Dubai: A Dubai woman who quit her job last year to start video blogging about her trips abroad has become an internet sensation.
Haifa Beseisso’s exploits have already been viewed over two million times on “Fly with Haifa” - the YouTube channel she created last June to post videos of her travel experiences. One year down the line and after over 36 short video diaries from as many countries, the 25-year-old says her dream now is to reach out to an even bigger audience while covering the world in its entirety.
“I always wanted to face the camera and do things my way, but could never do it on the job. So I had to move on and start this,” explains Beseisso, who worked as a TV producer for around three years after a four-year degree in digital production and storytelling from American University of Dubai.
Now Beseisso is involved full-time in a project she started ‘casually’ alongside her job all by herself in 2015 and one that has so far seen her cover diverse geographical landscapes ranging from Japan, Korea and China in the Far East to Turkey and Palestine in the Middle East to Europe.
“Today I am enjoying it so much that I don’t want to look back but ahead to my journeys to parts of the world I haven’t been to,” adds Beseisso, who is also a part-time emcee, voice-over artist and a fashion designer.
Championing a cause
Besides the thrill of globe-trotting, Beseisso has also able to turn her journeys into a greater cause. During a trip to Tanzania in February, she championed the cause of a local Zanzibar village school and campaigned for new football and basketball facilities there. Of course, she also waltzed with a starfish on the beach, kissed a 190-year old tortoise in a sanctuary and toyed with a Zanzibar red colobus in between digging into a platter of grilled lobsters and other seafood.
“The toughest challenge was to eat a live octopus on the streets of Korea. The octopus was cut and chopped but some of its parts were still moving, and I had to eat it after dipping it into a sauce,” says Beseisso, who was born in Abu Dhabi but grew up all over the UAE. The video of that trip has had over 160,000 views.
One of her most popular videos has been about her trip to South Korea where she made Koreans taste Arabic food on the streets of Seoul including zaatar sandwiches. That video has had over 412,000 views.
“I don’t just explore new cultures and countries but I try and cross the divide. So while I learn a few phrases and words of the languages of a place, I also make sure I pass on a part of our culture over to them,” says Beseisso, who is originally from Palestine.
She says her most fascinating outing remains the one in which she took to the roads of London asking residents what they thought about women like her in her hijab.
“Some of the answers were real eye-openers but it was a real pleasure in the end to explain to many the nuances of our culture,” says Beseisso.
