Five of the World's Most Fascinating Small Towns

[Music] seven miles off Estonia's west coast in Eastern Europe lies the small island of canoe a bucolic and serene place that feels lost in time home to just 400 people it functions like one of the world's few matriarchal societies this is a place where women roll well mostly everything [Music] my name is Morales I lived almost all my life in this island our lifestyle is different comparing the lifestyle in the mainland many old traditions fill our lives one such tradition is that canoes men spend months away at sea fishing for the island meanwhile canoes women are in charge of leading the community and preserving its way of life men were always a long time away from the island and such a historical reason why women become a very strong very independent kid no conscience interesting because we have killer additional costumes as I everyday wearing she's making skirts because she has five granddaughters we have ancient folk songs still alive and dances they have a lot of practical skills how to live all over the year here yes life is more difficult here to survive it's treasure for two Islanders they all described the island like it's like a paradise it's the best place in the world we had a male Rock camera era an image in her go to her in the ring gear I got rocked again nice and employee said Kittleman amis in new a lot of justice Rika start up a leak Oh merciful the clothes the music the dancing all of it has been recognized by UNESCO on its intangible cultural heritage list keen on wedding songs and many traditions are more than 2,000 years old so it's this is a main thing why we are missus UNESCO List the same list acknowledges canoes women as the custodians of their islands heritage I concern everybody that our unique culture can disappear it's very valuable if those things still exist and survived and the modern world it's really miracle [Music] a two hour boat ride off the coast of Colombia is an island the most densely populated island on earth [Music] santa cruz del is latte consists of more than 1,200 people living on land the size of two soccer fields making it four times as dense as manhattan on the island is a school that runs up to the tenth grade two shops and one restaurant there is no steady supply of water and a Seoul generator that only runs for five hours per day there are no police but there isn't much need for them as everyone on the island knows each other a hundred and fifty years ago the island was primarily uninhabited and was sometimes used by local fishermen as a place to rest and take shelter during storms gradually some fishermen came to build their homes here these were the grandparents and great-grandparents of the current generation of residents despite the close living quarters inhabitants on the island say they wouldn't give up their peaceful existence for anything not even a little more room the village of kamikatsu is special not for its tea fields or idyllic mountains or peaceful historic homes it's known for something it doesn't have kamikatsu as a town produces almost no trash kamikatsu has a population of roughly 1500 people and in the 1990s was doing nearly no recycling so de la moto moto - on hot arid Atacama watch even annuity Akaka by Imani Naha faster burning all that garbage created carbon dioxide emissions that became dangerous and the nature around them was suffering so a decision was made cami katsu had to change this was the start of their path toward zero waste and a new way of living a minute it already so sing again so it will know much sauce coconut hey no get away a monocoque attachement I know when you saying son many many messes effectively what zero waste here means is that there's no such thing as throwing something in the trash everything has to get recycled and in the beginning it was difficult for everyone like mr. Takuya Chaka Ichi he's a shop owner in kamikatsu zero estando a domotic hace cut away a play I repeated of tiny larry maasdam boomded soo-ji canto my at the particle - you are - the viet and a tiny one artistic and mrs. Tsuchiya katayama she's a housewife so should I know them to put a more woman animal come guys and then we show Nene mother the idea time Jessica so there are no God yeah Congo moon bits of Aussie TV not Tara the mother really must stop that classification system she's talking about is the key to coming car to success and it is aggressive there are forty five categories of recyclables irony conspira-con spirit jean-jacques say no Chuck you know mocha shake-a found a list it goes on there's thirty five more slowly what was originally this huge burden became a way of life in kamikatsu people began looking at trash differently 100 daisuke matsuzaka 2013 you see it me they will go me the damn ball guilelessly Kadamba wah but as i do stay composed study soon it came as new phenomena kurumada where Assad regime otaku Faustina Cote inugami or subtitute Inuvik una still eternal de Tabac was she talking on company kayako Cyrano Kazan no attack in Italian there never thought you got scarce any medical coding can lose I predict it at all Scottish on Aparicio cholera see it's important to recognize that kamikatsu is a small town it is not like New York or London the rules are not the same but there is a constant and that's people they can change I won't die why you should fit in this catwalk so you can look Elena camerin eyes and I got a fish well cut our cake oh my much kumihimo Taisho mashido got steep what you know what he not say tomato how could I not know cannot remove Nakano much in each day they're always the there did you see any up to meet it no could about korekara yeah pretty cool new video super dirty shitty so that the Taliban in Chicago so that cigar a Scottish Keo caramel and Polly some awesome audio grab a Hilda male hey Niko can teleport on Iook at all took too much tongue guy tomorrow still to you like an emerald IG shreekant we get windy spangled with Abu Naga Chicka Boom Boom of escape [Music] [Music] there's somebody driving into town the first time you wouldn't think there was a lot here because 95% of it is hiding underground people drive in and go where is the place I don't understand Cuba PT is from the aboriginal and Cooper pity which means white man and a hole at the moment upstairs it is about 122 degrees Fahrenheit down here we're sitting on about 71 72 degrees no air conditioning necessary well right out in the middle of nowhere it takes a day to drive here from Adelaide outside is about a thousand underground dwellings and at least 1500 people living on the ground we've got five underground churches we've got underground motels there's some amazing underground homes here many bedrooms underground workshop you name it underground we've pretty well got it I bought mine dug out as a fairly small two-bedroom dug out and I've been extending it over the years some other side blasted out where I could get away with it the cops don't like is blasting intent we don't do it anymore back in the old days if somebody was going to have a baby we'd rock around there with a couple of compressors on a weekend and some jackhammers on the couple of cartons of beer and by the Sunday night we dug out of room cemented the floor and wired it up and there's your new baby's room honey even though we're so far away geographically from anywhere else but I know why but we just loved the place to piss [Music] we were the smallest town for a while do we still wish we were I don't know to be a population of one in the population of two and you're both in the same County in the same state I think that's pretty wonderful what is the population of mono i population 1 me the population of gross Nebraska is 1 2 1 2 we don't have enough people it's nothing against the towns nothing against the people running the businesses we simply have run out of people out in this this area all we have in town is the bank vault that remains from the Gross State Bank then we have a community hall and then our house and a trailer house across the street we had a high school here there was Church until pull maybe the mid sixties we have the same paperwork and everything to fill out that Omaha and New York City and every other city has we don't have an election for mayor I just let him keep that job [Music] the young folks or any that go from here to the city they can adjust pretty well and make a good life there but you take somebody that's born and raised in the city and they usually just can't hack it out in this area never gets lonely living in a town of dude there's always somebody passing through values are different you don't have everything at your fingertips so you just learn to sitting and converse more I'm not here because I have to be I can close up and leave here anytime I want to go wherever I wanted I'm here because I want to be here you [Music]

Channel: Great Big Story

Views: 3,093,526

Rating: 4.9031072 out of 5

Keywords: great big story, gbs, lag, documentary, docs, travel, adventure, great big reels, island, crowded, small towns, underground, travel & adventure, weird & fun knowledge, biography & profile, sustainability, australia, japan, Small-town, Small towns, Cute, Estonia, Women, Japan, Travel, Traveler, Explorer, Adventurer, Homey, Abode, Islands, Island Life, Zero-waste, new releases

Id: f8hxfUTr7oY

Length: 12min 37sec (757 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 23 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/BenjiStokman]

Decently interesting

[u/Thinking_of_nothing]

Been to one of them, I felt like I was intruding