'I've visited 100 countries but there's one spot I'll never return to'

Traveller and YouTube content creator Gabriel Morris has been jet setting around the world for over 30 years, managing to visit six continents and more than 90 countries.

To be precise, Gabriel has visited “97 United Nations member states plus the three disputed countries of Kosovo, Northern Cyprus, and Taiwan which do not have UN member status.” And there’s one ‘soulless spot’ from his travels that he never wants to return to.

With 613,000 subscribers on YouTube, Gabriel’s videos tend to garner a lot of attention and engagement, with fellow travellers and fans interested in his experiences and what he has to say. In his latest video titled 'I've Been to 100 Countries - Which Place is the Worst?', the YouTuber revealed the least impressive place he’s visited is the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf).

Speaking to viewers, Gabriel shared: “I've seen a fair amount of the world and many of those countries I've been to over and over and travelled around a lot. I'll just tell you at the beginning here, my least favourite part of the world is the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf).” While Iran calls it the Persian Gulf, the countries on the south and west side of the Gulf call it the Arabian Gulf.

So, why is the Persian Gulf area Gabriel’s least favourite part of the world? The content creator clarifies: “Now, I haven't been to Iran, and Iran looks absolutely incredible. And so I'm not including Iran in this. I don't know that along the Persian Gulf there is anything especially nice to see there.”

Gabriel has visited a fair number of areas in and around the Persian Gulf. Among them are Saudi Arabia, specifically Riyadh and Jeddah, where he rented a car for a day to explore a bit beyond the city limits, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi — though none of them left him particularly impressed.

He continued: “There's a little bit more to see in the desert outside of the cities, but not very much. Mostly it’s just flat desert. Basically, I am thinking of the main cities on the Persian Gulf, and then including the cities of Saudi Arabia, which aren’t near the Persian Gulf but do border it. I just find these cities to be devoid of anything particularly interesting as a traveller. I find them to be very boring and stale.”

“The streets are practically empty of people other than those in their cars. You don't get the bustling, busy marketplace experience. All of those cities are built in a very similar style of massive skyscrapers. It makes for an impressive skyline, but then you get there on the ground and it's big, wide streets that can be almost impossible to cross. There’s lots of traffic, massive distances, and not really anything that I want to do there. You can go in malls, you can go to some restaurants. Alcohol is banned for the most part, so that’s another drawback.”

Calling them “soulless”, Gabriel further remarks: “I just find them to be kind of soulless and not unique in any way. You could drop me in any one of those cities and not tell me which one it is, and unless you had a view of, say, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai or some particular landmark, if you were in a typical neighbourhood you couldn't distinguish it from any of the others. They're all built exactly the same and just super boring. Now, they aren't bad places to live necessarily or to raise a family. They are safe, they’re clean, and they’re hassle-free. There’s no hustling, scams, or anything really to worry about.”

Barring Qatar and Dubai, which Gabriel ranks in number one and two spots respectively, Gabriel feels that for the most part, of all the places to go in the world, he has “no desire to go back to that part of the world”, although he concedes the culture is “certainly fine”.

However, Gabriel does feel that’s an additional issue. He continued: “Most of the people you're going to interact with aren't even the local Saudis, Emiratis, Qataris, Kuwaitis, or Bahrainis, because the local populations in all those countries are actually a minority. The majority of people you’ll encounter are workers from South Asia — Indians, Pakistanis, lots of Bangladeshis — who are working in restaurants, malls, hotels, and other service positions.

“The locals, as I understand it, receive paychecks from oil revenue and don’t really have to work, at least not in the typical service jobs. Maybe that’s not true in every country, but in general, if they are working, it’s more likely to be in business or professional roles, so you’re unlikely to interact with them as a visitor. That’s just one more thing that makes the experience feel kind of watered down — you don’t really get much of a local cultural experience. So, it’s nothing personal against the people,” Gabriel concludes.

In fact, the digital creator was once stopped in Kuwait City and questioned for filming – an experience he called “harrowing”. Shedding light, Gabriel added: “I think it was in Kuwait City where I got questioned for filming. I was filming near one of the palaces — or something like that — and I had made a point of not filming one particular place that I thought could be a problem.

“But then I started filming something else, and a security guard waved me over. At that point, you definitely don’t want to run or try to avoid them, because that just makes things worse. So I walked over, and I believe he spoke English. He asked me what I was filming for, asked a few questions, and then let me go. But despite the relatively harmless outcome, it was still a very harrowing experience in the moment — being questioned by an authority figure without knowing how it’s going to play out.”

Thinking of all the scenarios in which the scene could’ve played out, Gabriel rued: “They could easily say, “I want you to talk to my superior,” and then you’re being taken into some office where they’re suspicious of you and start asking more questions. It’s always a pretty traumatic experience, and it basically makes you want to leave. That’s exactly how I felt afterward—I just hoped I could get out of there without any more hassle. So that was one more drawback.”