Shadowing Practice: I Spent 3 Days with the SEA GYPSIES 🇮🇩 (Bajau Tribe) - Learn English Speaking with Video

13 minutes is how long these people can hold their breath underwater.

They spend their entire lives in the middle of the ocean in villages built on stilts

that you can't even see on Google Maps.

This is the Bajo tribe, a community of sea nomads spread between Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

After generations of living at sea, they've developed what might seem to be superhuman abilities underwater.

For the next three days, we'll be living alongside the Bajo people in Palau Papan, Indonesia.

To get to the Sea Nomad Village, we've got to take a five-hour ferry, and it's pretty interesting actually.

So I had to walk this plank to get onto the ferry, and I pretty much almost fell into the sea with all my equipment.

People bring cargo and a lot of the things that they can't find on the island.

Somebody even brought a scooter.

Yeah, this was kind of cool.

If you show it from this angle, it almost looks like you're riding on the sea.

They're bringing all kinds of things, even eggs.

And inside the hull here, you'll notice that most of these boxes are actually water

because this is the only way that the locals can bring water to their islands.

For most of us, having access to fresh water is something we don't even think about.

But for these guys, it's kind of a luxury

and something they have to be very conscious about Maybe even

take trips back to the mainland regularly to ensure they have enough of.

Let me take you inside the boat here.

Gotta be careful not to fall.

The staircase is super steep.

Besides water, they've also got things like cigarettes, diapers.

Everybody's got their names on the things that they're bringing.

These are our seats.

Very comfortable.

Pretty comfortable, not bad, I would say.

We've got a toilet in the back.

We've got a little fan blowing cold air on us over here.

We're gonna have a few stops along the way here.

Different villages.

It's gonna take most of the day.

But it's gonna be an adventure.

We've got a boat heading straight on at us.

Are they pirates?

I don't know what's happening.

I think we might be having an exchange with them, yeah.

I think we're meant to meet.

It looks like they're the ferry going the other way.

Hello!

We come in peace!

What's happening?

They attached.

They attached?

They mounted?

Are we towing them?

No. No, no, no. Everyone's come up to see the action.

I don't know what they exchanged.

Did you see anything come off their boat onto ours?

I don't know.

I think they gave them a jug of fuel.

Oh!

That's interesting.

I saw them transfer it to their, I don't know, downstairs.

Oh, the hull of the boat?

The hull, yeah.

They didn't go in and go out.

They just...

...through the window or whatever.

They just quickly passed it through.

Hi!

Hi, are you Leon?

Nice to meet you Emily and Razi.

Oh Thank you so much.

We finally made it.

It was a long journey They've got lots of goats to welcome us Hello Chickens I'm from the US

Nice to meet you too.

What's your name?

Refli.

Nice to meet you both

Thank you for welcoming us to your village Thank you So we're walking through the neighborhood now Getting to the homestay Wow,

looks like it's gonna be beautiful Follow the locals Okay Okay,

so the bridge isn't that steady Alright,

we're just gonna step wherever Leon steps then then yeah i will be careful oh my gosh okay all right thank you

oh my gosh i love coconut we brought fruit for

you guys no no we it's a gift oh you get me yeah thank you you're welcome okay we made it

okay let's take our shoes off i think that's what they do Hello.

Hello.

You okay?

I'm okay, I'm okay.

Hello.

Hi.

Tomorrow, I mean, tomorrow for people, tourist for fans, check out.

You can change the room, yeah?

Okay.

You can change the room there.

For the better view.

The bigger one, yes.

Oh, the bigger ones.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's so nice.

Maybe you like tea or coffee?

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Yeah, coffee would be great.

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Yeah.

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We didn't eat anything all day, so I think it's time to find some coffee and some food.

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Leon just came out and brought us these beautiful freshly cut coconuts for us to try.

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Terima kasih.

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Alright.

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This is going to be my first ever time trying fresh coconut.

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Mmmmm!

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Wow, it's super good!

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Tastes different than coconut water out of a container.

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Kinda more sour I would say.

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Really good.

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And look where we are right now.

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This is the view from the front deck.

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Wow.

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And now it's time to have dinner.

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Look at everything they prepared.

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It's a huge spread.

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Oh my gosh, there's so many different things.

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And they just prepared all of this fresh for us right now, right?

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Yeah.

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Wow, that's really nice.

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Let's dig in.

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This morning, we've joined our new friend Nasran, who's Bajo, on his traditional fishing boat to go spearfishing in the middle of the sea somewhere.

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So, let's go.

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Let's check out how they do it traditionally.

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His comfort in the water was obvious from the very beginning.

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When he swam, it almost looked like he was walking.

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And when he came up for air, it was only in short gasps before he went back down again.

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Over thousands of years, the Bajo tribe has developed a slightly larger spleen to be able to hold their breath longer underwater.

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It helps them store and release more oxygenated blood into their bloodstream while they're holding their breath.

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Some older members of the tribe can even hold their breath for up to 13 minutes.

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It was amazing to see his skills and cool to hear how he cried out every time he missed a fish.

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And he stays attached to his boat the entire time by a rope that's tied around him.

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Spending three days with the Bajo people was unlike anything I've ever experienced.

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It pushed me way out of my comfort zone.

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Living in a house built on stilts over the water, wooden boardwalks that were falling apart were the sidewalk.

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There was zero cell service, limited electricity, and only a couple generator hours a day to charge everything.

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I often felt completely disconnected from the outside world.

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I had to completely rely on our hosts for everything.

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It was a massive mental challenge.

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But being pushed so far outside my comfort zone reminded me of a pattern I've noticed in my life.

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Every time I'm pushed into uncomfortable or unpredictable situations, it ends up being the reason for my biggest personal growth.

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Navigating that kind of growth isn't always easy, and that's where regular sessions with my therapist on BetterHelp, the paid partner of this video, come in.

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My therapist helps me process that pressure instead of letting it turn into anxiety.

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A piece of advice from therapy that always sticks with me when things get overwhelming is that diamonds are made under pressure.

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It's a simple reminder that the moments causing us the most discomfort are often the ones actively shaping us into stronger, more resilient versions of ourselves.

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Whether I'm navigating stress at home or a remote part of the world, BetterHelp makes it easy to get mental health support over video, phone, or text whenever I have a connection.

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If you're going through change or feeling pushed out of your comfort zone, you don't have to navigate it alone.

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You can get 10% off your first month on BetterHelp by clicking the link in the description

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or going to betterhelp.com slash 20camels.

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Let me give you guys a little tour of the homestay because it's definitely not like any place I've ever stayed before.

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The houses here are built on stilts.

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Some of them are wooden and some of them are concrete like these.

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But in any case, they're built right on top of the water, literally in the reef.

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So you can see all kinds of colorful coral, fish, and clams pretty much everywhere you look.

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So instead of having a lawn, these guys have reefs.

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This is the front deck.

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You can see the Wi-Fi up here.

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But it's a little quirky because they give you a little voucher that only lasts 24 hours

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and it's for each individual device that wants to connect to the Wi-Fi.

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And then this is their power.

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It's actually not generator hours right now.

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So generator hours are only between like 6 p.m and midnight.

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Other than that, we're pretty much without electricity here.

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So this is the inside of the house.

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We have to take off our shoes like in a lot of places in Indonesia.

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And it's huge.

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They've got about four rooms.

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So this is our room, the biggest one.

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We've got a big mattress right here on the floor, Asian style.

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And the whole room is made out of wood.

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And actually, if you look through the cracks in the floorboards on the ground, you can see the water.

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And I don't know if this is how all of the houses in this village are built, but in this one, you have no complete privacy in this room because the roof is open.

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There's no ceiling.

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It gives the phrase living under one roof quite a literal meaning.

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We even found Nemo outside of our room.

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This is the living room and the whole house creaks when you walk on the floorboards.

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Like they're not all 100% set equally

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and it really leads me to wonder like do crabs ever like crawl into the house from between the floorboards?

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Like if I lived here that's what I would be worried about.

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That would be my anxiety.

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And this is the kitchen.

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We have Aja who's been helping us take care of all of the meals

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and the cleanup and everything so and then this is the water

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which is something they have to import all the way from Ampana

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which is the mainland the place we started at yesterday

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when we took the boat so it's a six-hour journey to get water here

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and pretty much everything building materials anything they want to bring to this town all comes from So as you would imagine,

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it takes a long time to build anything.

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And this is kind of just a chill area.

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You can sit down, look at the reef, hang your clothes to dry.

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And this guy is working on expanding the place.

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They're building a new room.

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So that's good.

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That means business has been good for them.

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You ready, Riefli?

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Let's go.

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All right, so Riefli is going to take us into the village right behind us here.

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And we're going to check out what's going on on a random Thursday.

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Okay.

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Briefly told us yesterday that he built this bridge leading to the guest house, and that's why it's nice compared to the government built bridge.

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This one, where it's basically like a roll of the dice on any given day, whether you're going to fall in or not.

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I mean, this is dangerous, especially for old people.

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Whoa.

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You okay?

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Yeah.

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I mean, you can literally feel some of these giving way underneath you.

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And you don't know if today's going to be the day that they decide to just snap or not.

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You all right back there?

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Yeah, I'm just taking it slow.

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Okay.

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Don't want to fall.

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Alright.

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Who's laughing at us?

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Who's laughing at us?

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Reefly.

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Reefly?

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Is it funny how we passed the bridge?

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Yeah.

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Yeah?

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Yeah, we're not locals yet.

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Yeah.

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They know exactly where to walk.

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They've been here for each plank becoming less and less stable over time.

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Some goats here.

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Oh yeah, we got the village goats.

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Hello.

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Making their rounds.

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Hello.

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We've got some kids.

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Hello!

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Hello!

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Hello!

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We met some of these guys last night.

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So if they come running over to us, acting like they know us, they do know us.

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We've got some village market over here.

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Looks like they're selling some hot chocolate, some coffee, some nuts, and water.

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This is the village mosque.

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And this is the village mosque.

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It's really beautiful.

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I think it's the one place at night when everyone else loses electricity that still has a light.

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Oh, you can see why.

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Oh, yeah.

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That's why.

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Because it's like one of the only places that has a solar panel here.

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That's really nice.

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They must have pooled their money to be able to afford that solar panel for the mosque.

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So now we're heading up this rock because this is the only way

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that you can get back to the mainland from the village.

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And they built a huge long boardwalk connecting the village to the mainland.

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So we're going to go check it out.

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I think Riefly is going to get us water.

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Oh, Riefly is going to get us water.

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Yeah.

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That's nice.

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Hello.

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Hello.

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Hello.

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Hello.

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Hello.

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Hello.

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Hello.

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Hello.

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Oh, thank you so much, Riefly.

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Thank you, Riefly.

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That's so nice.

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let's go okay let's go bye bye bye bye let me

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look at this oh wow they have a whole rock retaining wall on the side of this house

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and the house itself looks like it's made out of woven reeds wow it's got to be

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so old and you can see that house is built on wooden stilts

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so that just further indicates

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that it's a very traditional house back before they built them on You can see the mask and traditional Oh yeah?

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Assalamualaikum Assalamualaikum Oh Traditional masks These are the traditional masks that the Bajo wear to go underwater,

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to go diving, spearfishing Have you ever wore these?

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Yeah Did you ever try?

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Yeah Yeah?

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Yeah You don't like?

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I like them You like?

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Yeah Snorkel it better or this?

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It's better.

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Snorkel.

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Yeah.

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Makes sense.

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But they're really well made.

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That's really cool to see though.

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And they look new.

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Like somebody's keeping up the tradition of making these goggles.

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Yeah, making them.

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That's really cool.

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Okay, so apparently this is a resort that the government built.

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But the tourists, I guess, didn't like to stay here or they never finished it or something.

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So it just sits now, abandoned.

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Little dining room area over here.

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And then out here you can see the houses where people were supposed to stay.

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Your place looks better, Riefli.

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This looks boring.

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Not traditional.

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That's why tourists don't like it.

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Maybe expensive.

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Maybe.

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Maybe they charge too much, yeah.

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We made it to land!

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So these are the land dwellers.

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But barely, because I still do see some stilted houses in the distance there.

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This is your friend's house?

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Yes.

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Oh nice.

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My friend.

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Oh hello!

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Hello!

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What is this?

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Cake.

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want one guys thank you all right oh they're in the shape of hearts yeah that's

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so cute oh how's the cake super good what does it

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taste like i don't know you even yeah yeah it's spiced

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smells like peanut butter yeah kinda no it's not peanut butter maybe i'm just craving peanut butter cookies.

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Mmm.

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Now that I bite into it, it kind of tastes like cinnamon.

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Mm-hmm.

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It's really good.

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Not overly sweet, delicious.

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Oh!

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He's bringing them with him.

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You're bringing them.

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Yay, we get more.

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Terima kasih!

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Thank you, my friend!

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Thank you!

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Oh, they've got a lake back there.

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Yeah.

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Wow.

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That's cool.

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And what I thought were more stilted houses are actually stilted convenience stores.

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That's kind of cool.

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We're going to walk the plank yet again to get into the convenience store.

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And here it is.

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They're selling all different kinds of like dried juices and sodas and milks.

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And they've also got baby wipes inside here.

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Some medication.

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You like octopus?

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Yeah, for the dinner.

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Oh, we're having octopus for dinner?

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Yeah, the...

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The captain caught octopus?

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The captain sell the octopus.

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Oh!

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We love octopus.

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I've got the captain is gonna take us back to the main village

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So we don't have to walk across all of those dicey boards anymore

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And we're gonna take the traditional boat to get there, so I'm super excited.

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This is gonna be really cool All right, let's see this thing.

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He keeps asking if I'm like scared to ride in it

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It's not that small it's pretty decently sized I would say oh The octopus Wow,

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oh my gosh He looks delicious.

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Look at that.

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Yeah.

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Wow, beautiful.

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I guess we're going to be bringing this back with us.

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How much does it weigh?

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How much?

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35. Good price?

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Yes.

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Nice catch, Captain.

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Good.

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Good octopus.

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Alright, I guess we're going to the boat from here.

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Okay, yeah.

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Oh, okay.

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Okay, whoa!

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Oh, oh, oh, oh, okay.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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I almost flipped this.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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So this boat does not have as much give as some other boats I've ridden in before.

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Gotta be extra careful.

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Noted.

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Oh!

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What's up, Amy?

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Now I understand why he said we should be afraid.

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I'm scared now, I'm scared now.

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Here we are.

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Home sweet home.

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Just came back a different way Hello guys Hello This is Pulau Papan

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Okay As it seems with everything in this village That was not easy

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And a little nerve-wracking I feel like with everything in this

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village Like you're just one wrong step away from like falling in the ocean right? yeah

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and now the moment we've all been waiting for

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electricity time! why am I always crossing some kind of precarious plank over water? okay thank you

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so this is the generator he's got a fixed amount of gasoline

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that should last us more or less five or six hours and now all we have to do is start it Good!

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Electricity, guys!

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Alright, now we have to make the most of it for the next five hours.

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So this is our beautiful octopus, prepared for dinner.

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Looks so good.

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Smells delicious.

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I love whatever kind of spice they added to it.

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Smells really good.

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Let's give it a try.

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It's spicy.

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Well, good.

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Kind of really spicy, though.

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This is spicy, Lian.

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Octopus.

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Chili.

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Chili.

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One.

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Sulawesi chili.

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Oh, the fact that she didn't think this was spicy and it almost killed me and they only put one chili in, I think they eat spicy.

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So the storm from earlier intensified right as we were going to bed

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and now it just sounds like our room is being pelted with rain and the wind is so intense.

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It's just like you can feel it through the walls.

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Even with the windows closed, you can still see the curtains moving.

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On the one hand, I like that it's cooler than it was last night.

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But on the other hand, it's kind of creepy and kind of scary.

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I think it might be hard getting to bed tonight.

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Before we end this video, I'd like to give a huge thank you to Refli and Leon from Leon Homestay.

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They really made being in such a foreign and faraway place feel like home, which isn't an easy thing to do.

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If you guys would like to book with them, you can go to their website, leonhomestay.com.

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They could use all the support they can get.

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Thanks for watching, guys.

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I really hope you enjoyed this video.

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This was not an easy place to get to, but it was super rewarding.

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All the people, all the experiences we had.

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This was one of the most epic videos we've made yet.

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So thank you for being a part of it.

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If you did like this video, don't forget to like, subscribe to the channel for more adventures.

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And if you'd like to support this channel, You can join our Patreon up here or YouTube memberships in the description below.

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And we'll see you guys in the next one.

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

Shadowing Practice: I Spent 3 Days with the SEA GYPSIES 🇮🇩 (Bajau Tribe) - Learn English Speaking with Video

What You'll Learn from This Adventure

Listen For These Sounds

Say It Like a Native

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?