#  @sabbaticaltommy Sabbatical Sabbatical posts on YouTube about china, travel, russia, adventure the most. They currently have [-------] followers and [---] posts still getting attention that total [------] engagements in the last [--] hours. ### Engagements: [------] [#](/creator/youtube::UCib80j_q5o_C5XsCA9YsAFg/interactions)  - [--] Week [------] +8.70% - [--] Month [-------] -30% - [--] Months [---------] -5.80% - [--] Year [----------] +10% ### Mentions: [---] [#](/creator/youtube::UCib80j_q5o_C5XsCA9YsAFg/posts_active)  - [--] Week [--] +3.30% - [--] Month [--] no change - [--] Months [--] +19% - [--] Year [--] +56% ### Followers: [-------] [#](/creator/youtube::UCib80j_q5o_C5XsCA9YsAFg/followers)  - [--] Week [-------] no change - [--] Month [-------] +0.24% - [--] Months [-------] +6.80% - [--] Year [-------] +14% ### CreatorRank: [-------] [#](/creator/youtube::UCib80j_q5o_C5XsCA9YsAFg/influencer_rank)  ### Social Influence **Social category influence** [countries](/list/countries) [travel destinations](/list/travel-destinations) [finance](/list/finance) [social networks](/list/social-networks) [technology brands](/list/technology-brands) [stocks](/list/stocks) **Social topic influence** [china](/topic/china), [travel](/topic/travel) #2612, [russia](/topic/russia) #2328, [adventure](/topic/adventure) #3322, [the world](/topic/the-world), [if you](/topic/if-you), [media](/topic/media), [link](/topic/link), [history](/topic/history), [the most](/topic/the-most) **Top accounts mentioned or mentioned by** [@uchasrbcsniyrny3wx38pa](/creator/undefined) [@startlivingnow1963](/creator/undefined) [@smallbrainedamerican](/creator/undefined) [@mountainsafire](/creator/undefined) [@orientalpearl](/creator/undefined) [@kidgreatness](/creator/undefined) [@travelingwithmey](/creator/undefined) [@gowithkob](/creator/undefined) [@travelingwithmeysiwvj3v136noyry](/creator/undefined) [@dmvhoodzandnewz](/creator/undefined) [@thesalukievideos](/creator/undefined) [@tuanpeniru](/creator/undefined) **Top assets mentioned** [IBM (IBM)](/topic/ibm) ### Top Social Posts Top posts by engagements in the last [--] hours "I Can Never Go Back To This Country (#217) Check out Odoo to easily build a website: https://www.odoo.com/r/obFm Belarus. If anyone knows this country they probably know it as Russias one ally in Europe. Maybe they know it as Europes last dictatorship (not quite the right term a few countries have joined in recent years). They probably dont know it as an incredibly clean and orderly country thats incredible to travel. They may not know that Belarus is the country to visit to see Soviet Union history even moreso than Russia. Belarusis complicated and I have a weird history with the country. I" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=D20CdfkEdV8) 2025-05-31T10:49Z 849K followers, 471.4K engagements "New York's Poorest Most Forgotten Region: Upstate NY (#187) If youre ever injured in an accident you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch. To start your claim visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/Sabbaticals=86%3A4653 Whenever someone mentions New York people imagine huge towering skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty. They picture an urban jungle the only place in America where you really don't need to own a car. The world knows New York as New York City and if you were to tell someone you grew up on a dairy farm there" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=SWHhgIN2QPU) 2024-06-29T18:20Z 849K followers, 910.2K engagements "I Found The Most Underrated Country In Europe (#195) When I was growing up you never heard much about Eastern Europe other than that it was poor. There was the rich expensive countries of Western Europe like Switzerland and then there were the cheap "backwards" nations like Romania. You went to Western Europe to make money and you went to Eastern Europe for a cheap vacation and that was that. Well one country is really changing up that whole stereotype. What if I told you that there's now a large country in Eastern Europe that has a higher GDP per capita than Spain and Portugal It's an" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z4tKQmZx2EA) 2024-10-01T02:23Z 849K followers, 600.9K engagements "Ukraine Was NOT What I Expected (#226) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Wow. Out of all the trips I've ever taken this was one of the most meaningful. Ukraine. A country that was invaded almost [--] years ago and continues fighting for it's survival until today. Everyone knows about that everyone has seen the news. But what is it like living in Ukraine in [----] What is it like to travel the country where there are no flights What is like to be in a country" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=o-TzbYITvXU) 2025-10-21T15:39Z 849K followers, 1.2M engagements "Staying At A $100 Cartel Resort In Mexico - Private Beach (#222) Check out Odoo to easily manage your business: https://www.odoo.com/r/GNtE Contrary to what many think theres actually two Californias. And Im not talking about left and right. Im talking about BAJA California the California thats in Mexico. It used to be unified with the more famous California in the US when the Mexicans called it Alta California. Its the more heavily trafficked border in the world. Each year there are more than [--] million crossings made. It has a very different feel from the border with Texashere just like" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kd7_AYjdTpQ) 2025-09-13T17:27Z 849K followers, 406.8K engagements "Borat Was A Lie THIS Is Kazakhstan (#200) There may be no country more misunderstood than KAZAKHSTAN. Its international image was defined by a comedy film released [--] years ago. Borat left many people thinking Kazakhstan was some backwater nation in Eastern Europe that holds a Running of the Jew festival every year. BUT THAT IS NOT KAZAKHSTAN Kazakhs have way more in common with the Mongols than they do with Borat. Theyre a tough people who survived life out on the brutally cold Central Asian steppes and then decades of destruction under the Soviet Union. They speak Russian but their native" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=PkUqOTEnpXU) 2024-12-22T23:31Z 849K followers, 406.7K engagements "Nicaragua The Latin Dictatorship No One Mentions (#188) In the middle of Central America situated above Costa Rica and below Honduras lies a country that's been out of the news for a few decades. Older Americans know it from the Sandinistas and the Iran-Contra affair. This is Nicaragua. It's never been as tourist friendly as Costa Rica nor has it been as violent as it's northern neighbors. Nicaragua doesn't fit neatly into a box. The eastern half of the country speaks English a legacy of British colonialism and American intervention. The rest of the country speaks a unique dialect of Spanish." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZC_QRRy8SDw) 2024-07-18T17:36Z 849K followers, 282.2K engagements "Surviving Robbery Extortion Censorship In Congo DRC (#177) Congo. The heart of Africa. A tragic wartorn country that's never able to live up to it's potential. Due to it's turbulent past with brutal colonization by the Belgians under King Leopold and also it's more violent recent history involving it's African neighbors Congo is very wary of outsiders. It's extremely difficult to enter the country -- and also expensive. Something they don't tell you in any guidebook is the amount of money you need to prepare for bribes on the border. Maybe I wasn't ready for the Congo DRC. I had always wanted" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bgSbCmIv-VQ) 2024-02-29T19:51Z 849K followers, 589.6K engagements "Yakuza Takes Me To The Hostess Club In Japan (#137) Check out https://ground.news/sabbatical to stay informed on breaking news as its happening around the world compare coverage and know where your news is coming from. The Yakuza: one of the most well-known criminal groups in the world. Unlike other mafias and gangs the Yakuza were known for doing their business with honor - no matter how illicit those business activities might be. I had the opportunity to meet an ex-Yakuza boss in Fukuoka and I knew I couldn't pass this up. Yuyama-san was a Yakuza for [--] years and although he had left the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=cBCDNhJX3M8) 2022-12-09T04:23Z 849K followers, 3.8M engagements "This is Romania: There's Nowhere F*cking Like it (#230) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. I don't believe there is a nation in Europe with a more tarnished reputation than ROMANIA. Associated with thievery and backwardness Romania hasn't quite made it's name as a world class tourist destination. But hey these were old stereotypes. People change countries change. What is Romania like in [----] Well I took a rather casual trip across the entire nation to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mJGhqcK3JyM) 2025-12-05T15:07Z 849K followers, 500.6K engagements "I Think I Just Found The Best Country In The World (#223) PLAUD AI is amazing Their note taker has been a game-changer for coming up with video ideas note taking and language learning. Get PLAUD Today Use Codesabbaticalfor 20% Off Official website: USA: http://bit.ly/4pKvk64 UK: http://bit.ly/3IFoFt1 Amazon: USA :https://bit.ly/46CHVQ2 UK: https://bit.ly/4mCd1x7 Ah the South Pacific. It's the least visited region in the world mainly because it takes so damn long to get there. I mean even New Zealand is a [--] hour flight away and they're already in the middle of nowhere. But if there's one" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=tGyRGwAQwho) 2025-09-23T09:54Z 849K followers, 271.2K engagements "When An American Meets Iraqis.✌🏼🥲 #sabbatical #iraq It was my first visiting Iraq and what a place to be: Mosul the former capital of ISIS. I never expected to have a conversation like this sabbatical polyglot sabbatical polyglot" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bl9B3BUZxdw) 2026-02-13T13:48Z 849K followers, 10.9K engagements "Inside The Chinese Colony In Laos - Human Trafficking Hell (#167) Laos. It may not be as popular as Thailand but it's definitely on the backpacker circuit. Take a trip to Luang Prabang or Vientiane or almost anywhere in the country and you'll see plenty of European tourists wandering the streets. Except for one place a place that even the Lao people don't want to visit. In the far northwest of the country right in the heart of the Golden Triangle and on the border with Thailand Myanmar and China lies the "Special Economic Zone" of Laos. If you spend just a few minutes there you'll quickly" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Lfck8uHXfIY) 2023-11-17T05:52Z 849K followers, 2M engagements "I Was Arrested And Detained In Far Eastern Russia (#213) I was warned before going to Russia. All of my family and friends tried to convince me not to go fearing the worst if I went. Youre American theyll lock you up for nothing. I wasnt naive but I never seriously believed Russia would arrest a vlogger and accuse him of being an American spy. Sadly they were right and I was wrong. Im going to tell you the story of how I was arrested in Russia and nearly had my life destroyed. This happened in the Jewish Autonomous Region a place that was founded as a homeland for the Jews of Russia and then" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QPU70LcbIGc) 2024-12-05T16:11Z 849K followers, 598.4K engagements "Visiting The Most Hedonistic Country On Earth (#183) Cambodia. I'm not sure what you've heard about this country but after some stressful trips around the world I needed a break. Cambodia has well an interesting reputation. A place where you can find almost anything It even has one of the world's biggest wonders Angkor Wat Perfect place for a little vacation. Sure there's a lot of shady things that have happened in the country as well but we were going to forget that for now. I invited some friends of mine to join and we were off to try everything Cambodia had to offer from Phnom Penh to Siem" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=cYpq-XbfsbI) 2024-05-16T22:48Z 849K followers, 440.3K engagements "This Country Won't Exist Much Longer. (#229) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Transnistria aka Pridnestrovie. The most famous country in the world that doesnt actually exist. Its a Russian speaking breakaway region in Moldova sandwiched right next to Ukraine. Its a bizarre region that exists almost like a time capsule: everywhere you go there you see signs of its past in the Soviet Union. Nowadays youll also see a lot of Russian flags flying" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ow_P2FDvC9E) 2025-11-21T08:59Z 849K followers, 299.8K engagements "I Just Became A Trillionaire In Zimbabwe (#176) Maybe you've heard about inflation in Argentina or Venezuela or 1920s Germany if you're old school. Yeah those countries had a crazy situation but none of them come close to Zimbabwe a country that really puts the hyper in hyperinflation. The largest bill they ever printed which is also the largest in history was [---] trillion dollars which at it's peak was worth $0.80. Nowadays it goes for much more as a collector's item. This was all I had ever heard about Zimbabwe. But that was more the result of one man's poor economic policies. What were the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rh0sYzAVoJc) 2024-02-21T16:42Z 848K followers, 336.3K engagements "Inside The "Country" That Will Never Be A Country (#232) Go to https://buyraycon.com/sabbaticalOPEN to get 20% off sitewide. Thanks to Raycon for sponsoring If you visit Istanbul many people will tell you to stay away from eastern Turkey. Thats the Kurdish homeland the lands once roamed by the PKKbut its also Mesopotamia the birthplace of human civilization and home to ruins and history thats important to all of us. I for better or worse lack the ability to stay from dangerous regions so of course I was going to visit. But I had a hunch that Kurdistan wasnt so violent anymore. I wanted to see" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=wM6LTxwVZGc) 2026-01-14T13:00Z 849K followers, 158.5K engagements ""North Korea Is GREAT" (#207) Extra content and extended videos available on Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy There is one country that is so absurd so mysterious and also so evil that it captures peoples' attention more than any other nation: North Korea. A communist dictatorship whose family dynasty has continuously been in power since the 50s North Korea is unlike anywhere else. And now it has nukes You would think they would've fallen by now. But no they still exisit almost entirely thanks to China (and Russia). And China has a very long border with NK even longer than the border" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6TJ7R9RViiQ) 2025-03-01T02:42Z 849K followers, 448.8K engagements "Inside China's Gangster Paradise In Cambodia (#184) Go to https://expressvpn.com/sabbatical and find out how you can get [--] months of ExpressVPN FREE. It was time for a beach vacation. Unfortunately the place I chose was Sihanoukville in Cambodia which has developed a bit of a bad reputation over the past decade. --------- Meys channel: https://youtube.com/@Travelingwithmeysi=Wvj3V-1_36NoY-Ry Credit to Jim Browning for some images used in this video. Cambodian Odyssey by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution [---] license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=9OX63krRwx8) 2024-06-08T06:08Z 849K followers, 1.2M engagements "African Kid Sees White Guy Thinks He's A Ghost (#51) One day on a casual hike through the Rwenzori mountains in western Uganda we stumbled upon a secluded village that apparently doesn't get many visitors from abroad. I mean like none. The reactions to seeing a muzungu (white person) for the first time were.well let's just say unexpected. ----- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommyfan_landing=true #sabbatical #africa #uganda sabbatical uganda africa black white race relations african children african kids white and black white people black people village life" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=A7kJg2_7A0Y) 2021-06-12T08:00Z 849K followers, 19.2M engagements "You Should Never Visit Russia. But I Did Anyway (#196) Russia. After the invasion began they were effectively shut off from the Western world. Flights between Europe and Russia were halted. Trade was stopped. Most border crossings were closed. And yet I found myself at one of the few crossings that remained open: Narva in far eastern Estonia. I had never been to Russia and as an American now definitely wasn't the best time to change that. But no one knows what the future may hold. I was on a trip across Eurasia and there was no way I could just ignore the world's largest country. I spent a" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HU9ko7xDlpI) 2024-10-11T15:08Z 849K followers, 797.4K engagements "China Is Hiding a BIG Secret.(#211) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. In the far far north of China right on the border between China and Russia lies a region with a very interesting history. This is an area that used to be controlled by the Russians. Harbin one of China's major cities used to be majority Russian; and there are towns where you'll find an unexpected minority group: the "Russian Chinese" people of Russian descent who only speak Mandarin" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=OVAn67cVoJQ) 2025-04-07T15:02Z 849K followers, 245.7K engagements "Everyone Told Me Germany Sucks Now But Actually. (#194) DEUTSCHLAND That's Germany if you prefer. Germany has had a.complicated past one could say. Barely [--] years ago it emerged from the Cold War reunited--the two former halves of West Germany and East Germany joined back together to from the economic powerhouse that dominates the EU today. But who are the Germans exactly I had always heard they were cold serious and always working. They said it was hard to make friends there. And it recent times they say the country is now overrun with migrants like the rest of Europe. Well like anywhere" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=PAgsE_MUN70) 2024-09-25T00:25Z 849K followers, 547K engagements "Stuck At China's Border - Not Allowed To Enter (#202) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. China China China. A country I know fairly well as I lived there for more than [--] years. But we were trying to enter a part of China I had never visited and one that was still fairly mysterious to me: Xinjiang the home of the Uyghurs. Being that I was on a trip where I would only cross land borders from Europe to Asia I would have to do the same crossing from" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=SRt7pOQxvt0) 2025-01-02T04:09Z 849K followers, 439.6K engagements "NO ONE Visits This US Territory - American Samoa (#224) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. The USA is gigantic. Most Americans aren't even aware of all the lands it controls around the world. And there's no better of example of this than American Samoa . Distant and isolated from the US mainland American Samoa generally flies pretty low under the radar. Even Guam is more famous. If anyone has heard of it at all it might be for the strangely large number" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bj2dJwKtiuY) 2025-09-27T11:02Z 849K followers, 851.6K engagements "So This Is The Place We're Gonna Fight WW3 Over (#218) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. World War [--]. Thats a pretty scary phrase right up there with the words "nuclear apocalypse". And if you watch the news youll notice they always say it might start in one place: Taiwan. Taiwan is wonderful and Ive been there many times. Friendly people great food beautiful nature (and people). But its also the center of a massive geopolitical conflict. Taiwan is also" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nbvfBfu06KQ) 2025-07-07T02:03Z 849K followers, 854.3K engagements "Visiting The Least Conservative Muslim Nation (#231) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Turkey. Or is it Trkiye I think for most people they look at Turkey on a map and just see another country in the Middle East. That leads you to assume a few things. I know I did. But this is truly one of those countries you have to go and explore yourself to fully understand. It's huge. It's bigger than Texas. And the people come in all different lifestyles from" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nzv8GzceFxk) 2025-12-16T13:31Z 849K followers, 238.2K engagements ""There's No More Men In Russia" (#199) Up until very recent history Russia was home to a significant German minority. They had come in different waves starting in the 1800s but their epicenter ended up being the area of Russia around modern day Kazakhstan. Most were forcefully moved there during Soviet times and most also chose to leave after the fall of the USSR to go to Germany. These people are Russian but their ancestry is German.I had arrived in Omsk a city virtually unknown to the West. I didn't know much about it either but I did know about Russia's strange German history. I wanted to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qNEims5mjIo) 2024-11-26T15:35Z 849K followers, 2.1M engagements "Paramaribo: The Coolest City You've Never Heard Of (#108) If you look at a map of South America very carefully you'll notice a little country called Suriname in the top right corner. They don't speak Spanish there. They surprisingly speak Dutch along with a ton of other languages. Gone are the Latin influences instead you find touches of Indonesia India China Holland and West Africa. It's a fascinating place and I was going to start with the capital Paramaribo to get a better understanding of it. Thankfully there was plenty of food and Parbo beer waiting for me. But first I had to learn Dutch" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qbXphR6JjW8) 2022-03-16T17:00Z 849K followers, 527.1K engagements "This is the Former Capital of ISIS #sabbatical #mosul #iraq Less than a decade ago Mosul was the capital of the Islamic State. It was the place where the former leader of ISIS Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi made his only public appearance. When Iraq went to retake the city ISIS destroyed it including a [----] year old mosque sabbatical polyglot iraq mosul isis sabbatical polyglot iraq mosul isis" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vdKffHw5AUg) 2026-02-13T22:00Z 849K followers, 20.9K engagements "I Went To The Most Hated Unsafe City In Europe (#193) If you're from the Americas it's hard to find anywhere in Europe that's not worth a visit. Sure London and Paris might have a few rough spots but on the whole the continent is way more organized clean and safe than most other places. Unfortunately the capital of Europe seems to want to buck that trend. It truly is a unique city: one divided between two languages and peoples. It's dirty not particularly nice looking and dangerous--right in the heart of the city. Welcome to Brussels and Belgium. This wasn't what I expected. --------" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xvSEy66_zB0) 2024-09-10T19:23Z 849K followers, 883.9K engagements "The "Indonesia" Hidden In Suriname (#111) Suriname a country like no other. In the 1800's the Dutch were looking for labor to replace the slaves they brought from Africa. This led to a contract program that brought over thousands of Indonesians from the island of Java. These "Javanese-Surinamese" would go on to have a big impact on the country's culture and food. Being that their arrival in South America was such a unique situation I wanted to learn a bit more about their history. I decided to best way to do this was by visiting a fun food market and then an abandoned plantation where a" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KBhQNUVnVQo) 2022-04-03T18:29Z 849K followers, 404.4K engagements "Visiting The Homeless Capital Of The World - Absolutely Shocking (#221) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Los Angeles the city of angels. Or so that's what they say. It's the 2nd largest city in the US with over [--] million people within it's metro area and it attracts millions of visitors annually from around the world. But what defines Los Angeles really Is it Hollywood Santa Monica Compton Traveling from one end of the massive sprawling city to the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KEWMiutmaNY) 2025-08-27T13:07Z 849K followers, 281.2K engagements "I Found Love On The Great Wall Of China (#205) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Ah the Great Wall of China. Although it's not true that you can see it from space it still remains in my opinion the coolest manmade wonder of the world. Of course every wall has a beginning and an end. And I wanted to see the END of the wall. So I dragged Mr. Small Brained American along against his will to go climb the wall with me. Feeling a bit under the weather he" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=fI6a7aYSKlc) 2025-02-08T16:59Z 849K followers, 491.4K engagements ""You Americans Want To Attack China" (#204) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. The US-China relationship is a complicated one to say the least. There's talk of war in the future and yet we trade with each other we visit each other and even go to live in each others' countries. There's just some things that US and China never seem to see eye and eye on though. One of those is Xinjiang and the treatment of the Uyghur minority. China says it had to lockdown" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=tTl4Dbtc7HI) 2025-01-27T04:44Z 849K followers, 491.8K engagements "Jakarta In Indonesia Is My New Favorite City (#149) Jakarta. Indonesia. Considering it's one of the world's largest megacities you don't hear much about it. Fresh off the plane having learned some Indonesian and read a bit of the country's history I decided to go out and get my first impressions of the place and make the BEST TRAVEL VLOG EVER of Jakarta. Things went much better than I expected. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy #sabbatical #indonesia #jakarta" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1MbiERmlj2w) 2023-04-26T14:10Z 847K followers, 273.4K engagements "Ethiopia Broke ALL Of My Expectations (#171) Ethiopia the pride of Africa. Home to an amazing and very distinct culture that everyone should experience at least once in their lives. And when you go to Ethiopia top of the list on places to visit is Lalibela the home of the rock churches. It's something that seems out of this world. Unfortunately Ethiopia is also to almost constant conflict. Civil wars border disputes you name it. When I arrived in the country a new battle had just broken out -- between the FANO militia representing the Amharas and the Ethiopian government. Even more" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=AFt2XT84oJM) 2023-12-22T15:48Z 838K followers, 633.2K engagements "I Didn't Know So Paulo Was So Italian (#118) So Paulo. The megacity of not just Brazil but all of Latin America. If you're flying to Brazil this is typically the only way in and the only way out. I didn't quite know what to expect: we're used to hearing about favelas and robberies in the country which leads one to imagine a disorganized city barely holding it together. That's not So Paulo. There's way more money here than you'd expect and many parts looks as modern as anywhere else in the world. There's the largest Italian and Japanese diasporas in the world. It's a thriving city on the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HwqiTsMHNU8) 2022-06-11T16:26Z 845K followers, 245.3K engagements "Hong Kong Will Never Be The Same (#140) Get 25% off Blinkist premium and enjoy [--] memberships for the price of [--] Start your 7-day free trial by clicking here: https://www.blinkist.com/sabbaticaltommy Hong Kong. A city I know all too well. I didn't expect to be able to visit in [----] or at any point in the near future. But when the Hong Kong government announced the borders were opening and the quarantine would be dropped I knew I had to go find out how much the place had changed. I last visited in [----] a tumultuous year for the city to say the least. So many things had happened since then and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=J0xtUlbocyI) 2023-01-13T21:00Z 837K followers, 680.3K engagements ""Living In India Is Like Being In A Video Game" (#180) India is more than just a country. It's like a universe in of itself: the culture religion languages and everything else is all completely unique. Even the English they speak And there was no better place to explore than Kolkata (Calcutta) India's former capital. It's known as one of the most crowded and chaotic cities in the country. They mainly speak Bengali not Hindi. And in spite of it's history of educational achievement it has a very Dum.Dum neighborhood that I wanted to explore. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=LW3n9zfQMvI) 2024-04-12T13:47Z 836K followers, 351.8K engagements "So Is This The Rural China They Wanted To Hide (#158) China. You often hear that the big cities are great but the countryside is still extremely poor. Having lived in China for almost [--] years but mostly in Shanghai I wasn't really sure how true that was. There was only one way to find out: it was time to go island hopping. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy #sabbatical #china #ningbo" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Nr1W7h1j99w) 2023-09-04T18:19Z 847K followers, 1.5M engagements "China Built A Fake London What's Inside (#157) If you travel into the suburbs of Hangzhou you'll be greeted by a curious sight: a full-length replica of the Eiffel Tower along with a knockoff Champs-lyses from Paris to go along with it. There's nowhere else in the world that you could've found someone with enough money and a lack of common sense to build such a thing. Only in China and I'm grateful for their strange decision. In fact there's not just a fake Eiffel Tower there's also a fake England Germany and apparently even Wyoming. These unique property developments were all over the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=b51PNIPdCDQ) 2023-08-28T12:24Z 848K followers, 642.8K engagements "On The Road To Morocco's Rif(er) Mountains (#122) Ready for a cross country adventure in Morocco I decided to travel from Tangier a port city overlooking Europe to Chefchaouen in the Rif Mountains. This whole region was famous for numerous things: wars between continents amazing views the Berber language and culture and most especially for having a lot of hash farms. I wasn't sure what I'd find on this trip but it was time to find out. We would find out along the way if I could integrate myself with the Amazigh or Berber people. Or would I just get overcharged at the tourist shops. --------" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=c7t0lZFY3ns) 2022-07-20T20:02Z 835K followers, 136.6K engagements "Visiting This Country Is Like Going Back In Time (#175) This place isn't Italy. It isn't Cuba and it's not the Middle East either. This is Eritrea and there's nowhere else like it on earth. Due to a history of colonization by Italy and near-constant war with it's neighbor Ethiopia this country has a very distinctive look--and it feels like it hasn't changed in [--] years. After visiting the capital city of Asmara it was time to tour the entire country. We would visit lands that very few foreigners have seen--at least in the last [--] years. Ruins and remains from the Ottomans Egyptians Italians" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=dfVcnfaVKnI) 2024-02-12T22:24Z 842K followers, 407.5K engagements "I Was Forced Into Polygamy in Rural Tanzania (#37) This is a story of love in a hopeless place. It takes place in Rombo in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro and hours away from Moshi. One man in search of banana liquor (mbege) stumbles upon a situation that will change his life. On this day he will take the first steps to becoming a true Chagga man with more than one wife. #tanzania #sabbatical #chagga ----- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommyfan_landing=true" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=jkbUxZ4A3CI) 2021-04-30T16:00Z 848K followers, 8.5M engagements "Inside The "North Korea" of Africa : How It Really Is (#174) You may not have heard of this country but perhaps youve seen it by another name: the North Korea of Africa. But that doesnt quite tell the full story. Theres nowhere like Eritrea in Africa or in the world for that matter. Its a place where everyone must serve in the military a place where most people have never used the internet and a place where people have to stay in their lane or else. But its also a country of extremely friendly and welcoming people. Its very safe you can walk any street in the country without a care in the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=lAHumbL12Z8) 2024-01-31T13:55Z 819K followers, 540.7K engagements "America's Capital Is A Warzone: Washington DC Into The Trenches (#185) Stop data brokers from exposing your personal information. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sabbatical to get a 14-day free trial and see how much of yours is being sold. Washington DC. Home to the President of the United States who is arguably the most powerful person in the world. It's also home to one of the most dangerous cities in America. Or at least that's what I heard growing up. Nowadays the property prices have gone through the roof and the demographics keep changing. And yet the drive-by shootings and violence" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=leruHQ8Ja7k) 2024-06-19T18:47Z 849K followers, 334.3K engagements "This Chinese City Is The Capital of Knockoff Goods (#160) Check out Magic AI to plan your next trip: https://www.magictravel.ai/r=sabbatical "The world's factory". The place where people eat anything. In the West if people know this city at all they know it as Canton. In Africa everyone knows it as Gwang Zuu that city in China that all the Africans move to - and in [----] it became a place that many Africans were deported from. In China this city is known as Guangzhou the capital of Cantonese culture and China's 3rd biggest city. The main language here isn't Mandarin - it's Cantonese. It was" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=pAjzCdxCeag) 2023-09-26T11:16Z 742K followers, 467K engagements "Why Does No One Visit This City This is Mwanza (#42) Located on Tanzania's side of Lake Victoria sits Mwanza the "Rock City". That nickname has nothing to do with music as you'll see. Instead you'll find Tanzania's largest tribe and ethnic group the Sukuma amidst a beautiful backdrop of houses built between stones. On this day my target was an old colonial German mansion built before World War I. #sabbatical #mwanza #tanzania" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qtQmubKtZe4) 2021-05-13T17:30Z 833K followers, 105K engagements "Is This Somalia Kenya's Unknown Somali State (#71) It was time for a journey to Garissa Kenya's border with Somalia. Starting in Eastleigh the famous "Little Somalia" of Nairobi I found a bus that would make the [--] hour journey to the northeast. Kenyans had told me that Garissa was dangerous that there was terrorism that I could be kidnapped. It was hard to tell fact from fiction but I was dead set on meeting the Somalis of Kenya. #sabbatical #kenya #africa" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rMiUTdqPIv4) 2021-08-19T09:00Z 845K followers, 162.6K engagements "This is Hungary - The Country That Doesn't Give a Fu** (#225) Get 64% off Proton VPN now - https://www.protonvpn.com/sabbaticaltommy Hungary. A country that is often better known by it's capital city Budapest. It was my first time visiting the country and although I had done my research nothing prepares you properly more for the Hungarian lifestyle than being there yourself. Who knew there was a valley of beautiful women there Turkish baths Monuments to losing a war against the Mongols Soviet influences Roma dominated hoods In Hungary you had to expect the unexpected. This was my journey" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vVvz3lHJdLI) 2025-10-11T11:39Z 847K followers, 551K engagements "Is This Africa Or South America Suriname's Maroons (#109) Suriname is a very interesting country. Hundreds of years ago escaped slaves hid in the Amazon rainforest forming new tribes out of people that came from various parts of Africa. Today these villages still speak African languages and maintain some of the traditions from the continent. These are the Maroon villages and there's nothing like them anywhere else. You could say it's "the most African place outside of Africa". Feeling a bit nostalgic for Africa after my travels in Tanzania Kenya Uganda Rwanda and Nigeria I was happy to visit" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=wDQxNeY-2fE) 2022-03-27T02:21Z 819K followers, 231.2K engagements "Walking Into Japan's Most Feared Yakuza Slum (#135) Well this was a change of pace. After journeying across Africa I hopped on a flight from Uganda to go across the globe all the way to Japan. The Japanese government had just opened the borders to foreigners and I being the cunning Gaijin that I am knew that it was time to go and fulfill my dream of becoming a Yakuza. First stop The Nishinari slum in Osaka. Known as Japan's last remaining slum it has an infamous reputation across Japan as being it's most chaotic sketchy crime-filled neighborhood. There were multiple Yakuza offices or" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ygqxPqBSxC0) 2022-11-19T17:13Z 839K followers, 2.7M engagements "Paris Became A Police State--And Wow It Changed (#191) When you are traveling HOLAFLY is an excellent option to have internet. Check out their packages and get a 5% discount here: https://esim.holafly.com/ref=&discount=SABBATICAL&utm_source=sabbatical_youtube&utm_medium=affiliation&utm_campaign=olympics Discount code: SABBATICAL Paris. Oh la la. If there's one city that everyone knows it's this one. And with the Olympics being held here in [----] a city normally swarming with tourists.had less of them Lately Paris has been in the news for all of the wrong reasons: protests riots migrants rising" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=FIUU-g9eWIY) 2024-08-27T20:54Z 849K followers, 368.5K engagements "Looking For The "Devil Worshippers" in Iraq (#233) Head to https://drinkag1.com/sabbaticaltommy to get FREE AG1 & AGZ Travel Packs Vitamin D3+K2 and an AG1 Welcome Kit when you first subscribe Iraq. America. I think it's safe to say these two countries haven't always had the best of relations. But for better or worse I was an American on a trip through the Middle East and I had always wanted to see Iraq. That's no exaggeration. As a polyglot of sorts Arabic was the first language I ever studied. During the height of the fighting during the Iraq War I dreamed of a chance to the see the country" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=FxDZNmB-5RE) 2026-01-24T15:22Z 849K followers, 191.2K engagements ""These Hillbillies Are Shooting Each Other" Life In West Virginia (#186) If youre ever injured in an accident you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch. To start your claim visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/Sabbaticals=86%3A4653 West Virginia. Often derided as the poorest and most backwards state in the US it's a land dotted with mountains and abandoned coal mines. For me as someone born in New York it was like a whole other universe. I wanted to go experience culture shock in my own country--and I wasn't expecting what I" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HdJbV0GeSbg) 2024-06-26T02:33Z 849K followers, 1.6M engagements "I Didn't Expect This In Asia's Newest Country (#152) The first [----] people to use the link will get a [--] month free trial of Skillshare: https://skl.sh/sabbatical05231 There are officially [---] countries in the world today. Chances are you don't know all of them and chances are even better you don't know Timor-Leste (East Timor). A tiny majority Catholic nation located right in the middle of the majority Muslim Indonesian archipelago it became the newest country in Asia in [----]. But to get independence it had to go through some real shiiiii. I arrived there on the day of a solar eclipse." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=JJW7rJs_cCY) 2023-05-30T17:29Z 849K followers, 434.9K engagements "Back In China Already Being Followed (#203) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Kashgar. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and a former stop on the Silk Road. The heart of Uyghur culture and the former capital of several Uyghur empires. And I wish the description could end right there. For nowadays its part of Xinjiang perhaps the most heavily policed region in the world. I wasnt sure what it would be like to meet the Uyghurs." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=LQGvzrDa_wc) 2025-01-10T18:32Z 849K followers, 541.9K engagements "Found Where North Koreans Escape.They Arrested Us (#209) Thank you Straight Arrow News for sponsoring Go to https://san.com/sabbatical to stay fully informed. Subscribe through my link and/or download the app There is perhaps no greater tragedy in the world than the life of a North Korean. From what we know life is brutally repressive there--and for the people who can they try to escape. And there's only one realistic escape path: going across the Tumen River into China. No foreigners have tried to document this and it turns out there's a very frightening reason why. This was our fateful" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=POL88yzYsU0) 2025-03-21T01:56Z 849K followers, 505.5K engagements "I Met The Family of Nazis Who Fled to Argentina (#99) Far from the bustling capital of Buenos Aires in Argentina lies Bariloche a scenic resort town that feels like it was pulled right out of the Swiss Alps or maybe Austria. German settlers arrived here in large numbers in the early 1900s and they were later followed by a more questionable group of immigrants - Nazis fleeing prosecution after World War [--]. All of the most prominent Nazi commanders and scientists came here some if only for a brief period. There was even a conspiracy that Hitler himself escaped here. I decided I would have to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QiRoHd4cEEI) 2022-01-06T17:15Z 849K followers, 2.7M engagements "This Is The End (#215) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Hokkaido. It's Japan's coldest snowiest region and also home to the most northern and eastern points of the country. It's also the only place where you can see the islands that Russia took from Japan after WW2 the Kurils. The Japanese still consider them to be Japanese territory. But I was on my own personal mission in Hokkaido to finish a journey I had began [--] months earlier all the way across" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=c85jsi7NcQg) 2025-05-13T01:00Z 849K followers, 420.6K engagements "It's Time For Me To Be Honest About Who I Really Am. (#219) Download the Nomad eSIM app at https://www.getnomad.app/utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=online&utm_campaign=sabbaticaltommy and get 20% off any data plan by using my code: NOMTOMMY In my [--] years on Youtube I've been through a lot. I've been to places I never thought I'd go in my life and lived through enough near-death experiences to last me for [--] lives. But some think this is no coincidence. Some think that I've been specially trained to go on missions around the world perhaps paid for by a government agency. Well it's time to address" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=lMXKEJuPLlI) 2025-07-31T14:14Z 849K followers, 354.4K engagements "You Can ONLY Do This In MONGOLIA 🐎 (#165) The Mongols. Genghis Khan. The largest land empire the world has ever known. This is a land home to people who really punched above their weight. But that was history what's going on in modern Mongolia Are the traditions still going strong After finishing my summer trip around China I decided to pay a quick visit to China's greatest rival. I was not disappointed. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy #sabbatical #mongolia #ulanbaatar sabbatical polyglot mongolia mongolia vlog ulaanbaatar ulaanbaatar" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=maGNwyUKyoM) 2023-10-29T19:50Z 849K followers, 285.6K engagements "Now THIS Is How You Have a Wild Night In Japan (#216) ft @OrientalPearl @SmallBrainedAmerican Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Yokohama. Historically it was the port of entry for many into Japan--including the Chinese. It's also home to the largest slum area in Japan a place where the homeless and downtrodden are pushed into. I'm always interested in the lesser known people and places of a country. In Japan that's Chinese and Korean Japanese who due to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=s-y2wYL4LW4) 2025-05-26T04:15Z 849K followers, 244.2K engagements "Inside The 3rd Korea - Not North Not South (#208) Get 64% off Proton VPN now - https://www.protonvpn.com/sabbaticaltommy North Korea South Korea. Weve all heard of the two Koreas and their eternal struggle. Far lesser known is the Third Korea where millions of people still speak Korean and maintain Korean customs. Where is the 3rd Korea you might ask In China. There you will find a region known as the Korean Autonomous Zone right on the border with North Korea. And the most important "Korean" site of all - Mt. Paektu or Changbaishan - is shared between the two countries. While traveling" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xCBporE4eOU) 2025-03-12T22:53Z 849K followers, 238.7K engagements "Inside China's New Capital They Built In A Week (#206) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. National Day Probably the most popular holiday in China being that everyone gets a week off to go travel. Just don't make the mistake of going to Beijing during this time; it gets jam packed with visitors from the rest of the country. .oh shii that's exactly where I was. Well best to make the most of it then. I had been to Beijing many times before but this time I" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xLAijHBrspM) 2025-02-14T03:55Z 849K followers, 291.9K engagements "This Is A Border You're Not Supposed To Visit. (#210) Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans Use code SABBATICAL at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/sabbatical There are some borders that foreigners aren't supposed to visit. The tri-border between China Russia and North Korea was a grey area: we had heard that if you weren't Chinese you couldn't go. But we also heard that it might be possible. It was hard to be optimistic. We already been arrested once on the North Korean border and stopped countless times. But this was a truly interesting place. The axis" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xjsClBLk0w8) 2025-03-27T22:26Z 849K followers, 291.1K engagements "Inside Spain's Exclave In Africa (#124) Sometimes you just never know what to expect in Africa. I was in the far north of Morocco on a very unusual border -- a border with Spain not in Europe but on the African continent. This was the Spanish exclave of Ceuta which borders the Moroccan town of Fnidiq on the other side. What a strange situation I thought. Your first thought might be hey why does Spain still have colonies there But the truth is a bit more complicated -- Ceuta is considered as Spanish as any other part of Spain. .which is only a problem when you consider some controversial" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=yD_Cbgn09k8) 2022-07-29T08:58Z 849K followers, 458.3K engagements "I Found The City With The Best Crack In Ireland ☘ (#189) Go to https://sponsr.is/zbiotics_sabbatical or scan the QR code and get 15% off your first order of ZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic by using my code SABBATICAL at checkout. Thanks to ZBiotics for sponsoring todays video Ireland . A beautiful country that just can't ever seem to find peace. After centuries of struggle with the British for their own independence Ireland is now richer than their former rulers--but not without some new issues. Prices are extreme housing supply is low and as more and more migrants arrive in Ireland the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6Gef7m4FqZM) 2024-08-08T21:12Z 849K followers, 345.7K engagements "I Rented A Girlfriend And An Obese Man In Tokyo (#153) Tokyo. It's the largest city in the world with a million different things to see and do. But what happens when you're in the city all by yourself and have no friends Fear not Japan has you covered. Japan is the only country in the world where you can rent people for a few hours to do just about anything. You can "rent" everything from a fake friend to a fake girlfriend to even an overweight person who will eat more than you at the restaurant and let you feel better about yourself. Don't ask me why these things exist. They do and I wanted" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=e1pU3jkXSgw) 2023-06-10T16:04Z 849K followers, 1.1M engagements "I Crossed Into Russia from ChinaBig Mistake (#212) Check out Odoo to easily build a website: https://www.odoo.com/r/Dno Russia. In October of [----] just before I was arrested and accused of being a spy I entered the country through China's northern border. This was my 2nd time in Russia and being that the 1st time had passed with no problems whatsoever I was more than a bit naive. This time I was entering Russia's Far East a place where the police and FSB almost never see Westerners and suspicion ran deep. This video is my journey across both sides of the border: how Russia's influence affects" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=yZq7TChsCMQ) 2025-04-24T21:31Z 849K followers, 987.2K engagements "You Need To Risk Your Life To Visit This Country ✈ (#201) Kyrgyzstan If Kazakhstan is only known internationally because of Borat Kyrgyzstan might only be known because of that one Vice documentary on bride kidnappings. The Central Asian states just havent gotten the best publicity. Well I was happy to try and change that as long as everything went well. After all it's a beautiful country in the mountains with breathtaking scenery and friendly locals (most of whom never kidnap anyone). Join me and another Small Brained American in exploring this mysterious nation. SBA's channel:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3sIkAVFk-sM) 2024-12-28T04:44Z 849K followers, 367K engagements "Visiting The Poorest Country in Europe (#228) Go to https://www.getnomad.app to stay connected in over [---] countries without needing a physical SIM. Use my code NOMTOMMY to get 20% off your first eSIM. What springs to mind when you think of Europe Probably Paris Rome or maybe a Greek island. You might even imagine a country like Poland or Bulgaria if you're into geography. But most people never think of Moldova which according to most stats is the poorest and least visited country in Europe. For such a tiny nation it has an incredibly political situation: there are multiple independent or" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=CECyYtnRcxY) 2025-11-12T09:02Z 849K followers, 345.7K engagements "I Fell in Love in Ukraine (#227) War.that is all we hear from Ukraine these days. And without a doubt war is ever present on the mind of every Ukranian as drones strike their cities almost everyday. But Ukranians also continue amazingly to live their lives. There is an amazing country that's been forgotten after the years of their war of defense. No one tells you about the varied landscapes the country offers; mountains plains and even beaches in the south. Magnificent cities with thousands of years of history. And a population with a resilience and sense of humor like no other. In spite of" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eQMZI7H6xo4) 2025-11-01T01:28Z 849K followers, 580.7K engagements "Something Strange Is Happening On The US-Mexico Border (#220) Download the Airalo app and get $3 off your first eSIM with my code TOMMY3: https://try.airalo.com/sabbaticaltommy The Mexican border. There is perhaps no other border more infamous than the one the US shares with its southern neighbor. For decades it's been known as a transit point for drugs and illegal migrants slipping right past the US Border Patrol. It's always had a bit of a dangerous reputation with the cartel lurking right on the other side. Well you could consider me a bit of a border expert (or at least I've been detained" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=obGZGLc1TfA) 2025-08-20T17:37Z 849K followers, 688K engagements "Imprisoned In Russia Accused Of Being A Spy - Full Story (#214) When we all think of nightmare scenarios abroad there are few worse than being locked up in Russia as a Westerner. Unfortunately that was the nightmare that I would have to endure. In this video I'll tell the story of how this happened how the Russian police use corrupt and backhanded tactics to imprison an innocent person and what it's like to be in a Russian prison. I'm not happy to have to tell this story. I always try to find the good in a nation which usually lies in it's people. But this video is a warning to anyone who" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=pZzXEJ3bcw4) 2024-12-15T19:20Z 849K followers, 1.1M engagements "Wanna See The Real France YOU NEED TO LEAVE PARIS (#192) France. Lately all we've heard is doom and gloom how the France of memory is disappearing. Well the problem is most people just go to Paris when they visit France and Paris.has a few issues. If you really wanna see France you've gotta get out into the country. The country is overflowing with historical places to explore. We're talking World War [--] and the beaches of Normandy. The Hundred Years War and Joan of Arc in Rouen. The Battle of Tours/Poitiers one of Europe's most legendary battles. There are languages you've probably never heard" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rWSdIEYSi6I) 2024-09-03T05:48Z 849K followers, 391.6K engagements ""You Americans Are The Reason We're In Ukraine" (#197) I made a sidetrip to the Baltics and Belarus and I'll be posting it on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy Russia these days is sadly only known for one thing. But have you ever heard of Tatarstan It's the homeland of Russia's largest minority group: the Tatars. In fact it's a republic with it's own language and religion. Tatarstan is a Muslim republic but it feels distinctly different from the other Islamic areas of Russia like Chechnya and Dagestan. I was on a journey across Eurasia I had decided to take trains to traverse" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zoyfa3UfNdU) 2024-10-20T01:40Z 849K followers, 550.1K engagements "The Real Reason That I Hate Kenya (#74) It was my last day in Kenya and it was time to be honest. I had to speak my mind. There were some things that the world really needed to know about the country and I was going to be the man to tell them. I decided to do this during a casual walk around Westlands and then later on a not so casual insane rushed drive to the airport to catch my flight out. It ended up being quite a day. #sabbatical #kenya #farewell" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-DX5rNBr-M4) 2021-08-26T16:00Z 752K followers, 337.3K engagements ""They Hijacked My Bus. Then Burned It" Trouble In Northern Ireland (#190) It turns out there's two Irelands. One is the Republic the other is Northern Ireland which is still part of the UK and fiercely proud of it. Growing up I heard about the Troubles and all the mindless violence that took place in the North. The Catholics/Republicans wanted to be part of Ireland the Protestants/Unionists wanted to be part of the UK. But what was this place really all about I didn't know anyone when I showed up. But by pure coincidence I arrived on one of the biggest (and most controversial) holidays in" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=0a-vlWpavzM) 2024-08-13T22:32Z 849K followers, 452.1K engagements ""If You're Foreign Don't Walk The Streets Here" (#105) If you're one of the rare souls who decides to take a trip to Guyana the least visited country in the Americas chances are your first stop will be Georgetown the capital city. With a population of only around [------] it looks and feels almost like a small town. But this city is no joke. With the newfound oil wealth driving prices up crime is starting to skyrocket. Although everyone in Guyana suffers from theft American oil workers and Chinese merchants in particular are hunted in the streets by muggers. I was no oil worker but I was" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3pORAa66YTk) 2023-10-17T21:30Z 525K followers, 429.5K engagements "Meeting the Indian Tanzanian Community (#34) Tanzania's largest ethnic minority the Indo-Tanzanian community has lived in the country for hundreds of years some going back to even the Middle Ages. Many are descended from traders or indentured laborers from the state of Gujarat. The largest community is in Kisutu and Upanga in Dar es Salaam. Their history is complicated and sometimes tragic but no one can deny they are Tanzanian. #tanzania #sabbatical #india" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5BaIsJOBxfY) 2023-10-18T18:41Z 588K followers, 334.5K engagements "You'll NEVER Guess What I Found In Ethiopia (#172) Happy New Year Get 25% off Blinkist Annual premium Start your 7-day free trial by clicking the link here: https://bit.ly/SabbaticalDec23 Happy New Year Ethiopia isn't quite on the same calendar as everyone else and they do things their own way. They've got their own coffee -- hell they invented it. They've got their own ahem stimulants 🍃. They've even got their own questionable local liquor made out of honey. Perhaps as a result you can find some pretty unique people from around the world there. They even have a community of Rastafarians" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=93WiRwqxicc) 2023-12-31T17:15Z 808K followers, 895.8K engagements "Russian Beach in Zanzibar (#29) Tourism is booming in Zanzibar again and it's mostly thanks to Eastern Europe. Russians and Ukranians have been pouring into Zanzibar by the truckloads recently and the Zanzibaris are rushing to learn Russian. I traveled to Kendwa and Nungwi in the north to see what was up. #zanzibar #tanzania #sabbatical" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=9GygPWbUpK0) 2021-03-20T16:55Z 693K followers, 650.1K engagements "I Had To Leave China (#164) There is a region in Yunnan province in rural China where the Mosuo people live. The Mosuo are shall we say quite a distinct group of people. They're known as one of the only truly matriarchal societies in the world: women run the show and men are just kinda there helping out. But is that still the case in [----] Have the cultural traditions withered away as they have in so many other regions of China I wanted to visit and find out. Most importantly I wanted to see I could offer myself into the harem. -------- This video uses clips from a documentary called "Tisese:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=AOSZBGfBtic) 2023-10-22T18:36Z 692K followers, 317.6K engagements "You Won't Believe What China Is Doing In Ghana (#128) As a foreigner who lived in China for many years I'm always happy (and a bit curious) to find the different Chinese communities now spread across Africa. Contrary to a lot of news reports about debt traps and other issues China's influence in Ghana has been mostly positive. In fact Ghana has one of the oldest and largest Chinese communities in all of Africa. But of course there's always more to the story. After a tour of the local Chinatown I decided to finally visit the palace of the king of the Ashanti. I was hoping to get a glimpse of" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=BlTGL5gZ3Ek) 2022-09-11T19:39Z 693K followers, 657.9K engagements "Walking The Real Streets of Accra Ghana (#126) Ghana. If you ask anyone about Ghana they'll probably have good things to say. It's a great place to start if you've never traveled to Africa before. And if you do visit Accra will be your starting point. Most people arrive here and have a taxi whisk them from tourist site to another and I can't fault 'em for that. But I'm someone who likes to get a real feel for a place when I visit. So I decided to walk across the whole city and see what I'd find. Maybe even a wife -------- Instagram: tommyelforasteroPatreon:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=GpvZ4cmmeoI) 2022-08-24T23:04Z 786K followers, 208.2K engagements "Wow People in Guyana Are Fun (#104) For a very long time I had looked at the map of South America and wondered about those [--] tiny countries at the top -- the countries that no one knew even existed. One of those countries Guyana actually had a huge immigrant population in New York where I'm from. It was the only English speaking country in South America they said. It was a country of unspoiled natural beauty they also said. With the world slowly reopening again I knew I had to go. Guyana is not rich but with it's recent discovery of oil that will be changing very soon. But I was there for the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HJpOGr0EMKI) 2023-10-23T22:59Z 525K followers, 353K engagements "Don't EVER Take This Bus in Tanzania or Uganda (#43) Sometimes on the road you have a really bad day. This was one of those. I had the idea to take a bus from Mwanza Tanzania's city on Lake Victoria to Kampala in Uganda. You'll never believe what happened. Share this video with anyone you know in Tanzania in Uganda. A company of thieves needs to be known for what they are. ---- I'm not asking for handouts but if you like the channel and want to help it grow after this here's my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommyfan_landing=true #sabbatical #tanzania #uganda" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HX4naDjgrbE) 2021-05-16T12:00Z 693K followers, 299.6K engagements "Crossing Into Brazil On Foot From Guyana (#113) BRAZIL The day had finally come. I had been learning Portuguese here and there for years but had never made it to the country until now. But I wasn't going to take the typical tourist route and fly into Rio de Janeiro. Oh no that's not how I do things. Instead being that I was already in the rarely visited country of Guyana I decided I would go down to their southern border and cross into Brazil that way. There in the state of Roraima was a region rarely ever visited by foreigners but worth the trip. It's mainly the home of different indigenous" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=JFYZr2NqofA) 2022-04-10T18:27Z 693K followers, 194.6K engagements "Indonesian Girl Takes Me To See The Real Bali (#151) Bali. If theres one place in Indonesia youve heard of its this place. Its the magical island that Westerners dream of escaping to and setting up a business and where Australia sends its finest citizens to enjoy a few beverages over the weekend. I admit I had a lot of preconceptions before I arrived here and its never good to be biased. So I decided to bring along a new Indonesian acquaintance I had met back in Jakarta. She would help keep me grounded and remind me as I made fun of the other Bules struggling on their scooters that I in fact" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jwlv0_F9Hs8) 2023-05-15T04:14Z 692K followers, 307K engagements "I Went To Tibet Chinas Most Restricted Province (#162) Tibet. A land that is known by many and seen by very few. As a foreigner it's the most restricted place to visit in China. You need to register in advance for a group tour who will get you all the required paperwork for going around. But once you get there once you touch down in Lhasa you have to forget about all that. It's a beautiful place with incredibly friendly people. I couldn't wait to experience it starting with the capital city. One thing I couldn't forget though was the altitude. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KFOjzS6mUY0) 2023-10-08T12:43Z 755K followers, 553.8K engagements ""We Never Went Back" India & China's Border (#179) India. China. The two behemoths of Asia share a long contested border through the Himalayas. After a war in the 1960s and deadly border conflicts that continued all up until the present day it remains impossible to cross between the two countries by land. I had decided to visit Sikkim one of India's most unique states in both shape and in culture. The people arguably have more in common with neighboring Nepal than they do the rest of India. But Sikkim also shares a closed border with Tibet and you'll frequently see military trucks driving" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=L5vuC-8nQFE) 2024-04-06T02:54Z 687K followers, 399.5K engagements "Romance on Zanzibar's East Coast (#30) There were many surprises waiting for me on the east coast home to Zanzibar's beautiful beaches on the Indian Ocean. I decided to get on a motorcycle and cruise the beach talking to locals in Paje Jambiani and Bwejuu. Little did I know I was soon to be charmed right out of my mzungu mind. ------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy #sabbatical #zanzibar #tanzania" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Nh45axX0hAQ) 2021-03-23T18:44Z 693K followers, 1.5M engagements ""The Thieves Here Are Very Professional" (#102) There is nowhere more notorious in Buenos Aires than "Villa 31" the infamous shantytown/favela that was built right in the heart of the city. It lies right in between the Retiro bus and train stations the largest transport hub of the capital. It's known for being a haven for criminals and all sorts of other dangers. But it was also the home of many immigrants from Argentina's neighbors - Peru Bolivia and Paraguay in particular. My original plan had been to go to the station and take a train to the north but seeing Villa [--] just outside I decided" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=P6mEdPl0Eos) 2022-01-27T01:15Z 692K followers, 257K engagements "A Tour Of Hong Kong's Triad Gangster District (#141) Hong Kong. A city that most know for international finance movies and good food. Perhaps lesser known is Hong Kong's association with the Triads one of the world's most infamous criminal organizations. Possessing one of the biggest ports in Asia as well as a border with mainland China Hong Kong has always been an ideal smuggling location. On this day I would go exploring in Yuen Long a district that became famous for Triads after some recent events. I would be joined by a threatening looking local who would take me to explore the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=VDaDdhCa7T4) 2023-01-24T05:06Z 812K followers, 256.7K engagements "Surprised By China's Train In Nigeria (#87) Nigeria the giant of Africa has lately been receiving a lot of visitors from another giant over in Asia. The Chinese are now entrenched in every part of the Nigerian economy from retail to banking to transportation. Many would claim Nigeria was being pushed into a debt trap but was that really the case We would take the newly built SGR railway from Lagos to Ibadan to find out. #sabbatical #nigeria #africa" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=VVOgXVz789U) 2023-10-17T11:32Z 525K followers, 252K engagements "What Is China Really Doing In Tibet (#163) Tibet. I've always wanted to go there and explore. Nowadays the only thing you ever hear about the place is how China runs it. What was life like there now in [----] How has Tibetan society changed To visit Tibet as a foreigner you need a permit and a group tour. It's not easy to go around exploring on your own. But I made it my mission to find some time to sneak off and talk to the real people of Tibet. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy #sabbatical #tibet #china" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=W6w4W6vnUAw) 2023-10-15T17:40Z 525K followers, 192.5K engagements "Where the Tourists Don't Go on Zanzibar (#31) Tourists are flocking back to Zanzibar but you won't really find them outside of Stone Town and the beach resorts. Zanzibar is an island with over a million people and there are lots of little villages that continue on undisturbed from the tourist economy. One day I decided to head south and see what I would find. And also bring a Chinese girl along for the journey. #zanzibar #tanzania #sabbatical" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=WUUou1J2Jxs) 2023-10-21T22:00Z 525K followers, 213.9K engagements "A Tour of Rwanda's Most "Dangerous" Hood (#81) As much as I appreciated the stability and peacefulness of Rwanda I wanted to see another side of the country. To find that I went to Nyamirambo a working class Muslim and immigrant neighborhood in Kigali. In addition to a lively nightlife scene Rwandan friends had told me that supposedly there were thieves there. There was only one way to find out. ----- Instagram: tommyelforastero Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommyfan_landing=true #sabbatical #rwanda #africa" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=XWkEX6b7zPo) 2023-10-15T18:28Z 588K followers, 337.8K engagements "Is El Salvador Still Dangerous I Went To Find Out (#143) Get Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/sabbatical - Enter promo code SABBATICAL for 83% off & [--] extra months for FREE El Salvador. Being from Long Island in New York you couldn't go through your life without meeting at least a few Salvadorans. But sadly I never used to hear anything good about the country. I heard about the gang wars about MS-13 about Barrio [--] about huge waves of migrants fleeing the country. It had the highest murder rate in the world for many of the last [--] years. El Salvador didn't seem like the kinda place" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bKLnMSvbBmk) 2023-02-09T23:05Z 693K followers, 579.4K engagements "The Journey To Congo (#79) In western Rwanda lies Lake Kivu which marks the border between Rwanda and the DRC (Congo). Not too long ago it was possible to easily cross the border at Gisenyi and spend a day or [--] in neighboring Goma. But these days the border like everything else has become a complicated mess. One day after downing a few glasses of the local Gwagwa moonshine I decided I would walk all the way to the border and try to sweet talk my way in. This is the record of that journey. ----- Instagram: tommyelforastero Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommyfan_landing=true #sabbatical" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=dE0Ufsf6Ps4) 2021-09-17T16:00Z 692K followers, 124K engagements "Naga Hills land of Chickens 🐔" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=dvXGWtPpeOs) 2024-05-07T20:00Z 629K followers, [----] engagements ""I Pray That Russia Won't Hurt You" (#198) Finally things were moving up on my journey to the Pacific. Russia the largest country in the world is gigantic: it stretches all across Eurasia going from Poland and the Baltics in the west to North Korea and Japan in the east. It even shares a maritime border with the US. But until reaching Ekaterinburg I hadnt seen many mountains. The vast majority of Russias land is Siberia and the official starting point for Siberia is the Ural Mountains. Its also the official border between Europe and Asia which is fun. I wanted to go exploring but I was all on" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=fWqxSVqopes) 2024-11-20T11:54Z 849K followers, 309K engagements "The Airport In Lagos Is VERY CORRUPT (#91) In all my travels I've never seen a country like Nigeria before. You really have to be there to understand but I'll try to express my admiration for the organized chaos found here as best as I can. Tayo Aina's channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TayoAinaFilms Josey's channel (it's even more African than mine): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLquhsm3whhDUY23S3WJCSQ #sabbatical #nigeria #africa" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gdj_6S6ABY8) 2021-11-04T19:55Z 794K followers, 262.2K engagements ""They Call Us Chinese" India's Rebel State: Nagaland (#181) Man this isn't what you think of when you imagine India. In the far northeastern corner of the country on the border of Myanmar lies a state called Nagaland. In every sense of the word Nagaland is different: different ethnicities languages even religions. It's the one place where I don't seem to hear the Indian accent when people speak English. It's not that simple to get there. Nagaland is a series of hills and to get to the heart of the state in Mon you must go on a real journey. I decided to take this journey by train road and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=kl9V8uBnCrc) 2024-04-22T01:23Z 629K followers, 168.5K engagements ""They Will Shoot You At The Checkpoint" Trapped In Palestine (#169) Go to https://ground.news/sab to stay fully informed. Subscribe through my link for less than $1/month or get 30% off unlimited access. Since early October Israel has been at war with Gaza which has captured the world's attention and brought attention to the Palestinians' struggle. But Gaza is only one part of the story. The West Bank a place full of famous Biblical cities like Bethlehem Hebron and Jericho is the other half of Palestine. And ever since the conflict reignited into this latest war things have become more" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qPB0yohLIsU) 2023-12-01T23:53Z 804K followers, 1.8M engagements "Is Israel As Bad As They Say I Went To Find Out (#168) What would you do if you knew that missiles would be flying at your city everyday That's the reality that both Israelis and Palestinians face in late [----] in the latest phase of their never-ending conflict. Most people are wise enough not to fly to a country during an active war but sadly that wasn't me. Like the rest of the world I was deeply interested in the events happening in the Holy Land and I wanted to go there myself to better understand the situation. It's the most polarizing conflict on earth: many people absolutely hate one of" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=sV43Hpwa7mM) 2023-11-25T19:21Z 693K followers, 749.1K engagements "The Hong Kong That Tourists Never See (#142) The first [---] people to use code SABBATICAL at the link below will get 20% off of Incogni: https://incogni.com/sabbatical Hong Kong has always been more complex than most would think. A product of British colonialism and Chinese culture there's nowhere else in the world like Hong Kong. It gets even more interesting when you visit the Nepali guesthouses the Nigerian barbershops the Indian restaurants and the Filipino parties in the park. That's what I decided to do. From the infamous Chungking Mansions to the remote corners of the New Territories on" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vONcor-KSTE) 2023-02-01T04:20Z 801K followers, 314.1K engagements "This is where Covid started #china #wuhan #chicago" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=wAwz9m4lhyU) 2024-05-14T18:42Z 631K followers, [----] engagements "A Casual Tour of Tanzania's Richest Neighborhood (#24) Where do the rich Tanzanians live in Dar es Salaam In Masaki it turns out. Join me on this compelling journey around a casino a yacht club Slipway and more of the good life in Tanzania. #tanzania #daressalaam #masaki" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=wt_zj0Rn9ug) 2021-03-07T17:01Z 757K followers, 429.1K engagements "I MET A GIRL IN THAILAND (#166) Who doesn't love a vacation in Thailand That was to be my plan except I didn't have the typical vacation in mind. I had always been fascinated by this area called the Golden Triangle located on the tri-border of Thailand Laos and Myanmar. I heard the Chinese had taken over. Sounded great I wanted to go see what was happening. I invited a familiar face from Indonesia to join me in Chiang Rai. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: / sabbaticaltommy #sabbatical #thailand #laos" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zzsBwtm67_M) 2023-11-06T18:36Z 693K followers, 300.8K engagements "Getting Sprayed With Perfume in Iraq #sabbatical #erbil "At least he didn't spray you with something else." Perfume works a bit differently in the Middle East sabbatical polyglot iraq erbil sabbatical polyglot iraq erbil" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=kfjL6A48YuA) 2026-02-14T13:01Z 849K followers, [----] engagements "This is the Former Capital of ISIS #sabbatical #mosul #iraq Less than a decade ago Mosul was the capital of the Islamic State. It was the place where the former leader of ISIS Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi made his only public appearance. When Iraq went to retake the city ISIS destroyed it including a [----] year old mosque sabbatical polyglot iraq mosul isis sabbatical polyglot iraq mosul isis" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vdKffHw5AUg) 2026-02-13T22:00Z 849K followers, 20.9K engagements "When An American Meets Iraqis.✌🏼🥲 #sabbatical #iraq It was my first visiting Iraq and what a place to be: Mosul the former capital of ISIS. I never expected to have a conversation like this sabbatical polyglot sabbatical polyglot" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bl9B3BUZxdw) 2026-02-13T13:48Z 849K followers, 10.9K engagements "Looking For The "Devil Worshippers" in Iraq (#233) Head to https://drinkag1.com/sabbaticaltommy to get FREE AG1 & AGZ Travel Packs Vitamin D3+K2 and an AG1 Welcome Kit when you first subscribe Iraq. America. I think it's safe to say these two countries haven't always had the best of relations. But for better or worse I was an American on a trip through the Middle East and I had always wanted to see Iraq. That's no exaggeration. As a polyglot of sorts Arabic was the first language I ever studied. During the height of the fighting during the Iraq War I dreamed of a chance to the see the country" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=FxDZNmB-5RE) 2026-01-24T15:22Z 849K followers, 191.2K engagements "Inside The "Country" That Will Never Be A Country (#232) Go to https://buyraycon.com/sabbaticalOPEN to get 20% off sitewide. Thanks to Raycon for sponsoring If you visit Istanbul many people will tell you to stay away from eastern Turkey. Thats the Kurdish homeland the lands once roamed by the PKKbut its also Mesopotamia the birthplace of human civilization and home to ruins and history thats important to all of us. I for better or worse lack the ability to stay from dangerous regions so of course I was going to visit. But I had a hunch that Kurdistan wasnt so violent anymore. I wanted to see" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=wM6LTxwVZGc) 2026-01-14T13:00Z 849K followers, 158.5K engagements "Visiting The Least Conservative Muslim Nation (#231) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Turkey. Or is it Trkiye I think for most people they look at Turkey on a map and just see another country in the Middle East. That leads you to assume a few things. I know I did. But this is truly one of those countries you have to go and explore yourself to fully understand. It's huge. It's bigger than Texas. And the people come in all different lifestyles from" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nzv8GzceFxk) 2025-12-16T13:31Z 849K followers, 238.2K engagements "This is Romania: There's Nowhere F*cking Like it (#230) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. I don't believe there is a nation in Europe with a more tarnished reputation than ROMANIA. Associated with thievery and backwardness Romania hasn't quite made it's name as a world class tourist destination. But hey these were old stereotypes. People change countries change. What is Romania like in [----] Well I took a rather casual trip across the entire nation to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mJGhqcK3JyM) 2025-12-05T15:07Z 849K followers, 500.6K engagements "This Country Won't Exist Much Longer. (#229) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Transnistria aka Pridnestrovie. The most famous country in the world that doesnt actually exist. Its a Russian speaking breakaway region in Moldova sandwiched right next to Ukraine. Its a bizarre region that exists almost like a time capsule: everywhere you go there you see signs of its past in the Soviet Union. Nowadays youll also see a lot of Russian flags flying" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ow_P2FDvC9E) 2025-11-21T08:59Z 849K followers, 299.8K engagements "Visiting The Poorest Country in Europe (#228) Go to https://www.getnomad.app to stay connected in over [---] countries without needing a physical SIM. Use my code NOMTOMMY to get 20% off your first eSIM. What springs to mind when you think of Europe Probably Paris Rome or maybe a Greek island. You might even imagine a country like Poland or Bulgaria if you're into geography. But most people never think of Moldova which according to most stats is the poorest and least visited country in Europe. For such a tiny nation it has an incredibly political situation: there are multiple independent or" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=CECyYtnRcxY) 2025-11-12T09:02Z 849K followers, 345.7K engagements "I Fell in Love in Ukraine (#227) War.that is all we hear from Ukraine these days. And without a doubt war is ever present on the mind of every Ukranian as drones strike their cities almost everyday. But Ukranians also continue amazingly to live their lives. There is an amazing country that's been forgotten after the years of their war of defense. No one tells you about the varied landscapes the country offers; mountains plains and even beaches in the south. Magnificent cities with thousands of years of history. And a population with a resilience and sense of humor like no other. In spite of" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eQMZI7H6xo4) 2025-11-01T01:28Z 849K followers, 580.7K engagements "Ukraine Was NOT What I Expected (#226) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Wow. Out of all the trips I've ever taken this was one of the most meaningful. Ukraine. A country that was invaded almost [--] years ago and continues fighting for it's survival until today. Everyone knows about that everyone has seen the news. But what is it like living in Ukraine in [----] What is it like to travel the country where there are no flights What is like to be in a country" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=o-TzbYITvXU) 2025-10-21T15:39Z 849K followers, 1.2M engagements "NO ONE Visits This US Territory - American Samoa (#224) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. The USA is gigantic. Most Americans aren't even aware of all the lands it controls around the world. And there's no better of example of this than American Samoa . Distant and isolated from the US mainland American Samoa generally flies pretty low under the radar. Even Guam is more famous. If anyone has heard of it at all it might be for the strangely large number" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bj2dJwKtiuY) 2025-09-27T11:02Z 849K followers, 851.6K engagements "I Think I Just Found The Best Country In The World (#223) PLAUD AI is amazing Their note taker has been a game-changer for coming up with video ideas note taking and language learning. Get PLAUD Today Use Codesabbaticalfor 20% Off Official website: USA: http://bit.ly/4pKvk64 UK: http://bit.ly/3IFoFt1 Amazon: USA :https://bit.ly/46CHVQ2 UK: https://bit.ly/4mCd1x7 Ah the South Pacific. It's the least visited region in the world mainly because it takes so damn long to get there. I mean even New Zealand is a [--] hour flight away and they're already in the middle of nowhere. But if there's one" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=tGyRGwAQwho) 2025-09-23T09:54Z 849K followers, 271.2K engagements "Staying At A $100 Cartel Resort In Mexico - Private Beach (#222) Check out Odoo to easily manage your business: https://www.odoo.com/r/GNtE Contrary to what many think theres actually two Californias. And Im not talking about left and right. Im talking about BAJA California the California thats in Mexico. It used to be unified with the more famous California in the US when the Mexicans called it Alta California. Its the more heavily trafficked border in the world. Each year there are more than [--] million crossings made. It has a very different feel from the border with Texashere just like" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kd7_AYjdTpQ) 2025-09-13T17:27Z 849K followers, 406.8K engagements "Visiting The Homeless Capital Of The World - Absolutely Shocking (#221) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Los Angeles the city of angels. Or so that's what they say. It's the 2nd largest city in the US with over [--] million people within it's metro area and it attracts millions of visitors annually from around the world. But what defines Los Angeles really Is it Hollywood Santa Monica Compton Traveling from one end of the massive sprawling city to the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KEWMiutmaNY) 2025-08-27T13:07Z 849K followers, 281.2K engagements "Something Strange Is Happening On The US-Mexico Border (#220) Download the Airalo app and get $3 off your first eSIM with my code TOMMY3: https://try.airalo.com/sabbaticaltommy The Mexican border. There is perhaps no other border more infamous than the one the US shares with its southern neighbor. For decades it's been known as a transit point for drugs and illegal migrants slipping right past the US Border Patrol. It's always had a bit of a dangerous reputation with the cartel lurking right on the other side. Well you could consider me a bit of a border expert (or at least I've been detained" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=obGZGLc1TfA) 2025-08-20T17:37Z 849K followers, 688K engagements "It's Time For Me To Be Honest About Who I Really Am. (#219) Download the Nomad eSIM app at https://www.getnomad.app/utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=online&utm_campaign=sabbaticaltommy and get 20% off any data plan by using my code: NOMTOMMY In my [--] years on Youtube I've been through a lot. I've been to places I never thought I'd go in my life and lived through enough near-death experiences to last me for [--] lives. But some think this is no coincidence. Some think that I've been specially trained to go on missions around the world perhaps paid for by a government agency. Well it's time to address" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=lMXKEJuPLlI) 2025-07-31T14:14Z 849K followers, 354.4K engagements "So This Is The Place We're Gonna Fight WW3 Over (#218) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. World War [--]. Thats a pretty scary phrase right up there with the words "nuclear apocalypse". And if you watch the news youll notice they always say it might start in one place: Taiwan. Taiwan is wonderful and Ive been there many times. Friendly people great food beautiful nature (and people). But its also the center of a massive geopolitical conflict. Taiwan is also" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nbvfBfu06KQ) 2025-07-07T02:03Z 849K followers, 854.3K engagements "I Can Never Go Back To This Country (#217) Check out Odoo to easily build a website: https://www.odoo.com/r/obFm Belarus. If anyone knows this country they probably know it as Russias one ally in Europe. Maybe they know it as Europes last dictatorship (not quite the right term a few countries have joined in recent years). They probably dont know it as an incredibly clean and orderly country thats incredible to travel. They may not know that Belarus is the country to visit to see Soviet Union history even moreso than Russia. Belarusis complicated and I have a weird history with the country. I" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=D20CdfkEdV8) 2025-05-31T10:49Z 849K followers, 471.4K engagements "Now THIS Is How You Have a Wild Night In Japan (#216) ft @OrientalPearl @SmallBrainedAmerican Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Yokohama. Historically it was the port of entry for many into Japan--including the Chinese. It's also home to the largest slum area in Japan a place where the homeless and downtrodden are pushed into. I'm always interested in the lesser known people and places of a country. In Japan that's Chinese and Korean Japanese who due to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=s-y2wYL4LW4) 2025-05-26T04:15Z 849K followers, 244.2K engagements "This Is The End (#215) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Hokkaido. It's Japan's coldest snowiest region and also home to the most northern and eastern points of the country. It's also the only place where you can see the islands that Russia took from Japan after WW2 the Kurils. The Japanese still consider them to be Japanese territory. But I was on my own personal mission in Hokkaido to finish a journey I had began [--] months earlier all the way across" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=c85jsi7NcQg) 2025-05-13T01:00Z 849K followers, 420.6K engagements "I Crossed Into Russia from ChinaBig Mistake (#212) Check out Odoo to easily build a website: https://www.odoo.com/r/Dno Russia. In October of [----] just before I was arrested and accused of being a spy I entered the country through China's northern border. This was my 2nd time in Russia and being that the 1st time had passed with no problems whatsoever I was more than a bit naive. This time I was entering Russia's Far East a place where the police and FSB almost never see Westerners and suspicion ran deep. This video is my journey across both sides of the border: how Russia's influence affects" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=yZq7TChsCMQ) 2025-04-24T21:31Z 849K followers, 987.2K engagements "China Is Hiding a BIG Secret.(#211) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. In the far far north of China right on the border between China and Russia lies a region with a very interesting history. This is an area that used to be controlled by the Russians. Harbin one of China's major cities used to be majority Russian; and there are towns where you'll find an unexpected minority group: the "Russian Chinese" people of Russian descent who only speak Mandarin" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=OVAn67cVoJQ) 2025-04-07T15:02Z 849K followers, 245.7K engagements "This Is A Border You're Not Supposed To Visit. (#210) Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans Use code SABBATICAL at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/sabbatical There are some borders that foreigners aren't supposed to visit. The tri-border between China Russia and North Korea was a grey area: we had heard that if you weren't Chinese you couldn't go. But we also heard that it might be possible. It was hard to be optimistic. We already been arrested once on the North Korean border and stopped countless times. But this was a truly interesting place. The axis" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xjsClBLk0w8) 2025-03-27T22:26Z 849K followers, 291.1K engagements "Found Where North Koreans Escape.They Arrested Us (#209) Thank you Straight Arrow News for sponsoring Go to https://san.com/sabbatical to stay fully informed. Subscribe through my link and/or download the app There is perhaps no greater tragedy in the world than the life of a North Korean. From what we know life is brutally repressive there--and for the people who can they try to escape. And there's only one realistic escape path: going across the Tumen River into China. No foreigners have tried to document this and it turns out there's a very frightening reason why. This was our fateful" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=POL88yzYsU0) 2025-03-21T01:56Z 849K followers, 505.5K engagements "Inside The 3rd Korea - Not North Not South (#208) Get 64% off Proton VPN now - https://www.protonvpn.com/sabbaticaltommy North Korea South Korea. Weve all heard of the two Koreas and their eternal struggle. Far lesser known is the Third Korea where millions of people still speak Korean and maintain Korean customs. Where is the 3rd Korea you might ask In China. There you will find a region known as the Korean Autonomous Zone right on the border with North Korea. And the most important "Korean" site of all - Mt. Paektu or Changbaishan - is shared between the two countries. While traveling" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xCBporE4eOU) 2025-03-12T22:53Z 849K followers, 238.7K engagements ""North Korea Is GREAT" (#207) Extra content and extended videos available on Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy There is one country that is so absurd so mysterious and also so evil that it captures peoples' attention more than any other nation: North Korea. A communist dictatorship whose family dynasty has continuously been in power since the 50s North Korea is unlike anywhere else. And now it has nukes You would think they would've fallen by now. But no they still exisit almost entirely thanks to China (and Russia). And China has a very long border with NK even longer than the border" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6TJ7R9RViiQ) 2025-03-01T02:42Z 849K followers, 448.8K engagements "Inside China's New Capital They Built In A Week (#206) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. National Day Probably the most popular holiday in China being that everyone gets a week off to go travel. Just don't make the mistake of going to Beijing during this time; it gets jam packed with visitors from the rest of the country. .oh shii that's exactly where I was. Well best to make the most of it then. I had been to Beijing many times before but this time I" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xLAijHBrspM) 2025-02-14T03:55Z 849K followers, 291.9K engagements "I Found Love On The Great Wall Of China (#205) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Ah the Great Wall of China. Although it's not true that you can see it from space it still remains in my opinion the coolest manmade wonder of the world. Of course every wall has a beginning and an end. And I wanted to see the END of the wall. So I dragged Mr. Small Brained American along against his will to go climb the wall with me. Feeling a bit under the weather he" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=fI6a7aYSKlc) 2025-02-08T16:59Z 849K followers, 491.4K engagements ""You Americans Want To Attack China" (#204) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. The US-China relationship is a complicated one to say the least. There's talk of war in the future and yet we trade with each other we visit each other and even go to live in each others' countries. There's just some things that US and China never seem to see eye and eye on though. One of those is Xinjiang and the treatment of the Uyghur minority. China says it had to lockdown" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=tTl4Dbtc7HI) 2025-01-27T04:44Z 849K followers, 491.8K engagements "Back In China Already Being Followed (#203) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Kashgar. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and a former stop on the Silk Road. The heart of Uyghur culture and the former capital of several Uyghur empires. And I wish the description could end right there. For nowadays its part of Xinjiang perhaps the most heavily policed region in the world. I wasnt sure what it would be like to meet the Uyghurs." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=LQGvzrDa_wc) 2025-01-10T18:32Z 849K followers, 541.9K engagements "Stuck At China's Border - Not Allowed To Enter (#202) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. China China China. A country I know fairly well as I lived there for more than [--] years. But we were trying to enter a part of China I had never visited and one that was still fairly mysterious to me: Xinjiang the home of the Uyghurs. Being that I was on a trip where I would only cross land borders from Europe to Asia I would have to do the same crossing from" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=SRt7pOQxvt0) 2025-01-02T04:09Z 849K followers, 439.6K engagements "You Need To Risk Your Life To Visit This Country ✈ (#201) Kyrgyzstan If Kazakhstan is only known internationally because of Borat Kyrgyzstan might only be known because of that one Vice documentary on bride kidnappings. The Central Asian states just havent gotten the best publicity. Well I was happy to try and change that as long as everything went well. After all it's a beautiful country in the mountains with breathtaking scenery and friendly locals (most of whom never kidnap anyone). Join me and another Small Brained American in exploring this mysterious nation. SBA's channel:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3sIkAVFk-sM) 2024-12-28T04:44Z 849K followers, 367K engagements "Borat Was A Lie THIS Is Kazakhstan (#200) There may be no country more misunderstood than KAZAKHSTAN. Its international image was defined by a comedy film released [--] years ago. Borat left many people thinking Kazakhstan was some backwater nation in Eastern Europe that holds a Running of the Jew festival every year. BUT THAT IS NOT KAZAKHSTAN Kazakhs have way more in common with the Mongols than they do with Borat. Theyre a tough people who survived life out on the brutally cold Central Asian steppes and then decades of destruction under the Soviet Union. They speak Russian but their native" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=PkUqOTEnpXU) 2024-12-22T23:31Z 849K followers, 406.7K engagements "Imprisoned In Russia Accused Of Being A Spy - Full Story (#214) When we all think of nightmare scenarios abroad there are few worse than being locked up in Russia as a Westerner. Unfortunately that was the nightmare that I would have to endure. In this video I'll tell the story of how this happened how the Russian police use corrupt and backhanded tactics to imprison an innocent person and what it's like to be in a Russian prison. I'm not happy to have to tell this story. I always try to find the good in a nation which usually lies in it's people. But this video is a warning to anyone who" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=pZzXEJ3bcw4) 2024-12-15T19:20Z 849K followers, 1.1M engagements "I Was Arrested And Detained In Far Eastern Russia (#213) I was warned before going to Russia. All of my family and friends tried to convince me not to go fearing the worst if I went. Youre American theyll lock you up for nothing. I wasnt naive but I never seriously believed Russia would arrest a vlogger and accuse him of being an American spy. Sadly they were right and I was wrong. Im going to tell you the story of how I was arrested in Russia and nearly had my life destroyed. This happened in the Jewish Autonomous Region a place that was founded as a homeland for the Jews of Russia and then" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QPU70LcbIGc) 2024-12-05T16:11Z 849K followers, 598.4K engagements ""There's No More Men In Russia" (#199) Up until very recent history Russia was home to a significant German minority. They had come in different waves starting in the 1800s but their epicenter ended up being the area of Russia around modern day Kazakhstan. Most were forcefully moved there during Soviet times and most also chose to leave after the fall of the USSR to go to Germany. These people are Russian but their ancestry is German.I had arrived in Omsk a city virtually unknown to the West. I didn't know much about it either but I did know about Russia's strange German history. I wanted to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qNEims5mjIo) 2024-11-26T15:35Z 849K followers, 2.1M engagements ""I Pray That Russia Won't Hurt You" (#198) Finally things were moving up on my journey to the Pacific. Russia the largest country in the world is gigantic: it stretches all across Eurasia going from Poland and the Baltics in the west to North Korea and Japan in the east. It even shares a maritime border with the US. But until reaching Ekaterinburg I hadnt seen many mountains. The vast majority of Russias land is Siberia and the official starting point for Siberia is the Ural Mountains. Its also the official border between Europe and Asia which is fun. I wanted to go exploring but I was all on" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=fWqxSVqopes) 2024-11-20T11:54Z 849K followers, 309K engagements ""You Americans Are The Reason We're In Ukraine" (#197) I made a sidetrip to the Baltics and Belarus and I'll be posting it on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy Russia these days is sadly only known for one thing. But have you ever heard of Tatarstan It's the homeland of Russia's largest minority group: the Tatars. In fact it's a republic with it's own language and religion. Tatarstan is a Muslim republic but it feels distinctly different from the other Islamic areas of Russia like Chechnya and Dagestan. I was on a journey across Eurasia I had decided to take trains to traverse" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zoyfa3UfNdU) 2024-10-20T01:40Z 849K followers, 550.1K engagements "You Should Never Visit Russia. But I Did Anyway (#196) Russia. After the invasion began they were effectively shut off from the Western world. Flights between Europe and Russia were halted. Trade was stopped. Most border crossings were closed. And yet I found myself at one of the few crossings that remained open: Narva in far eastern Estonia. I had never been to Russia and as an American now definitely wasn't the best time to change that. But no one knows what the future may hold. I was on a trip across Eurasia and there was no way I could just ignore the world's largest country. I spent a" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HU9ko7xDlpI) 2024-10-11T15:08Z 849K followers, 797.4K engagements "I Found The Most Underrated Country In Europe (#195) When I was growing up you never heard much about Eastern Europe other than that it was poor. There was the rich expensive countries of Western Europe like Switzerland and then there were the cheap "backwards" nations like Romania. You went to Western Europe to make money and you went to Eastern Europe for a cheap vacation and that was that. Well one country is really changing up that whole stereotype. What if I told you that there's now a large country in Eastern Europe that has a higher GDP per capita than Spain and Portugal It's an" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z4tKQmZx2EA) 2024-10-01T02:23Z 849K followers, 600.9K engagements "Everyone Told Me Germany Sucks Now But Actually. (#194) DEUTSCHLAND That's Germany if you prefer. Germany has had a.complicated past one could say. Barely [--] years ago it emerged from the Cold War reunited--the two former halves of West Germany and East Germany joined back together to from the economic powerhouse that dominates the EU today. But who are the Germans exactly I had always heard they were cold serious and always working. They said it was hard to make friends there. And it recent times they say the country is now overrun with migrants like the rest of Europe. Well like anywhere" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=PAgsE_MUN70) 2024-09-25T00:25Z 849K followers, 547K engagements "I Went To The Most Hated Unsafe City In Europe (#193) If you're from the Americas it's hard to find anywhere in Europe that's not worth a visit. Sure London and Paris might have a few rough spots but on the whole the continent is way more organized clean and safe than most other places. Unfortunately the capital of Europe seems to want to buck that trend. It truly is a unique city: one divided between two languages and peoples. It's dirty not particularly nice looking and dangerous--right in the heart of the city. Welcome to Brussels and Belgium. This wasn't what I expected. --------" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xvSEy66_zB0) 2024-09-10T19:23Z 849K followers, 883.9K engagements "Wanna See The Real France YOU NEED TO LEAVE PARIS (#192) France. Lately all we've heard is doom and gloom how the France of memory is disappearing. Well the problem is most people just go to Paris when they visit France and Paris.has a few issues. If you really wanna see France you've gotta get out into the country. The country is overflowing with historical places to explore. We're talking World War [--] and the beaches of Normandy. The Hundred Years War and Joan of Arc in Rouen. The Battle of Tours/Poitiers one of Europe's most legendary battles. There are languages you've probably never heard" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rWSdIEYSi6I) 2024-09-03T05:48Z 849K followers, 391.6K engagements "Paris Became A Police State--And Wow It Changed (#191) When you are traveling HOLAFLY is an excellent option to have internet. Check out their packages and get a 5% discount here: https://esim.holafly.com/ref=&discount=SABBATICAL&utm_source=sabbatical_youtube&utm_medium=affiliation&utm_campaign=olympics Discount code: SABBATICAL Paris. Oh la la. If there's one city that everyone knows it's this one. And with the Olympics being held here in [----] a city normally swarming with tourists.had less of them Lately Paris has been in the news for all of the wrong reasons: protests riots migrants rising" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=FIUU-g9eWIY) 2024-08-27T20:54Z 849K followers, 368.5K engagements ""They Hijacked My Bus. Then Burned It" Trouble In Northern Ireland (#190) It turns out there's two Irelands. One is the Republic the other is Northern Ireland which is still part of the UK and fiercely proud of it. Growing up I heard about the Troubles and all the mindless violence that took place in the North. The Catholics/Republicans wanted to be part of Ireland the Protestants/Unionists wanted to be part of the UK. But what was this place really all about I didn't know anyone when I showed up. But by pure coincidence I arrived on one of the biggest (and most controversial) holidays in" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=0a-vlWpavzM) 2024-08-13T22:32Z 849K followers, 452.1K engagements "I Found The City With The Best Crack In Ireland ☘ (#189) Go to https://sponsr.is/zbiotics_sabbatical or scan the QR code and get 15% off your first order of ZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic by using my code SABBATICAL at checkout. Thanks to ZBiotics for sponsoring todays video Ireland . A beautiful country that just can't ever seem to find peace. After centuries of struggle with the British for their own independence Ireland is now richer than their former rulers--but not without some new issues. Prices are extreme housing supply is low and as more and more migrants arrive in Ireland the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6Gef7m4FqZM) 2024-08-08T21:12Z 849K followers, 345.7K engagements "Nicaragua The Latin Dictatorship No One Mentions (#188) In the middle of Central America situated above Costa Rica and below Honduras lies a country that's been out of the news for a few decades. Older Americans know it from the Sandinistas and the Iran-Contra affair. This is Nicaragua. It's never been as tourist friendly as Costa Rica nor has it been as violent as it's northern neighbors. Nicaragua doesn't fit neatly into a box. The eastern half of the country speaks English a legacy of British colonialism and American intervention. The rest of the country speaks a unique dialect of Spanish." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZC_QRRy8SDw) 2024-07-18T17:36Z 849K followers, 282.2K engagements "New York's Poorest Most Forgotten Region: Upstate NY (#187) If youre ever injured in an accident you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch. To start your claim visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/Sabbaticals=86%3A4653 Whenever someone mentions New York people imagine huge towering skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty. They picture an urban jungle the only place in America where you really don't need to own a car. The world knows New York as New York City and if you were to tell someone you grew up on a dairy farm there" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=SWHhgIN2QPU) 2024-06-29T18:20Z 849K followers, 910.2K engagements ""These Hillbillies Are Shooting Each Other" Life In West Virginia (#186) If youre ever injured in an accident you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch. To start your claim visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/Sabbaticals=86%3A4653 West Virginia. Often derided as the poorest and most backwards state in the US it's a land dotted with mountains and abandoned coal mines. For me as someone born in New York it was like a whole other universe. I wanted to go experience culture shock in my own country--and I wasn't expecting what I" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HdJbV0GeSbg) 2024-06-26T02:33Z 849K followers, 1.6M engagements Limited data mode. Full metrics available with subscription: lunarcrush.com/pricing
@sabbaticaltommy Sabbatical
Sabbatical posts on YouTube about china, travel, russia, adventure the most. They currently have [-------] followers and [---] posts still getting attention that total [------] engagements in the last [--] hours.
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- [--] Week [------] +8.70%
- [--] Month [-------] -30%
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- [--] Week [--] +3.30%
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Social Influence
Social category influence countries travel destinations finance social networks technology brands stocks
Social topic influence china, travel #2612, russia #2328, adventure #3322, the world, if you, media, link, history, the most
Top accounts mentioned or mentioned by @uchasrbcsniyrny3wx38pa @startlivingnow1963 @smallbrainedamerican @mountainsafire @orientalpearl @kidgreatness @travelingwithmey @gowithkob @travelingwithmeysiwvj3v136noyry @dmvhoodzandnewz @thesalukievideos @tuanpeniru
Top assets mentioned IBM (IBM)
Top Social Posts
Top posts by engagements in the last [--] hours
"I Can Never Go Back To This Country (#217) Check out Odoo to easily build a website: https://www.odoo.com/r/obFm Belarus. If anyone knows this country they probably know it as Russias one ally in Europe. Maybe they know it as Europes last dictatorship (not quite the right term a few countries have joined in recent years). They probably dont know it as an incredibly clean and orderly country thats incredible to travel. They may not know that Belarus is the country to visit to see Soviet Union history even moreso than Russia. Belarusis complicated and I have a weird history with the country. I"
YouTube Link 2025-05-31T10:49Z 849K followers, 471.4K engagements
"New York's Poorest Most Forgotten Region: Upstate NY (#187) If youre ever injured in an accident you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch. To start your claim visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/Sabbaticals=86%3A4653 Whenever someone mentions New York people imagine huge towering skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty. They picture an urban jungle the only place in America where you really don't need to own a car. The world knows New York as New York City and if you were to tell someone you grew up on a dairy farm there"
YouTube Link 2024-06-29T18:20Z 849K followers, 910.2K engagements
"I Found The Most Underrated Country In Europe (#195) When I was growing up you never heard much about Eastern Europe other than that it was poor. There was the rich expensive countries of Western Europe like Switzerland and then there were the cheap "backwards" nations like Romania. You went to Western Europe to make money and you went to Eastern Europe for a cheap vacation and that was that. Well one country is really changing up that whole stereotype. What if I told you that there's now a large country in Eastern Europe that has a higher GDP per capita than Spain and Portugal It's an"
YouTube Link 2024-10-01T02:23Z 849K followers, 600.9K engagements
"Ukraine Was NOT What I Expected (#226) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Wow. Out of all the trips I've ever taken this was one of the most meaningful. Ukraine. A country that was invaded almost [--] years ago and continues fighting for it's survival until today. Everyone knows about that everyone has seen the news. But what is it like living in Ukraine in [----] What is it like to travel the country where there are no flights What is like to be in a country"
YouTube Link 2025-10-21T15:39Z 849K followers, 1.2M engagements
"Staying At A $100 Cartel Resort In Mexico - Private Beach (#222) Check out Odoo to easily manage your business: https://www.odoo.com/r/GNtE Contrary to what many think theres actually two Californias. And Im not talking about left and right. Im talking about BAJA California the California thats in Mexico. It used to be unified with the more famous California in the US when the Mexicans called it Alta California. Its the more heavily trafficked border in the world. Each year there are more than [--] million crossings made. It has a very different feel from the border with Texashere just like"
YouTube Link 2025-09-13T17:27Z 849K followers, 406.8K engagements
"Borat Was A Lie THIS Is Kazakhstan (#200) There may be no country more misunderstood than KAZAKHSTAN. Its international image was defined by a comedy film released [--] years ago. Borat left many people thinking Kazakhstan was some backwater nation in Eastern Europe that holds a Running of the Jew festival every year. BUT THAT IS NOT KAZAKHSTAN Kazakhs have way more in common with the Mongols than they do with Borat. Theyre a tough people who survived life out on the brutally cold Central Asian steppes and then decades of destruction under the Soviet Union. They speak Russian but their native"
YouTube Link 2024-12-22T23:31Z 849K followers, 406.7K engagements
"Nicaragua The Latin Dictatorship No One Mentions (#188) In the middle of Central America situated above Costa Rica and below Honduras lies a country that's been out of the news for a few decades. Older Americans know it from the Sandinistas and the Iran-Contra affair. This is Nicaragua. It's never been as tourist friendly as Costa Rica nor has it been as violent as it's northern neighbors. Nicaragua doesn't fit neatly into a box. The eastern half of the country speaks English a legacy of British colonialism and American intervention. The rest of the country speaks a unique dialect of Spanish."
YouTube Link 2024-07-18T17:36Z 849K followers, 282.2K engagements
"Surviving Robbery Extortion Censorship In Congo DRC (#177) Congo. The heart of Africa. A tragic wartorn country that's never able to live up to it's potential. Due to it's turbulent past with brutal colonization by the Belgians under King Leopold and also it's more violent recent history involving it's African neighbors Congo is very wary of outsiders. It's extremely difficult to enter the country -- and also expensive. Something they don't tell you in any guidebook is the amount of money you need to prepare for bribes on the border. Maybe I wasn't ready for the Congo DRC. I had always wanted"
YouTube Link 2024-02-29T19:51Z 849K followers, 589.6K engagements
"Yakuza Takes Me To The Hostess Club In Japan (#137) Check out https://ground.news/sabbatical to stay informed on breaking news as its happening around the world compare coverage and know where your news is coming from. The Yakuza: one of the most well-known criminal groups in the world. Unlike other mafias and gangs the Yakuza were known for doing their business with honor - no matter how illicit those business activities might be. I had the opportunity to meet an ex-Yakuza boss in Fukuoka and I knew I couldn't pass this up. Yuyama-san was a Yakuza for [--] years and although he had left the"
YouTube Link 2022-12-09T04:23Z 849K followers, 3.8M engagements
"This is Romania: There's Nowhere F*cking Like it (#230) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. I don't believe there is a nation in Europe with a more tarnished reputation than ROMANIA. Associated with thievery and backwardness Romania hasn't quite made it's name as a world class tourist destination. But hey these were old stereotypes. People change countries change. What is Romania like in [----] Well I took a rather casual trip across the entire nation to"
YouTube Link 2025-12-05T15:07Z 849K followers, 500.6K engagements
"I Think I Just Found The Best Country In The World (#223) PLAUD AI is amazing Their note taker has been a game-changer for coming up with video ideas note taking and language learning. Get PLAUD Today Use Codesabbaticalfor 20% Off Official website: USA: http://bit.ly/4pKvk64 UK: http://bit.ly/3IFoFt1 Amazon: USA :https://bit.ly/46CHVQ2 UK: https://bit.ly/4mCd1x7 Ah the South Pacific. It's the least visited region in the world mainly because it takes so damn long to get there. I mean even New Zealand is a [--] hour flight away and they're already in the middle of nowhere. But if there's one"
YouTube Link 2025-09-23T09:54Z 849K followers, 271.2K engagements
"When An American Meets Iraqis.✌🏼🥲 #sabbatical #iraq It was my first visiting Iraq and what a place to be: Mosul the former capital of ISIS. I never expected to have a conversation like this sabbatical polyglot sabbatical polyglot"
YouTube Link 2026-02-13T13:48Z 849K followers, 10.9K engagements
"Inside The Chinese Colony In Laos - Human Trafficking Hell (#167) Laos. It may not be as popular as Thailand but it's definitely on the backpacker circuit. Take a trip to Luang Prabang or Vientiane or almost anywhere in the country and you'll see plenty of European tourists wandering the streets. Except for one place a place that even the Lao people don't want to visit. In the far northwest of the country right in the heart of the Golden Triangle and on the border with Thailand Myanmar and China lies the "Special Economic Zone" of Laos. If you spend just a few minutes there you'll quickly"
YouTube Link 2023-11-17T05:52Z 849K followers, 2M engagements
"I Was Arrested And Detained In Far Eastern Russia (#213) I was warned before going to Russia. All of my family and friends tried to convince me not to go fearing the worst if I went. Youre American theyll lock you up for nothing. I wasnt naive but I never seriously believed Russia would arrest a vlogger and accuse him of being an American spy. Sadly they were right and I was wrong. Im going to tell you the story of how I was arrested in Russia and nearly had my life destroyed. This happened in the Jewish Autonomous Region a place that was founded as a homeland for the Jews of Russia and then"
YouTube Link 2024-12-05T16:11Z 849K followers, 598.4K engagements
"Visiting The Most Hedonistic Country On Earth (#183) Cambodia. I'm not sure what you've heard about this country but after some stressful trips around the world I needed a break. Cambodia has well an interesting reputation. A place where you can find almost anything It even has one of the world's biggest wonders Angkor Wat Perfect place for a little vacation. Sure there's a lot of shady things that have happened in the country as well but we were going to forget that for now. I invited some friends of mine to join and we were off to try everything Cambodia had to offer from Phnom Penh to Siem"
YouTube Link 2024-05-16T22:48Z 849K followers, 440.3K engagements
"This Country Won't Exist Much Longer. (#229) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Transnistria aka Pridnestrovie. The most famous country in the world that doesnt actually exist. Its a Russian speaking breakaway region in Moldova sandwiched right next to Ukraine. Its a bizarre region that exists almost like a time capsule: everywhere you go there you see signs of its past in the Soviet Union. Nowadays youll also see a lot of Russian flags flying"
YouTube Link 2025-11-21T08:59Z 849K followers, 299.8K engagements
"I Just Became A Trillionaire In Zimbabwe (#176) Maybe you've heard about inflation in Argentina or Venezuela or 1920s Germany if you're old school. Yeah those countries had a crazy situation but none of them come close to Zimbabwe a country that really puts the hyper in hyperinflation. The largest bill they ever printed which is also the largest in history was [---] trillion dollars which at it's peak was worth $0.80. Nowadays it goes for much more as a collector's item. This was all I had ever heard about Zimbabwe. But that was more the result of one man's poor economic policies. What were the"
YouTube Link 2024-02-21T16:42Z 848K followers, 336.3K engagements
"Inside The "Country" That Will Never Be A Country (#232) Go to https://buyraycon.com/sabbaticalOPEN to get 20% off sitewide. Thanks to Raycon for sponsoring If you visit Istanbul many people will tell you to stay away from eastern Turkey. Thats the Kurdish homeland the lands once roamed by the PKKbut its also Mesopotamia the birthplace of human civilization and home to ruins and history thats important to all of us. I for better or worse lack the ability to stay from dangerous regions so of course I was going to visit. But I had a hunch that Kurdistan wasnt so violent anymore. I wanted to see"
YouTube Link 2026-01-14T13:00Z 849K followers, 158.5K engagements
""North Korea Is GREAT" (#207) Extra content and extended videos available on Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy There is one country that is so absurd so mysterious and also so evil that it captures peoples' attention more than any other nation: North Korea. A communist dictatorship whose family dynasty has continuously been in power since the 50s North Korea is unlike anywhere else. And now it has nukes You would think they would've fallen by now. But no they still exisit almost entirely thanks to China (and Russia). And China has a very long border with NK even longer than the border"
YouTube Link 2025-03-01T02:42Z 849K followers, 448.8K engagements
"Inside China's Gangster Paradise In Cambodia (#184) Go to https://expressvpn.com/sabbatical and find out how you can get [--] months of ExpressVPN FREE. It was time for a beach vacation. Unfortunately the place I chose was Sihanoukville in Cambodia which has developed a bit of a bad reputation over the past decade. --------- Meys channel: https://youtube.com/@Travelingwithmeysi=Wvj3V-1_36NoY-Ry Credit to Jim Browning for some images used in this video. Cambodian Odyssey by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution [---] license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
YouTube Link 2024-06-08T06:08Z 849K followers, 1.2M engagements
"African Kid Sees White Guy Thinks He's A Ghost (#51) One day on a casual hike through the Rwenzori mountains in western Uganda we stumbled upon a secluded village that apparently doesn't get many visitors from abroad. I mean like none. The reactions to seeing a muzungu (white person) for the first time were.well let's just say unexpected. ----- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommyfan_landing=true #sabbatical #africa #uganda sabbatical uganda africa black white race relations african children african kids white and black white people black people village life"
YouTube Link 2021-06-12T08:00Z 849K followers, 19.2M engagements
"You Should Never Visit Russia. But I Did Anyway (#196) Russia. After the invasion began they were effectively shut off from the Western world. Flights between Europe and Russia were halted. Trade was stopped. Most border crossings were closed. And yet I found myself at one of the few crossings that remained open: Narva in far eastern Estonia. I had never been to Russia and as an American now definitely wasn't the best time to change that. But no one knows what the future may hold. I was on a trip across Eurasia and there was no way I could just ignore the world's largest country. I spent a"
YouTube Link 2024-10-11T15:08Z 849K followers, 797.4K engagements
"China Is Hiding a BIG Secret.(#211) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. In the far far north of China right on the border between China and Russia lies a region with a very interesting history. This is an area that used to be controlled by the Russians. Harbin one of China's major cities used to be majority Russian; and there are towns where you'll find an unexpected minority group: the "Russian Chinese" people of Russian descent who only speak Mandarin"
YouTube Link 2025-04-07T15:02Z 849K followers, 245.7K engagements
"Everyone Told Me Germany Sucks Now But Actually. (#194) DEUTSCHLAND That's Germany if you prefer. Germany has had a.complicated past one could say. Barely [--] years ago it emerged from the Cold War reunited--the two former halves of West Germany and East Germany joined back together to from the economic powerhouse that dominates the EU today. But who are the Germans exactly I had always heard they were cold serious and always working. They said it was hard to make friends there. And it recent times they say the country is now overrun with migrants like the rest of Europe. Well like anywhere"
YouTube Link 2024-09-25T00:25Z 849K followers, 547K engagements
"Stuck At China's Border - Not Allowed To Enter (#202) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. China China China. A country I know fairly well as I lived there for more than [--] years. But we were trying to enter a part of China I had never visited and one that was still fairly mysterious to me: Xinjiang the home of the Uyghurs. Being that I was on a trip where I would only cross land borders from Europe to Asia I would have to do the same crossing from"
YouTube Link 2025-01-02T04:09Z 849K followers, 439.6K engagements
"NO ONE Visits This US Territory - American Samoa (#224) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. The USA is gigantic. Most Americans aren't even aware of all the lands it controls around the world. And there's no better of example of this than American Samoa . Distant and isolated from the US mainland American Samoa generally flies pretty low under the radar. Even Guam is more famous. If anyone has heard of it at all it might be for the strangely large number"
YouTube Link 2025-09-27T11:02Z 849K followers, 851.6K engagements
"So This Is The Place We're Gonna Fight WW3 Over (#218) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. World War [--]. Thats a pretty scary phrase right up there with the words "nuclear apocalypse". And if you watch the news youll notice they always say it might start in one place: Taiwan. Taiwan is wonderful and Ive been there many times. Friendly people great food beautiful nature (and people). But its also the center of a massive geopolitical conflict. Taiwan is also"
YouTube Link 2025-07-07T02:03Z 849K followers, 854.3K engagements
"Visiting The Least Conservative Muslim Nation (#231) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Turkey. Or is it Trkiye I think for most people they look at Turkey on a map and just see another country in the Middle East. That leads you to assume a few things. I know I did. But this is truly one of those countries you have to go and explore yourself to fully understand. It's huge. It's bigger than Texas. And the people come in all different lifestyles from"
YouTube Link 2025-12-16T13:31Z 849K followers, 238.2K engagements
""There's No More Men In Russia" (#199) Up until very recent history Russia was home to a significant German minority. They had come in different waves starting in the 1800s but their epicenter ended up being the area of Russia around modern day Kazakhstan. Most were forcefully moved there during Soviet times and most also chose to leave after the fall of the USSR to go to Germany. These people are Russian but their ancestry is German.I had arrived in Omsk a city virtually unknown to the West. I didn't know much about it either but I did know about Russia's strange German history. I wanted to"
YouTube Link 2024-11-26T15:35Z 849K followers, 2.1M engagements
"Paramaribo: The Coolest City You've Never Heard Of (#108) If you look at a map of South America very carefully you'll notice a little country called Suriname in the top right corner. They don't speak Spanish there. They surprisingly speak Dutch along with a ton of other languages. Gone are the Latin influences instead you find touches of Indonesia India China Holland and West Africa. It's a fascinating place and I was going to start with the capital Paramaribo to get a better understanding of it. Thankfully there was plenty of food and Parbo beer waiting for me. But first I had to learn Dutch"
YouTube Link 2022-03-16T17:00Z 849K followers, 527.1K engagements
"This is the Former Capital of ISIS #sabbatical #mosul #iraq Less than a decade ago Mosul was the capital of the Islamic State. It was the place where the former leader of ISIS Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi made his only public appearance. When Iraq went to retake the city ISIS destroyed it including a [----] year old mosque sabbatical polyglot iraq mosul isis sabbatical polyglot iraq mosul isis"
YouTube Link 2026-02-13T22:00Z 849K followers, 20.9K engagements
"I Went To The Most Hated Unsafe City In Europe (#193) If you're from the Americas it's hard to find anywhere in Europe that's not worth a visit. Sure London and Paris might have a few rough spots but on the whole the continent is way more organized clean and safe than most other places. Unfortunately the capital of Europe seems to want to buck that trend. It truly is a unique city: one divided between two languages and peoples. It's dirty not particularly nice looking and dangerous--right in the heart of the city. Welcome to Brussels and Belgium. This wasn't what I expected. --------"
YouTube Link 2024-09-10T19:23Z 849K followers, 883.9K engagements
"The "Indonesia" Hidden In Suriname (#111) Suriname a country like no other. In the 1800's the Dutch were looking for labor to replace the slaves they brought from Africa. This led to a contract program that brought over thousands of Indonesians from the island of Java. These "Javanese-Surinamese" would go on to have a big impact on the country's culture and food. Being that their arrival in South America was such a unique situation I wanted to learn a bit more about their history. I decided to best way to do this was by visiting a fun food market and then an abandoned plantation where a"
YouTube Link 2022-04-03T18:29Z 849K followers, 404.4K engagements
"Visiting The Homeless Capital Of The World - Absolutely Shocking (#221) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Los Angeles the city of angels. Or so that's what they say. It's the 2nd largest city in the US with over [--] million people within it's metro area and it attracts millions of visitors annually from around the world. But what defines Los Angeles really Is it Hollywood Santa Monica Compton Traveling from one end of the massive sprawling city to the"
YouTube Link 2025-08-27T13:07Z 849K followers, 281.2K engagements
"I Found Love On The Great Wall Of China (#205) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Ah the Great Wall of China. Although it's not true that you can see it from space it still remains in my opinion the coolest manmade wonder of the world. Of course every wall has a beginning and an end. And I wanted to see the END of the wall. So I dragged Mr. Small Brained American along against his will to go climb the wall with me. Feeling a bit under the weather he"
YouTube Link 2025-02-08T16:59Z 849K followers, 491.4K engagements
""You Americans Want To Attack China" (#204) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. The US-China relationship is a complicated one to say the least. There's talk of war in the future and yet we trade with each other we visit each other and even go to live in each others' countries. There's just some things that US and China never seem to see eye and eye on though. One of those is Xinjiang and the treatment of the Uyghur minority. China says it had to lockdown"
YouTube Link 2025-01-27T04:44Z 849K followers, 491.8K engagements
"Jakarta In Indonesia Is My New Favorite City (#149) Jakarta. Indonesia. Considering it's one of the world's largest megacities you don't hear much about it. Fresh off the plane having learned some Indonesian and read a bit of the country's history I decided to go out and get my first impressions of the place and make the BEST TRAVEL VLOG EVER of Jakarta. Things went much better than I expected. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy #sabbatical #indonesia #jakarta"
YouTube Link 2023-04-26T14:10Z 847K followers, 273.4K engagements
"Ethiopia Broke ALL Of My Expectations (#171) Ethiopia the pride of Africa. Home to an amazing and very distinct culture that everyone should experience at least once in their lives. And when you go to Ethiopia top of the list on places to visit is Lalibela the home of the rock churches. It's something that seems out of this world. Unfortunately Ethiopia is also to almost constant conflict. Civil wars border disputes you name it. When I arrived in the country a new battle had just broken out -- between the FANO militia representing the Amharas and the Ethiopian government. Even more"
YouTube Link 2023-12-22T15:48Z 838K followers, 633.2K engagements
"I Didn't Know So Paulo Was So Italian (#118) So Paulo. The megacity of not just Brazil but all of Latin America. If you're flying to Brazil this is typically the only way in and the only way out. I didn't quite know what to expect: we're used to hearing about favelas and robberies in the country which leads one to imagine a disorganized city barely holding it together. That's not So Paulo. There's way more money here than you'd expect and many parts looks as modern as anywhere else in the world. There's the largest Italian and Japanese diasporas in the world. It's a thriving city on the"
YouTube Link 2022-06-11T16:26Z 845K followers, 245.3K engagements
"Hong Kong Will Never Be The Same (#140) Get 25% off Blinkist premium and enjoy [--] memberships for the price of [--] Start your 7-day free trial by clicking here: https://www.blinkist.com/sabbaticaltommy Hong Kong. A city I know all too well. I didn't expect to be able to visit in [----] or at any point in the near future. But when the Hong Kong government announced the borders were opening and the quarantine would be dropped I knew I had to go find out how much the place had changed. I last visited in [----] a tumultuous year for the city to say the least. So many things had happened since then and"
YouTube Link 2023-01-13T21:00Z 837K followers, 680.3K engagements
""Living In India Is Like Being In A Video Game" (#180) India is more than just a country. It's like a universe in of itself: the culture religion languages and everything else is all completely unique. Even the English they speak And there was no better place to explore than Kolkata (Calcutta) India's former capital. It's known as one of the most crowded and chaotic cities in the country. They mainly speak Bengali not Hindi. And in spite of it's history of educational achievement it has a very Dum.Dum neighborhood that I wanted to explore. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon:"
YouTube Link 2024-04-12T13:47Z 836K followers, 351.8K engagements
"So Is This The Rural China They Wanted To Hide (#158) China. You often hear that the big cities are great but the countryside is still extremely poor. Having lived in China for almost [--] years but mostly in Shanghai I wasn't really sure how true that was. There was only one way to find out: it was time to go island hopping. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy #sabbatical #china #ningbo"
YouTube Link 2023-09-04T18:19Z 847K followers, 1.5M engagements
"China Built A Fake London What's Inside (#157) If you travel into the suburbs of Hangzhou you'll be greeted by a curious sight: a full-length replica of the Eiffel Tower along with a knockoff Champs-lyses from Paris to go along with it. There's nowhere else in the world that you could've found someone with enough money and a lack of common sense to build such a thing. Only in China and I'm grateful for their strange decision. In fact there's not just a fake Eiffel Tower there's also a fake England Germany and apparently even Wyoming. These unique property developments were all over the"
YouTube Link 2023-08-28T12:24Z 848K followers, 642.8K engagements
"On The Road To Morocco's Rif(er) Mountains (#122) Ready for a cross country adventure in Morocco I decided to travel from Tangier a port city overlooking Europe to Chefchaouen in the Rif Mountains. This whole region was famous for numerous things: wars between continents amazing views the Berber language and culture and most especially for having a lot of hash farms. I wasn't sure what I'd find on this trip but it was time to find out. We would find out along the way if I could integrate myself with the Amazigh or Berber people. Or would I just get overcharged at the tourist shops. --------"
YouTube Link 2022-07-20T20:02Z 835K followers, 136.6K engagements
"Visiting This Country Is Like Going Back In Time (#175) This place isn't Italy. It isn't Cuba and it's not the Middle East either. This is Eritrea and there's nowhere else like it on earth. Due to a history of colonization by Italy and near-constant war with it's neighbor Ethiopia this country has a very distinctive look--and it feels like it hasn't changed in [--] years. After visiting the capital city of Asmara it was time to tour the entire country. We would visit lands that very few foreigners have seen--at least in the last [--] years. Ruins and remains from the Ottomans Egyptians Italians"
YouTube Link 2024-02-12T22:24Z 842K followers, 407.5K engagements
"I Was Forced Into Polygamy in Rural Tanzania (#37) This is a story of love in a hopeless place. It takes place in Rombo in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro and hours away from Moshi. One man in search of banana liquor (mbege) stumbles upon a situation that will change his life. On this day he will take the first steps to becoming a true Chagga man with more than one wife. #tanzania #sabbatical #chagga ----- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommyfan_landing=true"
YouTube Link 2021-04-30T16:00Z 848K followers, 8.5M engagements
"Inside The "North Korea" of Africa : How It Really Is (#174) You may not have heard of this country but perhaps youve seen it by another name: the North Korea of Africa. But that doesnt quite tell the full story. Theres nowhere like Eritrea in Africa or in the world for that matter. Its a place where everyone must serve in the military a place where most people have never used the internet and a place where people have to stay in their lane or else. But its also a country of extremely friendly and welcoming people. Its very safe you can walk any street in the country without a care in the"
YouTube Link 2024-01-31T13:55Z 819K followers, 540.7K engagements
"America's Capital Is A Warzone: Washington DC Into The Trenches (#185) Stop data brokers from exposing your personal information. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sabbatical to get a 14-day free trial and see how much of yours is being sold. Washington DC. Home to the President of the United States who is arguably the most powerful person in the world. It's also home to one of the most dangerous cities in America. Or at least that's what I heard growing up. Nowadays the property prices have gone through the roof and the demographics keep changing. And yet the drive-by shootings and violence"
YouTube Link 2024-06-19T18:47Z 849K followers, 334.3K engagements
"This Chinese City Is The Capital of Knockoff Goods (#160) Check out Magic AI to plan your next trip: https://www.magictravel.ai/r=sabbatical "The world's factory". The place where people eat anything. In the West if people know this city at all they know it as Canton. In Africa everyone knows it as Gwang Zuu that city in China that all the Africans move to - and in [----] it became a place that many Africans were deported from. In China this city is known as Guangzhou the capital of Cantonese culture and China's 3rd biggest city. The main language here isn't Mandarin - it's Cantonese. It was"
YouTube Link 2023-09-26T11:16Z 742K followers, 467K engagements
"Why Does No One Visit This City This is Mwanza (#42) Located on Tanzania's side of Lake Victoria sits Mwanza the "Rock City". That nickname has nothing to do with music as you'll see. Instead you'll find Tanzania's largest tribe and ethnic group the Sukuma amidst a beautiful backdrop of houses built between stones. On this day my target was an old colonial German mansion built before World War I. #sabbatical #mwanza #tanzania"
YouTube Link 2021-05-13T17:30Z 833K followers, 105K engagements
"Is This Somalia Kenya's Unknown Somali State (#71) It was time for a journey to Garissa Kenya's border with Somalia. Starting in Eastleigh the famous "Little Somalia" of Nairobi I found a bus that would make the [--] hour journey to the northeast. Kenyans had told me that Garissa was dangerous that there was terrorism that I could be kidnapped. It was hard to tell fact from fiction but I was dead set on meeting the Somalis of Kenya. #sabbatical #kenya #africa"
YouTube Link 2021-08-19T09:00Z 845K followers, 162.6K engagements
"This is Hungary - The Country That Doesn't Give a Fu** (#225) Get 64% off Proton VPN now - https://www.protonvpn.com/sabbaticaltommy Hungary. A country that is often better known by it's capital city Budapest. It was my first time visiting the country and although I had done my research nothing prepares you properly more for the Hungarian lifestyle than being there yourself. Who knew there was a valley of beautiful women there Turkish baths Monuments to losing a war against the Mongols Soviet influences Roma dominated hoods In Hungary you had to expect the unexpected. This was my journey"
YouTube Link 2025-10-11T11:39Z 847K followers, 551K engagements
"Is This Africa Or South America Suriname's Maroons (#109) Suriname is a very interesting country. Hundreds of years ago escaped slaves hid in the Amazon rainforest forming new tribes out of people that came from various parts of Africa. Today these villages still speak African languages and maintain some of the traditions from the continent. These are the Maroon villages and there's nothing like them anywhere else. You could say it's "the most African place outside of Africa". Feeling a bit nostalgic for Africa after my travels in Tanzania Kenya Uganda Rwanda and Nigeria I was happy to visit"
YouTube Link 2022-03-27T02:21Z 819K followers, 231.2K engagements
"Walking Into Japan's Most Feared Yakuza Slum (#135) Well this was a change of pace. After journeying across Africa I hopped on a flight from Uganda to go across the globe all the way to Japan. The Japanese government had just opened the borders to foreigners and I being the cunning Gaijin that I am knew that it was time to go and fulfill my dream of becoming a Yakuza. First stop The Nishinari slum in Osaka. Known as Japan's last remaining slum it has an infamous reputation across Japan as being it's most chaotic sketchy crime-filled neighborhood. There were multiple Yakuza offices or"
YouTube Link 2022-11-19T17:13Z 839K followers, 2.7M engagements
"Paris Became A Police State--And Wow It Changed (#191) When you are traveling HOLAFLY is an excellent option to have internet. Check out their packages and get a 5% discount here: https://esim.holafly.com/ref=&discount=SABBATICAL&utm_source=sabbatical_youtube&utm_medium=affiliation&utm_campaign=olympics Discount code: SABBATICAL Paris. Oh la la. If there's one city that everyone knows it's this one. And with the Olympics being held here in [----] a city normally swarming with tourists.had less of them Lately Paris has been in the news for all of the wrong reasons: protests riots migrants rising"
YouTube Link 2024-08-27T20:54Z 849K followers, 368.5K engagements
"Looking For The "Devil Worshippers" in Iraq (#233) Head to https://drinkag1.com/sabbaticaltommy to get FREE AG1 & AGZ Travel Packs Vitamin D3+K2 and an AG1 Welcome Kit when you first subscribe Iraq. America. I think it's safe to say these two countries haven't always had the best of relations. But for better or worse I was an American on a trip through the Middle East and I had always wanted to see Iraq. That's no exaggeration. As a polyglot of sorts Arabic was the first language I ever studied. During the height of the fighting during the Iraq War I dreamed of a chance to the see the country"
YouTube Link 2026-01-24T15:22Z 849K followers, 191.2K engagements
""These Hillbillies Are Shooting Each Other" Life In West Virginia (#186) If youre ever injured in an accident you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch. To start your claim visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/Sabbaticals=86%3A4653 West Virginia. Often derided as the poorest and most backwards state in the US it's a land dotted with mountains and abandoned coal mines. For me as someone born in New York it was like a whole other universe. I wanted to go experience culture shock in my own country--and I wasn't expecting what I"
YouTube Link 2024-06-26T02:33Z 849K followers, 1.6M engagements
"I Didn't Expect This In Asia's Newest Country (#152) The first [----] people to use the link will get a [--] month free trial of Skillshare: https://skl.sh/sabbatical05231 There are officially [---] countries in the world today. Chances are you don't know all of them and chances are even better you don't know Timor-Leste (East Timor). A tiny majority Catholic nation located right in the middle of the majority Muslim Indonesian archipelago it became the newest country in Asia in [----]. But to get independence it had to go through some real shiiiii. I arrived there on the day of a solar eclipse."
YouTube Link 2023-05-30T17:29Z 849K followers, 434.9K engagements
"Back In China Already Being Followed (#203) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Kashgar. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and a former stop on the Silk Road. The heart of Uyghur culture and the former capital of several Uyghur empires. And I wish the description could end right there. For nowadays its part of Xinjiang perhaps the most heavily policed region in the world. I wasnt sure what it would be like to meet the Uyghurs."
YouTube Link 2025-01-10T18:32Z 849K followers, 541.9K engagements
"Found Where North Koreans Escape.They Arrested Us (#209) Thank you Straight Arrow News for sponsoring Go to https://san.com/sabbatical to stay fully informed. Subscribe through my link and/or download the app There is perhaps no greater tragedy in the world than the life of a North Korean. From what we know life is brutally repressive there--and for the people who can they try to escape. And there's only one realistic escape path: going across the Tumen River into China. No foreigners have tried to document this and it turns out there's a very frightening reason why. This was our fateful"
YouTube Link 2025-03-21T01:56Z 849K followers, 505.5K engagements
"I Met The Family of Nazis Who Fled to Argentina (#99) Far from the bustling capital of Buenos Aires in Argentina lies Bariloche a scenic resort town that feels like it was pulled right out of the Swiss Alps or maybe Austria. German settlers arrived here in large numbers in the early 1900s and they were later followed by a more questionable group of immigrants - Nazis fleeing prosecution after World War [--]. All of the most prominent Nazi commanders and scientists came here some if only for a brief period. There was even a conspiracy that Hitler himself escaped here. I decided I would have to"
YouTube Link 2022-01-06T17:15Z 849K followers, 2.7M engagements
"This Is The End (#215) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Hokkaido. It's Japan's coldest snowiest region and also home to the most northern and eastern points of the country. It's also the only place where you can see the islands that Russia took from Japan after WW2 the Kurils. The Japanese still consider them to be Japanese territory. But I was on my own personal mission in Hokkaido to finish a journey I had began [--] months earlier all the way across"
YouTube Link 2025-05-13T01:00Z 849K followers, 420.6K engagements
"It's Time For Me To Be Honest About Who I Really Am. (#219) Download the Nomad eSIM app at https://www.getnomad.app/utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=online&utm_campaign=sabbaticaltommy and get 20% off any data plan by using my code: NOMTOMMY In my [--] years on Youtube I've been through a lot. I've been to places I never thought I'd go in my life and lived through enough near-death experiences to last me for [--] lives. But some think this is no coincidence. Some think that I've been specially trained to go on missions around the world perhaps paid for by a government agency. Well it's time to address"
YouTube Link 2025-07-31T14:14Z 849K followers, 354.4K engagements
"You Can ONLY Do This In MONGOLIA 🐎 (#165) The Mongols. Genghis Khan. The largest land empire the world has ever known. This is a land home to people who really punched above their weight. But that was history what's going on in modern Mongolia Are the traditions still going strong After finishing my summer trip around China I decided to pay a quick visit to China's greatest rival. I was not disappointed. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy #sabbatical #mongolia #ulanbaatar sabbatical polyglot mongolia mongolia vlog ulaanbaatar ulaanbaatar"
YouTube Link 2023-10-29T19:50Z 849K followers, 285.6K engagements
"Now THIS Is How You Have a Wild Night In Japan (#216) ft @OrientalPearl @SmallBrainedAmerican Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Yokohama. Historically it was the port of entry for many into Japan--including the Chinese. It's also home to the largest slum area in Japan a place where the homeless and downtrodden are pushed into. I'm always interested in the lesser known people and places of a country. In Japan that's Chinese and Korean Japanese who due to"
YouTube Link 2025-05-26T04:15Z 849K followers, 244.2K engagements
"Inside The 3rd Korea - Not North Not South (#208) Get 64% off Proton VPN now - https://www.protonvpn.com/sabbaticaltommy North Korea South Korea. Weve all heard of the two Koreas and their eternal struggle. Far lesser known is the Third Korea where millions of people still speak Korean and maintain Korean customs. Where is the 3rd Korea you might ask In China. There you will find a region known as the Korean Autonomous Zone right on the border with North Korea. And the most important "Korean" site of all - Mt. Paektu or Changbaishan - is shared between the two countries. While traveling"
YouTube Link 2025-03-12T22:53Z 849K followers, 238.7K engagements
"Inside China's New Capital They Built In A Week (#206) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. National Day Probably the most popular holiday in China being that everyone gets a week off to go travel. Just don't make the mistake of going to Beijing during this time; it gets jam packed with visitors from the rest of the country. .oh shii that's exactly where I was. Well best to make the most of it then. I had been to Beijing many times before but this time I"
YouTube Link 2025-02-14T03:55Z 849K followers, 291.9K engagements
"This Is A Border You're Not Supposed To Visit. (#210) Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans Use code SABBATICAL at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/sabbatical There are some borders that foreigners aren't supposed to visit. The tri-border between China Russia and North Korea was a grey area: we had heard that if you weren't Chinese you couldn't go. But we also heard that it might be possible. It was hard to be optimistic. We already been arrested once on the North Korean border and stopped countless times. But this was a truly interesting place. The axis"
YouTube Link 2025-03-27T22:26Z 849K followers, 291.1K engagements
"Inside Spain's Exclave In Africa (#124) Sometimes you just never know what to expect in Africa. I was in the far north of Morocco on a very unusual border -- a border with Spain not in Europe but on the African continent. This was the Spanish exclave of Ceuta which borders the Moroccan town of Fnidiq on the other side. What a strange situation I thought. Your first thought might be hey why does Spain still have colonies there But the truth is a bit more complicated -- Ceuta is considered as Spanish as any other part of Spain. .which is only a problem when you consider some controversial"
YouTube Link 2022-07-29T08:58Z 849K followers, 458.3K engagements
"I Found The City With The Best Crack In Ireland ☘ (#189) Go to https://sponsr.is/zbiotics_sabbatical or scan the QR code and get 15% off your first order of ZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic by using my code SABBATICAL at checkout. Thanks to ZBiotics for sponsoring todays video Ireland . A beautiful country that just can't ever seem to find peace. After centuries of struggle with the British for their own independence Ireland is now richer than their former rulers--but not without some new issues. Prices are extreme housing supply is low and as more and more migrants arrive in Ireland the"
YouTube Link 2024-08-08T21:12Z 849K followers, 345.7K engagements
"I Rented A Girlfriend And An Obese Man In Tokyo (#153) Tokyo. It's the largest city in the world with a million different things to see and do. But what happens when you're in the city all by yourself and have no friends Fear not Japan has you covered. Japan is the only country in the world where you can rent people for a few hours to do just about anything. You can "rent" everything from a fake friend to a fake girlfriend to even an overweight person who will eat more than you at the restaurant and let you feel better about yourself. Don't ask me why these things exist. They do and I wanted"
YouTube Link 2023-06-10T16:04Z 849K followers, 1.1M engagements
"I Crossed Into Russia from ChinaBig Mistake (#212) Check out Odoo to easily build a website: https://www.odoo.com/r/Dno Russia. In October of [----] just before I was arrested and accused of being a spy I entered the country through China's northern border. This was my 2nd time in Russia and being that the 1st time had passed with no problems whatsoever I was more than a bit naive. This time I was entering Russia's Far East a place where the police and FSB almost never see Westerners and suspicion ran deep. This video is my journey across both sides of the border: how Russia's influence affects"
YouTube Link 2025-04-24T21:31Z 849K followers, 987.2K engagements
"You Need To Risk Your Life To Visit This Country ✈ (#201) Kyrgyzstan If Kazakhstan is only known internationally because of Borat Kyrgyzstan might only be known because of that one Vice documentary on bride kidnappings. The Central Asian states just havent gotten the best publicity. Well I was happy to try and change that as long as everything went well. After all it's a beautiful country in the mountains with breathtaking scenery and friendly locals (most of whom never kidnap anyone). Join me and another Small Brained American in exploring this mysterious nation. SBA's channel:"
YouTube Link 2024-12-28T04:44Z 849K followers, 367K engagements
"Visiting The Poorest Country in Europe (#228) Go to https://www.getnomad.app to stay connected in over [---] countries without needing a physical SIM. Use my code NOMTOMMY to get 20% off your first eSIM. What springs to mind when you think of Europe Probably Paris Rome or maybe a Greek island. You might even imagine a country like Poland or Bulgaria if you're into geography. But most people never think of Moldova which according to most stats is the poorest and least visited country in Europe. For such a tiny nation it has an incredibly political situation: there are multiple independent or"
YouTube Link 2025-11-12T09:02Z 849K followers, 345.7K engagements
"I Fell in Love in Ukraine (#227) War.that is all we hear from Ukraine these days. And without a doubt war is ever present on the mind of every Ukranian as drones strike their cities almost everyday. But Ukranians also continue amazingly to live their lives. There is an amazing country that's been forgotten after the years of their war of defense. No one tells you about the varied landscapes the country offers; mountains plains and even beaches in the south. Magnificent cities with thousands of years of history. And a population with a resilience and sense of humor like no other. In spite of"
YouTube Link 2025-11-01T01:28Z 849K followers, 580.7K engagements
"Something Strange Is Happening On The US-Mexico Border (#220) Download the Airalo app and get $3 off your first eSIM with my code TOMMY3: https://try.airalo.com/sabbaticaltommy The Mexican border. There is perhaps no other border more infamous than the one the US shares with its southern neighbor. For decades it's been known as a transit point for drugs and illegal migrants slipping right past the US Border Patrol. It's always had a bit of a dangerous reputation with the cartel lurking right on the other side. Well you could consider me a bit of a border expert (or at least I've been detained"
YouTube Link 2025-08-20T17:37Z 849K followers, 688K engagements
"Imprisoned In Russia Accused Of Being A Spy - Full Story (#214) When we all think of nightmare scenarios abroad there are few worse than being locked up in Russia as a Westerner. Unfortunately that was the nightmare that I would have to endure. In this video I'll tell the story of how this happened how the Russian police use corrupt and backhanded tactics to imprison an innocent person and what it's like to be in a Russian prison. I'm not happy to have to tell this story. I always try to find the good in a nation which usually lies in it's people. But this video is a warning to anyone who"
YouTube Link 2024-12-15T19:20Z 849K followers, 1.1M engagements
"Wanna See The Real France YOU NEED TO LEAVE PARIS (#192) France. Lately all we've heard is doom and gloom how the France of memory is disappearing. Well the problem is most people just go to Paris when they visit France and Paris.has a few issues. If you really wanna see France you've gotta get out into the country. The country is overflowing with historical places to explore. We're talking World War [--] and the beaches of Normandy. The Hundred Years War and Joan of Arc in Rouen. The Battle of Tours/Poitiers one of Europe's most legendary battles. There are languages you've probably never heard"
YouTube Link 2024-09-03T05:48Z 849K followers, 391.6K engagements
""You Americans Are The Reason We're In Ukraine" (#197) I made a sidetrip to the Baltics and Belarus and I'll be posting it on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy Russia these days is sadly only known for one thing. But have you ever heard of Tatarstan It's the homeland of Russia's largest minority group: the Tatars. In fact it's a republic with it's own language and religion. Tatarstan is a Muslim republic but it feels distinctly different from the other Islamic areas of Russia like Chechnya and Dagestan. I was on a journey across Eurasia I had decided to take trains to traverse"
YouTube Link 2024-10-20T01:40Z 849K followers, 550.1K engagements
"The Real Reason That I Hate Kenya (#74) It was my last day in Kenya and it was time to be honest. I had to speak my mind. There were some things that the world really needed to know about the country and I was going to be the man to tell them. I decided to do this during a casual walk around Westlands and then later on a not so casual insane rushed drive to the airport to catch my flight out. It ended up being quite a day. #sabbatical #kenya #farewell"
YouTube Link 2021-08-26T16:00Z 752K followers, 337.3K engagements
""They Hijacked My Bus. Then Burned It" Trouble In Northern Ireland (#190) It turns out there's two Irelands. One is the Republic the other is Northern Ireland which is still part of the UK and fiercely proud of it. Growing up I heard about the Troubles and all the mindless violence that took place in the North. The Catholics/Republicans wanted to be part of Ireland the Protestants/Unionists wanted to be part of the UK. But what was this place really all about I didn't know anyone when I showed up. But by pure coincidence I arrived on one of the biggest (and most controversial) holidays in"
YouTube Link 2024-08-13T22:32Z 849K followers, 452.1K engagements
""If You're Foreign Don't Walk The Streets Here" (#105) If you're one of the rare souls who decides to take a trip to Guyana the least visited country in the Americas chances are your first stop will be Georgetown the capital city. With a population of only around [------] it looks and feels almost like a small town. But this city is no joke. With the newfound oil wealth driving prices up crime is starting to skyrocket. Although everyone in Guyana suffers from theft American oil workers and Chinese merchants in particular are hunted in the streets by muggers. I was no oil worker but I was"
YouTube Link 2023-10-17T21:30Z 525K followers, 429.5K engagements
"Meeting the Indian Tanzanian Community (#34) Tanzania's largest ethnic minority the Indo-Tanzanian community has lived in the country for hundreds of years some going back to even the Middle Ages. Many are descended from traders or indentured laborers from the state of Gujarat. The largest community is in Kisutu and Upanga in Dar es Salaam. Their history is complicated and sometimes tragic but no one can deny they are Tanzanian. #tanzania #sabbatical #india"
YouTube Link 2023-10-18T18:41Z 588K followers, 334.5K engagements
"You'll NEVER Guess What I Found In Ethiopia (#172) Happy New Year Get 25% off Blinkist Annual premium Start your 7-day free trial by clicking the link here: https://bit.ly/SabbaticalDec23 Happy New Year Ethiopia isn't quite on the same calendar as everyone else and they do things their own way. They've got their own coffee -- hell they invented it. They've got their own ahem stimulants 🍃. They've even got their own questionable local liquor made out of honey. Perhaps as a result you can find some pretty unique people from around the world there. They even have a community of Rastafarians"
YouTube Link 2023-12-31T17:15Z 808K followers, 895.8K engagements
"Russian Beach in Zanzibar (#29) Tourism is booming in Zanzibar again and it's mostly thanks to Eastern Europe. Russians and Ukranians have been pouring into Zanzibar by the truckloads recently and the Zanzibaris are rushing to learn Russian. I traveled to Kendwa and Nungwi in the north to see what was up. #zanzibar #tanzania #sabbatical"
YouTube Link 2021-03-20T16:55Z 693K followers, 650.1K engagements
"I Had To Leave China (#164) There is a region in Yunnan province in rural China where the Mosuo people live. The Mosuo are shall we say quite a distinct group of people. They're known as one of the only truly matriarchal societies in the world: women run the show and men are just kinda there helping out. But is that still the case in [----] Have the cultural traditions withered away as they have in so many other regions of China I wanted to visit and find out. Most importantly I wanted to see I could offer myself into the harem. -------- This video uses clips from a documentary called "Tisese:"
YouTube Link 2023-10-22T18:36Z 692K followers, 317.6K engagements
"You Won't Believe What China Is Doing In Ghana (#128) As a foreigner who lived in China for many years I'm always happy (and a bit curious) to find the different Chinese communities now spread across Africa. Contrary to a lot of news reports about debt traps and other issues China's influence in Ghana has been mostly positive. In fact Ghana has one of the oldest and largest Chinese communities in all of Africa. But of course there's always more to the story. After a tour of the local Chinatown I decided to finally visit the palace of the king of the Ashanti. I was hoping to get a glimpse of"
YouTube Link 2022-09-11T19:39Z 693K followers, 657.9K engagements
"Walking The Real Streets of Accra Ghana (#126) Ghana. If you ask anyone about Ghana they'll probably have good things to say. It's a great place to start if you've never traveled to Africa before. And if you do visit Accra will be your starting point. Most people arrive here and have a taxi whisk them from tourist site to another and I can't fault 'em for that. But I'm someone who likes to get a real feel for a place when I visit. So I decided to walk across the whole city and see what I'd find. Maybe even a wife -------- Instagram: tommyelforasteroPatreon:"
YouTube Link 2022-08-24T23:04Z 786K followers, 208.2K engagements
"Wow People in Guyana Are Fun (#104) For a very long time I had looked at the map of South America and wondered about those [--] tiny countries at the top -- the countries that no one knew even existed. One of those countries Guyana actually had a huge immigrant population in New York where I'm from. It was the only English speaking country in South America they said. It was a country of unspoiled natural beauty they also said. With the world slowly reopening again I knew I had to go. Guyana is not rich but with it's recent discovery of oil that will be changing very soon. But I was there for the"
YouTube Link 2023-10-23T22:59Z 525K followers, 353K engagements
"Don't EVER Take This Bus in Tanzania or Uganda (#43) Sometimes on the road you have a really bad day. This was one of those. I had the idea to take a bus from Mwanza Tanzania's city on Lake Victoria to Kampala in Uganda. You'll never believe what happened. Share this video with anyone you know in Tanzania in Uganda. A company of thieves needs to be known for what they are. ---- I'm not asking for handouts but if you like the channel and want to help it grow after this here's my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommyfan_landing=true #sabbatical #tanzania #uganda"
YouTube Link 2021-05-16T12:00Z 693K followers, 299.6K engagements
"Crossing Into Brazil On Foot From Guyana (#113) BRAZIL The day had finally come. I had been learning Portuguese here and there for years but had never made it to the country until now. But I wasn't going to take the typical tourist route and fly into Rio de Janeiro. Oh no that's not how I do things. Instead being that I was already in the rarely visited country of Guyana I decided I would go down to their southern border and cross into Brazil that way. There in the state of Roraima was a region rarely ever visited by foreigners but worth the trip. It's mainly the home of different indigenous"
YouTube Link 2022-04-10T18:27Z 693K followers, 194.6K engagements
"Indonesian Girl Takes Me To See The Real Bali (#151) Bali. If theres one place in Indonesia youve heard of its this place. Its the magical island that Westerners dream of escaping to and setting up a business and where Australia sends its finest citizens to enjoy a few beverages over the weekend. I admit I had a lot of preconceptions before I arrived here and its never good to be biased. So I decided to bring along a new Indonesian acquaintance I had met back in Jakarta. She would help keep me grounded and remind me as I made fun of the other Bules struggling on their scooters that I in fact"
YouTube Link 2023-05-15T04:14Z 692K followers, 307K engagements
"I Went To Tibet Chinas Most Restricted Province (#162) Tibet. A land that is known by many and seen by very few. As a foreigner it's the most restricted place to visit in China. You need to register in advance for a group tour who will get you all the required paperwork for going around. But once you get there once you touch down in Lhasa you have to forget about all that. It's a beautiful place with incredibly friendly people. I couldn't wait to experience it starting with the capital city. One thing I couldn't forget though was the altitude. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon:"
YouTube Link 2023-10-08T12:43Z 755K followers, 553.8K engagements
""We Never Went Back" India & China's Border (#179) India. China. The two behemoths of Asia share a long contested border through the Himalayas. After a war in the 1960s and deadly border conflicts that continued all up until the present day it remains impossible to cross between the two countries by land. I had decided to visit Sikkim one of India's most unique states in both shape and in culture. The people arguably have more in common with neighboring Nepal than they do the rest of India. But Sikkim also shares a closed border with Tibet and you'll frequently see military trucks driving"
YouTube Link 2024-04-06T02:54Z 687K followers, 399.5K engagements
"Romance on Zanzibar's East Coast (#30) There were many surprises waiting for me on the east coast home to Zanzibar's beautiful beaches on the Indian Ocean. I decided to get on a motorcycle and cruise the beach talking to locals in Paje Jambiani and Bwejuu. Little did I know I was soon to be charmed right out of my mzungu mind. ------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy #sabbatical #zanzibar #tanzania"
YouTube Link 2021-03-23T18:44Z 693K followers, 1.5M engagements
""The Thieves Here Are Very Professional" (#102) There is nowhere more notorious in Buenos Aires than "Villa 31" the infamous shantytown/favela that was built right in the heart of the city. It lies right in between the Retiro bus and train stations the largest transport hub of the capital. It's known for being a haven for criminals and all sorts of other dangers. But it was also the home of many immigrants from Argentina's neighbors - Peru Bolivia and Paraguay in particular. My original plan had been to go to the station and take a train to the north but seeing Villa [--] just outside I decided"
YouTube Link 2022-01-27T01:15Z 692K followers, 257K engagements
"A Tour Of Hong Kong's Triad Gangster District (#141) Hong Kong. A city that most know for international finance movies and good food. Perhaps lesser known is Hong Kong's association with the Triads one of the world's most infamous criminal organizations. Possessing one of the biggest ports in Asia as well as a border with mainland China Hong Kong has always been an ideal smuggling location. On this day I would go exploring in Yuen Long a district that became famous for Triads after some recent events. I would be joined by a threatening looking local who would take me to explore the"
YouTube Link 2023-01-24T05:06Z 812K followers, 256.7K engagements
"Surprised By China's Train In Nigeria (#87) Nigeria the giant of Africa has lately been receiving a lot of visitors from another giant over in Asia. The Chinese are now entrenched in every part of the Nigerian economy from retail to banking to transportation. Many would claim Nigeria was being pushed into a debt trap but was that really the case We would take the newly built SGR railway from Lagos to Ibadan to find out. #sabbatical #nigeria #africa"
YouTube Link 2023-10-17T11:32Z 525K followers, 252K engagements
"What Is China Really Doing In Tibet (#163) Tibet. I've always wanted to go there and explore. Nowadays the only thing you ever hear about the place is how China runs it. What was life like there now in [----] How has Tibetan society changed To visit Tibet as a foreigner you need a permit and a group tour. It's not easy to go around exploring on your own. But I made it my mission to find some time to sneak off and talk to the real people of Tibet. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy #sabbatical #tibet #china"
YouTube Link 2023-10-15T17:40Z 525K followers, 192.5K engagements
"Where the Tourists Don't Go on Zanzibar (#31) Tourists are flocking back to Zanzibar but you won't really find them outside of Stone Town and the beach resorts. Zanzibar is an island with over a million people and there are lots of little villages that continue on undisturbed from the tourist economy. One day I decided to head south and see what I would find. And also bring a Chinese girl along for the journey. #zanzibar #tanzania #sabbatical"
YouTube Link 2023-10-21T22:00Z 525K followers, 213.9K engagements
"A Tour of Rwanda's Most "Dangerous" Hood (#81) As much as I appreciated the stability and peacefulness of Rwanda I wanted to see another side of the country. To find that I went to Nyamirambo a working class Muslim and immigrant neighborhood in Kigali. In addition to a lively nightlife scene Rwandan friends had told me that supposedly there were thieves there. There was only one way to find out. ----- Instagram: tommyelforastero Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommyfan_landing=true #sabbatical #rwanda #africa"
YouTube Link 2023-10-15T18:28Z 588K followers, 337.8K engagements
"Is El Salvador Still Dangerous I Went To Find Out (#143) Get Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/sabbatical - Enter promo code SABBATICAL for 83% off & [--] extra months for FREE El Salvador. Being from Long Island in New York you couldn't go through your life without meeting at least a few Salvadorans. But sadly I never used to hear anything good about the country. I heard about the gang wars about MS-13 about Barrio [--] about huge waves of migrants fleeing the country. It had the highest murder rate in the world for many of the last [--] years. El Salvador didn't seem like the kinda place"
YouTube Link 2023-02-09T23:05Z 693K followers, 579.4K engagements
"The Journey To Congo (#79) In western Rwanda lies Lake Kivu which marks the border between Rwanda and the DRC (Congo). Not too long ago it was possible to easily cross the border at Gisenyi and spend a day or [--] in neighboring Goma. But these days the border like everything else has become a complicated mess. One day after downing a few glasses of the local Gwagwa moonshine I decided I would walk all the way to the border and try to sweet talk my way in. This is the record of that journey. ----- Instagram: tommyelforastero Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommyfan_landing=true #sabbatical"
YouTube Link 2021-09-17T16:00Z 692K followers, 124K engagements
"Naga Hills land of Chickens 🐔"
YouTube Link 2024-05-07T20:00Z 629K followers, [----] engagements
""I Pray That Russia Won't Hurt You" (#198) Finally things were moving up on my journey to the Pacific. Russia the largest country in the world is gigantic: it stretches all across Eurasia going from Poland and the Baltics in the west to North Korea and Japan in the east. It even shares a maritime border with the US. But until reaching Ekaterinburg I hadnt seen many mountains. The vast majority of Russias land is Siberia and the official starting point for Siberia is the Ural Mountains. Its also the official border between Europe and Asia which is fun. I wanted to go exploring but I was all on"
YouTube Link 2024-11-20T11:54Z 849K followers, 309K engagements
"The Airport In Lagos Is VERY CORRUPT (#91) In all my travels I've never seen a country like Nigeria before. You really have to be there to understand but I'll try to express my admiration for the organized chaos found here as best as I can. Tayo Aina's channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TayoAinaFilms Josey's channel (it's even more African than mine): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLquhsm3whhDUY23S3WJCSQ #sabbatical #nigeria #africa"
YouTube Link 2021-11-04T19:55Z 794K followers, 262.2K engagements
""They Call Us Chinese" India's Rebel State: Nagaland (#181) Man this isn't what you think of when you imagine India. In the far northeastern corner of the country on the border of Myanmar lies a state called Nagaland. In every sense of the word Nagaland is different: different ethnicities languages even religions. It's the one place where I don't seem to hear the Indian accent when people speak English. It's not that simple to get there. Nagaland is a series of hills and to get to the heart of the state in Mon you must go on a real journey. I decided to take this journey by train road and"
YouTube Link 2024-04-22T01:23Z 629K followers, 168.5K engagements
""They Will Shoot You At The Checkpoint" Trapped In Palestine (#169) Go to https://ground.news/sab to stay fully informed. Subscribe through my link for less than $1/month or get 30% off unlimited access. Since early October Israel has been at war with Gaza which has captured the world's attention and brought attention to the Palestinians' struggle. But Gaza is only one part of the story. The West Bank a place full of famous Biblical cities like Bethlehem Hebron and Jericho is the other half of Palestine. And ever since the conflict reignited into this latest war things have become more"
YouTube Link 2023-12-01T23:53Z 804K followers, 1.8M engagements
"Is Israel As Bad As They Say I Went To Find Out (#168) What would you do if you knew that missiles would be flying at your city everyday That's the reality that both Israelis and Palestinians face in late [----] in the latest phase of their never-ending conflict. Most people are wise enough not to fly to a country during an active war but sadly that wasn't me. Like the rest of the world I was deeply interested in the events happening in the Holy Land and I wanted to go there myself to better understand the situation. It's the most polarizing conflict on earth: many people absolutely hate one of"
YouTube Link 2023-11-25T19:21Z 693K followers, 749.1K engagements
"The Hong Kong That Tourists Never See (#142) The first [---] people to use code SABBATICAL at the link below will get 20% off of Incogni: https://incogni.com/sabbatical Hong Kong has always been more complex than most would think. A product of British colonialism and Chinese culture there's nowhere else in the world like Hong Kong. It gets even more interesting when you visit the Nepali guesthouses the Nigerian barbershops the Indian restaurants and the Filipino parties in the park. That's what I decided to do. From the infamous Chungking Mansions to the remote corners of the New Territories on"
YouTube Link 2023-02-01T04:20Z 801K followers, 314.1K engagements
"This is where Covid started #china #wuhan #chicago"
YouTube Link 2024-05-14T18:42Z 631K followers, [----] engagements
"A Casual Tour of Tanzania's Richest Neighborhood (#24) Where do the rich Tanzanians live in Dar es Salaam In Masaki it turns out. Join me on this compelling journey around a casino a yacht club Slipway and more of the good life in Tanzania. #tanzania #daressalaam #masaki"
YouTube Link 2021-03-07T17:01Z 757K followers, 429.1K engagements
"I MET A GIRL IN THAILAND (#166) Who doesn't love a vacation in Thailand That was to be my plan except I didn't have the typical vacation in mind. I had always been fascinated by this area called the Golden Triangle located on the tri-border of Thailand Laos and Myanmar. I heard the Chinese had taken over. Sounded great I wanted to go see what was happening. I invited a familiar face from Indonesia to join me in Chiang Rai. -------- Instagram: sabbatical.tommy Patreon: / sabbaticaltommy #sabbatical #thailand #laos"
YouTube Link 2023-11-06T18:36Z 693K followers, 300.8K engagements
"Getting Sprayed With Perfume in Iraq #sabbatical #erbil "At least he didn't spray you with something else." Perfume works a bit differently in the Middle East sabbatical polyglot iraq erbil sabbatical polyglot iraq erbil"
YouTube Link 2026-02-14T13:01Z 849K followers, [----] engagements
"This is the Former Capital of ISIS #sabbatical #mosul #iraq Less than a decade ago Mosul was the capital of the Islamic State. It was the place where the former leader of ISIS Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi made his only public appearance. When Iraq went to retake the city ISIS destroyed it including a [----] year old mosque sabbatical polyglot iraq mosul isis sabbatical polyglot iraq mosul isis"
YouTube Link 2026-02-13T22:00Z 849K followers, 20.9K engagements
"When An American Meets Iraqis.✌🏼🥲 #sabbatical #iraq It was my first visiting Iraq and what a place to be: Mosul the former capital of ISIS. I never expected to have a conversation like this sabbatical polyglot sabbatical polyglot"
YouTube Link 2026-02-13T13:48Z 849K followers, 10.9K engagements
"Looking For The "Devil Worshippers" in Iraq (#233) Head to https://drinkag1.com/sabbaticaltommy to get FREE AG1 & AGZ Travel Packs Vitamin D3+K2 and an AG1 Welcome Kit when you first subscribe Iraq. America. I think it's safe to say these two countries haven't always had the best of relations. But for better or worse I was an American on a trip through the Middle East and I had always wanted to see Iraq. That's no exaggeration. As a polyglot of sorts Arabic was the first language I ever studied. During the height of the fighting during the Iraq War I dreamed of a chance to the see the country"
YouTube Link 2026-01-24T15:22Z 849K followers, 191.2K engagements
"Inside The "Country" That Will Never Be A Country (#232) Go to https://buyraycon.com/sabbaticalOPEN to get 20% off sitewide. Thanks to Raycon for sponsoring If you visit Istanbul many people will tell you to stay away from eastern Turkey. Thats the Kurdish homeland the lands once roamed by the PKKbut its also Mesopotamia the birthplace of human civilization and home to ruins and history thats important to all of us. I for better or worse lack the ability to stay from dangerous regions so of course I was going to visit. But I had a hunch that Kurdistan wasnt so violent anymore. I wanted to see"
YouTube Link 2026-01-14T13:00Z 849K followers, 158.5K engagements
"Visiting The Least Conservative Muslim Nation (#231) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Turkey. Or is it Trkiye I think for most people they look at Turkey on a map and just see another country in the Middle East. That leads you to assume a few things. I know I did. But this is truly one of those countries you have to go and explore yourself to fully understand. It's huge. It's bigger than Texas. And the people come in all different lifestyles from"
YouTube Link 2025-12-16T13:31Z 849K followers, 238.2K engagements
"This is Romania: There's Nowhere F*cking Like it (#230) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. I don't believe there is a nation in Europe with a more tarnished reputation than ROMANIA. Associated with thievery and backwardness Romania hasn't quite made it's name as a world class tourist destination. But hey these were old stereotypes. People change countries change. What is Romania like in [----] Well I took a rather casual trip across the entire nation to"
YouTube Link 2025-12-05T15:07Z 849K followers, 500.6K engagements
"This Country Won't Exist Much Longer. (#229) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Transnistria aka Pridnestrovie. The most famous country in the world that doesnt actually exist. Its a Russian speaking breakaway region in Moldova sandwiched right next to Ukraine. Its a bizarre region that exists almost like a time capsule: everywhere you go there you see signs of its past in the Soviet Union. Nowadays youll also see a lot of Russian flags flying"
YouTube Link 2025-11-21T08:59Z 849K followers, 299.8K engagements
"Visiting The Poorest Country in Europe (#228) Go to https://www.getnomad.app to stay connected in over [---] countries without needing a physical SIM. Use my code NOMTOMMY to get 20% off your first eSIM. What springs to mind when you think of Europe Probably Paris Rome or maybe a Greek island. You might even imagine a country like Poland or Bulgaria if you're into geography. But most people never think of Moldova which according to most stats is the poorest and least visited country in Europe. For such a tiny nation it has an incredibly political situation: there are multiple independent or"
YouTube Link 2025-11-12T09:02Z 849K followers, 345.7K engagements
"I Fell in Love in Ukraine (#227) War.that is all we hear from Ukraine these days. And without a doubt war is ever present on the mind of every Ukranian as drones strike their cities almost everyday. But Ukranians also continue amazingly to live their lives. There is an amazing country that's been forgotten after the years of their war of defense. No one tells you about the varied landscapes the country offers; mountains plains and even beaches in the south. Magnificent cities with thousands of years of history. And a population with a resilience and sense of humor like no other. In spite of"
YouTube Link 2025-11-01T01:28Z 849K followers, 580.7K engagements
"Ukraine Was NOT What I Expected (#226) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Wow. Out of all the trips I've ever taken this was one of the most meaningful. Ukraine. A country that was invaded almost [--] years ago and continues fighting for it's survival until today. Everyone knows about that everyone has seen the news. But what is it like living in Ukraine in [----] What is it like to travel the country where there are no flights What is like to be in a country"
YouTube Link 2025-10-21T15:39Z 849K followers, 1.2M engagements
"NO ONE Visits This US Territory - American Samoa (#224) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. The USA is gigantic. Most Americans aren't even aware of all the lands it controls around the world. And there's no better of example of this than American Samoa . Distant and isolated from the US mainland American Samoa generally flies pretty low under the radar. Even Guam is more famous. If anyone has heard of it at all it might be for the strangely large number"
YouTube Link 2025-09-27T11:02Z 849K followers, 851.6K engagements
"I Think I Just Found The Best Country In The World (#223) PLAUD AI is amazing Their note taker has been a game-changer for coming up with video ideas note taking and language learning. Get PLAUD Today Use Codesabbaticalfor 20% Off Official website: USA: http://bit.ly/4pKvk64 UK: http://bit.ly/3IFoFt1 Amazon: USA :https://bit.ly/46CHVQ2 UK: https://bit.ly/4mCd1x7 Ah the South Pacific. It's the least visited region in the world mainly because it takes so damn long to get there. I mean even New Zealand is a [--] hour flight away and they're already in the middle of nowhere. But if there's one"
YouTube Link 2025-09-23T09:54Z 849K followers, 271.2K engagements
"Staying At A $100 Cartel Resort In Mexico - Private Beach (#222) Check out Odoo to easily manage your business: https://www.odoo.com/r/GNtE Contrary to what many think theres actually two Californias. And Im not talking about left and right. Im talking about BAJA California the California thats in Mexico. It used to be unified with the more famous California in the US when the Mexicans called it Alta California. Its the more heavily trafficked border in the world. Each year there are more than [--] million crossings made. It has a very different feel from the border with Texashere just like"
YouTube Link 2025-09-13T17:27Z 849K followers, 406.8K engagements
"Visiting The Homeless Capital Of The World - Absolutely Shocking (#221) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Los Angeles the city of angels. Or so that's what they say. It's the 2nd largest city in the US with over [--] million people within it's metro area and it attracts millions of visitors annually from around the world. But what defines Los Angeles really Is it Hollywood Santa Monica Compton Traveling from one end of the massive sprawling city to the"
YouTube Link 2025-08-27T13:07Z 849K followers, 281.2K engagements
"Something Strange Is Happening On The US-Mexico Border (#220) Download the Airalo app and get $3 off your first eSIM with my code TOMMY3: https://try.airalo.com/sabbaticaltommy The Mexican border. There is perhaps no other border more infamous than the one the US shares with its southern neighbor. For decades it's been known as a transit point for drugs and illegal migrants slipping right past the US Border Patrol. It's always had a bit of a dangerous reputation with the cartel lurking right on the other side. Well you could consider me a bit of a border expert (or at least I've been detained"
YouTube Link 2025-08-20T17:37Z 849K followers, 688K engagements
"It's Time For Me To Be Honest About Who I Really Am. (#219) Download the Nomad eSIM app at https://www.getnomad.app/utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=online&utm_campaign=sabbaticaltommy and get 20% off any data plan by using my code: NOMTOMMY In my [--] years on Youtube I've been through a lot. I've been to places I never thought I'd go in my life and lived through enough near-death experiences to last me for [--] lives. But some think this is no coincidence. Some think that I've been specially trained to go on missions around the world perhaps paid for by a government agency. Well it's time to address"
YouTube Link 2025-07-31T14:14Z 849K followers, 354.4K engagements
"So This Is The Place We're Gonna Fight WW3 Over (#218) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. World War [--]. Thats a pretty scary phrase right up there with the words "nuclear apocalypse". And if you watch the news youll notice they always say it might start in one place: Taiwan. Taiwan is wonderful and Ive been there many times. Friendly people great food beautiful nature (and people). But its also the center of a massive geopolitical conflict. Taiwan is also"
YouTube Link 2025-07-07T02:03Z 849K followers, 854.3K engagements
"I Can Never Go Back To This Country (#217) Check out Odoo to easily build a website: https://www.odoo.com/r/obFm Belarus. If anyone knows this country they probably know it as Russias one ally in Europe. Maybe they know it as Europes last dictatorship (not quite the right term a few countries have joined in recent years). They probably dont know it as an incredibly clean and orderly country thats incredible to travel. They may not know that Belarus is the country to visit to see Soviet Union history even moreso than Russia. Belarusis complicated and I have a weird history with the country. I"
YouTube Link 2025-05-31T10:49Z 849K followers, 471.4K engagements
"Now THIS Is How You Have a Wild Night In Japan (#216) ft @OrientalPearl @SmallBrainedAmerican Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Yokohama. Historically it was the port of entry for many into Japan--including the Chinese. It's also home to the largest slum area in Japan a place where the homeless and downtrodden are pushed into. I'm always interested in the lesser known people and places of a country. In Japan that's Chinese and Korean Japanese who due to"
YouTube Link 2025-05-26T04:15Z 849K followers, 244.2K engagements
"This Is The End (#215) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 50% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Hokkaido. It's Japan's coldest snowiest region and also home to the most northern and eastern points of the country. It's also the only place where you can see the islands that Russia took from Japan after WW2 the Kurils. The Japanese still consider them to be Japanese territory. But I was on my own personal mission in Hokkaido to finish a journey I had began [--] months earlier all the way across"
YouTube Link 2025-05-13T01:00Z 849K followers, 420.6K engagements
"I Crossed Into Russia from ChinaBig Mistake (#212) Check out Odoo to easily build a website: https://www.odoo.com/r/Dno Russia. In October of [----] just before I was arrested and accused of being a spy I entered the country through China's northern border. This was my 2nd time in Russia and being that the 1st time had passed with no problems whatsoever I was more than a bit naive. This time I was entering Russia's Far East a place where the police and FSB almost never see Westerners and suspicion ran deep. This video is my journey across both sides of the border: how Russia's influence affects"
YouTube Link 2025-04-24T21:31Z 849K followers, 987.2K engagements
"China Is Hiding a BIG Secret.(#211) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. In the far far north of China right on the border between China and Russia lies a region with a very interesting history. This is an area that used to be controlled by the Russians. Harbin one of China's major cities used to be majority Russian; and there are towns where you'll find an unexpected minority group: the "Russian Chinese" people of Russian descent who only speak Mandarin"
YouTube Link 2025-04-07T15:02Z 849K followers, 245.7K engagements
"This Is A Border You're Not Supposed To Visit. (#210) Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans Use code SABBATICAL at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/sabbatical There are some borders that foreigners aren't supposed to visit. The tri-border between China Russia and North Korea was a grey area: we had heard that if you weren't Chinese you couldn't go. But we also heard that it might be possible. It was hard to be optimistic. We already been arrested once on the North Korean border and stopped countless times. But this was a truly interesting place. The axis"
YouTube Link 2025-03-27T22:26Z 849K followers, 291.1K engagements
"Found Where North Koreans Escape.They Arrested Us (#209) Thank you Straight Arrow News for sponsoring Go to https://san.com/sabbatical to stay fully informed. Subscribe through my link and/or download the app There is perhaps no greater tragedy in the world than the life of a North Korean. From what we know life is brutally repressive there--and for the people who can they try to escape. And there's only one realistic escape path: going across the Tumen River into China. No foreigners have tried to document this and it turns out there's a very frightening reason why. This was our fateful"
YouTube Link 2025-03-21T01:56Z 849K followers, 505.5K engagements
"Inside The 3rd Korea - Not North Not South (#208) Get 64% off Proton VPN now - https://www.protonvpn.com/sabbaticaltommy North Korea South Korea. Weve all heard of the two Koreas and their eternal struggle. Far lesser known is the Third Korea where millions of people still speak Korean and maintain Korean customs. Where is the 3rd Korea you might ask In China. There you will find a region known as the Korean Autonomous Zone right on the border with North Korea. And the most important "Korean" site of all - Mt. Paektu or Changbaishan - is shared between the two countries. While traveling"
YouTube Link 2025-03-12T22:53Z 849K followers, 238.7K engagements
""North Korea Is GREAT" (#207) Extra content and extended videos available on Patreon: www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy There is one country that is so absurd so mysterious and also so evil that it captures peoples' attention more than any other nation: North Korea. A communist dictatorship whose family dynasty has continuously been in power since the 50s North Korea is unlike anywhere else. And now it has nukes You would think they would've fallen by now. But no they still exisit almost entirely thanks to China (and Russia). And China has a very long border with NK even longer than the border"
YouTube Link 2025-03-01T02:42Z 849K followers, 448.8K engagements
"Inside China's New Capital They Built In A Week (#206) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. National Day Probably the most popular holiday in China being that everyone gets a week off to go travel. Just don't make the mistake of going to Beijing during this time; it gets jam packed with visitors from the rest of the country. .oh shii that's exactly where I was. Well best to make the most of it then. I had been to Beijing many times before but this time I"
YouTube Link 2025-02-14T03:55Z 849K followers, 291.9K engagements
"I Found Love On The Great Wall Of China (#205) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Ah the Great Wall of China. Although it's not true that you can see it from space it still remains in my opinion the coolest manmade wonder of the world. Of course every wall has a beginning and an end. And I wanted to see the END of the wall. So I dragged Mr. Small Brained American along against his will to go climb the wall with me. Feeling a bit under the weather he"
YouTube Link 2025-02-08T16:59Z 849K followers, 491.4K engagements
""You Americans Want To Attack China" (#204) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. The US-China relationship is a complicated one to say the least. There's talk of war in the future and yet we trade with each other we visit each other and even go to live in each others' countries. There's just some things that US and China never seem to see eye and eye on though. One of those is Xinjiang and the treatment of the Uyghur minority. China says it had to lockdown"
YouTube Link 2025-01-27T04:44Z 849K followers, 491.8K engagements
"Back In China Already Being Followed (#203) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. Kashgar. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and a former stop on the Silk Road. The heart of Uyghur culture and the former capital of several Uyghur empires. And I wish the description could end right there. For nowadays its part of Xinjiang perhaps the most heavily policed region in the world. I wasnt sure what it would be like to meet the Uyghurs."
YouTube Link 2025-01-10T18:32Z 849K followers, 541.9K engagements
"Stuck At China's Border - Not Allowed To Enter (#202) Go to https://ground.news/sab to spot media bias and make sure youre getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only. China China China. A country I know fairly well as I lived there for more than [--] years. But we were trying to enter a part of China I had never visited and one that was still fairly mysterious to me: Xinjiang the home of the Uyghurs. Being that I was on a trip where I would only cross land borders from Europe to Asia I would have to do the same crossing from"
YouTube Link 2025-01-02T04:09Z 849K followers, 439.6K engagements
"You Need To Risk Your Life To Visit This Country ✈ (#201) Kyrgyzstan If Kazakhstan is only known internationally because of Borat Kyrgyzstan might only be known because of that one Vice documentary on bride kidnappings. The Central Asian states just havent gotten the best publicity. Well I was happy to try and change that as long as everything went well. After all it's a beautiful country in the mountains with breathtaking scenery and friendly locals (most of whom never kidnap anyone). Join me and another Small Brained American in exploring this mysterious nation. SBA's channel:"
YouTube Link 2024-12-28T04:44Z 849K followers, 367K engagements
"Borat Was A Lie THIS Is Kazakhstan (#200) There may be no country more misunderstood than KAZAKHSTAN. Its international image was defined by a comedy film released [--] years ago. Borat left many people thinking Kazakhstan was some backwater nation in Eastern Europe that holds a Running of the Jew festival every year. BUT THAT IS NOT KAZAKHSTAN Kazakhs have way more in common with the Mongols than they do with Borat. Theyre a tough people who survived life out on the brutally cold Central Asian steppes and then decades of destruction under the Soviet Union. They speak Russian but their native"
YouTube Link 2024-12-22T23:31Z 849K followers, 406.7K engagements
"Imprisoned In Russia Accused Of Being A Spy - Full Story (#214) When we all think of nightmare scenarios abroad there are few worse than being locked up in Russia as a Westerner. Unfortunately that was the nightmare that I would have to endure. In this video I'll tell the story of how this happened how the Russian police use corrupt and backhanded tactics to imprison an innocent person and what it's like to be in a Russian prison. I'm not happy to have to tell this story. I always try to find the good in a nation which usually lies in it's people. But this video is a warning to anyone who"
YouTube Link 2024-12-15T19:20Z 849K followers, 1.1M engagements
"I Was Arrested And Detained In Far Eastern Russia (#213) I was warned before going to Russia. All of my family and friends tried to convince me not to go fearing the worst if I went. Youre American theyll lock you up for nothing. I wasnt naive but I never seriously believed Russia would arrest a vlogger and accuse him of being an American spy. Sadly they were right and I was wrong. Im going to tell you the story of how I was arrested in Russia and nearly had my life destroyed. This happened in the Jewish Autonomous Region a place that was founded as a homeland for the Jews of Russia and then"
YouTube Link 2024-12-05T16:11Z 849K followers, 598.4K engagements
""There's No More Men In Russia" (#199) Up until very recent history Russia was home to a significant German minority. They had come in different waves starting in the 1800s but their epicenter ended up being the area of Russia around modern day Kazakhstan. Most were forcefully moved there during Soviet times and most also chose to leave after the fall of the USSR to go to Germany. These people are Russian but their ancestry is German.I had arrived in Omsk a city virtually unknown to the West. I didn't know much about it either but I did know about Russia's strange German history. I wanted to"
YouTube Link 2024-11-26T15:35Z 849K followers, 2.1M engagements
""I Pray That Russia Won't Hurt You" (#198) Finally things were moving up on my journey to the Pacific. Russia the largest country in the world is gigantic: it stretches all across Eurasia going from Poland and the Baltics in the west to North Korea and Japan in the east. It even shares a maritime border with the US. But until reaching Ekaterinburg I hadnt seen many mountains. The vast majority of Russias land is Siberia and the official starting point for Siberia is the Ural Mountains. Its also the official border between Europe and Asia which is fun. I wanted to go exploring but I was all on"
YouTube Link 2024-11-20T11:54Z 849K followers, 309K engagements
""You Americans Are The Reason We're In Ukraine" (#197) I made a sidetrip to the Baltics and Belarus and I'll be posting it on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabbaticaltommy Russia these days is sadly only known for one thing. But have you ever heard of Tatarstan It's the homeland of Russia's largest minority group: the Tatars. In fact it's a republic with it's own language and religion. Tatarstan is a Muslim republic but it feels distinctly different from the other Islamic areas of Russia like Chechnya and Dagestan. I was on a journey across Eurasia I had decided to take trains to traverse"
YouTube Link 2024-10-20T01:40Z 849K followers, 550.1K engagements
"You Should Never Visit Russia. But I Did Anyway (#196) Russia. After the invasion began they were effectively shut off from the Western world. Flights between Europe and Russia were halted. Trade was stopped. Most border crossings were closed. And yet I found myself at one of the few crossings that remained open: Narva in far eastern Estonia. I had never been to Russia and as an American now definitely wasn't the best time to change that. But no one knows what the future may hold. I was on a trip across Eurasia and there was no way I could just ignore the world's largest country. I spent a"
YouTube Link 2024-10-11T15:08Z 849K followers, 797.4K engagements
"I Found The Most Underrated Country In Europe (#195) When I was growing up you never heard much about Eastern Europe other than that it was poor. There was the rich expensive countries of Western Europe like Switzerland and then there were the cheap "backwards" nations like Romania. You went to Western Europe to make money and you went to Eastern Europe for a cheap vacation and that was that. Well one country is really changing up that whole stereotype. What if I told you that there's now a large country in Eastern Europe that has a higher GDP per capita than Spain and Portugal It's an"
YouTube Link 2024-10-01T02:23Z 849K followers, 600.9K engagements
"Everyone Told Me Germany Sucks Now But Actually. (#194) DEUTSCHLAND That's Germany if you prefer. Germany has had a.complicated past one could say. Barely [--] years ago it emerged from the Cold War reunited--the two former halves of West Germany and East Germany joined back together to from the economic powerhouse that dominates the EU today. But who are the Germans exactly I had always heard they were cold serious and always working. They said it was hard to make friends there. And it recent times they say the country is now overrun with migrants like the rest of Europe. Well like anywhere"
YouTube Link 2024-09-25T00:25Z 849K followers, 547K engagements
"I Went To The Most Hated Unsafe City In Europe (#193) If you're from the Americas it's hard to find anywhere in Europe that's not worth a visit. Sure London and Paris might have a few rough spots but on the whole the continent is way more organized clean and safe than most other places. Unfortunately the capital of Europe seems to want to buck that trend. It truly is a unique city: one divided between two languages and peoples. It's dirty not particularly nice looking and dangerous--right in the heart of the city. Welcome to Brussels and Belgium. This wasn't what I expected. --------"
YouTube Link 2024-09-10T19:23Z 849K followers, 883.9K engagements
"Wanna See The Real France YOU NEED TO LEAVE PARIS (#192) France. Lately all we've heard is doom and gloom how the France of memory is disappearing. Well the problem is most people just go to Paris when they visit France and Paris.has a few issues. If you really wanna see France you've gotta get out into the country. The country is overflowing with historical places to explore. We're talking World War [--] and the beaches of Normandy. The Hundred Years War and Joan of Arc in Rouen. The Battle of Tours/Poitiers one of Europe's most legendary battles. There are languages you've probably never heard"
YouTube Link 2024-09-03T05:48Z 849K followers, 391.6K engagements
"Paris Became A Police State--And Wow It Changed (#191) When you are traveling HOLAFLY is an excellent option to have internet. Check out their packages and get a 5% discount here: https://esim.holafly.com/ref=&discount=SABBATICAL&utm_source=sabbatical_youtube&utm_medium=affiliation&utm_campaign=olympics Discount code: SABBATICAL Paris. Oh la la. If there's one city that everyone knows it's this one. And with the Olympics being held here in [----] a city normally swarming with tourists.had less of them Lately Paris has been in the news for all of the wrong reasons: protests riots migrants rising"
YouTube Link 2024-08-27T20:54Z 849K followers, 368.5K engagements
""They Hijacked My Bus. Then Burned It" Trouble In Northern Ireland (#190) It turns out there's two Irelands. One is the Republic the other is Northern Ireland which is still part of the UK and fiercely proud of it. Growing up I heard about the Troubles and all the mindless violence that took place in the North. The Catholics/Republicans wanted to be part of Ireland the Protestants/Unionists wanted to be part of the UK. But what was this place really all about I didn't know anyone when I showed up. But by pure coincidence I arrived on one of the biggest (and most controversial) holidays in"
YouTube Link 2024-08-13T22:32Z 849K followers, 452.1K engagements
"I Found The City With The Best Crack In Ireland ☘ (#189) Go to https://sponsr.is/zbiotics_sabbatical or scan the QR code and get 15% off your first order of ZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic by using my code SABBATICAL at checkout. Thanks to ZBiotics for sponsoring todays video Ireland . A beautiful country that just can't ever seem to find peace. After centuries of struggle with the British for their own independence Ireland is now richer than their former rulers--but not without some new issues. Prices are extreme housing supply is low and as more and more migrants arrive in Ireland the"
YouTube Link 2024-08-08T21:12Z 849K followers, 345.7K engagements
"Nicaragua The Latin Dictatorship No One Mentions (#188) In the middle of Central America situated above Costa Rica and below Honduras lies a country that's been out of the news for a few decades. Older Americans know it from the Sandinistas and the Iran-Contra affair. This is Nicaragua. It's never been as tourist friendly as Costa Rica nor has it been as violent as it's northern neighbors. Nicaragua doesn't fit neatly into a box. The eastern half of the country speaks English a legacy of British colonialism and American intervention. The rest of the country speaks a unique dialect of Spanish."
YouTube Link 2024-07-18T17:36Z 849K followers, 282.2K engagements
"New York's Poorest Most Forgotten Region: Upstate NY (#187) If youre ever injured in an accident you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch. To start your claim visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/Sabbaticals=86%3A4653 Whenever someone mentions New York people imagine huge towering skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty. They picture an urban jungle the only place in America where you really don't need to own a car. The world knows New York as New York City and if you were to tell someone you grew up on a dairy farm there"
YouTube Link 2024-06-29T18:20Z 849K followers, 910.2K engagements
""These Hillbillies Are Shooting Each Other" Life In West Virginia (#186) If youre ever injured in an accident you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch. To start your claim visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/Sabbaticals=86%3A4653 West Virginia. Often derided as the poorest and most backwards state in the US it's a land dotted with mountains and abandoned coal mines. For me as someone born in New York it was like a whole other universe. I wanted to go experience culture shock in my own country--and I wasn't expecting what I"
YouTube Link 2024-06-26T02:33Z 849K followers, 1.6M engagements
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