WELCOME TO ETHIOPIA - This is Lalibela

Good morning. Before this video begins, I just want to give a bit of context to the Ethiopia trip, because I was there for a few weeks, and as you'll see from the videos, a lot of it was on a group trip. This was with a company called Medita Adventures, and this is completely unsponsored by the way, but I did receive the trip for free in exchange for producing a video for them. I didn't have to post anything on this channel, I was creating a video for them, but there's some pretty cool things coming up, so I wanted to share it on here. I just wanted to kind of give that disclaimer before it all begins, because you will see I'm on a group trip with 16 other people. The company is actually started by my friends, Johnny and Josh, and if you are interested then go check it out below, because they do run some pretty cool trips. Anyway, that's it for now, and I really hope you enjoy the rest of this series. First one on the plane. Yeah, I think this is the first time I've ever been first time on a plane. We're on the way to Lalabela. Welcome to Ethiopia. We just landed in Lalabela. I actually flew into Addis Ababa before, but we came straight here, and I want to show you exactly why. I'm actually in Ethiopia for a month, so I've got a lot to see here, but this should be a good first stop. Haha, nice. This is the conveyor belt for luggage. Ah, that's mine. Oh yeah. Just arrived to Lalabela churches, and we're about to go in. As you can hear, they're doing the prayers right now, and this is a really religious site for Ethiopians. It's actually also known as the eighth wonder of the world, but I'm going to tell you more when, in a minute, this stops. Maybe. So for those of you that don't know, Lalabela is one of the most famous sites here in Ethiopia, and it's these giant churches that are almost a thousand years old that have been carved out of rock, and one of them is just behind me here. I'm going to show you quite a few of them. It looks really cool. This is the first of the churches, and I'm trying to get out of the way of people here, but there's a whole complex of them, and it's $50 entry, but there's just loads of them strewn about everywhere. It's kind of like Angkor Wat in that way, but there's different sites you can go to, but to visit them all will take quite a lot of time, and this is the first one we are visiting. And this is the largest and the grandest church in Ethiopia as well in the world among the rock churches. So I just found out there are 11 churches like this that were built by carving down into the rock. They excavated the sides, and this is 11, 1200s, and then once they excavated the sides, they used primitive tools to actually carve it out of the rock, out of one piece of giant rock, which is fairly incredible considering it was a thousand years ago, medieval times. I think there's kind of a dispute of when it was actually built, but most people are saying it's the 12th century under King Lalabela from what I understood. I'm inside the first big church now, and what's interesting is it's still a really holy place for Ethiopians, so while you've got some tourists looking around like us, you also have people coming in and praying and making the pilgrimage to here. So there's a real mix, but I think you do have to be really respectful while you're here, so we took off our shoes before coming in. I asked about filming, I asked about taking photos, and just like, you know, treat it respectfully, because this is a religious place. As you can see, there are also these giant roofs built over some of the churches to protect them from de-weathering, protect them from weathering, to protect them from getting destroyed. There are these giant roofs that have been built. It's actually really impressive. I wasn't sure what it was going to be like, but the fact that all these were built a thousand years ago, carved out by really primitive tools, and they still look like this, and are still of such significance. There's chanting, there's praying, and you can tell that this is a really religious site for a lot of Ethiopian people. So as you can hear, there's a big dance or ceremony going on right now, and yeah, very interesting. I was actually just thinking, obviously these would be more impressive if they didn't have the roofs on, but the roofs are there to protect it, and are obviously necessary. But I think a lot of the photos you'll see of this place would be without the roofs, because that's what works for Instagram, and that's what works for selling this sort of place. But if you do come, then obviously be aware. It looks like that. This is now St. George's Church. It's the most famous one, and as you can see, the top of it has a St. George's cross on. It's also the only one around here without the roof on, so you can actually see it properly. It is actually pretty impressive. It's very impressive, the way it's been carved out like that. And to get to see it without the roof as well, which this is the only one that does stand out in the landscape. And I'll be honest, I think some of you know this, a lot of the time I'm not that impressed by buildings and churches, but this is definitely one that has impressed me. It's just different to anything I've seen anywhere else. We're a secret way here. Ooh, nice chair. Whoa, okay. This is cool. We've just come for dinner and sunset at this interesting looking restaurant. Well, this is very cool. This is the view from the top, and then we're actually going to have dinner here. It's like number two on TripAdvisor. So it's going to be really good food. But the more important thing than that is the epic view. Seriously guys, look at this view. Mama Suzie. Are you my man, no? Oh yes. Yes, I am your man. I wish you'd leave your wife's again, that Borden died for. You reaped and hailed in Glen and stood again. Stop the English people in here. Yeah, it's actually a mind-blowing view. Perfect place for dinner. If you're going to come to Lalabella, then you kind of have to come here because look at that. The lady that owns this, she's Scottish, and she just said that this is booked out every night. And you can understand why, because it's just incredible views the whole way around. And what a perfect start to Ethiopia. All right, dinner time.