Visiting America's Most Remote Town (24 Hours of Darkness)

that poll marks the northernmost point in America this is a place where there are wild polar bears native Hunters living in some of the coldest climates on Earth welcome to Barrow Alaska the Last Frontier my first bite of whale [Music] minus 22. [Music] December 21st the darkest day of the year and I'm heading to America's northernmost and most isolated Town Barrow Alaska I'm excited as the most remote town in America there's only one flight per day from Alaska's biggest city Anchorage and tickets are not cheap Midway through my first leg from Phoenix I realized I might miss my only chance to get to Barrow today so I ran as fast as I could to the gate which way yeah excuse me where's the barrel flight hi thank you guys for holding the plane you're back no it's fine I have carry-on only homelessness connection I'm gonna make it I can't describe that feeling of relief to be the last one on the plane and clearly I was standing out as the only tourist on board no that's why you asked you look like science yes we're just a tourist a tour yeah no way you believe me uh maybe thank you well I've just arrived in Barrow it's like 3 P.M right now it's freaking dark yes sir what's up bro how's it going this is Ace he was born and raised in Barrow and offered to take me around for a few days oh you got a nice truck oh yeah it's gonna be slick yeah I came from Phoenix but we don't we don't follow the ice in Phoenix bro oh that hurt my we are starting our adventure by driving around to see some of the sites in town and right away I know that this is going to be a wild adventure behind me is a famous monument here called the whale bone Arch those are literally jawbones of a whale pretty sure that's open sea but it's all just Frozen this is a coffee house yeah so there's that we got two of them right here oh you don't sit inside you just take it right yeah a little coffee Alaska is really down for their coffee Huts hi what's going on thank you not only is Barrow the northernmost town in America but it's also one of the coldest darkest and most isolated settlements on Earth during the winter months like right now it rarely gets above -25 degrees and it's completely dark outside for 30 straight days I really like to try and enjoy the moment of either the sunrise or the sunset because you normally you don't really get that here once in a while I mean during the Spring and fall you'll get the sunrise and sunset the winter it's you don't see the sunrise because it never comes up and then in the summertime you never see it set because it doesn't dip below the Horizon it's it just circles all around it's so crazy like whenever you see the sunrise at home you're not thinking like wow this is such a special treasure but if you live here in Barrow it's so few times in the year that you actually see the Sun going above or below the Horizon that's wild yeah the location of Barrow is so incredibly remote I am actually closer in proximity to Tokyo than I am to New York City that is wild the feeling I have outside right now is like how am I in United States of America Everything feels so foreign it's so cold this town is so small when you walk around you see like Wells Fargo and Ace Hardware I just saw your store over there oh yeah American looking stop signs and you're like but this is America it's like the weirdest feeling are you guys like proud Americans here all right like mixed feelings right I mean it's kind of uh our own country yeah out here it feels like your own food yeah I mean there's obviously like economical benefits of being part of the us right of course so that's kind of nice you know I mean we sell like Fourth of July is always a big thing even here we'll have Fourth of July games like that there's also a few supermarkets a police station a hospital a high school got good memories from there oh yeah yeah a college and about five restaurants in this town of 4 500 people this is downtown we have a Wells Fargo we have the police station and this is the local Native Corporation building and here we are we're standing right in the middle of downtown Barrow Barrow is so isolated that there are no Roads connecting the town to other parts of the state the busiest time for the only paved Road here in town you wouldn't even know it's paved because it's literally ice and the ships cannot dock here because of the ice year round the one and only way that people here can get food medical supplies and Amazon packages is through the airport if it wasn't for this Airport and people would literally starve to death above all the people of Barrow are what makes this place so incredibly special they're called Inu pots thank you how is their culture different than other Arctic natives around the world so far I've gathered that they have a great sense of humor always cracking jokes and they are very proud to be a new pots you could have put a billion dollars in front of me and told me that we're gonna send you to an urban city and you can't come back and do what you do I mean I'd live here broke and have a full freezer full of food and and be the richest guy in the world with another dollar in my account than living in a city with a billion dollars you couldn't convince me to move for more than 1500 years the natives of Barrow have survived off eating whales polar bears and walruses while you may be a little surprised and upset to hear this you must realize that they don't hunt them for fun they hunt them for survival you know there's a way of life right you had to do it to survive regardless right you got to go out and get food you know tomorrow's not promised these uh weapons and the gun are still used today we still use the same techno apology we're not allowed to change that technology to hunt the whales we hunt now with anything else nope we're not allowed our government controls that right our government keeps track of our quota we fight for our quota we're allowed so many wheels a year and you can't change the technology this is for the the Harpoon this one doesn't have no wings so this one's for the Harpoon where they throw okay and then this has got wings so it's one for the shoulder gun is this just for whales it's still both for whales nothing else yep nothing else got it unless you piss somebody off how do you feel about people when when they say like oh you shouldn't be hunting whales it's obviously part of your lifestyle let's take their beef away let's take their chicken away you know it's our food too it's something that we eat we've been hunting it for generations and we want to continue hunting it but we do it scientifically now we you know they check the health of the whales they count them every couple years so our food source is monitored by the government and scientific facts keep our quota in check so yeah one way I'll continue yeah about three thousand three thousand almost the whole town yeah it is so cold here that the houses are built on permafrost which basically means that the ground is covered in ice year round it's so cold here that the pipes for the plumbing have to go above the ground if you own a car like the majority of people here then your engine must be heated or else it won't start we typically will see temperatures ranging from negative 20 to negative 40 Fahrenheit so every car you'll see will have a plug-in like this one mine does inside you'll have a four-way box so you'll have a plug-in for your engine block heater is it running or it's heating it up yeah it's keeping it warm yeah so that way you can start it and it won't damage your engine and the people often get stuck in the snow you know him yeah I think that's Charlie yeah I got stuck can you pull me out yeah I slipped past the stop sign and went straight into this [Music] thank you yeah that was funny that happened a lot oh yeah shockingly I came to find out that there are no bars due to alcohol abuse however it is not illegal to get high so there's one weed dispensary here is wheat is legal in Alaska so we're going outside to check it out it's a nice big menu you have yeah we so the plane brings the weed here yeah yeah I'm just shocked that you guys have a weed store here yeah it's pretty awesome just checking into my hotel here if you ever wonder what a hotel room looks like in Barrow Alaska looks like this decent looking bad we got a TV they've got a little microwave stove kitchen guessing this is the bathroom nice and small not bad I've definitely had worse you know you're in America when the light switch looks like this it's not like the key card thing like you find in Europe big day of exploration tomorrow got a huge day planned and I can't wait this place is really interesting Barrow Alaska is this really America how is it 8 30 right now and these are our street lights so you can kind of see what's going on thank you good morning bro oh you're not here yeah I'm two steps ahead of you bro I've been shooting outside for like 10 minutes I can't feel my fingers how's it going I didn't put gloves on running around for the last 10 minutes we've rolled up to the one and only gas station here in Barrow filling up our tank I'll get i'll get this thing thank you yeah no problem it's funny because right now it's 20 23 and we still don't have a card machine for it but you fill up first and pay seconds yeah it's funny um it's very interesting forget your wallet you just go in there hey I forgot my wallet I'll be right back okay see you later this has to be the most expensive gasoline in the country 750 a gallon yep seven or 7 30 right now well it only costs 200 bucks to fill up the car and a little five gallon one of my best hacks is travel reward credit cards I just use it to fill up this gas tank which was 200 bucks but then I get points that I can redeem for flights and hotels and upgrades and Uber rides and all kinds of stuff I have a link below of my top recommended travel rewards credit cards I highly recommend you get on it if you ever wonder why I always fly first class and stuff it's through these cards it's a huge huge benefit we are getting ready to snowmobile to Point Barrow the literal northernmost tip of the United States of America what are some tips you suggest if I'm doing Chase slide bear are they faster than the machine they can Excel pretty quick they can speed up you're not on it if it's hungry yeah it'll stand it's ground yeah definitely it has no fear of man yeah if he's hungry I'll come with a wind chill as low as minus 35 degrees a lot of preparations must be made we'll try and get them to be calm here hello yeah if you want to give it to him by hand oh [ __ ] hold on oh my God there's a big boy dude oh this is a really cozy house yeah it's okay good hey that's not nice okay let's put them in the after please okay it's okay what's your name Stephanie true pleasure to meet you yes living room kitchen and then it's like a studio kind of place in here I'm sorry a little oh cool yeah nice do you have Amazon Prime here yes Prime yeah so it comes by plane yeah but it's not like shipping so if I order something right now if I want to order like a new a new camera how many days until it's here I was here for like two weeks so it's not really primed it's more like Amazon you get free shipping sometimes but a lot of times a lot of the Prime shipping won't come up to here it'll be too far out of their range so it'll say on the app when when Prime first came out it was everything was free shipping so I had Tires I'd be getting you know cases of Red Bull cases of power they're like these Barrel people yeah yeah we I think we uh cost them a few dollars I asked Ace for a face mask and he pulls out this this bin of all kinds of stuff this goes over your whole head yes I think I'm gonna rob a bank I wouldn't recommend it but yes getting all dressed up to go up North Point Arrow it's a lever action damn yeah I got some light to it I didn't really feel like I was in Alaska until I had this in my hand yeah I mean well if you but like damn like if you look into my awesome man this is dude don't hide this for me yeah this is what I want to see this I I call it my armor right here um this is where I keep all my guns rifles handguns ammunition I mean this is what I would typically carry out on the ice everyone here grew up with them so they understand that the dangers of them the safety what you need to be prepared with them it's a different way of life I would say just want to pop in here quickly and say if you're enjoying this video subscribe to my channel I'm working really hard to make the most epic stories from around the world and your support means a lot to me comment below let me know where you're from I read all the comments and I'll get back to you guys it's like I look like a idiot right now got the gun ready yeah just in case oh yeah oh yeah all right my eyes are gonna freeze to death but if you guys couldn't tell already I'm cold outside [Music] update it's freezing I can't feel my hands on my feet I don't even know if this camera is working right now it's covered in snow and ice no polar bear so far we are arriving this pole behind me is the northernmost point of the United States holy [ __ ] I'm freezing this is such a cool moment gotta touch it all right hi Mom I know you're warm in Arizona right now but look where I am huh so cold I'm actually pretty warm just my glasses are a little finicky to have an old bone graveyard over here so do you enjoy living here I think it's a cool place too hot uh hot tea so good turned off is that a bad thing due to the extreme cold and frost both my camera and our snowmobile started to fail that's how bitter cold it is out here and we haven't even been outside for more than 30 minutes we must act quick because staying out here stranded without a snowmobile could easily mean death yeah is everything okay well this one does not want to restart I guess that would happen in the cold so we better get this out of here before that one that one will be fine so what I'm gonna have to do is leave it here and then after this you'll get a flip from my dad's house to put pull this onto that sled and then head back thankfully I'm with locals who know exactly how to navigate these situations and sure enough Ace's dad came to the rescue and picked me up while Ace hung back to swap snowmobiles do you think Ace will be all right [Music] what's up man did you have any problems oh no no this one was good it is 2 52 p.m and uh that little Twilight is gone it's dark let's jump back into what really makes Barrow so unique and that is the indigenous people the inupak culture here is so beautiful and it reminds me of my time spent in the other Arctic settlements in Greenland and Siberia they are shockingly similar although most locals here still refer to this town as Barrow the indigenous name is actually pronounced okay yeah this name was adopted as the official name back in 2016. this goes to show how the natives here are setting the bar when it comes to preserving traditions and language how can you say thank you thank you very much how do you read this word right here oh boy uh yeah put you on the spot you can't read that not not too much I wouldn't be able to pronounce it correctly I would pronounce it like this another way the inupak people celebrate their culture is through the art of tribal tattooing most notably with three vertical lines stretching from their lower lip down their chin so when you go to the lower 48 and you have that tattoo what kind of things do people say I've had myself alone for about 12 years now and I get more good compliments than you know and people are just very curious majority of the time I've only encountered a small handful of very awkward you know things that people have said you know we don't have the rest of the world as easily accessible to us like everybody else same with other societies they don't have access to us so they don't know about it we're not mythical creatures we might be mythical we're not creatures life is so different up here than on the mainland or as they call it the lower 48. I just can't help but wonder how do people have fun in a town with no malls no movie theaters and no bars especially when it's dark outside 24 7 in the winter hmm we popped into this little diner Place what's it called uh [ __ ] Vic what [ __ ] [ __ ] Vic put if you can say that five times fast and uh it's very much a diner this beef is definitely imported I guess because there's nothing to do here I mean there's not much to do here eating is eating is a thing yeah and food here is not cheap we're going to see what kind of crazy prices we can find in a supermarket in Barrow Alaska I mean the supermarket here looks identical to the one in my neighborhood in Arizona which is pretty cool got all the same products 12 Dr Peppers for 15 bucks one Gatorade seven dollars at home this is about 199. oh yeah if you go to a gas station is that unheard of you yeah they're already two bucks for some pizza I just spotted coconuts hey can I tell you something funny right now so in a month I'm gonna be in the Philippines and this coconut will be 20 cents oh my God I can believe that I believe that 20 cents in the Philippines and here I am in Alaska and this is 10.99 so when people ask you like how do you not get bored you know what's funny actually we just bought two board games today that makes sense now yeah man the whole time we were in the supermarket Ace kept his car running because if he turns it off then it could freeze the battery could freeze so how come 5 000 people are living in Barrow this isolated land that is closer to the North Pole than it is to his own state capital first off the inupad eskimos have lived in Barrow for more than 1500 years and there is evidence of it and I say the word Eskimo because I quickly learned that it is not an offensive word to the people here we grew up known as Eskimos Eskimos we have the northern eskimosa and the southern Eskimos Inuit is a word people you know it is a person but the word Eskimo is not offensive call me no tongue you know a lot of people take offense to that you know I take pride to that man yeah yeah you know just because you know they think that you know we're Savages you know it's pretty pretty badass to be you know label that you know what I mean more than 60 percent of bears residents are native inupad Eskimos and the other 40 are a mix of Mainland Americans and foreigners mostly Asians and Pacific Islanders who come here to make higher wages starting at 20 bucks an hour so you came from from Philippines why did you come here the first time oh right here is like you know the baking is more than higher than the lower but it's still cold here bro I know but um the money is here are there a lot of Filipinos here yeah it's kind of like 30 percent to 40 percent yeah grew up in America all my life I thought why the hell would you come to that's a good question but uh you know over here it's just uh working one living one you know and of course where there are immigrants they always bring with them their delicious food getting some lunch time in the pitch black at Osaka restaurant there is an Asian restaurant here it's actually both a Korean and a Japanese restaurant my two favorite Cuisines I was just in Japan like a month ago and dude for real if it's coming to Japan how are you oh yeah he looks like Korean too I don't think so what is it like to live here why is good compared to rosences think about it yes the air is clean especially a pair of people amazing thank you there is a sizzling bowl of kimchi shigay that smells amazing and when it's minus 20 degrees outside there's nothing more I crave than this dish so this is a bowl of kimchi soup so there's a lot of pieces of kimchi inside of it like this but it's stew so the kimchi's it's not like raw and there's pieces of tofu like this big chunks of tofu and there's this pork I think it's important yeah and then there's like onions and there's other kind of spices and it's all mixed together it's spicy you like spicy a little bit you won't like it would be uh be a rough day for me yeah um when I'm here I feel like in Korea when I'm eating this food yeah The Taste let's have a nice day that was a surprisingly good meal and honestly one of the best Korean restaurants that I've had outside of South Korea we headed back outside into the frozen tundra and I attempted to see something that's been on my bucket list forever the Northern Lights until now the closest I've ever been to seeing them is when I went to Siberia and my buddy Amar saw them out the plane window can you believe I've never seen them that's hard to believe for me of course I live here so I see them every day he looks great here you'll kind of see the a little bit of a streak I do see the streets yeah I see that it's very faintly if you could whistle like a loud long whistle you could bring them down closer the noise okay yeah it's kind of like an old Tale well yet again it was another failure to see the Northern Lights but this is just a lesson that not everything goes your way if you are watching this and you've seen the northern lights let me know where in the comments below so I can get more ideas for next time another interesting thing about Barrow is the oil industry with nearby prudo Bay the single largest oil deposit in North America with 25 billion barrels worth as you might imagine that brings in a lot of jobs and wealth but the oil supply is finite and will eventually run out As the World Turns to renewable energy there is a looming threat of the oil industry moving out which would cause an economic downturn when you think about it most oil-rich places around the world like Dubai can easily make up for this by boosting its tourism sector but Barrow simply doesn't have the infrastructure for Mass tourism I mean think about it I'm the only tourist here right now and the locals think I'm nuts remember a tourist yeah no way all right let's get real it is time now for more food but not just any dish it's the whale meat that I've been eager to try since learning all about it Ace's family kindly invited me over to their house for a delicious home-cooked meal Hi how are you hi I'm Drew pleasure to meet you nice to meet you nice to meet you Ace and his family are such incredible hosts and I can already tell that this is going to be a very memorable evening a staple okay so it's called Whitefish there's four types of Whitefish in our region up here you eat uh the fish raw like sashimi this is gold here this is the time remember I said the bearded seal yeah all the meat just dried and turned into oil it's been dried the tongue outside on a meat rack for weeks the oil is from the the blubber of the seal black gold mine my native can I please hide this in your freezer because if I don't you don't let me my daughter will eat it oh explain to me the process I'm just cutting it with an iron this is cooked and this is not cooked nut cooked means it's raw so pink is the natural color kind of depends on the size of the whale this is whale too yes whale meat yes that's the outside layer of the whale right you see the black whale this is a very skin that very outside of the whale the skin you just uh cut this like butter and throw a little salt on it and eat it you always peel the bottom layer off because that's the only part that your body doesn't digest is it healthy oh yeah it keeps you warm in the winter around here oh yeah yeah the blubber is what keeps you the eskimos warm thank you thank you so much for having me this is a great experience a little chunk of heart um that's an oil whale heart yes how big is the whale heart 300 some pounds honest to God a 40-foot wheel will have a 350 foot yeah I mean 350 pounds apart they have the Mungus Harvest do you know that oh yeah I cut them off this would be considered an extremely bizarre Dish anywhere in lower 48. oh yeah if you went to any other state and said I'm gonna prepare you this big whale dinner they would all be like no [Laughter] thank you Lord for this food we're about to eat and we thank you for the whales that gave their lives to feed us we thank you for the Whalers the cooks and The Butchers Lord we thank you for this nourishment that is the Paris food on Earth and we thank you Lord amen amen we dip it in the oil of the sea oil yes white fish white fish the oil is so pure they did a study whale oil seal oil is so pure I don't know are you okay with salt Drew oh yeah okay I'm okay with however you're okay with it do you want a Sprite or water or tea none of that none of that right now you gotta put that camera down and eat something delicious I've had a similar taste in um Siberia I don't think it's the same exact fish but they definitely don't dip it in that oil see a bearded seal I don't really know what a beard is here bearded seal it's a much bigger than a harbor seal do you see these small little seals yeah this one is a big boy he's like a sea lion oh this is going to be interesting bearded seal it's pretty tough I didn't want to admit it but the taste of that seal smothered in its oil was absolutely the most difficult thing I've ever had to swallow in my life and I've eaten some pretty crazy things Chase is not bad it's just tough oh yeah that's meaty [Laughter] [ __ ] that I'm feeling yes try to unalike the cook part my first bite of whale in my life bullhead whale bowhead whale [Music] should we on the other hand the whale was surprisingly delicious not that extreme taste no because you didn't put salt on it it's pretty good and the southern Eskimos they use mustard they use soy sauce whale heart different texture different taste much different taste close to beef heart because it's a mammal a whale is a mammal foreign so it's just like this but that's raw yep raw whale why is it this was downright the chewiest thing I've ever put into my mouth oh my God you've only chewed down three times and then swapped oh you're not I'm trying to chew to the very end and now it got stuck in my teeth oh no yeah Ace was just making fun of his dad for being the biggest ice cream connoisseur known to man so you can guess what we were having for dessert it's not my favorite brand but different brand yeah that's not gonna fit too well in your ice cream racket yeah you have to start a blue blue bunny is my favorite brand yeah and I haven't been able to get it lately why not it's just not available at the store yeah planes aren't taking it in yeah so I'm one of those that consumes more ice cream than he should as you can tell right here thanks for dinner man you bet I owe you buy me a beer I'll see you tomorrow yep thank you thanks for coming you have some experience yeah appreciate that too bad I didn't see a bear yeah next time you want to need a ride back you're running all the way what an amazing experience that dinner was and I keep burping up that bearded seal I'm not joking that was probably the most intense flavor I've ever had coming here is like a full-on adventure it's not a vacation don't expect fast Wi-Fi or conveniences or chain restaurants that you've heard of none of that exists here it's raw it's cold it's beautiful the nature is stunning there's a lot of nothingness and Stillness and that's the beauty of coming up to Barrow and honestly everyone is so friendly like the Indie pot people they're just they have a great sense of humor I think you guys see that from this video like they're all funny and they just they don't take life too seriously and that's that's an amazing thing and uh I'm really glad I came up here I hope you guys learned a thing or two about this really isolated community in America and uh I think this won't be my last visit thanks for watching subscribe to this channel if you enjoyed and you want to see more stories from every country in the world and I'll see you guys next time in a warm place I'm going to sleep I am exhausted and I'm cold good night guys [Music]

Channel: Drew Binsky

Views: 2,082,453

Keywords: drew binsky, drew binsky vlog, drew binsky travel, travel, travel vlog, alaska, alaska travel, barrow, alaska trip, isolated town, isolated town in America, united states, winter in Alaska, Alaska culture, travel tips, reward credit, Alaska trip, Alaska tourist, Northernmost town, Barrow Alaska, Utqiagvik, Alaska, indigenous culture, polar bears, polar bear in alaska, life in alaska, barrow vlog, barrow alaska, alaska culture, inuit, inupiat, drew binsky alaska, inuit culture

Id: QV9ofyKNdTM

Length: 33min 5sec (1985 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 17 2023