Lee Abbamonte
Try to become the youngest person to travel to every country in the world
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 | 6 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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Djibouti, Djibouti
By Lee | 3 Comments » It’s really fun to say Djibouti. I keep finding myself just saying the word over and over-you should try it, it’s kind of fun. It’s also spelled neatly and one of those places, kind of like Timbuktu, that you’ve always heard of and never really knew exactly where it was or that people actually went or lived there. But alas, I have discovered that there are a lot of people here: the local Djiboutians who are extremely hospitable and very nice, many French expats and businessman, a ton of smugglers moving goods into and out of Africa and into the Middle East and Europe and a huge US military presence. There is a huge base here strategically located where the Middle East meets Africa-not to mention Somaliland is about 20 miles away from where I am right now. But Djibouti has a lot of character and charm on its own merit and is quite surprisingly to me-really, really nice.
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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
By Lee | 1 Comment » I spent the first half of today in Addis Ababa, which is the pleasant capital of Ethiopia and a major travel hub for Eastern Africa. This was my fifth trip to the dark continent and third in the last 16 months. I spent my time touring around the city with my Ethiopian tour guide in his ramshackle black and yellow taxi that is very commonplace to see in Africa. I think the cab topped out at 25mph…maybe. The good news was it only stalled twice and the friendly Ethiopian guys in the street were always happy to lend a hand in pushing the car to help get it started again.
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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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Doha, Qatar
By Lee | 7 Comments » Doha is the type of place where if you revisit it in 10 years you wouldn’t even recognize it. They are building so much here it’s ridiculous. They are even bidding on the 2016 Olympics and have signs all over Doha for it. Today is Friday but in Qatar it’s like a Sunday so nothing is going on and nothing is open. The idea of the weekend being Thursday and Friday is tough to come to grips with but regardless, downtown Doha is like a ghost town. Aside from walking along the beautiful Corniche with panoramic views of the new skyscrapers, the only thing to do here is go to the mall because that’s what all the people here do. I really hate malls.
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Bahrain and the New Gulf
By Lee | 3 Comments » Flying into Bahrain this morning I was really taken aback once again by just how big and developing this island country is just like Kuwait. From above you can see cranes as far as the eye can see and you can see them constructing very tall amazingly designed buildings and islands. Literally island communities for people to live on right in the Persian Gulf. When you arrive at the airport and all around Manama all you see is ads for the new developments. It is astounding really. Everyone has heard that Dubai is doing this with the countries of the world but it is all of the Gulf States. The region is literally pouring trillions into it’s 22nd century infrastructure and tourist attractions now. You should see some of these plans they have drawn up and already selling to investors. The Gulf is getting ready for the next century right now because they know that within a century their oil reserves will be all dried up. How’s that for foresight?
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