This content was created by Nate Buchanan. This content was uploaded by Nate Buchanan. This is a YouTube video titled "TIPPING OUR HOUSEKEEPER $500 (quarantined in Singapore)" created on May 2, 2020. It features Nate and Kara Buchanan discussing their experience of self-isolating in a hotel in Singapore during the pandemic. They share their plan to tip their housekeeper $500 as a gesture of gratitude, inspired by MrBeast, and document the process and the housekeeper's reaction.
Questions this video answers
The equivalent of US$500.
In a hotel room in Singapore.
15 days.
MrBeast.
Chapters
So this is just a little way for us to share our blessing with somebody else.
It's a lot more challenging to give somebody money than I thought it would be.
Don't think that really.
We're Karen Nate. We've been traveling the world full time for the last four years.
And like most people in the world, this pandemic has turned our lives upside down.
Before we began our voluntary self isolation here in Singapore, we were in the Philippines on a remote island off the coast of Coron. And that's when we heard that the capital city was going on lockdown in 48 hours. Which meant that if we didn't make it back to Manila as soon as possible, there was a chance we wouldn't be able to connect to our international flight and we could have been trapped in the Philippines indefinitely.
In our last video, we shared the story of very making it out of the Philippines.
It is seriously a miracle.
Thankfully we made it to this hotel room in Singapore and it's been our home for the last 15 days. We made it into the country just two days before the government issued a mandatory stay at home notice for all travelers entering the country. So even though the rules didn't apply to us since we made it in the country before they went into effect, we decided to self isolate anyways just in case we contracted something while we were traveling.
So for the last two weeks we have been living in this hotel room, spending all day on our computers and only going out to exercise and get food.
And yes, I have worn this robe every single day.
And while we've been out, we have been really careful about practicing social distancing because it's actually the law here in Singapore and if you break it, there are serious fines or even jail time.
Thank you.
This is probably the longest we've ever spent in the same hotel and we've developed a little bit of a relationship with our house. They pretty much just laugh every day when they realize that we're still here.
If you think about it, they have a really tough job. Like can you imagine going into strangers bedrooms every single day, having no idea where they've been or if they even care about their health.
We've been not getting our room clean because we feel like that's actually somehow cleaner.
Maybe that's why they like us, because.
We always tell them we just want.
More coffee and toilet paper.
So given the current situation, we came up with an idea to bring a little joy to their day. And this idea was Inspired. Inspired by MrBeast who we discovered during all this Extra time we've been spending on YouTube during self isolation. And if you've never seen his channel before, he pretty much uses it to give away gobs of money.
It's nuts. Last one of you to take your hand off this million dollar stack of cash keeps it.
So I just went to the ATM, pulled out the equivalent of US$500, and we're gonna leave it as a tip for our housekeeper. It's not gonna be a million dollars, but it will be the biggest tip we've ever given.
Okay, let's go.
Okay, so this is the setup. The money is here on the table. We've got Kira's phone casually leaned against the window. Subtle, I know. We've got a GoPro set up over here. Sneaky camera recording going on on the computer. And just to make sure we capture every angle we have, the zoom wins set up here. I feel like I'm setting up some kind of very non sneaky spy mission. And now we're going to turn on the clean our room button and we'll see what happens.
I'm so excited.
Are you cleaning?
Yes. Let's do it.
I'm like really nervous right now. We're just going to hide by the elevators.
I hope they don't see us. Now we know they got it. Maybe we can go on. I don't know.
Just gonna stand here.
Awkward.
She's going in. I'm so scared.
I'm gonna take a peek.
She's throwing away her trash.
I think she saw me. I don't think she's seen it yet.
When should we go in?
I don't know why this makes me so nervous, but my armpits are sweating and they always sweat when I'm nervous.
Excuse me. Did you see the dog? Did you see it? I see. Yeah, it's for you.
No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, I do it off. You can have.
Yeah.
Thank you. Thank you.
No, no. Yeah.
Your Google Translate.
You gave me too much. You gave me too much. You scared me. You scared me.
I can take so much money. Can I talk?
It's for you.
I think she's calling her supervisor to see if it's okay. It's a lot more challenging to give somebody money than I thought it would be.
Hello? Yes, that's correct.
We just. We would like to give it to her. Of course. Thank you. You.
Bye. She said it was okay.
Yeah.
Oh, she said it was okay.
Yeah, she said it was okay.
Thank you.
My heart's beating too.
I wish I could give you a hug. Air hug.
Air hug.
Don't take that. Really?
I. I feel real cool. I'm real cool. Goodbye. You're welcome. I feel like I'm gonna cry.
She was so happy.
I feel like I need to wash my hands.
The whole social distancing thing went out the window during that little interaction, but I think it's okay.
Oh, she was so sweet. I can't believe how long it took her to take it. I mean, we literally had to talk on the phone to her boss before she would take it. And even then, she still couldn't believe it.
When the boss called, she tried to tell me that it was too much money to give somebody. I told her that she could share it with other staff if she wanted to, and that seemed to make it okay. That was really fun. This is one of the most fun videos we've ever made.
I feel like I held it together as long as I could. I didn't want her to think I was crazy.
Now here come all the tears.
Oh, that was great.
I mean, she is one of the people that's on the front lines providing an essential service that has to be done during this challenging time. So it was really fun to get to do something special. I think a major motivation behind us wanting to do this is that we found ourselves in a place with YouTube that's better than we could have ever imagined. And so this is just a little way for us to share our blessing with somebody else.
It's like it was from all of us.
We couldn't have built this channel without y'. All. So, yeah, in a way, we. We all contributed.
Just sharing the love, all the love that y' all have given us. I feel like this has happened a lot.
