The Ancient TRIBE Living on Boats Full-Time (Rare Footage)

Good morning. It's just after sunrise here in the province of Sindh in southern Pakistan. I'm so excited to be here right now. So I was here three years ago last time and I went to visit a place that really captivated me and I haven't been able to stop thinking about coming back to this spot pretty much since then. It feels to me that the last time I was here, I was a different person. Younger, yes, but also a little bit more naive. A little less brave in how I told the stories of the people that I met. I remember finding this place so beautiful but not really asking any real questions about what it's like to live here. And this place is far from the paradise that it looks to be. Now that I'm getting a second shot at visiting here, I want to tell you about it more deeply. I'm Eva and I'm a full-time adventurer. I want to bring you on a journey that's all about being brave, experiencing the world and feeling truly alive. My travels have been one hell of an adventure so far but last summer I bought an old Land Rover Defender and converted it into an off-road expedition truck. I now wander around the world and live in my 4x4. Hit subscribe to join my adventure crew and watch real raw travel videos every week. All right, let's get some veggies, some food for the family. So we're gonna get some potatoes, we're gonna get some onions, some tomatoes, maybe some carrots, some fruits as well as rice and other sort of basic necessities. Meet Majid, our host for today. The reason we're not doing introductions right now is because we had actually met the previous day to discuss what he and his family needed. Anyway, I know it doesn't look like it but we're off to Majid's house. You might be wondering what this place actually is. Took us a while to get here, driving from the massive city of Karachi to the town of Mirpur Hass and eventually arriving right here in Manchar Lake. This is not any ordinary lake, it's home to the Moana tribe. They also call themselves Mir Bahar or Lord of the Sea. For generations they have lived on the waters blessing these lands, fishing. But their way of life has changed dramatically in just a few short years. This is a story about that change and for that we have to go back to Majid and Ami and their boat. The kids just sailed up to us randomly, decided to come join us on our boat randomly. This is the life. So cute. They are so cool for just floating up here. I mean they had to cross a pretty massive distance to come here from the village. They're all alone just floating on a piece of styrofoam. Pretty badass actually. I don't think I would dare. If you stand on its shore, Manchar Lake looks like paradise. Fishermen crisscrossing the waters looking for fish, beautiful boats, peace and quiet. And then over the course of a single generation, everything changed. We don't have a lot of fish right now. Very few, very few. Right now we have around 200-300 fish. The reason why everything took a turn for the worse for Majid and his family is ridiculously simple and could be very easy to fix. But we'll get to all of that in just a few minutes. First things first, chai or tea. So it's breakfast time for everybody here on the boat. I'm just gonna have this one cup of tea and in a few minutes we're gonna go fishing with Majid, our host. See what it's like when he goes out onto the water to fish and work. Very exciting. So since the Moana people live on the water, it can be difficult to keep wood and things in general dry. So this is actually the only way that they can keep their wood dry in order to be able to use it for fuel. Honestly, can you imagine a boat full of wood and firewood having to row out of your village to make a meal? It's a whole different reality to, I think, what most of us watching this video are actually used to. I couldn't believe it, but Avi has told me that I should get up on the roof. So here I am. I thought it would break underneath my weight, but I'm here. It's stable. And actually, this is a very interesting space because here, this is kind of like the storage space. So you've got a solar panel here to charge up small devices like a phone. You've got this floating platform that the kids use to move around. You've got some wood for the fire. And apparently, I heard Magid say that sometimes they even sleep up here. Can you imagine sleeping here? Just right here underneath the big sky, underneath all the stars. That's got to be pretty amazing. So we're just on our way to do some fishing with Magid. For the Mir Bahar, fishing is their primary source of income. On stormy days, on calm days, they go out to fish and then they sell the fish at the local market. Honestly, today, it's a bit of a windy day, so the boat is a little bit unstable. And Salman, our cameraman, is having a bit of a hard time balancing himself on the boat. So there are some nets over there, which are used for catching fish. Let's see how this works. The fish that Ami is picking out of the nets are quite small. It's actually quite sad to see. They're all just tiny little fish. I don't know how you would even eat them or sell them. And she was just telling us that when she was small, they used to be much bigger. And of course, there used to be so much more fish in the lake. And this is what they have to survive off today. So they have this beautiful culture, this beautiful story, these lovely boats, an amazing environment, a gorgeous lake around them. And yet, it's so hard to make a living here. And it's getting worse and worse. Manchar Lake is not a very touristy spot in the first place. Yes, some people come out here, but the vast majority of tourists, 99.9% of tourists that do come here, don't ever get to see this part. They see the beautiful lake. They go on a tourist boat. And they know about the people who live here. They know about the Mir Bahar. But they don't know just how difficult life is here. Tourists that come here only see the surface side of this lake. It's only once you come here for a couple of days that you realize that there's so much more to the story beyond the surface. And you know what? I just have this impression that when we travel somewhere for fun, we just want to see the nice stuff. We don't necessarily want to be asking the difficult questions, seeing the darker side of the story, like the fact that this lake is dying. Looking at Ami's meager catch and the tiny little fish that she's picking out from the net, it just makes me wonder whether, as tourists in the travel industry, we have a greater responsibility to the people that host us and the places that we visit. At least asking questions, at least looking beyond the surface. Maybe that's the least that we can do. This is the catch of the day. This bass, this is all. This is everything that they have caught for the day. Can you imagine trying to feed a family of more than 10 people with that tiny quarter bucket of fish? You might be tempted to say that it's just one family. Maybe it's been a really bad day to catch fish. So I decided to head to the local fish market. I was curious to know whether other fishermen on the lake were doing any better. But the answer had been right there all along. This is the main fish market on the shores of one of the largest freshwater lakes in all of Asia. It should be bustling, filled with people buying and selling fish all day long. But instead, if you look around, it's empty. There's almost nobody here. Almost no fishermen coming to sell fish and almost nobody coming to buy them. So what exactly is the problem? Well, Manchar Lake has become something like a sewer where industrial waste from across Pakistan is being dumped via the RBOD, or the Right Bank Outflow Drain. This drain was built 40 years ago by the Pakistani government with the full knowledge that Manchar Lake would bear the brunt of an ecosystem collapse. The toxic waste has killed most of the fish in these waters and made it unsuitable for drinking, washing, for life. All this means that the indigenous Moana people can no longer live on these waters. With waterborne diseases breaking out here on a rampant scale, it's actually life-threatening for them to be here. The drain has pushed them further into despair and poverty. From the 40,000 people that once lived here, only a few hundred remain. In this very water, fish are going extinct. The levels of toxicity are far beyond what health organizations around the world claim to be safe for drinking or even to sustain any underwater life. There is endless water all the way beyond the horizon here, but not a single drop of it is safe to drink. Now, you know the story. But after all, we're only human. We all still try to find joy in the little things, no matter how bad things get. So, Majid has kindly offered to teach me how to row his houseboat. Which is very exciting. Okay. This one? Okay. This one's for me. All the way in. Until you touch the bottom. Take it out, okay. And one more time? Yeah. Okay. Balance? Oh, like this? Okay. So, in order to turn... All right, all right, all right. So, in order to turn, you need to put the stick in, but kind of like push yourself off. Like this? Yeah. This is actually really hard work, honestly. Okay. I almost let that go. What if I lost it? What would happen then? So, he will jump to get it. I will do my best not to make this happen. So, how do you think I'm doing? Good. I'm just kind of thinking back to when I was here last, three years ago, and the place is the same. It's pretty much the same, but I feel like I'm seeing it with different eyes, in a completely different way. When I was here last time, I remember just, you know, focusing on how beautiful it was, the amazing sunset, the lovely boats, the kind of surface level. But being here this time around, three years later, I see so much more, and it's not a pretty sight. I see beneath the surface. I can't really ignore the issues that this community faces anymore. I can see now that the place has not changed, but I think I have changed, maybe. Maybe my perspective has changed. Maybe my way of seeing things has changed in that time, or maybe I've just opened my eyes a little bit more since then. Three years on, I still don't have all the answers, but I have learned a couple of things. First of all, I learned that Manchar Lake could be saved. Its people could go back to the days when fish were plentiful and food in abundance. The answer? If only the government redirected the RBOD drain away from this lake, or better yet, made sure that the industries which produce toxic waste upstream are held responsible for the ecological damage they cause all around Pakistan. As for myself, I realize that sometimes, in order to appreciate your growth, you need to come back to a place that you once knew. When you're there, you might just realize that it's very different from how you remembered it. But most likely, the place hasn't changed at all. It's you who has changed.