Man who survived solo trip to North Sentinel Island shares bizarre reason he risked it

North Sentinel Island isn’t a spot you’d like to book for your next vacation – unless you’re this YouTuber.

Home to the elusive Sentinelese people, those who inhabit North Sentinel Island are widely known as the most isolated community in all the world.

As one of 572 archipelagos which make up the Andamans, the small island is home to up to 500 natives, and they aren't known to be friendly.

Located in the Bay of Bengal, with Myanmar and Thailand the closest mainland countries, the North Sentinel Island is protected by an exclusion zone of five nautical miles (9.3 km), and while you might think it’s to protect the locals – it's more likely to protect you.

The Sentinelese are dubbed the most dangerous tribe in the world, and have been known to kill those who come onto the land.

Neo Orientalist went to the island (YouTube/Neo Orientalist)

Like US evangelist John Allen Chau in 2018, who was allegedly seen being buried on the beach by islanders after attempting to convert them to Christianity.

In 2006, two Indian fishermen got too close to the North Sentinel Island and were also killed by the tribe.

Despite the stories being fairly recent, others have tried and failed to gain access to the tribe.

Like YouTuber Neo Orientalist, whose real name is Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov.

Polyakov wasn’t deterred in an attempt to make contact with the Sentinelese folk.

Did he want to learn their ways? No. Did he want to do what Chau had hoped and convert them to religion? No.

What he did want was to provide them with a coconut and can of Diet Coke as a ‘peace offering,’ per a video on his channel.

“It’s been a minute since anyone’s been here but I’m gonna assess the state of affairs, check in, say what’s up, give them a Diet Coke,” he can be heard saying in his video.

Polyakov was successful in at least getting to the island and did indeed make contact, but it wasn’t quite peaceful.

He was briefly there (YouTube/Neo Orientalist)

In fact, it was a five-minute interaction that led to his arrest last year, where he was charged with entering a prohibited tribal reserve area.

He is currently facing up to give years in prison, and in an April update, had his bail rejected by the Port Blair court.

Despite this, he told Newsweek that he’d likely do it again if the chance arose.

“Would I still do it again? I would say yes,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I regret anything in particular.”

“I’m very motivated to document things that are difficult to find,” he said. “I want to seek out things that they’re not going to see anywhere else.”

However, he doesn’t encourage others to follow suit, noting: “I don’t encourage anyone to repeat what I did. But I wouldn’t say I’m responsible if someone does.”