Exploring Dubai’s Empty $13 Billion Man-Made Islands

all right we're taking off you are currently looking at a collection of completely man-made islands that about 15 years ago didn't even exist and i am both so incredibly confused and intrigued to understand why they've mostly been standing there empty and forgotten for the past 10 years and what their future currently holds i'd like to welcome you to the world islands introducing the world a place beyond imagination and an epic achievement this multi-billion dollar experiment built off the coast of dubai as an attempt to resemble an outline of the earth from the sky has been puzzling me for months now so as a first stop on my trip leaving america i decided to go to dubai and see if i could get to it up close and to my complete surprise after lots of emails back and forth i ended up in the same room as the creator of these islands and somehow found myself as the first official guest to stay overnight [Music] the three month longest trip ever away from la since we moved here i moved here peace dude see you later all right love you dude peace guys bye take care of yourself see you on the other side first international trip in a long time here we go [Music] yeah i just saw your video talking about how you're leaving welcome to dubai airport it's 1am finally arriving hi there today is actually a very special day and i forgot to tell you about it earlier uh because um well because i was distracted today is actually the first day that seek discomfort will be taking a step towards becoming a more environmentally conscious and friendly brand it is also the day that we are launching our seat connection drop and our essentials which are all the clothes that i'll be wearing throughout this video as a gift from us for the holidays any purchases you make for the next seven days you'll get a free seat discomfort bracelet which is an amazing reminder that getting out of your comfort zone is the ultimate way to grow and connect with those around you as i mentioned earlier being mindful of our environmental impact is a huge priority for us with discomfort and for that our first two steps in improving in that area is switching to 100 organic cotton which means less water less energy less harmful chemicals in the production of the clothes and then the second thing that we're doing is switching to plant-based recycled and biodegradable packaging the c-connection drop is available for the next seven days and our essentials are now gonna stay on the website i think it's now time for me to tell you why these islands have been basically empty for the past 10 years the goal for the world islands was to expand dubai's limited waterfront and create an island environment just outside of the bustling city the construction of the 300 man-made islands began in 2003 and was officially finished five years later in 2008 not the best timing for a massive real estate project because even though about 60 percent of the islands were sold to private contractors with a global financial crisis most private owners decided to completely halt their construction for the time being on top of that solving the logistical challenge of how to bring materials out to build on the islands and then eventually finding sources of water and power to live on the islands also delayed some developers now getting permission to go out to the islands is a little bit hard to get so while i was waiting for answers i decided to start with a bird's eye view from above we've arrived at the skydive dubai drop zone but we're not going skydiving we're gonna do something a little bit different let's go check it out what is this number flying no way okay well to start the day we were about to take off in this little all right we're gyrocopter off [Music] that was freaking awesome makes me even more excited to go out there today after doing some digging i found that there is only one island currently open to the public lebanon island opened about eight years ago as a day party venue it seemed like my best option for now to actually get onto the islands this is about to be really interesting [Music] [Music] so we've just docked that one of the very few islands that's actually built out it's called the island behind us the heart of europe was supposed to be finished this year but i'm guessing because of cove it has been pushed back quite a lot do you hear it you so much [Music] not many people here it looks like there used to be a lot of people here and i don't know if it's because of covid or what but you can just still tell that it's been a little bit of time since it's been built and it's probably hard to maintain oh wow there's a pool nice it's both like a mix between like this dreamy paradise place and it's like an element of eeriness of just seeing the construction happening in the background that is leaving you kind of so curious about what the future holds for this place one of the girls on the boat with us was saying that she comes out here almost every weekend to just relax she's been living in dubai for a while and lebanon island the one that we're on right now used to be much more kind of like a party island where people would come out on the weekends and just turn up and now it's kind of more used as like a place to come and relax and isolate yourself away from noise of the city after spending some time discovering the island i felt like i had arrived at one of the strangest but also most unique landscapes i'd ever witnessed [Applause] [Music] our trip to lebanon island was an interesting first glimpse but didn't give me a whole lot of answers when it came to the future of the world islands as a whole after extensively brainstorming with our friends from visit dubai to get some answers i was eventually invited to one of the restricted private islands currently under construction coronation island part of south america i was told i would not only be able to meet with the creator of the world islands but they also told me that they'd be interested in letting me be the very first guest to actually stay overnight on this brand new island so i don't think anyone's like really gotten access to this island yet so you guys are probably gonna be one of the first people to come here dude that's amazing yeah that's awesome i'm grateful we got to make this work [Music] [Music] man well looks like we've arrived i had no idea that there were islands that were actually built out here but uh looks like there are some villas okay let's go explore this is insane what muhammad this is way more built out than even lebanon island i think they're waiting for it to get to a point where it's actually very much livable right before they get people to to actually come and live here it looks pretty livable to me there's a pool i thought coming out here would help me clarify things but i'm just more confused now what this is like brand new this room is incredible if this is what the rest of the island is i'm very happy to stay here tonight [Music] okay well we have a tour from somebody who works on the properties here and we're gonna go explore i think three of the villas that are built out [Music] you can literally smell the brand new furniture all of these different villas are gonna be rentable basically like a hotel in the future i totally thought that it was like privately owned villas but i guess it's just up for rent onto villa number two bamboo bamboo villa see the oh wow is it going to be anyone else here at night or is it just me well this is probably the nicest one we've seen so far at least from the outside it's funny you can still see there's like some construction material just on the floor and then you turn around and it's just like a absolutely luxurious villa right here with its own pool uh when i came out to dubai to try to make a video about the world islands i was not expecting to arrive at something that's this built out i mean look at this place i was totally expecting to make a video about empty islands on off the coast of dubai but looks like it's turning out to be a very different story this is why i love traveling this is why i love telling stories about unusual places because it's it's never what you expect it to be this is your favorite we have here four people four bedrooms we can go you keep saying each one yeah this is his favorite one until we get there yeah exactly every new one you're like this is your face let's go let's go let's go [Music] yeah that one yeah that's the chairman's house okay yeah biggest one how do they even bring all of the materials out here like do you have to ship it by boat every day like a weekly weekly it must be so difficult to build here imagine you just bring a whole boat of things and then you realize you forgot the screwdriver send the boat back we gotta go pick up the screwdriver 630 villas are going to be built on just this specific island what is this one only this one and then they have 10 other islands that are right now literally just lots of sand that they're going to build out to look like this well uh another plot twist in the story we're gonna interview the chairman right now uh who built out this whole place or who's in charge of it this is so funny we're waiting in his house [Music] it's a really nice house we got to meet you mr chairman thank you nice to meet you this is a beautiful property yes we're the first people to build a proper hotel yeah so hopefully in december we'll open we will try to do something organic so we are an island you want to feel that canal you want to sit inside and feel the bamboo the feel you don't want to feel as if you are in the city so were you a part of also building the actual islands yes yes i developed all the islands i developed in the pan palmyra then we developed this one and then we developed there so from 60 kilometers of beach in dubai we end up with 850 kilometers nobody ever built or reclaimed ireland the way we did but nobody even tried how do you protect the sand from going and how do you keep the water clear and circulating so we started with seven continents and then we found that these containers are too big maybe make them small so we made the violets uh break water yeah that's the rocks that are protecting this area so no matter how bad the sea it doesn't affect us as much you get water out shipped or do you recycle it no we design it okay so we designate water that's amazing so you don't have to ship that much water there nothing nothing tell you even the the garbage we converted to gas all the organic material we don't chip it out so the only thing we ship out is plastic glass until everything else here so if it is cartons or paper it can become a composite for the agriculture and then all the food left over goes into the uh system what comes out of the methane gas so the methane gas it goes to the special oven and they cook with it wow so it reduced how much garbage i sent out and this have been done a year ago so you're solving all the problems of like what it's like you know you have to find ways that are more conceptual yeah creative problem solving well that was really cool learned a lot from uh people developing this island and we finished right on time for sunset you're riding yeah yeah [Music] well i guess i have this private island for myself now there's apparently a chef here that's gonna make me dinner other than the chairman and his friends and family there's nobody else that stayed here so uh i guess i'm the inaugural guest of the world islands i just have this villa for myself with no supervision dubai is known for luxury and uh they've outdone themselves this is uh the bougiest thing that i've ever done in my life and i also have my personal pool wow this is so extra but i'm here for the experience and uh gonna enjoy this place while i have it you know when you're a kid and you fantasize about being on your own private island i wasn't really actually expecting uh that it would happen one day [Music] wow look at this thank you so much the chef on the island just brought me food whoa this is two hamburgers a pizza two hamburgers a salad and a pizza very happy [Music] [Laughter] [Music] thank you so much for watching that wraps up my stay here in this beautiful villa in the world islands remember to subscribe and check out the seek discomfort drop out right now link is in the description below we're so excited about all of the dozens and hundreds of new designs coming out this holiday we've worked so hard on making it happen and we're so excited about the positive feedback we've gone so far our goal is to continue making seek discomfort a source of positive change around the world and also remain a way for all of you to identify each other in public it is so awesome to see the photos on instagram of some of you meeting because you saw each other wearing seek discomfort so check out the link in description below to join the seek discomfort family and continue to contribute to our ability to exist as yes theory and create positive change around the world i hope that you're doing well that you're staying safe and i'll see you very soon you

Channel: Yes Theory

Views: 4,415,437

Rating: 4.9241667 out of 5

Keywords: yestheory, seek discomfort, yes theory strangers, yes theory travel, yes theory subscribers, getting out of your comfort zone, world islands, dubai world islands, dubai man-made islands, buying a private islands, Why Dubai's Man-Made Islands Are Still Empty, FBA, UAE, Dubai, dubai billionaire, amazing private islands, most expensive islands, maldives, dubai private islands, billionaire private island, empty private islands, private islands, world islands construction, Amazon FBA

Id: IFXm5E27dlM

Length: 17min 8sec (1028 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 15 2020