Lee Abbamonte
Try to become the youngest person to travel to every country in the world
Thanks Indonesia!
By Lee | August 31st, 2010 | 
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Over the past three days, I have seen my viewership jump ridiculously drastically because of a huge number of Indonesian visitors. Apparently an article was published about me or mentioning me with a link to my site in Indonesia. My inbox and facebook requests have been inundated and I am currently in Paris so I just wanted to say thanks for visiting and I will try to answer as many emails as I can when I get a chance. I look forward to my next visit to Indonesia which may be as soon as November or December!
A Quick Update
By Lee | August 17th, 2010 | 3 Comments » 
Ya I know it has been a while but rest assured I have been very busy. I have been back and forth across the US from LA, Orange County, Las Vegas and Denver back to New York and down the Atlantic beaches of Delaware and Maryland. I am in the process of planning several upcoming trips as I try to get closer to the record. I will be heading to the Mediterranean at the end of August and early September for Corsica and Sardinia. After much deliberation and extreme pains in the butt, I am not going to Libya in September but hopefully it may work out in October. Instead I will be heading up to the Faroe Islands, Iceland and perhaps Greenland, if I can find a reasonable deal. November 4th, I embark on a very rare expedition to the British Indian Ocean Territory via the Maldives and will make several stops along the way. My hopeful and/or probable stops include romantic destinations such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Algeria, Eritrea, Pakistan and Afghanistan. I have yet to decide if I am going to do an around the world ticket or not. I am working on a lot of things so we will see as it gets closer. I also have Wake Island looming in December which I have not yet committed to. Anyway, just a quick update before I head back on the road August 29th. As always, thanks for all the emails and I hope everyone’s summers are going very well!
My Thoughts on the South Pacific
By Lee | July 13th, 2010 | 6 Comments » 
After seven weeks on the road and at sea, I am finally back home in New York and enjoying the conveniences that come with being back in the States. Although the heat and humidity in New York City make me think I may be back in the Pacific sometimes! Seven weeks, 17 countries and 30ish flights later I have had some time to reflect on my time and experiences and I wanted to share a few with my readers.
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Where The Streets Have No Name
By Lee | June 30th, 2010 | 9 Comments » 
‘Wallis and Futuna. Where? Wallis and Futuna. Never heard of it.’ This is a pretty good characterization of some of the conversations that I have had about Wallis and Futuna recently as nobody has ever heard of it. I must say, there’s no real reason to have heard of it unless you are fascinated by French overseas territories or you are a Travelers Century Club member. The two islands are linked together through French colonization only but trace their roots back to Tonga and Samoa. I visited the island of Wallis and found out it was a land of extremes. Extreme heat, extreme rain, extreme humidity, extreme amounts of dead pigs and extremely large money. And oh yeah, the streets have no names. In fact, there are no signs period. But that’s part of the fun.
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Fiji and Vanuatu
By Lee | June 26th, 2010 | 1 Comment » 
The South Pacific is a wonderful place filled with beautiful islands and friendly people although getting around can be tough. For me, the best place is Fiji. The name Fiji alone sounds tropical and almost made up. The islands are beautiful and the country is easy to manage. Some might say it is too touristy and built up but you know what-if a lot of tourists go someplace it’s probably pretty good! Besides we’re not talking Cancun here in terms of numbers of tourists, we’re simply talking more than say…Tuvalu! Make of it what you like but there’s no debating that Fiji is pretty awesome. It’s easy; it has something for everyone, good restaurants, great scenery and the best sunsets I have ever seen. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it and learn the word “Bula” because you’ll be saying it a lot.
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The Most Boring Country on Earth
By Lee | June 25th, 2010 | 4 Comments » 
I cannot believe that Tuvalu is a real United Nations member country. Technically, they have the same voting power as Germany or another large nation and that blows me away. It is technically the second smallest population wise country (less Vatican City) in the world behind nearby Nauru but with Tuvalu being split up over three atolls, it feels like the smallest. Fongafale, the main island, has about 4000 extremely nice people on it but they all pretty much do nothing all day and give new meaning to the word lazy. They sleep a lot; both on hammocks all over the road, on the ground or on the airstrip because that’s where they can get the crosswinds in the oppressive heat. It’s really amazing to watch. In fact, I will go ahead and call Tuvalu the single most boring place in the world. There is really nothing to do-at least anything that could sustain you for more than an hour or so. With that assessment, I will state for the record that I will never return to Tuvalu but I am mostly glad I came; mainly because they asked if I was carrying animal semen! see photo below row v…
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Guadalcanal
By Lee | June 20th, 2010 | 4 Comments » 
The Solomon Islands don’t get a ton of tourists and quite frankly, there isn’t much to do. However, I guess that’s part of the charm as I’ve been quite content here the past few days just relaxing and taking in the culture and people on Guadalcanal Island, which is the home of the capital Honiara, some cool World War II relics and the main airport, Henderson Field. If any of the names I’ve just thrown out there sound familiar it’s because Guadalcanal is one of the most famous and the first Allied victory against the Japanese in World War II. Also, Henderson Field is the same guy who the airfield on Midway Island is named for as he was the first pilot shot down during that battle.
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The Tokelau Expedition
By Lee | June 15th, 2010 | 24 Comments » 
I’m not sure where to begin here as the last five days have been exceptionally trying from a traveler perspective and a lot has happened; but in fact very little has happened. Let me try to clarify what that means and talk about my disorganized, botched, delayed, misled, trying, grueling, shocking and ultimately exhausting and relatively unfulfilling expedition to Tokelau.
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It Takes Two To Tonga
By Lee | June 8th, 2010 | 9 Comments » 
Tonga is one of those places you’ve always heard about because it has a cool name and sounds really exotic. It seems so far (and it is) and you know they have some big Polynesian looking dudes that play Rugby and some even play in the NFL. You know it’s near Samoa and some of those other “ones” down in the Pacific somewhere but you really don’t know anything about it. Sound familiar? You may recall it was the first place to ring in the new Millenium as it’s essentially on the date line. Well I have to say that after two days on Tonga I can say, not much goes on here and this place is as laid back as anywhere I’ve been. There isn’t much to do but for what there is to do, I like the Tongan attitude and slogan…”Do it the Tongan way…Tomorrow”.
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Aloha From Oahu
By Lee | June 6th, 2010 | 10 Comments » 
I first went to Hawaii in March 2004 for ten days or so and I really didn’t have that great a time. I spent my time on Oahu, Maui and Kauai and wasn’t too upset to leave the islands and head back home. Six years later was a much different story. I had a blast and spent my entire 5 days on Oahu, less the day I flew to Midway. More importantly I think I accepted Hawaii for what it was, Honolulu in particular. It is a bit of Vegas meets Disneyworld with all the cheesiness and tourists but at the same time, it’s beautiful and has a lot of interesting history and once you escape Waikiki, Oahu is a pretty awesome place to be. The North Shore and the east of the island are pretty cool and have lots of hidden little places and amazing restaurants, shrimp trucks and shave ice places. In fact, the shave ice places are so good that when Obama returns to Hawaii he makes sure to visit his favorite ice place-I saw the pictures and had my ice served by the same guy who served the President with his fat lip ring and all-that was pretty cool!
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Lee Abbamonte is a published travel writer, global adventurer and worldwide travel expert living in New York City. Lee aims to become the youngest person to travel to every country in the world. He has currently been to 273 countries and is only 31 years old. From this site you can relive his past travels, read his current trip blog and interract with him, while following his adventures in pursuit of the record. The record is visiting all 320 countries and unique destinations in the world per the Travelers Century Club list. The current record is 37 years, 9 months, 17 days and Lee aspires to beat it.- Africa
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- Lee on Thoughts on the Middle East
The Mall of the Emirates in Dubai - Mike on Thoughts on the Middle East
Some great pics of your travels there. What is tha ... [read more] - Mike on Sana’a, Yemen
Sounds great. I haven't been to Yemen, but might h ... [read more] - Elsa on Jakarta, Indonesia
you have to visit Danau Toba ( Toba Lake ) or Samo ... [read more] - azizah on Top 5-Beaches in Asia
hi Lee ,i think you should try to go to raja ampat ... [read more] - Lee on Boppin Around Borneo
Yulian, while my time in Kalimantan was short, I c ... [read more] - Lee on Top 5-Beaches in Asia
Teddy, I looked it up and would love to visit some ... [read more] - Lee on Loving Bali
Thanks Depht and I love Indonesia as well and look ... [read more] - Lee on Jakarta, Indonesia
Thanks Eko, I will certqinly keep that in mind. I ... [read more] - Maxi on Top 5-Cities in Canada
CANADA Eh!! Beatifull country, i agree with Ryan t ... [read more]
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