Shadowing Practice: Bali Is Everything Wrong With Society - Learn English Speaking with Video

Bali used to be a paradise, a serene island with a friendly and welcoming culture, jaw-dropping landscapes and exotic wildlife.

Unfortunately today, this Indonesian dreamland has become home to a completely different kind of animal.

On the island of Bali, the world's largest digital nomad hub.

Okay guys, I just found another group of digital nomads here.

Another digital nomad, it's just so easy to find them here.

Okay guys, another digital nomad here.

That's right, annoying digital nomads.

They're everywhere in Bali, and if you ask them about their jobs, like this YouTuber Travel with Rafa did, then you'll probably get some answers like this.

were quick to point out the obvious contradiction, with one user saying the guy who dropped out of uni wants to help college students do their exam.

But even he sounds more legit than the next two sunbathers.

So, Cody and I are actually building a self development course.

Nice.

We've been doing that for two months and we'll always be doing calls and lectures and getting mentors in, collaborations, so it's going to be valuable.

So despite only starting this mentorship course business two months ago, they're already giving other people advice on how to start their own business and get their own lives together.

Just like this other commenter says, yeah we wanted to do something unique so we decided to be Aussies in Bali selling BS courses and making YouTube videos.

But these people are now just a common regular site.

The amount of tourists that come to the island every year now outnumbers its local population by nearly 3 million.

But it wasn't always like this.

For most of its history Bali was a rarity, overlooked and unvisited by most outsiders.

Despite most of Southeast Asia falling to colonialism centuries before, it wasn't until the late 1800s that the Dutch arrived and took control.

Before then, only private traders really came to the island to make deals with the local royal houses.

Most of its people worked the land, growing rice or catching fish.

At the turn of the millennium, Bali began to gain international attention and at first, this tourism was a boon to the island.

It gave its people new wealth and prosperity while increasing the island's power within Indonesia itself.

The number of annual visitors soon grew to 500,000, then to a million, then quickly to over 7 million today.

This massive increase is relatively recent and a large part of it can be blamed on social media and Instagram.

As the island's natural beauty became popular on the site, influencers from around the world saw that they could use this to pretty up their own profiles.

Anyone looks good as a silhouette with Bali in the background.

The YouTuber Charlie Chang spoke to a lot of digital nomads and influencers in a series of interviews.

And one that stood out was this man who claims to be a property developer and an entrepreneur.

So what's your name, age, and where are you from?

My name's Sumner, 30 years old, and I'm from Big Sur, California.

So what do you do for work?

A couple different things.

All of it's in like the real estate development niche.

Four years ago I launched a coaching program teaching other people how to do it, and then two years ago I built a software that pretty much runs the business for you.

Like how much money do you make living here in Bali?

This year so far anywhere between like 400 and 500k.

Okay.

Impressive if he's telling the truth.

But a lot of people were skeptical saying things like 400k a month and living in Bali.

Totally believable.

These coaches are something else.

Another says when you are traveling you will meet a lot of liars.

And one quite simply says even the cameraman is puking from listening to their bullshit.

And you can't blame them as it's really easy to be suspicious.

What can you buy with that money here?

Yeah I'm not really a big spender to be honest.

But yeah, I probably spend 10 to 15 grand a month.

None of this adds up.

Even somewhere like New York or London, that's a ton of money to spend.

In Bali, where things can be half the price, it's even crazier.

Although this guy might be out of touch enough to actually be rich, but it's impossible to tell whether this actually comes from land deals, the incredibly expensive course he's always selling online,

or even just some inheritance.

Some of the guys are even more dubious.

Maybe they're earlier on in their Bali bro life cycle like these two guys.

What type of business do you guys have?

We have a supplement brand.

We started working together.

We worked together for two years without never seeing each other.

We've met just like a few months ago here in ballet for the first time.

And now we're working and scaling, launching new products.

Yeah, we're on track to do seven figures a month.

Over-advised is constantly keep working hard.

Like, it doesn't happen overnight.

It took me years to start building, especially to big numbers, multiple six figures, seven figures a month.

Millions a month is what he's saying at 21 years old.

He hasn't had any years to work hard to begin with, but he somehow managed this after starting from pretty much nothing.

But before we move on, it's worth taking a look at the people this guy surrounds himself with.

So what types of people live in Bali?

Oh man, you get everything.

You got the party crowd, you got the fitness crowd like at wrong gym here.

You've got the Dubai bro entrepreneur crowd.

You've got the crypto bro crowd.

You got the Aboot spiritual crowd.

You got it all.

It's a sad statement of how things are going in Bali and who has taken up residence there.

The people that Bali has changed itself to support.

But it wasn't always like this.

This archival footage from the 70s shows the true beauty of what it used to be like.

They're coming here now with their dope, with their dirty jeans, with their pegs.

Have you ever thought that perhaps by coming here you're wrecking the culture?

Just by coming here, you are sort of helping to destroy the way of life, I think.

But the only thing you can do is try

and live as simply as you can and live as simply as the people here.

You'll find a lot of the people that are coming to Bali now, they'll talk to you about spiritualism and the fact that if you go up to the mountains and meditate, you don't need to take dope and all this kind of thing.

Some of it seems to me very unspontaneous.

Kuta Beach used to be an unfashionable area, but since the tourist invasion, shops and restaurants have sprung up all along the dirt roads.

Already though you can see the beginning of what we've got today, the very start of the replacement.

50 years later and it's completely unrecognizable.

As the Instagrammable hotspots filled up with people, the influencer culture propagated.

Now places that were once hidden and pristine have turned into this.

As you can see, Bali as an island is currently choking on influences and literally dying because of this.

The luxurious villas and other tourist infrastructure is replacing the local architecture at a breakneck pace, around 1000 hectares a year.

Western businesses and western prices are now displacing its native people.

Because of all these people and digital nomads, Bali is literally overflowing with garbage now.

The island's biggest landfill is now full, so residents have resorted to burning the trash just to get rid of it, covering this pristine island with a layer of thick polluted smoke.

Meanwhile, influencers are trying to turn the island into their own party venue, smuggling drugs in and filming sex tapes on its sacred mountains.

Veronica Choshina, a Russian influencer and adult content creator, got over a million views by desecrating Mount Batur,

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a grand volcano considered holy by Bali's native population.

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And unfortunately this is just one example of a huge growing problem, that Bali is everything wrong with Instagram modern culture,

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where you party and become a course seller while ignoring laws and ancient customs.

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While the Veronica escape back to Russia, she probably won't ever face any consequences for her actions.

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Yet, not all are so lucky.

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Despite claiming it was Panadol,

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the man was arrested for cocaine possession shortly after.

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Indonesian authorities are notoriously tough on drug crimes, but apparently the big red warning sign of the death penalty for drug smugglers wasn't enough to deter this guy.

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But this all happens as a product of the culture of parting that's now been imported onto the island.

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People whose families worked the land

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or fished the seas for generations have seen their livelihoods

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and their place in the world vanished in the space of just a few short years.

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Meanwhile, cartels and international gangs have been quick to capitalize on a booming tourism industry on the island.

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Because of the strict laws and relative scarcity, they can charge high prices and make an absolute fortune, corrupting the island even further.

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It's why local newspapers are now talking about a growing organized crime presence on the island, particularly from Ukrainian and Russian gangs fighting to monopolize the exploding drug trade.

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Just recently this drug lab was busted by Bali police with two Russian men and one Ukrainian arrested in connection to it.

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And with the influx of gangs now trying to serve the influencers and digital nomads, there comes infighting too, just like we saw with this incident.

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In December of 2024, a Ukrainian man was kidnapped by masked Russian gangsters, and he was forced to transfer almost $200,000 of crypto to their wallets.

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Dashcam footage of the incident was later released online, going viral as a clear example of the growing criminal underworld in Bali.

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And bear in mind, it's not really locals doing this.

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The victim eventually escaped the ordeal relatively unharmed, but not everyone's so lucky.

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Another Ukrainian man was kidnapped in 2026, just one day after posting a Valentine's Day photo online with his influencer girlfriend.

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Some believe he was found through the photo's location data.

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Soon he was bundled into a rental car, with no sign of him found for days until a harrowing video was posted online.

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The now deleted clip shows an injured

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and distressed man claiming to be the victim and asking his parents for a $10 million ransom as he gestured to horrific injuries.

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He was then later found deceased.

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All suspects in this case, according to Bali's police force, were also foreign nationals.

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There are rumours that the victim was the son of an infamous Ukrainian mob boss, and it was why he was targeted, although that's not really confirmed.

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Regardless, these tragedies are clearly spilling over from other criminal underworlds, all to serve one population that wasn't here 10 years ago.

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As this, unfortunately, is almost inevitable economically, when you consider the party culture that's fueling their arrival.

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But it's not just criminal gangs.

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One of the most visually criminal crimes happening in Bali is construction.

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Companies that are often foreign owned are building like crazy,

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ignoring all the local rules and greasing pockets to get the best spots next to Bali's picturesque rice paddies and flowing waterfalls.

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Of course, as more villas go up, they eventually replace their natural beauty.

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The concrete spool gets larger and new villas are needed in new picturesque locations without burning trash.

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Often foreign construction companies have been rushing to seize land which skyrockets in value just a year or two later.

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Lots of people responsible for this are the ones partying in the coastal towns.

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They build illegally, which the government's turned a blind eye to for years because of its booming tourism economy.

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Quote, the developments got out of control and people got greedy, said one local.

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We tried to stop it but the government didn't listen to us and now it's too late.

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Now though, with lots of hastily constructed villas and buildings falling apart just years later, the government has backpedaled, ordering the demolition of lots of these new buildings.

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While some see it as a move in the right direction, it does still threaten to further damage the environment, waste more money and push Bali further into a crisis.

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Which mirrors a much larger project in Bali, the infamous Chinese glass elevator, built into the cliff face overlooking the beach.

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Keli King beach for years was a small island gem, accessible via a 40 minute boat ride from Sanur, a small town on the southeast coast of the island.

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As the Instagram crowd came to Bali, it became one of the most photographed spots in the entire region and for good reason.

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Whatever filter you may or may not use it's absolutely stunning, or at least it was.

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Most visitors never made it down to the beach, the steep hike down the traditional coastal path which the locals had been using for generations turned away most travellers.

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There are plenty of other beaches for people to visit

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and you didn't need to take the path to get the beautiful view, but this didn't really matter.

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In response to this non-problem, a Chinese developer called China Qixi Group was hired to build a massive elevator.

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At nearly 200 meters tall, the white steel and glass structure was going to be slightly taller than the Washington Monument.

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Was going to be is the key phrase.

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Ever since construction began in 2023, locals protested this every step of the way.

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Construction got about 70% of the way before the regional governor suspended construction, then deciding to schedule this for demolition,

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citing a lack of proper permits for construction.

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So now they're tearing it all down again.

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Over 15 million dollars were wasted and more could still be needed to repair any damage to the environment,

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especially as the original investors behind the project are still battling it out in the course to stop the ongoing demolition.

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The project is now temporarily a work of art in a strange, ugly way.

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A testament to the modern influence on Bali and the ongoing conflict between different interest groups over its future.

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It may well end up just being little more than a symbolic victory for the environmentalists

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and the people looking to preserve the natural beauty of this island.

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But for every viral glass elevator that gets torn down, there are thousands of small ugly villas which slip through the cracks.

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They go unnoticed by the wider public, but spoil the island in their own little way.

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Now of course, there are also benefits to tourism.

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Whatever the character of Bali's new arrivals, their money still spends and it accounted for over 60% of the island's GDP in 2019.

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This shift in the economy has completely changed life for most of Bali's native residents.

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The sons and daughters of fishermen and farmers have been forced to break century-long traditions and family trades.

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Some of them were happy to switch to construction or to service jobs for the tourism industry.

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They do pay better although Bali's minimum wage is still incredibly low.

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So this ends up just clearly pushing people off the island entirely, like this person claims.

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It's dystopian.

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Meanwhile, the video this person commented on is a travel vlog talking about how cheap the western-style cafes are.

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This choice to find work elsewhere will soon become a forced decision for more people.

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It's highly unlikely that most families will be able to stay afloat

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if the digital nomad communities in the tourism areas continue to expand.

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In Kangoo, land prices rose by around 400 to 600% in 15 years.

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Amazing for foreign owners of their land, but terrible for any local person renting it.

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It's really insane, you have people like this guy believing they've escaped the corporate prison and found their unique natural life.

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This is how they were meant to be living.

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Meanwhile, they're still existing in a bubble designed to cater to them.

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It's all the fake facade hiding how deep the problems really go beneath the surface.

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Influencers and digital nomads can sit down in air-conditioned cafes, eat their avocado toast, spend their days lounging by the pool and then claim they're finding their spiritual awakening.

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This travel vlog unknowingly summed it all up.

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This tourist trap restaurant was sure to put their name on

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the egg in their ramen bowl to get free Instagram advertising when people post their lunches online.

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But according to the channel, the ramen looks great but the taste is just okay.

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Like all of these tourist areas here, it's all style with no substance, just like Dubai.

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Now obviously there's nothing wrong with going on holiday.

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There are still many amazing places to go in Bali and so many awe-inspiring things to see.

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Off the beaten track you'll find beauty everywhere, but as more

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and more people come to this small island all trying to do the exact same thing as their favorite Instagram influencers, it gets really harder and harder to see how this can sustain itself.

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Interestingly enough, Bali is the only majority Hindu part of Indonesia, which was the thing that gave it its unique culture to begin with.

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It's full of beautiful Hindu temples, and due to this historic culture, as long as you're respectful and clean, it's still one of the most welcoming places in the world.

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But it's hard to see how long this will last.

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Just take a look at most popular spots now.

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Like this famous waterfall only an hour or so from the major tourist hotspots.

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In these photos, it's absolutely stunning.

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But again, the truth is just hidden by the angle.

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Turn around and you'll see the massive piles of trash that have washed downstream.

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Maybe they were left by influences, or maybe they came from the overall trash problem on the island.

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It's obviously hard to say, But clearly it's a sign that behind the facade, Bali is now facing some serious serious issues as the entire island is just becoming Unmanageable.

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To see where this ends up for Bali, we just need to look at what happened to Tulum in Mexico.

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Another Instagrammer paradise that has been entirely Westernized.

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There the resorts have pushed out thousands of the old villages residents Wiping out all Mayan culture

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and in their place giving the town a collection of soulless resorts and condos.

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Now Now it's completely unaffordable for any local who's had thousands

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of years of their family history being here to even be anywhere near the vicinity of the town.

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Condos are literally selling for $300,000 in a small Mexican town.

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The local cenotes are now being poisoned with drugs, completely wiping out the ecosystems living within it.

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Cartels now roam the streets and corrupt the cops, making Tulum one of the most dangerous tourist places in Mexico.

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Taxis are now charging $100 for tiny little trips, and as a result, less and less influencers are going,

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which further cripples the economy and makes the town that much more predatory.

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It's why the developers are so desperate to demolish the shanty towns the old residents had since moved to.

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So is this the future of what Bali looks like?

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It seems like so many places in the world are suffering the same fate from digital nomads and influencers.

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And after a few years of this, what's the end game?

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If western prices finally arrive in Bali and the environmental degradation continues along with the criminal gangs,

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the Instagrammers and digital nomads will leave and find their next spot like we saw in Tulum, completely destroying a whole society and culture with thousands of years of history in its wake.

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All really for nothing other than ice matches and lounging around villa pools.

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But I guess it was all worth it for the Instagram photos.

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61 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 222 sentences and 3353 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:22. The speaker talks fast, about 193 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
tourism noun	/ˈtʊɹɪzəm/	The act of travelling or sightseeing, particularly away from one's home.
meanwhile adverb	/ˈmiːnwaɪl/	During the time that something is happening, often specifically in a different place.
trash noun	/tɹæʃ/	Useless physical things to be discarded; rubbish; refuse.
developer noun	/dɪˈvɛləpɚ/	A person or entity engaged in the creation or improvement of certain classes of products.
elevator noun	/ˈɛləˌveɪtɚ/	Anything that raises or uplifts.
demolition noun	/ˌdɛm.əˈlɪʃ.ən/	The process of demolishing or destroying buildings or other structures.
ignore verb	/ɪɡˈnɔː/	To deliberately not listen or pay attention to.
ugly adjective	/ˈʌɡli/	Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.
spiritual adjective	/ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəl/	Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul.
incredibly adverb	/ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/	In an incredible manner; not to be believed.
resort noun	/ɹɪˈzɔɹt/	A place where people go for recreation, especially one with facilities such as lodgings, entertainment, and a relaxing environment.
tear verb	/tɛɹ/	To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
ongoing adjective	/ɒnˈɡəʊ.ɪŋ/	Continuing, permanent, lasting.
footage noun	/ˈfʊtɪd͡ʒ/	An amount of film or tape that has been used to record something, or the content of the recording.
coastal adjective	/ˈkoʊstəl/	Relating to the coast; on or near the coast; longshore.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
end up verb	To bring to a conclusion.
wipe out verb	To destroy (especially, a large number or complete set of people or things); to obliterate.
add up verb	To take the sum of; to total.
fall apart verb	To disintegrate, to break into pieces.
get out of verb	To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
get over verb	To overcome.
go up verb	To move upwards.
point out verb	To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 38 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, wasn't, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: southeast /sawˈθɪjst/, thick /θɪk/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: trash /tɹæʃ/, demolition /ˌdɛm.əˈlɪʃ.ən/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, shortly /ˈʃɔɹtli/, wash /wɑʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: developer /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/, elevator /ˈɛləˌveɪtɚ/, demolition /ˌdɛm.əˈlɪʃ.ən/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like tourism, meanwhile, trash.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to be
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	We've been doing · have been rushing
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has become · We've met · has taken
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	can be blamed · was arrested · been imported

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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