Lee Abbamonte
Try to become the youngest person to travel to every country in the world
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
By Lee | 
5 Comments » 
People give the Middle East a bad rap. Perhaps for good reason at times, but not everywhere in this holy region is a mess. One such place is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Jordan is home to some of the most impressive archaeological sites in the world. It is home to the Kings Highway, the most scenic highway stretch you can imagine winding in and out of majestic mountains. It also shares the Dead Sea with Israel and across the sea are a lot less tourists to muddy your swim. Additionally, Amman, Jordan’s bustling capital, is a melting pot of culture and curiosity. However, nothing can match the ancient Nabathaen city of Petra for sheer wonder. Jordan has it all and I will document this wonderful country along my trip from Jerusalem to Petra and the Gulf of Aqaba.
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Eye Opening Iran
By Lee | 7 Comments » When I first was planning this trip I was a little wary on whether I was going to include Iran in my itinerary or not. I had always been curious about this rogue nation of sorts. After giving it a lot of thought I decided that I was going to be so close in Ashgabat that I would have to go and see it for myself. I had missed an opportunity to go there in February during my Middle East tour and was not going to miss it twice. After jumping through major hoops to get my visa to go there (it takes upwards of 2-3 months and in America you have to go through the Pakistan Embassy because there are no diplomatic relations between our countries), I was off on my adventure.
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Bombing in Yemen
By Lee | 1 Comment » 
I woke up this morning to hear of an unfortunate incident in Sana’a, Yemen where three mortar rounds exploded near the US Embassy in the capital. No US diplomats were injured but apparently there were some injuries at a girls school located nearby and to some Yemeni officials. This is just 6 weeks after two Belgian tourists and two Yemenis were killed outside the capital by unknown gunmen. Yemen has had a recent history of violence toward Westerners and their interests going back to the USS Cole bombing in 2000. This is very sad to me because I feel that Yemen is such a wonderful country and I hate to see these things happen in the Middle east or anywhere. It gives people the wrong idea about the people of these countries and how nice they are as opposed to the few crazy radicals. It’s really too bad.
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Thoughts on the Middle East
By Lee | 4 Comments » 
As I am back in New York now and have had a very long flight home to reflect on my trip to the Middle East, I have a few thoughts. First, the Middle East is a very pleasant place to visit. The people are very nice in all of the countries that I visited and I never felt unsafe at any time in any country. In fact, they were more hospitable than most western places that you could go to. The streets are generally clean and most countries, especially the new Gulf countries have all of the comforts of home.
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Scenes From a Mall in Dubai
By Lee | 2 Comments » Yesterday was the final day of my trip and I flew up from Yemen to Dubai to catch my long flights home. I had a 12 hour layover in Dubai yesterday and I was debating what to do with myself. I had already seen everything that I wanted to see and in fact all there is to see as the rest of the city will be completed in a few years. So against everything that I believe in I went to the Mall of the Emirates which is the biggest mall in Dubai and one of the biggest in the world to kill the time. It was actually pretty interesting, as far as mall experiences go.
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Sana’a, Yemen
By Lee | 13 Comments » I don’t think there are too many places left in the world that would make God smile, but Yemen is one of them. Yemen has been inhabited forever and in many ways it is the birthplace of all our lives. In the days of yore, Noah’s sons knew it as the land of milk and honey, Gilgamesh came here to search for the secret of eternal life and most famously, a woman simply known as Sheba called this land of Yemen her home. However, since the book of mythology has closed, Yemen had been locked away in a hidden corner of the peninsula-until now. Yemen is coming of age and showing itself to the world and let me tell you: Yemen sits at the crossroads of two continents, with flavors of Africa, reflections of Morocco and reminders of Arabia and to travel in this most traditional of all islamic countries is a priviledge that I won’t soon forget.
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The Sultanate of Oman
By Lee | 3 Comments » The Sultanate of Oman…that just sounds cool doesn’t it? If I was to be any type of world leader I would definitely be a Sultan. It sounds way more powerful than Prime Minister, President, Chancellor or even King. Another reason why Babe Ruth’s nickname “The Sultan of Swat” is still the coolest nickname ever. Anyway, Oman was such a breath of fresh air for me in this region. It is easily the best place I have visited in Arabia. It lacked shopping malls, tall modern buildings, traffic, tackiness but it had a few things called charm, stunning natural beauty, character and uniqueness. Oman saved my soul from the ultra tacky modernity of the new Gulf States and reminded me why I love to travel to far away places.
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The Other Five Emirates
By Lee | 1 Comment » Everybody knows of Dubai and Abu Dhabi which are the main two Emirates (like states or provinces for my Canadian friends) that make up the United Arab Emirates but it sure would make a great Jeopardy question for 99.9% of people to name one of the other five. The other Emirates are Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. I spent the majority of my day today driving and stopping in all of them and let me tell you that there is probably a reason that most people haven’t heard of them. It’s because there really isn’t much to see or do in any of them. There are a few exceptions of course…
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Dubai, United Arab Emirates
By Lee | 2 Comments » Dubai is quite a sight to behold. Coming into the city this morning from Abu Dhabi, I could see the tall buildings from 40 miles away in the flat desert. The place is like a huge construction zone. If you’ve been following my posts each day I have talked about how some places I’ve been to are like crane factories, well Dubai crushes all oncomers. The entire city is under construction and it seems like multiple cities are being built within the city itself. Included is the forthcoming world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai, which technically would be the world’s tallest already although it isn’t finished yet. It is really, really high, over 2000 feet already and they won’t say how high it’ll end up being so nobody tries to beat them before they unveil it. This is kind of the theme of Dubai-what’s gonna be in the future.
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Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
By Lee | 7 Comments » Abu Dhabi is what all cities wish they were; wealthy, clean and very safe. It is the capital of the UAE, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and in fact it boasts reserves of 9% of all oil on Earth making it the richest city on Earth. Abu Dhabi also has the worlds second largest mosque behind Mecca in Saudi Arabia called the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan Grand Mosque-it is incredibly awesome to see up close and quite a mouthful to say. Pretty impressive stuff to say the least. The bank, oil and hotel buildings are high, modern and beautiful and the Corniche is something to behold-however; I’ve just about had it with Corniches!
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