It's been almost 10 years in the making the first world Expo was back in 1851 and today this is the first time ever that it's held in the Middle East. 192 countries are coming together to address climate change, conflict, jobs, economic growth. Every country is here to tell their own story in their own way through the use of architecture, technology and design After a year delay because of the pandemic it's happening; and even though i'm not really sure what to expect, i do know: this i've never been anywhere just quite like this and i'd be willing to guess neither has the world. Where is the russia pavilion? All right i'm gonna use this room until i get kicked out let's just see if i can figure out how to turn on the lights i just got into the media center here at expo 2021, not sure if i'm supposed to be in here but i'm going to talk in here until someone kicks me out. Let me take
this off this was my media badge. Today in this video i'm going to take you into as many countries pavilions as i can in one day and at the end of this video i'm gonna reveal my top three favorite countries so make sure to stick around so you can get the analysis on which ones are the best So first of all what exactly is Expo i'm not gonna lie this is a question i myself was wondering up until a couple days ago. All i saw were a ton of advertisements for it and i knew it was going to be a big deal. Expo is a place that's meant for countries to come together to talk about progress, cooperation. It's supposed to bring the world together to find supposedly solutions to challenges that humanity is facing. So you've got 192 countries here present at Expo
in 2013 Dubai made a bid to host it so it beat out Russia, Turkey as well as Brazil. It was supposed to be in 2020 but then the pandemic happened and so they delayed it by a year. Expo is supposed to attract anywhere from 25 million to 100 million people which is ultimately great for the U.A.E. which
expected to create over 275 000 jobs from this and inject 40 billion dollars into the economy So how does someone come to Expo? Well anybody can come to Expo, it is absolutely open to the public Tickets are $25 for a day pass, $50 for a one month pass or $150 for the six month pass this is pretty cool if you take a flight on emirates all you have to do is bring your boarding pass and then you can exchange it for a ticket to the expo expo lasts from october 2020 all the way until april 2021 and then it's over so everything you see in today's video which is like on the scale of disneyland is one day just not gonna be here but maybe i'll make another video about that and by the way the event is free for children or people with disabilities so how do you get to expo well technically the location is in between dubai and abu dhabi so i actually rented a car while i'm here in dubai and it took about almost an hour to get here by car but to be honest i probably next time would have just taken the train because parking was a bit confusing and if you're taking the train you can just do other stuff instead of having to worry about driving i have no idea where i parked my car and i just realized that's probably going to be a problem once i'm done for the day because how the heck will i know which bus to get on and where the heck my car is now that you have the background information about expo let's go inside and experience just exactly what there is to see this security is full on it's not just like hotel security this is actual like airport security is afghanistan the first country in the alphabet yes oh okay this map of expo 2020 looks very similar to what you see when you go into disneyland you walk in there's a main street there's the castle and then there's all the little sections i think there's actually five sections so it's quite funny how similar it is and then it'll be on my left yes thank you have a good one i thought that they're in alphabetical order but afghanistan nicaragua and uganda certainly are not anywhere near each other on the alphabet so let's just go with whatever we see if i don't go to your country please don't be offended i just didn't have time anytime i ask people where something is nobody knows like even the media center which i thought would be quite well known a lot of people didn't know that to me that just means that it's definitely the beginning people are still learning where everything is even the staff this is luxembourg let's go check it out because this is quite a building right as you start they stop you and you have to watch this video from the grand duke yes you walk up this circular path where the country promotes its culture and digital strategy and then you reach this area where you get a choose between walking down the stairs or taking the slide 10 minutes of waiting for this obviously i chose that was totally worth the adrenaline rush this is al bake it's a popular uh fast food chain in saudi arabia they actually just opened a location in dubai uh in dubai mall i actually did a whole video on that so go check it out so far the only thing i've seen a line for is the fast food restaurant albeit a lot of them not only have different things from their country but they also have food so outside of the uk pavilion you see a stand for fish and chips super impressive outside which is meant to represent a musical instrument and it has a bunch of words that were submitted by people like you and me and apparently it uses a.i to make a poem so as you walk in you're asked if you want to give a word any word but you can't use your name then ai generates a poem from that and if you're willing to wait 20 minutes or so you'll see your words shown on the screen there's not much else to do except walk down the stairs this cost the uk government 60 million dollars and was paid for by the uk department for international trade there wasn't much going on besides that artificial intelligence activity don't get me wrong the building was beautiful the music was beautiful it was inspiring this is a good time to talk about food you'll see little food stands like this everywhere they even have like baskin robbins they have a lot of restaurants apparently they even have like michelin star dining here they even have a convenience store but which i think means be careful because that's what they used to say on the metro when i lived in singapore and then i also know selamat which means happy new year happy new year right indonesia is home to the world's largest muslim population this starts with all these digital screens which immerse you in what it feels like to actually be there then they showcase this new city they're building which is literally supposed to be a forest city and they're going to move the nation's capital there it ends with more digital screens showing the faces of indonesians love the vibes of this one and the people are amazing and warm as all indonesians i've met are i wish there was less digital screens and a bit more to showcase its customs and culture but overall this is a must visit and really memorable bye it might be my favorite pavilion so far because of the people the immersive technology experience i don't know it really caught me by surprise because not if i mean nobody recommended to me to visit the indonesia pavilion so i didn't really have much expectations but wow that was so cool and i'm a little biased because i love indonesia i spent months in surabaya jakarta and of course bali yeah nice to meet maroon the concept here is called together we walk so you start with this room with massive digital screens showcasing lebanon's nature and culture and a vibe that brings you straight into bo18 the next section is where lebanese artists showcase their work with ceramics and sculptures and every month or two this changes the final section has more screens and a lot of hanging swings and it kind of reminds you of patron this was the only country with basically zero staff inside which was kind of cool actually to experience it like that this was commissioned by the lebanese government and ministry of economy and trade but the uae provided them with the designs and the construction it's a very immersive experience at first i kind of felt like i was in a nightclub in beirut i'm not sure the significance of the swings but they make for a really cool instagram opportunity the most surprising thing though is that the power did not go out the feeling that i get right now is certainly like i'm in a desert but i'm not hot because there's a really great air conditioning and i also feel like a sense of modernness um so i guess at the end of the day that's what these pavilions are trying to create is an emotion as a feeling and right now i feel like a place that's grounded in you know their geographical land but also like i don't know modern and that's just all through it through a feeling that i'm getting just walking right now china this is one of the largest at the expo which makes sense since almost one in five people on this planet are chinese its goal is to showcase itself as an economic powerhouse and a driver of future tech gotta be honest this one wasn't super memorable it felt more like a conference and since china's tech is really advanced and incredible i felt like they undersold themselves here where are the robots the self-driving cars the facial recognition the ai i've been to huawei i've been to tencent headquarters and they have by far the most impressive technology you can imagine in terms of ai and self-driving cars facial recognition and this was just didn't seem anything memorable there was nothing impressive about it palestine this building is very impressive and it's designed to feel like you're literally walking in the streets of palestine there are marketplaces and urban farms as well as interactive stands which show palestine's history there's also a small restaurant at the end and you can try the food do you know where japan is okay this looks a little too official this looks like i'm going into a courthouse or an embassy okay this is actually crazy but the uae paid the 60 million dollars for the us building at expo because congress wouldn't approve using u.s taxpayer dollars for it it's very large as you would expect and when you enter you stand on a conveyor belt i'm standing on a conveyor belt kind of like luggage or sushi so you don't have to walk at all loving the american values they pay tribute to american manufacturing and the invention of cars planes and the iphone 2. then there's this area that talks about the mission for space and u.s colleges and institutions overall it was a bit underwhelming especially compared to some of the other super power countries oh the good old united states so that was quite interesting i loved that we got to just stand on a conveyor belt we shouldn't have to walk it was quite cool to see so much diversity because at the end of the day that's what makes in my opinion america so beautiful why did i just know that this was korea before i even saw the sign some stands have a qr code system so you can actually just sign up using a qr code and then come back in an hour or two korea is one of those pavilions where you can just sign up go see other things and then come back once the time is right please thank you they give you a mobile device where you can use throughout your time for augmented reality where you superimpose digital images onto your existing reality they've created this massive display of almost 1600 cubes the idea here is to combine mobility and adaptability which is why you see these cubes constantly changing there's also this massive open empty space based off traditional korean houses where many events take place inside the feeling you get is kind of like being trapped in toothpaste indoors and then squeezed out for open air views when you go outside it's pretty cool as someone who has been to korea i will say this experience is so cool because it it really reminds me of when i was in seoul they've captured the energy uh the vibrant energy of the city and put it in the middle of the desert here in dubai i can't exactly explain why that's the feeling but that's just a feeling i get it really reminds me of being in seoul especially at night especially with the nightlife and it makes me want to go back a couple more things to note if you're coming is that they have a huge free wi-fi network it's incredible it's quite fast so everywhere you go around expo you just start automatically connected to wi-fi in fact i don't even use a sim card when i come to dubai because wi-fi is everywhere every building you walk into you can automatically connect to wi-fi i finally found the iran pavilion i'm super excited i'm originally iranian my parents came from iran to the us and and that's where i was born i was born in the u.s but i do get the privilege of going to iran every couple years but i haven't been since before kobe this is an open air which makes you feel like you're in iran in the summer time there are five rooms which give you a feeling kind of like you're on a journey but often getting lost i'm not sure if that's intentional or not but you feel like you're on a trip discovering more rooms kind of by accident i'm surprised to see they have a high tech room which is basically just a video showcasing its tech sector they also do regular performances here as well and there is a persian restaurant which looks pretty popular oh and in the gift shop of course you can hear someone selling saffron reminding everyone that it's the most famous saffron in the world so that was quite interesting i loved the vibe that it gave off i'm a little bummed i missed the live performance that's about in an hour and a half so that's another thing to bear in mind that live performances usually take place between four o'clock and when it closes i just think you just have to get lucky i don't i wouldn't suggest like trying to plan on too many unless you're gonna be here for like a week i wouldn't try to plan for any live performance iran was the only pavilion i saw where there were more people sitting in the restaurant than actually taking in the culture which goes to show how amazing persian food is if you haven't had persian iranian food please go and try it so talibat is like deliveroo or ubereats it's quite common very popular here in dubai i use it almost every day when i'm in dubai and apparently you can literally order food throughout expo so let's say you're working one of the pavilions and you're craving some kind of food you can actually order from it and i guess it's autonomous the pavilion here is called campus germany right campus germany campus germany with the idea being that it's supposed to feel like a university campus both the building but also the actual exhibition okay germany spent 58 million dollars on this and it's pretty remarkable everyone that comes to germany gets a badge with their name on it you get this name tag which tracks you and identifies you throughout your experience every time you switch to another room you're asked a question and they are tracking your answers the theme here is a university campus so you start in a classroom setting here where you watch a video about how we basically are destroying the earth but there is hope we go into this giant room where you see grown men playing in a ball pin each ball represents an idea on how we can deal with the climate crisis then you go into this room where you see the future of how we could live um elevators that go from left to right not just up and down there are a bunch of games that help you learn about the climate crisis and this game where you compete with others to balance yourself it ends with this insane immersive light show they show your name on the wall and then go over the results of what everyone in the room voted for also everyone needs to swing to create energy for the earth usually when we think about climate change it's always you know pessimistic and negative for for obvious reasons i love so much about it is that it left you really with so much hope and inspiration we're all in this together and we do can you know we all can make an impact i honestly think that this place is cleaner than disneyland it's so pristine and i even saw a worker pick up a leaf there is also an app called expo 2020 download it it literally has its own gps uh and that's how i've been getting around at first i would ask people for help finding countries thinking that they're going to know but a lot of people just didn't really know so it's so much easier if you just download the app and it's actually fairly easy to figure out after like two hours i would say i had somewhat of a hang on where i was i have a bottle of water jess okay and is this brownie are they good like really good 30. no it's okay i'm thirsty
i don't think i've ever actually had a can of water i've had water in a cardboard box but i don't think but i've never had just regular water in a can i guess we're uh avoiding plastics here india once you get through the lines you're welcomed into an overwhelming experience with loud music and beautiful visuals they literally have a real human chilling and doing yoga it's a massive four-story structure and starts with aya verda and yoga themes and then merges into nature and then space this second half is all about its tech sector and its economy it was cool but it felt a little too much like i was at a conference hi what time is it uh where is the toilet where is the russia pavilion the robot is definitely disappointing he couldn't even tell me what time it is alexa my own alexa sitting at home is smarter than that robot okay that sounded mean he was cute japan okay this one probably has the longest weight and for good reason it's the most immersive experience you've ever seen and it's super cute typical japan you're given this sony headset with headphones that connects you wherever you walk as i'm moving the voice in my ear is changing so it explains whatever station i'm at it's crazy so the first section is all about living in awe and harmony with nature you literally feel like you're outdoors with all of that mist next it's culture and history so you get to pick one of four doors depending on which of the four seasons attracts your vibe the next is all these japanese inspired objects combined with modern day ways in which we live then you go in here where it's all about the problems facing the planet and japan's economic growth challenges at the end you go in here it's like a combination of earth and tech everyone has an avatar following us around along the wall our avatar is following us and we do this crazy dance around the globe and then the staff applauds for you only in japan that was super amazing i've never seen anything quite like that thank you we like all started dancing and then we all merged as one we basically just danced around a giant globe i spent close to 50 dollars at the van gogh exhibit in new york city a couple months ago and this which was free obviously all these pavilions are free was so much cooler than that experience like there were so many twists and turns the amount of detail they put into everything was absolutely crazy it was so weird but so cool and all i can think about right now is how i can get into japan even though they're not allowing tourists yet still because of covet 19. so it was definitely a super cool experience if you're coming here make sure that you visit the japan pavilion it's either a long line or they're gonna make you wait so just plan ahead honestly guys if you come to expo i would go straight to japan put your name on the list or get a qr code whatever it takes because you don't want to miss japan honestly one of the coolest things i have ever experienced and i'm not exaggerating like it felt like disney world but for the world as somebody who loves to travel as somebody who's been to a number of countries i felt like all those countries came to us and it wasn't just the things that they set up in terms of the the exhibit but also even the little things like the way that we had to wait in line or like in japan they literally have a schedule of every tour that's leaving and it's down to the minute it was like 8 27 8 32. it was like a train schedule in japan no other exhibit does that right and that's a very japanese thing for them to do so seeing not just the actual exhibit but also the cultures that are running the exhibit was so cool to me and it's time for the recap thank you guys so much for watching this far along let me know in the comments what other countries should i hit up and now for the grand reveal earlier i think i said i was gonna do my top three but i'm gonna cheat and i'm gonna give my top five because it's too hard to narrow down just five all right coming in at number five is definitely indonesia that one totally caught me by surprise i didn't even think i would have time to visit them but they were just so friendly and warm in that in that pavilion and i was really impressed with their technology they not only celebrated their culture and heritage but really were forward-looking with that forest future city number four is actually gonna be lebanon lebanon also took me by surprise i was thinking that lebanon was the least staffed pavilion out of all of them um but that's okay you did it actually added to the experience when you didn't have too many people in there i really had the pavilion to myself and it was just so cool and beautiful and i was really impressed with the design of the pavilion and just the overall vibe i got being there and they did a really good job of making me feel like i was back in lebanon if you know my youtube channel you know i have a lot of content on lebanon so do go and check that out coming in at number three is south korea this one was totally weird this one was really quite unique from the dancing to the ar the augmented reality like everything about it was total experience i think this is one i'm gonna be thinking about in a few months from now and i don't know i felt like the whole experience was a little bit abstract like i don't necessarily know what my takeaway was from south korea but it was definitely a must-see here at expo 2020. coming in at number two is none other than germany germany this gave me a whole new perspective of germany i've been to germany pretty much only once to berlin and it was kind of like museums and nightlife but this really made me feel like germany is a world leader which i know it is it's one of the world's biggest economies but this really kind of put a new perspective to germany for me in terms of making us think about the future of sustainability it was just really on its own caliber i love the pit with all those balls and i thought it was so funny not just seeing kids in there but actually like adults having the time of their life i've never seen anything quite like that coming in at number one my favorite pavilion here at expo 2020 which is an absolute must for anybody i think you know already it's gonna be japan japan japan was an absolute must it's actually in my top three favorite countries and now i just can't wait to go back because everything about it was so well thought it was emotional it was inspirational it was educational and i really just can't say it enough how how much i recommend you come to expo in dubai and go straight to the japan pavilion i am trying something new this is my longest video i've ever made so let me know in the comments what did you think and should i come back to expo should i come back and visit more countries if so what are the countries i should visit and tell me what you thought in general is this something that you're going to consider coming to if so what countries look like the coolest i can't wait to hear from you guys in the comments find me on instagram find me on tiktok and i'll see you guys soon you
2021-10-30