World's Most Dangerous Hotel & Giant Diamond Mine in Siberia | Mystery Places | Free Documentary

[Music] [Music] so [Music] the allegedly most dangerous hotel is situated in the usa at the coast of north carolina good morning you must be richard i am hey hi nice to meet you nice to meet you mark richard is the owner of this mysterious hotel the first peculiarity is that it's only reachable by helicopter [Music] so how will i get there to the frying pan you're gonna go on this same helicopter after we get all the food out of here take care by helicopter that's right because the hotel is situated in the middle of the ocean on an abandoned lighthouse by the way the flight is not included in the booking price a return ticket for the flight costs two thousand five hundred dollars there is space for a maximum of three people in the helicopter we fly 55 kilometers out on the ocean to the cape of fear sailors call the area the graveyard of the atlantic ocean what looks like an oil rig is the lighthouse the u.s marine service closed it down 30 years ago and abandoned it no one wanted the rusty platform until 2010. that's when richard showed up thank you very much i was the only bidder on this i did not expect to win so it's a bit of a shock when i ended up getting it it was oh now what do i do right okay so as is where is sight unseen there's your tower now we follow richard a floor below to the generator room it reminds us of a junkyard but it's the central power and water supply station from here we go on to the jetty which circles the lighthouse 25 meters above the sea the recreation room is on this same floor seriously the guests are supposed to feel at home here the comfort is like in a two-star hotel okay maybe the rooms make all the difference far from it the entire furniture is from the original days of the tower the coast guard used to be stationed here to help castaways today it's a hotel note a weekend costs 570 dollars per person by the way the tower is called frying pan tower because that's exactly what it looks like in the meantime it has become a huge building site the shabby look is part of richard's concept and saves money restoring it his plan seems to work out guests like english teacher trixie and her husband karem are looking for exactly this kind of kick business is going well the summer is already booked out [Music] uh yeah it's rustic yeah it's her idea she loves some extraordinary stuff i think when richard isn't busy welcoming new arrivals he is tampering with the tower the whole head has melted off and it's destroyed it's just setting up there pointing that's the one we're going to climb all the way up there set up the ladder disassemble it we have a new one coming in on monday so we'll put it in there and that'll charge the battery banks for us so let's go up there and get it the batteries supply the emergency current for the radio equipment so richard can call for help if someone gets badly injured this is the fun part what's your first step it's 120 feet down we follow richard up to the top of the roof very carefully if the camera fell down now we couldn't air this program about the most dangerous hotel in the world but is everyone allowed to just climb up here they can come up here with assistance and the down area underneath it's very rusty only with a guided tour because there's areas where you can fall right through we feel a little shaky on the entire way up 40 meters above the sea richard is not afraid he balances on the shaky ladder without any safety gear most homeowners they use ladders around their house with no safety gear and same thing here my house is just a little different that's all but if something happens here it would take an hour for help to arrive carol and mark are the last guests to arrive but instead of a welcoming drink they are given safety instructions because this is an old facility and it gets it feels a little springy or a little strange well maybe something is rusted or broken since the last time we were here don't assume it's good just come tell me we have a marine band radio there which we can mayday on channel 16. if a person falls in the water god forbid do not jump in after them please grab a life jacket right off of there i grab three or four of them throw them life jackets and never go exploring on your own if no one notices you falling into the water who is supposed to help you [Music] it's okay really [Music] whatever you do don't lean against this rail [Music] you're allowed to enter the deck below under supervision only actually you know i can't go but no no i don't want to push you to go no no it's not pushing i know but just kind of i'll go with you okay i've done it many times the stairs are 50 years old for safety reasons there should never be more than two people using it at the same time the risk of the whole construction falling into the sea is too high why does richard allow people down here in the first place we have a liability release which i'm sure you guys signed and it basically says that this is a very dangerous place and you come at your own risk and as far as liability insurance you know but the only thing they could try and take would be the tower and most people wouldn't want this as a project if you fall down it's your own fault and you'll end up in the sea with the sharks the money richard makes with his hotel he immediately reinvests in all sorts of repairs and there is quite a lot of them to be done in order to restore everything richard would need just almost 3.2 million dollars a special highlight is the feeding of the sharks that's included in the price unfortunately nobody dares to join so our executive editor has to do it at his own risk of course all he has to do is watch and hold on tight enough together with brooke we go down 25 meters to where the sharks are she does the feeding and again there's golden rule if you fall into the water it's your own they're here the you know splat in the water they come straight up usually yeah brooke is down here regularly and even goes for a swim sometimes she uses bait fish to attract the sharks bull sharks are typical for the area and they are extremely aggressive after 15 minutes of feeding the sharks we return to the tower [Music] it's time to relax most guests spend their time fishing throw in the bait wait for a moment pull out a fish good for richard the guests supply their own food so today they'll have black bass for dinner oh by the way the guests also have to cook for themselves like a youth hostel only in the middle of the ocean [Music] the rust and the sharks aren't the only hazards on the lighthouse it's right in the middle of a hurricane region the nightly thunderstorm gives us a good impression of just how uncomfortable it can get because the room doesn't even stay dry during this little storm after a sleepless night we head back towards the mainland richard lives on the lighthouse for us it seemed like the most uncomfortable hotel in the world and a truly mysterious place our next mysterious place leads us to china from shanghai we travel south by car we notice skyscrapers seem to be typical of chinese cities built for millions of people our mysterious place is said to be somewhere right in the middle of them just under 15 minutes drive from the mega city huisu it suddenly appears the austrian village of halshthat copied by the chinese a real church a fountain and timbered houses exactly like in austria even the flower boxes and the shutters austrian waltzes resound from small loudspeakers behind the plants the chinese have spared no effort neither in size nor in detail to the left the hotel to the right the copy the historical stairs with the inscriptions you also find them in china the gourmet restaurants menu copied the ancient wood panel church door right here in china and not only the inscription of the municipality of halstad on the gully cover they have even copied the entire lake including the swans which are driven to the front of the timbered houses every morning only the chinese characters on the signposts and the chinese women dressed in traditional austrian costumes reveal that this is just a copy some things like the village church the chinese have set to a slightly different purpose they've simply turned the sacred site into a showroom for estate agents this is where they sell the houses estate agents instead of alter boys sales show instead of mass [Music] and now we realize the stolen austrian village is not at all what really matters here they are planning to build huge housing areas worth a total of 970 million dollars around it [Music] a few model houses like this one have already been completed this is nothing like the 100 year old timbered houses in the real house stat the copied village center it's obviously just a huge marketing gag of the state-owned chinese building company china mining [Music] we find someone who's in charge the vice president of one of the building firms waves at us in a friendly way but refuses to give an interview he also forbids us to talk to any of his employees finally an especially selected estate agent is allowed to show us around the secretly copied village describe it more accurately and the chinese even take it a step further they use posters of the real mayor of the austrian village of harshtat for promotion purposes here on the chinese are able to remain relaxed about it because in fact there is no law that forbids copying an existing village we take a look around and want to find out how much austrian heritage is to be found in this copied haustat a look behind the scenes reveals debris and garbage europe on the outside and disaster on the inside and this is what it looks like behind most of the house walls in the village center and here we have some dusty market stands with the plastic fruit knock-offs and the lobby of the noble hotel on the market square a buildup of debris dirt and garbage will this ever turn into a real hotel nobody is prepared to tell us the whole day long workers and day laborers in their pedal boats ride across the copied lake but not to stimulate the tourists to go on a boat ride but to collect the dead fish and migrant workers clean up the washed up garbage that is lying around you can see so things don't seem to work out properly here the construction is obviously behind schedule the hashtag copy doesn't seem to be one of those chinese success stories but what do the real inhabitants of halshtat have to say to the bold copy no one here is angry reports on the copy of the village have led to a rise in tourist numbers and the mayor has accumulated a whole wardrobe full of conciliatory gifts from the chinese building company monica wagner the owner of the original hotel in halstead has found her own way to deal with the copy she is in the process of refurnishing the entire hotel with reproduced luxury furniture from china no one knows when the chinese haustat will be completed but the austrians are moving towards the next thousand years of their future in a very relaxed way our search leads us on to the caribbean we are on the tropical island of saint martin what used to be the home of pirates and looters is now a popular holiday resort with a paradise feeling to it maho beach you could stay here the whole day sipping cocktails swimming in the sea and enjoying the sun but the tourists come here for a very different reason we just passed through and i said we have to go there because we saw so many pictures and films we came here to see the planes fly by 9 am it's almost time all the beach visitors are preparing for the big moment every day about 70 tourist bombers rumble over the beach visitors heads just 10 to 20 meters above them but why does the runway have to be exactly next to the beach the reason is simple enough there is not enough space on the island because the aircraft need at least 2 300 meters to land safely tourist manager marla chemist is happy about it because up to 10 cruise liners arrive every day just to watch the airplanes she understands that's good i love it well it's just excitement i have this huge plane like try just a little bit over your head and you can almost touch it but not possible but it's fun it's nice to see the excitement and this is one of the few places you can actually see the plane so close up [Music] almost half a million tourists visit the island every year to have a live experience of the show that's why they even have loudspeaker announcements the flight schedule is always updated to make sure no one misses a plane the landings alone are spectacular enough but there is one thing that attracts the beach visitors even more the take-offs the plane turbines almost blow the tourists away because remember this is high jet fuel that's coming out and blowing the hot air on you and then the sound picks up and really stings your skin some people are thrown into the water but they love it and they keep coming back the best spot right behind the runway because the jets can only take off at full throttle on this short runway that causes a great stir the turbine air whips the visitors faces at speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour it's one time we had air france come in and it wheel of the air france actually touched on the fence and pulled it down so you have to be very careful of course a lot of them are trail seekers the take-offs are spectacular but also dangerous the government could theoretically have the whole beach shut but several signs indicate here you marvel at your own risk the thrust is so strong it literally catapults the visitors into the sea in 2012 two women were even thrown off a fence and seriously injured but hardly anyone is afraid it was great it was it was refreshing you feel the power of the engine so it's it's great normally nobody likes to visit the beach in the rain it's different here maho beach may be the only beach in the world attracting even more visitors during the rain because then the turbine air whips up the water the extra kick for many i mean where else in the world do you have this and this probably nowhere and that's why maho beach is one of the coolest beaches in the world our next mysterious place lies in central africa the small country of benin is one of the poorest countries in the world there isn't enough money for proper streets and infrastructure nevertheless countless german scrap cars end up here cottonwood is the largest city in benin and the central hub for used cars in africa from the city's highest building you have the best view of the traffic chaos from here we look for german scrap cars the fastest way to get around is using the scooter caps called kekes the official characteristic sign of the local taxi drivers are their yellow shirts and then we're off to the harbour at full speed we arrive after 15 minutes the ships with the german cars are supposed to land here too the harbour is benin's most important distribution center the loading and unloading of the ships provides many people with work as day labourers together with them we await the arrival of the german cars the day laborers pass through a rigid choreography every morning first the cars have to get off the ship then it's over to the customs parking bay in the harbour and from there in an overnight transfer travel to the selling points for the customers three times a week the security personnel prepares for a fresh load of used cars they are supposed to discourage thieves [Music] later on the workers have to drive the german cars out of the ships every day they wait at the harbour for more vehicle transports to earn their living [Music] the men check the helpers driving licenses and keep them as a deposit to prevent cars from vanishing after a two-hour docking maneuver the stern flap of the ship finally opens a maritime parking deck as soon as the hatchway is open the security guards have to keep the helpers in check because they can't wait to drive the cars off the ship on behalf of the car dealers little brawls are part of the everyday business here everyone wants to reach the cars quickly because they are paid per ride if you are fast you can make up to five cars a day first the cars from the lower decks are driven out of the ship many don't make it on their own they have to be pushed pulled and towed in a three-man formation or the car behind pushes it out finally we are allowed into the inside of the ship the unloading is in full swing here too as our reporter explores the swimming parking lot the lower decks have already been emptied this is how the system works the drivers have to wait in small groups until a security guard calls them to the waiting cars time is money if a damaged car blocks the unloading process the drivers get less tours and less money in cases like these there are fixers with their service cars at hand they offer gasoline oil and spare batteries for mobile start assistance almost every 10th car needs fixing before leaving the ship that way the fixers earned a couple of dollars thanks to the used car imports from germany we meet with the chief mate on the command bridge of the japanese ship he has been transporting cars for more than 20 years and knows the dangers of the sheet metal business are you allowed to leave the ship while you're here no day we just stay here because because we are not familiar with this place this is a place now it's a also a pirated area okay yeah because it's very difficult all the crew is on duty the shipping companies don't like the pirate problem to be mentioned they even keep assault secret to prevent the insurance fee from rising there are only 10 seamen working on the swimming steel giant the technical upgrades leads to less crew members and the local day labourers take on the work in the harbours the two of them watch the unloading from 20 meters high up how long does it take to get all the cars of the ship for 1893 units they will only work for about 12 hours 12 hours [Music] every half hour a platform truck brings back the helpers who have already handed over their car at the customs parking bay they are hoping for another tour and commute around the port the whole day long until the entire ship is empty [Music] high time for us to leave the ship with the last cars below deck we look for a ride almost three quarters of the vehicles have already been removed from the vessel how many minutes we take down to drive down uh 10 minutes uh 30 10 minutes 10 minutes now the german scrap cars are facing the next hardness test the african roads the car with our reporter breaks down after just 20 meters he has to look for another ride please stop this car cool cool after the german scrap cars have driven off the ship it's straight to the customs parking bay which is just a few hundred meters from the harbour area at first glance it's just a huge parking lot beneath the burning equatorial side but between the vehicles it seems like a bizarre [Music] the african dealers and their helpers are eagerly waiting for their order from germany [Music] they are curious to find out in what condition the cars arrive [Music] because many of the cars have missing lamp glasses outlet nozzles wing mirrors or missing brand emblems [Applause] the dealers have a lot to do on the customs parking bay they use their waiting time to make provisional repairs before selling the cars the best deals are made by the men from the tire service because many cars arrive in benin with a puncture [Music] detach the tyres put them back on again and balance them by guess and by gosh all inclusive then our reporter tries changing tires the benin way but his inefficient technique is almost bad for business the trade with the second-hand tyres it's also a way for the locals to get their share in the business of importing scrap cars after darkness sets in suddenly it gets hectic on the customs parking bay once again after 11 pm the german scrap cars are allowed to leave the harbour everything that hasn't been repaired by now is towed the used german cars are now on the second to last stage of their long journey [Music] before the cars reach the parking lot where they are to be sold their number is checked to make sure everything is in order and there will be no fraud the drivers are in a hurry they have no time for consideration they have a long night in front of them after midnight the time has finally come the cars are dismissed into the benin night for a simple reason the streets are empty now the sheet metal caravan with the many damaged cars would be too much of an obstruction for the already chaotic traffic the german scrap cars have to travel 10 kilometers they all drive as fast as they can and preferably in a convoy [Music] early the next morning there is hustle and bustle along the road the people here live directly at the roadside and off the scrap cars like this family who stand makes us curious [Music] uh what is in here and where is it from from nigeria and how much i have to pay for this whole bottle off and i would like to that you show me how to do it i would like i want your job i want to do your job we have discovered a typical benin gas station our reporter is allowed to work here for a few hours the gasoline is smuggled in from nigeria and is sold in old rum or whiskey bottles along the road whole families live off this the benin government tolerates this black refuelling and waives its right to collect the taxes due the black petrol costs 60 cents no guarantee on the quality cars are refueled from these 20 liter bottles physical commitment is required here after having finished his work our reporters won over many fans who would like to keep him there from the gas station it's not far to the points of sale where the german cars are waiting for their new african owners about 40 000 scrap cars from germany europe and the usa are waiting for buyers from all over west africa we want to meet one of the dealers that set themselves up at these points of sale and wait for customers yes i would like to talk to you hello amar is a car dealer and was born in the lebanon he explains why the car dealing business is mostly in lebanese hands we are armed lebanese yeah so mostly the people who i'm buying from are lebanese people they are looking for these vehicles in europe in germany mainly and we buy them the efficient lebanese bring in seed money and international relations the local benin people are mostly left with working as a substitute driver refueling tanks or working as a mechanic they make enough money to sustain their families but most of them won't ever own a car themselves [Music] the people from this country they buy also but they know by that big big number of vehicles they buy but mainly mainly nigerian people buy it these vehicle tourists from nigeria and other neighboring countries buy more than 80 of the cars and take them back home if they are interested in a car they check it thoroughly [Music] on our way to nigeria this car is it in good condition or the old machine has seen a lot 193 thousand kilometers that's as good as new for african standards the engines often run another half a million kilometers here if the buyers have decided on a car bureaucracy sets in it's not possible to pay in cash on the spot the money must be put in the bank or transferred the handing over of the keys is not particularly ceremonial for each car the dealer gets about 100 to 150 dollars [Music] and then the time has come the caravan of german scrap cars leaves the yard towards nigeria what lies ahead are dirt roads deep potholes and a lot of sand and dust but if they're lucky a couple of more years under the african sun from benin we travel on to siberia somewhere in the middle of nowhere in siberia lies the city of merni this city exists for one sole reason the diamond mine mir one of the largest in the world almost 40 000 people live in mirnay holding out in snow ice and minus 50 degrees hard to imagine this is the center of the russian diamond mining industry and we want to see these diamonds after more than a year of research we have finally been granted permission to shoot at the second largest producer named al rosa but we are put off at first underground the early shift is still working and we are not allowed to interrupt but the view compensates for the weight wow gigantic mir is one of the deepest artificial holes in the world it goes down 525 meters with a diameter of 1.2 kilometers the diamond mine mirror is so enormous you can even see the hole from outer space but the open cast mining was stopped 15 years ago due to the excessive mining the walls suddenly collapsed causing acute mortal danger to the workers so we have to go down below underground the mining continues the entrance is right next door and thanks to a special permit we are allowed to witness it firsthand but diamond mining underground is dangerous that's why we have to take part in a safety briefing [Music] the protective mask supplies about 50 minutes of oxygen in an emergency we even have to sign a waiver if anything happens it's our problem but we really want to see the diamonds therefore we must go down the mine our guide shift supervisor sergey gum the miners have to follow a strict schedule many of them are day laborers if they miss the elevator going down they lose a day's wage there's just one person for whom sergey willingly makes time the mir mine is like a family business and has been for 60 years we're finally going down most of the equipment like the elevator dates back to soviet times but it still takes the miners down three times a day exactly how deep we don't know which causes some confusion we go down even further a whole kilometer it's easy to get lost here the diamond mine is a sort of tunnel labyrinth system and at 1.2 kilometers it's the deepest in the world as far down as this we expect extreme heat and stuffy air to our surprise it's nothing like that temperatures of 15 degrees are pleasant 40 degrees more than outside but the temperatures are just one of the many reasons why sergey loves his work this is but the job is very dangerous sudden fires or smoke are not uncommon in the narrow corridors and sometimes even a simple step can be risky [Music] [Laughter] [Music] luckily our march is over after this little stunt because even miners like sergey have staff cars we use it to get to the place of action which is one kilometer away a huge machine is waiting for sergey the object of desire a massive rock wall since sergey is so concentrated we assume this must be our treasure again because underneath many lies a gigantic deposit of the volcanic rock kimballite of a very rare kind it's teeming with diamonds what's special not every kimberlite has valuable stones but here in mirny the amount is extraordinary sergey's job to tear the rocks off the wall with this monster the steel drills have been especially designed for mining and can even crush concrete all that's missing is the truck that picks up the diamonds after a short commotion [Music] even if it looks rough the mining doesn't harm the diamonds in the least they are made of the strongest material in the world and almost indestructible but we don't see much sparkling or glittering yet [Music] a dirty business but diamonds are not just noble pieces of jewelry they are very sought after in the economy for example in the drilling systems and the high-tech industry but no diamonds yet okay look the truck lost some of the stones like this one can i keep this other diamonds inside right now yes but i can't see anything it's just a stone there are no diamonds no chance to keep it yeah okay well it was worth a try the stones are transported to the collecting bin with a trolley every day about 400 tons of rock end up here ready to be transported above ground to where exactly we'll see later on [Music] sergey and his fellow workers are done for the day [Music] foreign after eight hours of hard work he surely deserves one at eight sharp sergey and his comrades return to daylight and our first day in mirny ends the next morning as an exception we're allowed to witness a blasting but underground they are forbidden so we go to an open cast mining site which is still in operation we fly the 400 kilometers to nueva this is where we meet to meet three shorklin just like underground everything has to be done very fast in daylight um the reason for the rush the blaster has to fight adverse conditions in the siberian winter he's worried the fuse might freeze at minus 32 degrees celsius so it's hurry hurry hurry it seems to have worked out silence all around good very good [Music] half an hour later the first trucks drive into the heart of the mine as opposed to the mining in mir the kimberlite can be mined in daylight here but how do the stones turn into diamonds [Music] maybe the secret is disclosed here the final stage of the production takes place in this terrain our first impression gigantic this is where all the stones from under and above ground are gathered together dimitri shows us what happens here there is not a diamond in the world which is as big as a rock that's why they are ground step by step until they have a diameter of 15 centimeters and are small enough to fit into these holes but we still can't see them perhaps that will change here warning signs double doors and suddenly a lot more security personnel we seem to have come close to our destination maybe behind this door we'll find what we've been looking for for so long but we find dirty old stones uh the machine scans the stones and simply sorts out the diamonds the valuable ones are put into a sulfurous chemical bath the mixture is strictly secret but it separates the volcano's stone kimberlite from the diamond but these are just stones the exact procedure is kept from us a big secret and still no diamonds but we are told we'll find them here [Music] we enter an unspectacular room one thing is eye-catching there are only women here and they actually work on what we've been looking for the whole time diamonds a whole pile of diamonds too many to even count them since they are shaped much later they are still raw supervised by the only man around the women have a very the weight is measured in carrot one carrot is 0.2 grams but these stones are much heavier that arouses our interest can i grab one no why not almost yes they earn about 1 000 a month it's good money but wouldn't it be tempting to put a little something in your own pocket [Music] the reason the stones are catalogued before the transport if a single one of them gets lost they all have to compensate for it and that could be very expensive [Music] how much money is now on the table yeah five million dollars apart from size and weight the price depends on the so-called purity the workers sort the raw diamonds into 16 color categories the rule the purer which means clearer in color the more valuable especially dark diamonds cost about ten dollars per carat nothing compared to those which are almost as transparent as glass and even though there is more money lying around than these women will ever earn in their entire life they remain relaxed but rather valuable stones demand in russia is so high they are only sold in the country itself and there are still a lot more you

Channel: Free Documentary

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Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), lost places, mystery places, cold war, Abandoned places, Abandoned, dr seuss house, dr seuss, dr seuss house documentary, edible nest, ghost town, ghost town documentary, abandoned house, mysterious places, abandoned buildings, abandoned ghost town, explore with us

Id: 4HPSOfMsiG0

Length: 52min 37sec (3157 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 17 2020