Yes, I'm stranded in Bali, Indonesia, which is a small island between Singapore and
Australia. Now is that a good thing or is that a bad thing with the coronavirus?
And what's going on? My name is Brett Garamella and in my channel I teach
drone videography and photography and showing people how to take better aerial
images however because the corona virus has affected so many people and right
now I'm outside of my country and trying to go back to the United States but sort
of stranded right here I thought it'd be interesting to share my story now this
travel story is going to be part one of a several part series until I get back
to the US now I have tons of drone videos really exciting videos that I've
shot here in Bali that I'll be sharing over the next few weeks however this
video is going to be different so first I'm going to give you a history in some
context in how I got into this situation and we're going to talk about whether
it's a good situation or not because right now it seems to be pretty good it
seems to be alright although things are starting to change here kind of like
they've changed around the world so I'm gonna fill you in and all that in
today's video all right so let's backtrack to last year I plan on coming
to Southeast Asia in particular I wanted to go to the Philippines because I saw
how beautiful the landscape was I'm working on a big drone project I thought
that would be a great place to shoot in addition they spoke English it was
relatively easy to get around the different islands and the Philippines
has pretty lenient drone laws so I wouldn't have too much difficulty in
terms of flying my drones into places I wanted to fly now there are other places
around the world that I want to fly my drone
unfortunately the laws and restrictions are so strict that it makes it kind of
difficult so I thought the Philippines would be a great place unfortunately
just after New Year's a volcano inside of a lake inside of a mountain inside of
an island erupted so this volcano went up and debris went
into the air about nine miles and all this debris went around and it was close
to the airport which is Manila which is kind of like the main hub to all the
different locations in the Philippines so you basically have to fly through
Manila to get to the other locations so because many flights
have been cancelled after this volcano eruption near Manila I decided to change
my plans because I don't want to risk the health risk of getting that debris
in my lungs so geographically Indonesia is similar to the Philippines
now culturally it's much different they also don't speak English
some people speak English but a lot of people don't speak English very well so
it's difficult to communicate however I thought it was a good alternative to the
Philippines so I decided to change my plane ticket to Bali and that's where I
am right now I've been in Bali for about a month I've been shooting a lot of
great footage however recently things have started to change
now the coronavirus hasn't really hit Indonesia right away quite like other
countries around the world and in Bali there's just one case of a British woman
who died from the corona virus but people seem to be going around and very
few people have mass however in the last couple of days I noticed more and more
people are wearing masks some shops and things are shutting down it's starting
to change much like the rest of the world so that's why I decided it might
be a good idea if I go back to the United States now part of me is thinking
maybe I should stay here because it's better here there's farms and land over
here there's plenty of food but at the same time how long will I be stranded
here if I can't get a flight back to the United States
now the bali airport is shut down to March 31st so to the end a month I can't
leave anyway but my visa is up so today I went down to the immigration to extend
my visa now things are a bit crazy with immigration right now in Indonesia I
think this is the way it normally is although because of the coronavirus
things have gotten a little more extreme I wanted to go to the u.s. embassy or US
consulate first so I went downtown to the US consulate and it was this little
room in kind of an alleyway it looked kind of strange but I went inside and
there was a picture of Trump and pence up on the wall and there was three
workers inside this room I told them my situation and basically they told me
they couldn't find me a flight they couldn't really help me so I asked them
what's the point of having a US consulate or you
see like what is their job in terms of helping American citizens and they said
it's to give information and updates about the coronavirus to me that didn't
really make too much sense because I can get that on the US website which they
gave to me they're like you can go to the CDC and the World Health
Organization to look up this information and like why did I come here if I can
just look up that information on the Internet can you help me find a ticket
or something like this I don't know if that's their job or not but at the same
time I got myself in the situation so you know I have to take responsibility
for that so the next stop was to immigration and the US consulate said
that the immigration would be the ones who could help me find a flight or it
could help me extend my visa obviously they extend the visa by helping me with
my flight was something I didn't think that immigration really did it to me it
didn't make much sense that the Indonesian government should be
responsible for finding a flight for me instead I thought it was the US
consulate I thought that was their job anyhow I went down to immigration and
the first thing I noticed was all the people surrounded in this small room and
I thought to myself this should be happening and a lot of people didn't
have mass on didn't have gloves on and it just made me think this is not a good
situation considering the corona virus is spreading so fast so I went down
there I put on gloves I had a mask on I just went inside to get a ticket number
to go for a photo and an interview now this was the third time I had gone down
to immigration the first time I went and they said I was too late I went at one
o'clock and on the website it said open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. they said if you
come after 12 noon it's too late they don't accept applications so I have to
come back the next day so I filled out the application went back to the next
day and then they told me oh you wrote in blue ink you need to write in black
ink so I had to fill out the application again and black ink I gave it to them
then they kept my passport and they told me I have to come back in four days so
that was yesterday so I went down there yesterday got my ticket for my number to
be called but rather than wait inside I waited outside because I want to be
around all those people so I waited far away and actually met this German
couple they seem to be very prepared they had the masks on
they had gloves and they taped their wrists you know of your taping your
wrists are really serious so other people were not quite as protective
couples were holding hands like they were just walking out onto the beach
like it's no big deal and so little children without any mass coloring and
drawing I saw a woman inside filling out an application with her little child in
her arm and right next to them there was a man who was playing a guitar so it was
pretty crazy it was not what I expected considering everything that's been on
the news and this has been the feeling in Bali a lot of people seemed to act as
if it's not that big of a deal but things have been shutting down I know
that because a few days ago I went to this rice terrace that was in the middle
of nowhere and it was really far far away from most tourist spots and very
few tourists go there because it's so far and they shut down that rice terrace
so I thought man this is odd that this rice terrace in the middle of nowhere in
the mountains is shut down and then I started seeing various restaurants and
shops around town being closed down as well and workers wearing masks so things
have definitely changed a lot just in the last couple days in Bali now also in
Bali because it's a Hindu island like eighty-five to ninety percent of the
people on the island practice the Hindu religion it's kind of like their
Christmas Day today however all of that scan cyl they're
supposed to be all these festivities and people getting together but all that has
been cancelled now I've noticed a lot of people have gathered together I was on
the beach with some holy people and some mediators
who are having a religious gathering everyone seems to be not social
distancing they seem to be getting together all over the island you'll see
this people getting up early going to the market and hundreds of people
together are going these religious events and all these people together so
social distancing and staying apart and wearing masks
hasn't been a common thing so far on the island of Bali so after waiting for over
two hours my ticket number finally got called I went in
they fingerprinted me so I had to take off my gloves and get fingerprinted they
did have some hand sanitizer so I used that plus I had my own
they took my photo and told me to come back on March 31st it was then that I
could extend my visa now they said I could get my visa extended for one month
and I asked them about a plane ticket well how do I leave now I had bought a
ticket to Malaysia and I also had bought a ticket to Australia
and both of those countries are shut down as is New Zealand the Philippines
all these countries around me are shut down so I was looking at other hubs
maybe Dubai but a lot of airlines aren't flying there now so I can't even get a
connection to get to the United States and there's no direct flights from Bali
to the United States so I'm basically stuck here kind of like Gilligan's
Island took a three-hour tour but ended up lasting a lot longer or like the
Hotel California you can check in but you can't leave so as of right now they
have my passport I have to go down to immigration on the 31st for the fourth
time and get an extension for my visa I don't know what they're gonna say
basically I think they're gonna give me a few more weeks and then I'm gonna have
to try to figure it out part of me is thankful that I'm here and not in
serving parts of the United States because the virus has been spreading so
much and right here I guess because I'm so isolated on this tiny island that it
hasn't really spread and there's farms and food all around so I think in a
crisis situation I would still be able to get food now my other thought was if
I fly back now I'm probably more at risk of picking up the corona virus in an
airport or on a plane and is it worth doing that or should I just stay put
here in Bali what do you guys think leave a comment
below I'm trying to figure this all out I know you guys are trying to figure out
your situation too so I hope you and your family your friends are all healthy
and doing well and you're managing with whatever situation you're going through
right now so that's it that's my personal coronavirus travel story I'm
Brett Garamella, the Drone Pilot Pro, and remember, Siempre Pa'lante, Nunca Pa'tra!