionistas. Look at the beautiful street, the palm trees leaning over the road, There's the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, there are taxis, people strolling by. There are some little bars and some artifacts here and there: old doors, old door handles, lamp parts... Of course, year after year there are less and less of them. But you can still find some antique beauty here. In general, as far as
the assortment is concerned, it reminds me of Cuba. There too,
if one comes to a pharmacy, they will see various kinds of medicines, comes to a shop of clothes, and they will see there tons of cheap Chinese stuff. And practically the same happens in Eritrea. There are some shoes on display, glasses in some dusty bags,
and generally, there's no real choice. Look, look at this entrance! It's just like an art-deco building. There's a marble staircase, The railings polished over the years... and they're actually railings covers, the actual railings probably
have holes in them, So they put and extra layer on the top. Well, my friends, I arrived
in the wonderland where there's no internet. There is no internet at all!
All social networks are blocked, the internet is terribly slow. Incredibly slow! There's no mobile network at all. Access to a cybercafé is allowed only
with a passport, and other documents, and it's only email that works there.
An email takes five minutes to be sent. The internet in the hotel is super slow,
so now I'l try to record a one-minute video. And then I'll do some tests. Og hod, how did I even get here... In 2016 the government forced
internet cafés to keep a detailed database of all their customers, including name,
address and passport number. And there's really no internet anywhere else.
You come to cafes, restaurants and there's no wi-fi. There's wi-fi only in the internet cafés. Again, only if you have your passport
and they watch what you are doing there. Also, there is wi-fi
in the hotels for foreigners. With a password and everything, so you can surf the web,
but the internet is so slow that you can't send anything.
You can't watch videos on YouTube. There are huge problems with this.
But some Eritreans take care of it themselves and install satellite internet
in their homes. And I've actually been to one of those
conspiracy flats. They have internet,
but they have no electricity. They turn on the router, there'd a hidden network,
so you can't openly see it, and for the first time in my life,
I never knew that you can do that, maybe I was a fool but it turned out
that you can actually do it... well, you enter the network name,
and if it exists, you can connect to it, and use the internet. That's how some guys do it.
But it costs a fortune. Those who want to be connected, spend a lot of money to get online.
And anyway, it's still extremely slow,
and as you can understand, it's all because they use a satellite internet. Guys, as you see, there are some
serious problems with the internet here. I had to go online on my computer
to work on other videos so I visited one of
the cybercafés in Eritrea And for that I had to go to a different city: Massawa. So this is what internet café looks like. People sit on the sofas and try to download something
on their mobile phones. The internet is shared through this big accumulator. Here is the router. Something's connected to it, but the internet here
is so slow that it didn't connect for me. And here's a guy peeping in. This is what the internet café looks like. It's on the first floor of some old dusty house.
A big building where there are no computers, but there is a router and a lot of cables to charge
from an accumulator. The problem is that one hour of internet costs one dollar. So you can buy an hour
of internet for a dollar but it doesn't work. I'm trying to connect to a VPN,
trying some other stuff, in the past 20 minutes, I've tried
to update messenger, open a web page,
even the simplest one, but there is just no connection. All the guys sitting there, are using some special App
that seems to work, as it was explained to me. But none of the standard web-browsers, none of the messenger we are used to work here. It's the only place
in the Massawa city where there is internet,
because in the hotels there's no connection, as there isn't
anywhere else. Not at all. And I don't understand it,
there's simply no internet within a radius of 100 kilometres. If you need to send something, you can only resort to pigeon post, or do it by phone. In Eritrea there is practically no internet. But they do have mail,
good old mail where you can send and receive parcels in and out of the country. To my right is the old post office building, which, by the looks of it,
has also been looked after well. Around the post office there are quite a few bicycles parked because the employees
come to work on bicycles. Postcards. And post. Spectacular. Spectacular! And there are postage stamps. Here you can see what a spectacular entrance
they have here, But of course, the best bit is when you come in. Just look what the Eritrean post office looks like. Here are some postboxes, and here is a striking wooden table. Italian, antique, really well made. You can stay standing and
sign your envelopes and postcards on it. There is no internet in the post office either. But there is an old, plastic-covered, JVC TV. One of the particular features of Eritrea is
that the country is practically conserved. What I mean by this is that I'm now
in the main post office in the capital, and I feel as if I am travelling
in a time machine to the middle of the last century. There are almost no computers here,
I can only see one. There are these old Italian stamps, using which they stamp your letters
with the date when you're sending them. Everything is weighed on this antique scale.
Behind me there are these antique postboxes with antique padlocks where they used to keep the letters. The interior itself
has been preserved quite well, just look at this fantastic, huge, wooden table. And because of this special feature of Eritrea
that the country is closed to the outside world, that it's been conserved, when you come here it really feels like you're
in a different world. Time has stood still here. For example, another particular feature that is striking today is that there isn't
a single surveillance camera here. Again, it's the central post office building. I was thinking, how many cameras do they have here?
It turns out there's not even one, because there's no point in setting them up here;
there's no connection, there's no internet. And everything here is the same as it was in the past. Welcome to the past! Look at this spectacular wooden door with an old padlock on it. All of this still functions. When planning a trip to Eritrea
you expect to see poor architecture like in North Korea, or huts made of whatever there was,
as is often the case in the poorest countries of Africa. But now I am going to surprise you. The capital of the country, Asmara,
is called the pearl of African architecture. The city centre was actually included
in the UNESCO heritage list. It was the Italians who left this heritage. You can find monuments of different architectural styles. Art deco, modernism, futurism. Rationalism, colonial style and even cubism. All of them withstood decades
of military conflicts. According to one version,
Italian architects experimented a lot and indulged in something
that was difficult to build in Europe. Many buildings may seem extraordinary even now,
but in the early 20th century they provoked discontent among the local public. Like, for example, this one behind me, the pearl of local architecture. It is a futuristic petrol station and Fiat car workshop. Look how beautiful it is. The building is shaped like an airplane. It consists of a central tower
and 15-metre cantilevered wings. At that time the authorities said that
each wing must be supported by columns, that it can't just be left like that
without any support. According to local legend,
the architect Giuseppe Pettazzi climbed up to the roof and
threatened to commit suicide if the wings fell down
due to lack of support. After demolishing the foundations,
the wings stayed in place. And they have been standing here
for more than 70 years. During Mussolini's rule, a large number
of rationalist public buildings were built in Asmara. There were cinemas,
post offices, pharmacies, schools and residential buildings. This is how the idea that architecture
should first and foremost be practical came to Africa. In many places here 100 years old interiors
have been well-preserved. There is still antique furniture in the pharmacies. There are these Italian cash registers too... Asmara is still called little Rome. It really reminds you more of an Italian city rather than an African one. And as for coming to walk around and enjoying Asmara,
it is probably, one of the most interesting African cities. Besides, don't forget that it is probably the safest African city. Nobody here will attack you, nobody will take away your
electronic devices or anything. You don't need to lock your bicycle, or lock your car! Even in Europe this is very rare now. So welcome to Eritrea! It has its advantages. Although these advantages
have little to do with today. The only thing you can thank the current local government for is that they do not destroy all this beauty. This is what the streets in the centre of Eritrea look like. What's so interesting about them? Well, again, it's how well-preserved
the interiors are. That is to say, it's not only
the front of the buildings that is well looked after, but also the interiors.
Here you can enter a bar or a café. Here, I think that this bar counter is definitely antique. Just like the cash counter too,
because nowadays they probably don't manufacture ones like these anymore. What a luxury coffee shop. Espresso and cappuccino, yes. It's an old Italian coffee shop. There are bars and restaurants everywhere. And that's what the district with villas and mansions look like. The old Italian mansions. Look how many plants there are!
Something is blooming all the time. There are yellow, purple, blue, white, red flowers...
lAll these bushes, have been combined so that
there is something blooming all the time,
in any season. There seems to be an interesting bakery here, they want to show it to us. So that's what it looks like.
I'm not too sure if my diet allows me to eat anything here, but I can enjoy the old Italian weighing scales, that, again, have not only polished
and are sparkling with cleanliness and look all nice and beautiful,
but are in perfect condition! They're still in good working condition. There's the logo... The girls are excited that we came
to film something here. And here's an old photo,from 1960. The same scales, shop windows... You can see that little has changed
apart from the assortment. Because the choice in 1960
was better and richer. Look, my friends, it's a manhole!
An Italian manhole! They don't make these anymore. At least not in Eritrea. Wow, I can't believe it, look! Polished shoes! There's actually a fantastic choice and I think these displays are also Italian. There's a huge selection of different shoes. There are some trainers
and some formal shoes. Here on the counter there are
samples of the items they sell. Here's another bar. And you can see the selection
of alcohol here. Here again we see this old wooden counter. Oh, look, there's champagne! And that's it... Just Asmara. What's interesting's that all local alcoholic drinks are
simply called Asmara. There's Asmara vodka, Asmara cognac, Asmara champagne... And look there are also some old, historic bottles. And this one's new, it's just got dust on it. - Yeah, it's just got dust all over it. - Black Label. Champagne. And here in the old photos
you can see the Italian past. By the way,
the palm trees were just planted then. They are very small. I'd love to know what year it is.
It must be from before the war. You can see from the cars, yes, it is pre-war.
The palm trees have just been planted. There are more palm trees here, near the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and you can see that the city doesn't look very different to how it is now. I mean, there are fewer people and fewer cars, but all in all, it's all very similar. This is a very old photo, from when the street was still being built. There are traffic lights in the city, but at the moment they're not working and from how dusty they are,
I'm guessing that they have not been checked and repaired
for a long time. However, all this beauty was not accessible
to Eritreans at once. The Italians built all these buildings
not out of generosity to Eritrea, but for themselves. After Asmara was built, all the local inhabitants
stayed to live in the villages. The colonisers built cinemas, mansions hotels and restaurants for themselves. The local inhabitants were forbidden
to appear in the central streets. They were forbidden to enter
cafes and restaurants. Nor could they visit the hospitals, cinemas and shops for the whites. But the Italians left and
the luxury architecture stayed. The interesting thing is that it's actually very busy in Asmara, despite the fact that they have no electricity, no connection or anything...
Still, you come to an Italian restaurant and it's full of people.
And they are not foreigners, not bourgeois, not diplomats, but ordinary people. Our guide said it's the best restaurant in town. And in this best restaurant in town it seems that everybody's local here. Everyone eats pizza, drinks wine, and rests. None of them are stuck in their phones because there is no internet. People are talking to each other! It's all nice and fun, the only problem is that there is no lighting outside. So it's dark, you can't see anything. But you can see that in local restaurants bars and cafes, life is in full swing. And these are actually old Italian cafes and bars. You can see here that there are people sitting inside, eating and it all looks really nice from an interior design point of view. There are relatively few cars, considering that we are in the very city centre. There's no usual African hustle and bustle, with a lot of cars, traffic jams, tuc-tucs and motorbikes, Here there are really very few cars, the roads are all clear... wait, what's this? Ah, it's a film shop. Incredible! It's an amazing film shop. People choose films they want to watch, and then they all come and queue up here. There are quite a few films to choose from,
but there's a special catalogue, that people have a look through and choose. But you know, I'm looking at the covers and maybe I'm not up to date
with the film industry, but it's the first time
I see most of these films. Eritrea's transport breakthrough
is also thanks to the Italians. In the 1920s-1940s everything here was incredible, there was a long railway to the sea, there were many asphalt roads,
the Italians built the roads here. Now all that has degraded. The roads are bad, only about 20%
have tarmac. The rest are unpaved roads. And even the ones that are made of tarmac
aren't always in a good condition either. And if we talk about public transport...
sorry I got distracted because it seems that a bus
that runs on firewood is coming. Hang on, look at that! Look at this miracle of a bus. It gives off so much smoke
as if it's fueled by wood. It looks like a wagon of some sort. It's an old train carriage that's been glued to the usual
bus wheels and people are using it. Well, all in all, it's not all that good with transport here now. There are starting to be more cars,
because before there were problems with petrol, which they have apparently fixed The public transport consists of taxis,
if you have a lot of money, or buses, most of which are quite old, even though there are talks on behalf of Eritreans
and they are trying to agree with China or Brazil to renew these buses somehow. Oh, and of course there a bicycles.
A lot of people ride them. It seems that half of the traffic is bicycles. Generally, if we talk about how the streets look, for Africa everything looks unusual, because normally we imagine
African cities as very overcrowded, many tuc-tucs, buses, constant traffic jam, horns, no empty parking spaces, chaos, but here it's actually quite clear. You can see that there are few people, few cars, the wide streets left by the Italians are half-empty and it is a very extraordinary feeling for Africa. By the way, a ticket on public transport costs 2 to 5 nakfa. That's about 20 US cents. Here you can see this Fiat.
So small and beautiful. Look at this little sunshine! And you can still drive this one! It belongs to a driving school, so they teach people to drive in this car. The streets are actually spectacular with all those very nice palm trees. More than half of the traffic is people riding bicycles. So there are either bicycles or these more or less big cars. Some people are even in wheelchairs. It's not so easy to cross the street,
because everybody drives past and nobody stops. Only the nerve, allowed me to cross the street. There is a pedestrian crossing here. As for the traffic lights here it's quite disappointing. Apparently there aren't any here and well, there's no electricity too. Bicycles are secured right to the fences. Here are some little old shops. The fence are quite high, you can't get over them
unless you are an athlete. A 100 year old hotel. This 100 year old hotel is the oldest hotel in the country. But it's still operating. There are some posters. Not sure what year they were printed in. Here are posters promoting tourism to Eritrea. It must be from the times
when there was still tourism here. And now, we are going to see
some of the rooms. Possibly we'll see the lux presidential room. I don't know. There is a deposit for that. Some time before there was a carpet here because it was a good hotel. Look at those armchairs. These old armchairs probably used to be in a bar before. Everything is dirty and smells of smoke, obviously. There are two rooms here. Here's this little corner with armchairs, an ancient TV. There is still this 1960s remote control: there's telephone, radio, an alarm clock...
you can still find this in some old hotels. How much is it? How much does a room like this cost? 500 nakfas. 500 nakfas is around $30. Black mould invaded the bathroom. Everything is rusty, falling apart. Here's some rope, a bathtub. There's no light, no electricity, so for $30...
There's no electricity. They say that when they turn on the generator,
there will be light and maybe water too. So, for your $30 you get this historical piece of happiness. The hotel is for sale, by the way. - If you know of any investors who
want to buy and renovate it.... - How much does it cost? - Oh, it's very expensive! - Very expensive? - I'll tell you off the camera. - So, folks, this hotel is very unique. Let's help them find a buyer! It's definitely a unique opportunity. You can buy this hotel, invest several millions and renovate it. The hotel is for sale. It seems to me that it's a good investment opportunity. Now they are going to show us
a fashionable suite room. I have to be honest, the corridors look like the corridors of a mental hospital. It seems that one will go out into the courtyard and see people in striped pyjamas and patients walking around. There is a crossing to the neighbouring building. I am intrigued. What'll be there? There are these spectacular armchairs again. They go so well and look spectacular with this table too. Now they don't make
the furniture so comfortable. So this is a presidential deluxe room. There are sofas, a bedroom, and a corner to work in. Everything is half abandoned,
half destroyed. Here is the bathtub. In the bathroom there is a bidet,
nobody has stolen it. Yes, the bath is quite small. There's no water. The pump is electric,
so is the water heater. But why do they need water if there's no light? Nor is there any light at the end of a tunnel. Although Asmara has many
authentic cafes and restaurants, it lacks the luxury items
that can be found in other African capitals. Expensive cars, designer clothes or restaurants
with sophisticated cuisine - you can't find these in Asmara. Nevertheless, I found a luxury hotel here. A real exclusive for Eritrea. Well, they say that not everything is as bad as it seems in Eritrea, because this hotel found its investor. Someone invested the money
and renovated it, so let's take a look inside. The hotel building was originally built in 1881. And apparently all that
was repaired and restored. It's called...
Albergo Italia. Apparently there's not a single guest. Wow! Look at this restaurant with these impressive chairs.
By the way, these chairs are expensive.
They're all antique chairs with an inlay, made out of expensive types of wood So there are literally all these chairs, columns... incredible decorative elements... there are several different rooms. Here are private rooms with
this cupboard and antique dishes. There's also a wine cabinet that obviously doesn't work because there's no light. Chandeliers... These chandeliers are also quite old, actually. They're really luxurious. Everything is fine here only there are no guests to enjoy it all. Oh, wow! Here's the bathroom. This is an imperial suite. Here's the luggage compartment. Yeah, so it's like a wardrobe for luggage. Another big cupboard... A lot of stuffed animals that are
looking right at you so if you come here drunk, maybe... And here's a collection of newspapers for the past 100 years. Here's for 1948 and here's for 1969. It's a collection of newspapers. It’s all antique. There are more books. Dead birds full of dust. And so you go up this narrow staircase
here and… wow, incredible! There's an antique table with those chairs, local crafts, incredible antique Italian cabinets. There’s also a terrace in this deluxe presidential room. It has an incredible view of the city. There's a bathroom
and a bedroom. Apparently, somebody lives here. There's someone's stuff, someone's alcohol. Probably it’s the hotel manager living here now.
The TV is covered with a napkin
so it doesn't get dusty. Well, the hotel is nice, the only problem is that
there is not a single guest and it was renovated 20 years ago. Maybe then the people who invested
the money believed that tourism would prosper in Eritrea, that the country would develop, and, of course, if you keep this hotel in a good state, if it had
good, first class service, there would be no lack of guests and everything would be fine. But there is not a single guest. The owner of the hotel lives in the lux room. Everything is quite sad. They say there is Italian marble on the floor. There is another bedroom here. There is no water, no electricity. But there is expensive Italian marble. To be honest everything here is... Ah, you see what it is?
This table is made out of some expensive stone. All these are different stones here.
The furniture is very expensive. There are Italian sockets, all these lamps... All that stuff is antique and it's all in good condition. It's like buying an expensive car, parking it and not using it. Without regular use it all soon falls into disuse. But if any of you fall in love
with Eritrea after my video, and maybe you decide to link your future with this wonderful country, here are the prices of the real estate. This Italian mansion in very good condition, antique furniture and all, costs about 2 million euros. It’s still missing is an electricity generator, you’ll ned renovate bits and bobs,
hire a gardener, the servants, and with all that you will feel quite well here. The only thing is that there is no internet,
but maybe that is the key to happiness? Eritreans like coffee. They have a whole ceremony
of its preparation and consumption. Besides, it's very cheap here.
A cup of coffee costs 8 cents. As a big coffee fan, I couldn't miss
a visit to the best Eritrean cafe. One question: where do they have the best coffee here? Where is the best coffee in town? - Alba - Alba? Is that the name of the cafe? Let's check it out. The Alba coffee shop.
They say there's good coffee here. I don't know about the coffee, but it looks interesting inside. Oh, wow! Look at these! Turns out they’re sugar bowls. Another rare find.
Look at this ice cream maker. Super gelato. - Coni gelati. - Coni gelati. Well then,
let's try the coffee. Fancy counter. They don't make them anymore. Look how the column is decorated with wood. What a spectacular counter. This grandpa, I think he's the manager, looks at us and is surprised.
What did we find here, what do we need? Well, we fond Italian beauty. How old is your cafe? - 20. - 20? You've owned this coffee shop for 20 years? And what did you do before that? - I renovated this whole place. - You redid everything? - Because some things here I brought from Italy. - Oh, from Italy? - Yes, everything is from Italy. Here, in the kitchen, everywhere. We have a lot of stuff from Italy. Up there too. - Can I come in and see? - Yeah, sure. We have a restaurant here, but it's closed at the moment. - Is this your office? - That's right. And here's the bathroom. -Did you bring this counter from Italy too? Yes, I brought all that from Italy. - Did you bring it on your own from Italy? - Yes.
- But it's very expensive! - Yes, it was very expensive. - Why did you decide to buy the counter
in Italy and not here or have not ordered to custom made it here? - No, in our country nobody makes
furniture of such high quality materials. There are simply no such materials here. That's why I brought it from Italy. All the kitchen utensils are also from Italy. Everything is from Italy. Eritrea has a variety of fish because it has direct access to the Red Sea. However, the Eritreans themselves prefer meat
and the fish is sold abroad. Here the fish is unloaded
near the Asmara market. They brought it right from
the ocean in these boxes. This is today's catch. It has arrived in the capital. What do we have here? Ah, look, there's even some tuna here. All this is unloaded right in front
of the market and then brought inside. Some of you may have a question: Why is it that in the 21st century
in Eritrea there are no basic amenities? No internet, no electricity and no water? There are several reasons for that. And one of them is the long war
for independence. I am now in the graveyard
of military equipment. It is difficult to say what
the cemetery looks like now. It is partly a landfill, partly a memorial. There are a lot of tanks,
trucks and cars that were brought here from
all over the country during the hostilities. Some families even built homes
here from shipping containers. The enduring wars left
an indelible mark on Eritrea. And this mountain of crumbling metal
reminds the inhabitants of the bloodshed the country went through
on its way to independence. There’s some interesting stuff here like this ladder from
the airplane rusting in this dump. So what do we have here? It’s a Volga! I can't believe it! Isn't it a Volga? The Fiat bus with a rotten wooden floor and a rusty roof… Some time before this bus
was heading into the bright future, and now it's in the landfill in the middle of Asmara and it's ending its life rotting and falling apart. Here you see how many pieces of military equipment and containers there are... by the way,
people used to live in these containers! This is what the landfill looks like. It stretches all the way to the horizon. Everything is full of military equipment. The most interesting thing
is that people live on the outskirts of this landfill. They adapted old cars, containers and live there. There are aircraft engines, tank engines, there is everything, caterpillar chains, there’s so much different scrap metal! I'm not sure if it's all fine
in terms of safety rules but there are some interesting artifacts that can be found in this spectacular place. These are the bullets of a large calibre machine gun. There seems to be a spider on them. They say you can throw them into the fire. But it seems to me that you don't need to. In addition to a lot of military equipment, they bring here their old rusty cars and the rest of the junk.
That's because in Eritrea there are no factories to process scrap metal. That's why there are even old planes here,
nobody needs aluminum. Even aluminum is a precious metal, everything is just lying here
and no one needs it. It's a lot of rusty metal, just rotting in the open air. I have never seen anything like that,
it seems to me that there is nothing like that in the world. What do we have here? Hope this thing doesn’t collapse… Oh, oh, oh..! There are the aircraft engines. There's more of this equipment
all the way to the horizon. There are cows and people living here. Behind all this there are residential buildings. In addition to tanks, armoured trucks, buses, among other stuff here there are aircraft engines and the remains of aircraft fuselage. Let’s try and figure out what kind of aircraft we have here. They are reactive engines,
they must be MIGs. We found out that the planes are American. Well, yeah, the engines are, yes… but I doubt
that they are Russian planes with American engines. Independence cost dozens of Eritrean lives. 65,000 Eritreans died in the war, another 10,000 were disabled. Women played a big role in this war. They fully participated in the hostilities. They fought on the front lines, worked as doctors and repaired equipment. Women combatants made up a total of 30%
of the Eritrean Liberation Front. The level of crime in Asmara is relatively low compared to other cities in Africa. The shantytowns are traditionally considered the most dangerous
district in any city, but in Asmara it is an extremely peaceful place. By the way, another highlight here is the incredibly friendly dogs in Eritrea. I haven't seen a dog bark, show its teeth, or want to eat me. There are big dogs but they are very calm. So if you are afraid of dogs, don't worry. It'll be fine. No No don't be afraid of dogs. It's very difficult to show these incredibly beautiful and interesting shantytowns of Asmara because a lot of children come and they all
want to be in the frame. But the shacks are incredibly authentic, they are located on the mud hillsides. The houses are built of stones and mud, the roof is made of metal sheets covered with stones, but the most important thing is that in these shacks it is very safe
and there are incredibly nice people. Everyone is really nice and kind. The only problem is that the children
are shouting very loudly. The children are doing something strange. What is it? I think that they're burning something. What are you kids doing? And here you can build
a funeral cross. Here’s an amazing place in the centre of Asmara, the old metal market. in fact it’s not a market… they bring here old barrels, metal sheets, the remains of pipes and all the rest scrap metal that
can be found in the surroundings to make everything, from the pipes and the funeral crosses to the dishes, furniture and interior objects. What an amazing place! Here are some machines, it all looks really interesting, because all these workshops are built of rusty metal sheets. You can shoot a film about a terrible future of the Earth here. Well, what do they have there? - It's the KYK company. - Do you speak English? - Not much. - How old are you? - 18. - 18, and you? - He's the same age as me. - And this boy? - 21. - And him? - 13. - You’re working here, right? - Yes - What are you doing? What kind of work? - We are carpenters. Here is our work and over there too. - I see. - See this? This one and this one. - Ah, I see what you mean now. - Here's what we're working with. - And where's the blade? - It's right here. - Ah, you’ve got a saw. The interesting thing is that in addition to adults and teenagers you see children here. These kids are 13 years old and they are working here. And they’re not just helping out, they are actually making stuff themselves. It looks like a Design and Technology class. Only their conditions are much worse. Here as well… Well, look, obviously it's a little kid who is painting something. I don't understand how old she is. Look she has a phone there,
she’s watching some cartoons and is painting at the same time.
The smell is very toxic here to be fair. She’s painting these things there with silver paint.
She’s painting sat on the floor… - I think they're dippers…
- Oh, yes, they're dippers. Yes, a 13 year old girl is painting the handles of
these dippers in this workshop. Sure, all that looks incredibly authentic, but the conditions here are hard, because there is dust, dirt, it smells like paint,
it is not ventilated at all, also, it has metal dust because of what they're making here. She's going to show us what they'e actually making here. Everybody is working in the dark as the electricity here is not very good. Here are the ladles which she paints the handles for at the young age of 13. This is what a primitive forge looks like. Here is another one. There is so much dust and everything else but they don't even bring respirator masks. You feel all this dust going into your lungs. On the opposite side here there is a cafe, apparently people
also sleep here sometimes. Exploitation of child labour
is still common in Eritrea. Children are involved
in practically every activity. From fossil extraction to washing
and repairing cars. There is practically no way to fight it. You can officially work from the age of 14. But, as you can understand, children in Eritrea
aren't officially employed. So, in fact, they are not protected in any way. Worse still, in Eritrea there are cases
of se***l exploitation of children. There are children again and this is another workshop. Just have a look at how many
children are working here. There is another child. It seems to me that half of those working here are children, they are not even teenagers,
about 10-13 years old. 12? Well, he doesn't look 12. He looks like he's 10. I think they say they're older because they think we're asking
weird questions here. Let's say he's 12.
I don't think he is, but oh well. They're making the cupboards
here at 12 years old. They're painting, breathing in all of this toxic stuff. Behind me is the main cathedral
of the local Catholic church, the Cathedral of the Virgin of the Rosary.
It was built in 1895 by the Italian architect Oreste Scanavini. The issue of religion in Eritrea is quite interesting. About half of the local population is Muslim. Another half is Christian. They are divided not only by religion,
but also by where they live, because the Muslims usually live on the coast, in the east, near the sea, and the Christians have always lived in the south, in the mountains. Asmara, the capital, is in the mountains, and here the majority
of the population here are Christians. Horeover, the Christians were always
involved in agriculture, the Muslims were always involved in livestock farming, and there were always conflicts over access to land and water resources, and the conflicts were always
religiously motivated. Recently, it's been more or less okay, there are no radicals in Eritrea, but the state terror still affected the religious question. In 2002 the authorities banned
all religions except Islam, The Roman Catholic Church,
the Eritrean Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church. That left four religions, all others are banned. We're probably not going to film a lot here, but behind me is the headquarters of the US ambassador. It is located in the square, near a striking Italian church, the Church of St. Francis. This is what it looks like. It is Italian and laconic. By the way, in the former Italian colonies, unlike the French, the architecture
is much nicer. They went all on on architects, because often when we travel around Africa and we see the British colonies, the French colonies, in terms of architecture it's all rather sad, because they sent mainly second class architects, because who else would want to go
and work in the remote colonies. And the Italians paid more attention to the architecture, so even though this church is not so luxurious and
not so rich in terms of the interior, but it still has Italian style and quality. This is where the priests live. Here. The women are on the other side, and the men are on this side. - I see... How old is this church? I think it's about 7 or 8. After Asmara I decided to go to Massawa, the port centre of Eritrea
on the Red Sea coast. It takes three hours to get to Massawa but you get to see spectacular mountain views. There are practically no cars on the road. On the three-hour drive
I've see only a couple other cars. But there is plenty of military equipment left over from the time of Eritrea's struggle
for independence. I am in a railway tunnel, which was built by the Italians in their time. The Italians connected Massawa, the port city, with the capital of Eritrea not only by a motorway,
but also by rail. The railway here is a very
difficult construction because the elevation change
is more than 2 kilometres. The capital of Eritrea, Asmara, is located high up in the mountains, and on you 100km road to Massawa, you go down 2,400 metres, so they dug a huge number of tunnels. The road itself is very difficult, there's only one track. But now everything is abandoned. Everything is abandoned. It hasn't been used for a while now, the trains can no longer be used, everything has fallen apart,
and the war didn't help either. Supposedly, there is a 20 km section of this railway where tourists are allowed to enter.
It's like an attraction, you can take a ride on this train. This is actually also an important thing to note... they haven't stolen
all the rails for scrap metal. Thanks to there being no recycling all the rails are fine. I think that if they would clean them up and fix them a bit, you could then take some trolleys and go down a slope and it will roll forward by itself. And on the way back
you could put them on a lorry. The tunnel has big stones at the bottom and bricks at the top. There are dozens of such tunnels here. By the way, the sleepers are crooked. They're crooked and bent, the distance between them
isn't the same. One's like this, another one's like that. Yes, the tunnel is also used
as a public toilet. Of course, you could restore all that, you could have a sea port, you could transport, cargoes going to the capital not in the old broken-down trucks, but on board of the trains. That would be much cheaper. But they've lost everything. Everything that could work and bring in money has been destroyed and that's the way it is. Everywhere you look, electricity, water, railways, everything that was left behind by Italians is now long gone. And every year it gets worse. There used to be a railway and now there is a public toilet. It is as it is. Here you can see the mountains, what a huge change there's height, and how difficult it was to build it all. This is what is left of the famous
Eritrean railway system. Here there was a station, now there are old rusty train carriages. Of course, the station is not
in as good a condition as it was before, And the same goes for the carriages. What's interesting about all of it? The carriages are clearly rusty, but if you look inside you can see that people have slowly started to break down the railway. They must have found a buyer for all that, because everything here
is dismantled. The metal sleepers are stored here, the rails are here too, that is, everything will soon be lost. Everything that has been accumulated with hard work, everything that has been built
is almost gone. As you can see from the bushes on the rails, all that has not functioned for a long time, all the carriages are just standing on the sand... That's a good point actually. They're on the sand
because the've been removed from the rails somehow. Or did they remove the rails
from underneath in this part? Here you can expect anything
from the local officials. Yes, so it turns out that one part of the carriages is on the rails, and another part is on the sand, as the train tracks were somehow stolen from there. Or they have moved the carriages in a different way,
but I can't even imagine how they've managed to place these carriages on the sand. It's all very suspicious. Well, so this is the atmosphere
on the motorway. After the war, there's been a lot of
abandoned equipment which apparently is not being taken anywhere. So here you can see a rusty tank. What kind of tank is that? T-55. If you leave Asmara,
the capital of Eritrea, and you go to the sea, on top of everything else,
on the side of the roads you'll see a lot of abandoned military equipment. It is not only ordinary cars that
rust by the roadside but also military vehicles, for example an old Soviet tank that must be Ethiopian.
It must have been attacked here during the war, and so it is lying here off the road,
rusting away, serving as a playground for local children. There are many houses with long arched,
carved balconies. These are the homes of Turkish merchants, built of coral blocks and covered with plastering. We need to thank the local authorities for having forbidden building
anything new here. The building can be either restored
to their pre-war state or left in ruins. In 1961 Eritrea began a 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia. In 1990 the Eritreans came here, to Massawa, to liberate the city. They conquered the naval base and here some very violent fighting took place. After the arrival of the Eritreans, the Ethiopians started bombing the city. The traces of that bombing from 30 years ago are still here, because nothing has changed here in 30 years. Since the city was bombed, everything has remained the same. The palaces are destroyed, these incredibly beautiful buildings, and houses are all in ruins, all this nightmare of war was preserved and is still here to the present day. And in memory of that battle and the liberation of Massawa here is a monument made up of three tanks. And they're not simply the tanks,
we often see in the post-Soviet countries, but a fountain of tanks. Because from the mouth
of the tanks there is supposed to be a fountain, there's supposed to be water, there are supposed to be pools, everything
is meant to flow from one reservoir to another. Well, nothing works now of course, because they've lost it all in the 30 years. Massawa used to be one of
the big ports of the Red Sea. But during the war
it was heavily attacked. With the limited funds of Eritrea it was too expensive to recover the city. So there are ruins all over it. There are old entrances, the remnants of former grandeur. All of it is in a terrible state. Everything is destroyed. It is very sad. This is what the old city looks like. Narrow streets,
good architecture, but it's all completely dead. And in any different place here they could really bring it to life. I mean, this city looks like if it was somewhere else... and there are many cities like this... it would be full of souvenir shops, cafes, touts, hotels, just like in Tunisia, Morocco. And they would probably have money
to restore the destroyed buildings
and everything would be great and it would be a cool resort
on the Red Sea, but here there are no people. Everything is banned here. The local tsar blocked everything, imprisoned everybody,
banned everything possible, so there is a very nice but completely
dead space which, of course, they don't know
what to do with. Obviously if they have a nice old bank building, which is destroyed, of course they don't have
the money to restore it. It's not a commercial investment.
Nobody is going to restore it because they don't know what to do with it afterwards. Open a bank here for 100 people
who stayed here to live? Open a hotel, a café, a restaurant? But there are no tourists!
In the best hotel in this destroyed city they said that
only six rooms have electricity and air-conditioning. And apparently it's because there are
no more people coming here. And this, behind me,
is an old market and originally, there must have been market stalls or something, but now this man with
a very strange look. lives here. The more you look around, the more you realise that it's
a completely dead space. The market is also destroyed,
it has no roof. It's a nightmare. And people are preparing coffee. How much does coffee cost? Coffee made on charcoal. - They are grinding it. She has this thing here, then she throws them there and grinds the coffee. And then she brews it in this thing here. Yes, so this is how
they fry the coffee beans. It actually says here that there are meant to be
some nice beams here. But there's nothing there, and it looks like
they're keeping a donkey in here. From the smell. Another attraction is the market. The market where there used to be trade, which looked really beautiful.
And now the roof has collapsed. There is no roof,
there are no nice beams and there is no trade. Now we are going to see
the inner courtyard of this market. Well, this is what I expected. There are people living here who've built some huts. They seem to be for the cattle, bv the looks of it. Well, of course it's sad
to see all that. I mean, coming as a tourist to see
the degradation and all these ruins, of course it's fascinating. But I feel sorry for the people who live here. And I feel sorry for Eritrea. It's really an extraordinary
authentic country... Hi! There could be people here, there could be money,
there could be work, there could be development,
but there is nothing at all. This is the grave of an important person.
Sultan was the mayor of this spectacular city and this is what's left of his tomb. The tomb looks to me as if someone lives in there. There is a cellar under the tomb. Ah, this is where they make coffee. There is a bench,
everything is very dirty. This is how it looks. And the most interesting building
in this city is the former residence of the president. Why former?
Because it's destroyed. And in the 30 years since the end of the war nobody has restored it.
The interesting thing is that there used to be a dome here, which was damaged by an aerial bomb and partially collapsed. When I was here 7 years ago the dome was still there, and now there is no dome. Now we're going in to see what's going on there,
because I remember walking around there, there was furniture there. Carved furniture,
everything was full of dust But seven years ago it was still there. Probably now it's been stolen and is no longer there, but let's go and check. Well, I see a lion. There's a lion. There's his bottom part
and his head. You see, his head fell off after the bombing. Now let's go into the palace. There are old wooden doors here,
and looks like this place has been looted. Because not long ago there was furniture here and some other stuff too. This is the bathroom. Yes, they looted everything. It's not as interesting now, you can only see what
it used to look like in the old photos. There used to be a bathroom here. Yes, in the past 7 years, whatever could've been taken
has been taken. So I won't be able to show
the beauty of this palace inside. But you can still see it in my old photos. You can see carved luxurious furniture
that is no longer there. I don't get people sometimes.
It was all here for 30 odd years, but they only decided
to steal all this stuff now. But from the outside... it looks like this.
This is all that's left of the presidential residence. After, seeing the centre of Massawa, I went to the oldest part of the city, the island of Batsi. Here there are many medieval
Ottoman-style buildings, narrow streets and old mosques. The old city of Batsi was also
damaged by the hostilities. So, guys, I came to the island of Batsi the old part of the Massawa city, where the medieval streets and Ottoman style buildings were preserved. The island was severely damaged
during the war with Ethiopia, most of the buildings were ruined or abandoned. You can still see traces of the war here. And I'd like to draw your attention
to this very interesting artwork that you see when entering the island. There is a man or a woman with a machine gun in front of the sun, that looks like a football, who seems to be thinking about making an attack.
It's a very strange art piece. I'd love to find out, what's inside. And here we are entering the island, and this is where the beauty begins. Firs of all, we can see a fence. A fence behind which there are, old metal lamp. Maybe there were lamp posts
on this island before. Or maybe they were left over
from some buildings. The first building may have had something to do with sport but now it is closed and abandoned. However, you can still see the arches
and some other elements. In general, this part of the city
doesn't look alive. Maybe further on life will be in full swing. There are road signs and
some people are sitting on the streets,
here and there. There's this funny symbol of a truck on this sign. Here's this nice big building that dominates the street. Apparently it is abandoned as well. There used to be a bar here. All the windows are closed. Everything is nailed down
and it looks very sad. There are people though. There are a lot of crows. The crows are sitting
on the old signs. On what's left from these old signs. And there's definitely something happening here. I get the feeling that the people we've seen,
are all the inhabitants of the city. Because beyond that there is emptiness and degradation. Notice how the city
really looks abandoned. As if they were decorations from a film. And suddenly there's
a cyclist passing by. Not a single shop is open. Probably some people live here but it all looks sad and empty. Aw, look, there are cats... This is a spectacular building in terms of architecture but everything is destroyed and this destruction is left from the war,
since the fighting ended, people came back here,
but nobody rebuilt anything. That is to say, they are still living like this among these ruins. - Hello, how are you? Where are you from? - We are from Russia. - Oh, Russia. Do you like it here? Do you like Massawa? - It's excellent. Massawa is a stunning city. - Great! We had to lie to her, saying that Massawa is a wonderful city. But it was a lie of salvation, to save us. Here are the remains of a balcony. Here is another bar-restaurant. I'd love to know when these bars
and restaurants were shut down. It's a very good question
because everything looks deserted here. In Massawa I also faced the problem
of lack of electricity and wi-fi even in the best hotel in town. So, this is interesting... This is what the hotels look like here. And here you can see that the only good and interesting thing is
the furniture that was definitely stolen from somewhere. From some Italian palaces
or I don't know where. The chairs and armchairs are obviously antique but everything else is a total nightmare and obviously
there is no light. There's no light! - Yes, the voltage's too high. - Why is that? - There's a problem there with that. - A problem, I see. As usual. - No, it's just today. - There's just a problem that there's no electricity. Here in the bar it's the same thing. The hotel is absolutely worn out. The tables and chairs were stole form somewhere, and that's the only thing
that looks more or less nice. But there is no light. No electricity either. People are just
walking around, there are flies here, everybody is sad. There is no Wi-Fi and no electricity either. Let's find a lobster at least. - It's not a question of money but that they don't give us electricity. - But you can go to a gas station, can't you? - There is no fuel there. - There is no fuel at the gas stations? Okay. - There is a quota. And we can't exceed it. This seems to be the only open restaurant with a bunch of crows waiting to steal some food. There are crows but there's no electricity. This is a five-star hotel that's been brought
to a semi-destroyed situation. Well, hello! - Hi! - How are you? You're fine? Oh, you speak English? How old are you? How old? How old are you? Okay, thank you, thank you. So this is the bank building that was also hit and damaged during the war. Now it's fenced off with barbed wire,
it's not very clear if you can get in there. Now maybe we can find someone here who will give the green light? Or not. Ah, yes you can enter here. The important thing
is not to damage anything because the bank building
looks a bit tired and old. But it's nice. You can go inside. But inside everything is ransacked and dirty. Yes, people come here to go to the toilet. However, although you can see that there was a fire here, and that everything that could be stolen
from this bank has been stolen, the interiors have been preserved. There are mouldings and columns. The bank was very beautiful. And there are some marks here,
I don't know if they are from bullets or splinters from the stuff falling down. But this bank building is one of many destroyed buildings in the city. And on one side you see,
a very beautiful building with various decorations, which was damaged during the war many years ago. And nobody takes care of it. People just use it as a toilet and it remains half-destroyed and at some point it will collapse completely
and everybody will forget about it. Of curse, none if the local guys will rebuild anything as magnificent. And it's a pity that they haven't found the possibility if not to rebuild it, at least to preserve it somehow. So that it won't collapse. Just look over here, at this amazing, beautiful stairwell. Here there was a courtyard. Spectacular! The old railings. Everything is rusted. Here are the air cons. Here you can see in what state it is, all that has been destroyed,
the concrete the armour is uncovered, it's also all old and rusted. I am afraid to touch something and it will all collapse at once. So this is what it loojs like. And I feel like we have to get out of here. Yes, so as you can see, since was bombed during the war with Ethiopia it remains
in this state to this day. So, my friends, our journey through
the wonderful Eritrea is over. As the famous Russian song says: "They are not lazy and they could live,
if only..." If only they didn't have this president, who's grown into
his chair. The Eritreans will be saved only when the president passes away. Although, as we already know from the examples of other African countries, that still does not mean relief from all problems. It's a wonderful country, with a rich heritage, with wonderful, creative, talented, hard-working people. But unfortunately all that is in a disappointing state.
Everything is falling apart, everything is rotting,
rusting under the Eritrean sun, and there is no prospect for the future. If I were the Eritrean Minister of Tourism, I would think of a catchy, good slogan, For example, "Eritrea - oh, what a country we've lost!" Well, if you get a chance to come here
you certainly should! It's actually a great country to spend a few days as a tourist in, but I wouldn't stay and live here forever. Don't forget to share this video in Reddit, and send a link to your friends
on WhatsApp.
