Entering The World's Narrowest Island (Philippines) transcript

I've just entered Bilang-Bilangan, the world's narrowest island! From above, it looks like a thin line of sand floating in the sea. But somehow, over 500 people call this Filipino island home. There are no hospitals, no plumbing. Trash is everywhere. Literally, like this entire... perimeter of the island is covered in trash. And when massive typhoons hit, there's nowhere to hide. So who chooses to live on an island this narrow and remote?

And with no doctors, how will I find help when I get a life-threatening allergic reaction? My lip here is like numb. Hello. Here? Yeah! Thank you, bro. This is not so heavy. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm Drew. Nice to meet you. What's your name? Reggie. Nice to meet you, Reggie. We don't have a translator. I thought everybody here would speak English, but let's go explore the island. You speak English? Little bit.

So Reggie was the first person to greet us when we showed up. And he speaks... enough English to communicate, so he's taking us around. Reggie, how many years are you living here? Uh, 32 years. Your whole life? Yeah. Life here is happy? Happy. This place is very peaceful, quiet. You can get... more rest a day. Everybody's always sleeping. Yeah. Anywhere you walk here, you're just surrounded by 20, 30 kids. They just follow, literally.

Do you know everyone's name on the island? Yeah. Everyone? Everyone. Who's she? Charmel. Who is the this one? Chian. How are you? This is Dante, Rinsey, and Noynoy. Noynoy. Rinsey! What's up, bro? Yes, thank you. Not cold. I'll pay you later. No, no, no, no. Thank you. No, no, no. Can I... can we? No, no, no. You're so nice. That guy is our barangay kagawad. Police? Barangay official. There's no jail? No cri... Our people here is very kind.

The only criminal is Reggie. This is literally the end of the island where two oceans meet together. You can even see the currents coming in like this. What's really interesting about Bilang-Bilangan is that it's mostly kids, like under 10, and then older people, like over 40, in that middle age of like high school and college. A lot of them leave. They go to other islands to study because there's just not a lot of opportunities here.

But it makes sense. It's a great place to hang out if you're young. Look at this amazing childhood. Look what these kids have. The beach, the nature. And then if you're older, it's a nice place to settle down. So it actually works out. There, you can see the roads here. They're like made for a road, but it's just sand. As if you're on a beach. And then, they just put a house. No car its just walking paths and lots of chickens.

Oh, man. That is a monster cock. Ah, you wanna drink beer? Yeah. That's not beer, that's liquor. That's for you. Hello. What is this? Hot dog? Yes. I know Tom Jones. You know Tom Jones? Who is Tom Jones? Tom Jones is my name. Tom Jones, no. Could be the best tattoo I've ever seen. Tom Jones. It's a pig. Over here we have fish being dried. This whole island is fish. It's so cool. They are fish people. They eat what they get from the sea and it's economical.

And it's delicious. How are you? This is chicken isaw or chicken liver. It's one of the best dishes here in the Philippines. It sounds gross because it's an intestine, but it's so good. It's smoked. We got some sauce on it. Really, really good. Cheers. We made it to some festival thing. Of course, like everywhere else in the Philippines, you can find a basketball court. Basketball never fails here. Every single corner of this country, you can find a basketball court.

The Americans brought the sport here, during World War II. Actually, my grandfather was stationed in the Philippines in World War II, and that was around the time that basketball was brought here. And now Filipinos love basketball. It's literally... everywhere. All the kids are rehearsing for some festival coming up at the end of the month. It's so cute. They're all just dancing. Like, this is the quintessential Philippine life.

Like, that's why everybody here is so cool and so happy. From one side of the story, you might look at this island and be like, oh, they're so poor and they live in huts and they don't have electricity and life is hard. But on the other hand, look how much life there is here. It's freaking awesome. Hey, Anashaha. Hey. Hi. Reggie just told me that every night right when the sun goes down, he goes fishing with a flashlight.

So... he's going to take me out tonight. We catch octopus, crabs, fish. And we can eat it for dinner? Oh! Really? Yeah. All right, I'm down. This is my... things to catch fish. Really? Yeah. Oh, like that. Oh, you just. My flashlight. Nice. So you just look down and... stab it? Yeah. So this is your house? Yeah. So that's rain water? Yeah. For a shower? Yeah. How's the ice cream? So delicious. Dude, they all, like, speak English.

It's so funny. Did you just get a haircut? Yeah. You need to go jump in the ocean now. After your haircut. This is what we call Lantai. Your bed. Bed. What happens if it rains? I go inside. So if you're sleeping at two in the morning and rain come, you just wake up? Yeah, then I go inside. That sounds awesome. You don't have mosquitoes? No, no. What's his name? Jerson. And what's her name? Angel. This is... Robert. Hey, Reggie.

What is this? Internet. Peso wifi. Internet. So, how much money does it cost? Five pesos. Five pesos? For how much Internet? For 3 hours. I'm gonna put in 5 pesos and get my Wi-Fi here. No, no, you connect, you connect your phone. Connect to Antonette Piso Wi-Fi. Whoa! This is so cool. I've never seen or heard of this system at all... So where do I put here? Yeah. No, no. Over here. Okay, just like that. Done paying.

Three hours and 30 minutes. That is cool. So you don't have electricity, but you have Internet? Yeah, yeah. How is the life here? Okay simple. I'm very poor. Do you enjoy life here? It's okay. Do you wish to live somewhere different or you like to stay here? Here, on this island. What do you do every day? I make a donut. You make donuts? How much money in one day can you make in the donuts? I think 300 to 350 PHP. Three hundred per day.

This is lunch. So this is pancit, which is like noodles. And what is this one? Chorizo. Oh, it's pork. Enjoy. Nice to meet you. Thank you so much. Thank you. It is... so crowded. Literally one edge of the sand is right here in front of me, and you walk right here and you're at the other edge. It's so cool. Everywhere you go here, people just run up to you and greet you and say, hi. Hello. Hi. I can't imagine what it would be like to live here knowing that you're trapped.

There's not a lot of space to move, but the space that is here is nice. And there's a lot of things. There's a gym, there's basketball court. There's plenty of beaches. There's food places. There's shops, there's houses. I mean, there are things here. The most important thing is everyone's smiling. There are motorbikes to get around and bicycles. There's like one little road here. This is the main road. The other ones are all dirt roads.

Hi. Bless. That's a Filipino thing. It's a way to show respect to elders. The kids take your hand and put it on their forehead. It's really nice. We are inside the only church here on the island. Everybody on the island is religious? Yeah. They pray here? Yeah. Every Sunday. Catholic? Yeah, Catholic. Did you know the Philippines is the most Catholic country in the world? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Number one. A 100 million people in this country and about 90 million Catholics...

The rest Muslim. Yes, yeah, yeah. Thank you! Whoa! The kids on this island are so innocent and it's really sweet that they all know each other. I want to ask Reggie what other challenges people are facing on the island. But first, we're heading back to the beach and we don't have to walk very far. We're playing volleyball from one end of the island to the other. Kuya! Yeah! Oh, dude, it is so warm. It's literally bath water.

It's so awesome. The locals here are just having a picnic on the beautiful beach. Man, this beach is amazing. Yeah. I can't believe you grow up here, bro. Yeah, very white sand. You don't get tired of living here? No, no. Never tired? Never. We're happy. What happens if there's like a serious, like a health issue? Like you need to go to the hospital? We can... go uh, in a town. Bien Unido. What about Cebu City? It's too far.

So you never go there? What if you need serious like problem? Cebu City is... most expensive hospital. So you have hospital in different island? No, no. Only in the, in the town. This island? When you live small, is it a problem? No, no problem. This island is small. No problem here. Tell me about your childhood when you, when you were young. What is, what do you remember in this island? Fishing. Going fishing. Going fishing?

Yeah. Catching big fish? Yeah. Really? Yeah. So tonight, what fish do you want to catch when we go fishing? Danggit. How big is it? Just just a little. Little one. Yeah. Hey guys, just want to quickly jump in here and thank the sponsor of this video, SoFi, the Everything app for smarter money. As you guys know, I'm traveling pretty much non-stop and life sometimes gets expensive. Whether it's a big trip, a wedding, moving somewhere new, or just a random expense.

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Hello. You're drinking? What is it? Tanduay... Tanduay. What is Tanduay? Huh? Rum. Hey, don't drink too much. You have to drive tomorrow. No, no, no. Okay. Cheers. It's strong... it's like rum. The three of us men are about to get on a on this motorbike. Three grown men on one motorbike. Sorry for my motorbike. It's too old. Oh, it's okay, bro. It's cool that you can actually transport here on a motorbike. Okay. Going on a little adventure here to find coffee.

Three in one po? Yeah, two. And hot water. Yeah. Thank you. This is called a sari-sari store. It's all over the Philippines. It's really cool. Just bags of chips hanging from the ceiling, little buckets for candies and then soap and toothpaste and whatever else you can find in there. It's piece by piece because a lot of people can't afford like the whole bottle so they just order for one time. It's crazy like, they don't have electricity.

They have solar panels, but they all have phones and internet. It's just so cool. Look at this kid in the red right now, just playing on his phone. It's interesting because I imagine life here on this island has been the same for like a thousand years. However long humans have been on this island and then only in the last like decade they've introduced these. Now you're opened up to the whole world. It's really cool.

Is that water? It just comes in a bag like that? All the water, like that? This is only two pesos. Cold water. While bagged water is a necessity and sari-sari stores are incredibly convenient, the reliance on single-use plastics in the Philippines has led to serious ocean pollution. In fact, the country is the world's largest ocean polluter. But these small family-run shops aren't the only problem. The bigger issue is packaging design and the corporations that continue to rely on cheap plastic.

I hope there will be a shift towards more eco-friendly solutions so everyone can continue to enjoy this country's beautiful beaches. I got my coffee here. It was six pesos per cup. That's like a third the price of Manila, at least. It's called three-in-one. It's basically just ground coffee beans and sugar in a bag. You put hot water in it, and there's your coffee. This is like the ultimate chill island. Everyone just kind of hangs out, literally walking outside, taking a rest in the afternoon.

Some kids have bicycles. Of course, there are street dogs everywhere. Every island in the Philippines has street dogs. It tastes like hazelnut creamy coffee. It's actually, like, pretty good, to be honest. If you ever meet a Filipino in your life, tell them about three-in-one, and they'll smile. Reggie is now taking me to his auntie's house. And if you've ever been to the Philippines or have Filipino friends, you know that they're the ones who keep everything together.

So if I want to understand what real life looks like on the world's narrowest island, this is the perfect place to start. This is my room. Wow! This is so nice. What happened in the typhoon? This whole uh... was out. Destroy. The roof? All of the roof? And was the water in the house? Yeah. The water went here. Crazy. Yeah. I'm so sorry to hear that. Yeah. This one is my kitchen. Whoa, fancy kitchen, Tita. Kitchen. Yeah.

It's really big and spacious and airy in here. Like, this house is... uou have a really big house. We have a big tree fell during Typhoon Odette. Whoa! Really?! That's four years ago. Okay. Four years ago. I'm so sorry. So now it just becomes part of your backyard? Yeah. I can't imagine what it would be like to have a typhoon just... destroy your house. Trees falling over, water level up to your stomach. And this is a reality for literally most of this country.

Like 50, 60, 70 million people in the Philippines... have to deal with floods. It's a really, really sad reality of living out here in the Philippines. There's just no elevation anywhere. When you're walking, you have to watch your head. This is like a tin roof right here... at head level. Many Filipinos, they don't know about this island. What do you want to say to people in the Philippines and people in the world about this island?

Is life happy here on this island? Business here is very difficult. We cannot... make money if we will not work. Most of the people here are working from Cebu... or other place. Do you ever go to Cebu City for vacation, or you prefer to stay here? Maybe once a year. So the problem is money Money. for everybody here. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What do you think about... us coming here? We are very happy that you are here. You can contribute everything to us if we need.

I'm very happy to be here. Yeah. Welcome. No welcome. If people bad, no welcome. You know, I've been grateful enough to visit all different corners of the world and see different lives from literally every country in the world. But there's something really special about the Philippines. It's the... attitude of the people. It's the... friendliness, it's the smiling. It's saying hello on the street and peace-signing the camera.

Like, you just don't get that elsewhere. And it's, it's so enriching to travel here, and I hope that you're seeing that through my lens. I, I just came here unannounced. It's a totally random island. Nothing was planned, and everyone is so, so incredible here. Just makes me happy. All right. The night has come. We are about to go fishing. I'm getting bitten by so many ants right now on my legs. It is absolutely... insane outside right now.

Sunset. The water is... so clear, it looks like glass. We are literally going spearfishing. It's made with, like, a rubber band, and then you just like that, and it just stabs it. I don't know what I'm doing. Clearly, I didn't grow up here. At a boy. Yeah. We are heading pretty far out. I thought we were going on the shore, but we're... we're, like, a good 10, 15 minutes away from the island. What is that? This is what we call panyapak.

Ahh. Like a homemade fin. Yeah. DIY. But you have two feet. Only one. Good luck, bro. Look at me in the goggles. He got something already. This one is five pesos. Five pesos? Five pesos. What is it? Sea cucumber. A kind of sea cucumber. Yeah. You will eat it? Yeah. Nice! Make some money, bro! I have no goggles, no torch, and no gun, but I'm gonna join Reggie. Yeah, I see it. I see it. Whoa! Holy frick! That's huge, man!

Are you killing it? Yes. Small one. You got it? Dude, he just got it on the spear. Okay, we got a variety of things. Keep going. What is that? Sea, sea urchin. You're just pulling stuff out left and right, bro. There's no better feeling than going spearfishing after dark with Reggie. But the moment we arrive back to shore, I realized something about my body is not okay. My whole body's covered in a rash. All red. My whole... chest.

Is it on my back, too? Yeah. It is? Like, worse than my chest? No. But also, I'm, like, numb a little bit here. Does my face look like it has a rash? Can you tell? Maybe my beard gives it away. Like, here. It's, like, numb. I don't have, like, some kind of reaction, but I think I'm okay. Do you have fresh water? I can get the salt off. Yeah. Full body? Yeah, I will. I'll buy shampoo. No need shampoo. Dude, my... my lip here is, like, fricking numb.

So Tita came out, and the moment I arrived on the shore, she saw my rash. So she offered me to stay at her house. It's so nice to have a house like this to stay in. What happened? I don't know. I think we just discovered that I got stung by a jellyfish on my, on my... big toe. See the difference? It's, like, much bigger and puffy, like, whatever that is. That's also on my lip. Yeah. Because my feet were just dangling on the boat.

Is there... do you have jellyfish here? Yeah. Jellyfish? A lot? A lot of jellyfish here. Oh, hell dude. Do you think it's jellyfish? Let me see. No, the jellyfish is, there's a... a wing that will... stick in your skin. She's gonna put vinegar all over me. This is gonna sting. My body's already so itchy. This is so weird. I'm getting... oh, down my butt crack. I'm getting vinegar rubbed all over my body in a small Filipino island.

Okay. Like a lechon paksiw. Yeah. Like a pig. Deodorant. Vinegar deodorant at its finest. It's sting is so much. Like... little pieces of knives, like, going in my skin. Like a lechon paksiw. Yeah... Oh. Thank God right before I left home, I went to Walgreens and got Benadryl allergy. This family is incredibly kind. We got some ramen. Tita made this amazing ramen. At least we got a nice warm meal on a bed to sleep in.

It's a really scary thought that... to think that this rash could get worse. And then I'm, like, really screwed. Tita, thank you... Thank you. Okay. Crazy, crazy turn of events here. I'm really glad I'm safe. And this lady is making me... feel so, so comfortable. It's just part of the battle wounds of traveling. Gotta deal with it. And it's definitely a risk of coming to a really remote island where there's no hospital.

Thankfully, we have internet, so, we've been using ChatGPT to diagnose me. We just uploaded a picture to tell me what to do. And that same numbing feeling is right here... in the bottom of my lip. It's, like, puffy. Any doctors out there, let me know what's going on. There's a million reasons why I could have developed this rash, but my best guess is some kind of allergic reaction. Honestly, I'll probably never know.

If I was anywhere else, I'd be freaking out way more than I am right now. But here in the Philippines, I feel at peace because I'm surrounded by some of the kindest people I've ever met. Reggie, his auntie, and everyone else on this tiny strip of land have given me a home away from home. And that's what makes this place so special. On the world's narrowest island, life is simple. The ocean, the neighbors, the shops, it's all right here.

And while they might not have a lot of money or space, there is one thing that you can find a lot of, and that is happiness.