Got up early to catch the bus to Bcharre, 1st from near the Charles Helou bus station I hailed a passing minivan to take me to Darwa, I specifically told the driver to let me off there, but he forgot and only realized we passed it when he looked worried asking me where I exactly need to go, sorry Darwa is over there behind us, I was so pissed, he dropped me off at an overpass to cross over the other side and head back, I told him I ain't paying cause he screwed up, I heard him mutter but I didnt care. Now I have to deal with traffic going into the city again! Beirut traffic in the morning to town is horrendous and took ages to get to Darwa. Once there I asked passerby ... read more

Arriving past midnight at the surprisingly new Beirut Airport I found no queue at the immigration counter, everyone else was filling up some form so I went ahead of everyone, my passport was thoroughly checked by the officer in training, took her awhile then she stamped me for stay good up to 1 month, a second officer thumbed through my passport once again, checking for an Israeli stamp I am sure, finding nothing he let me go. Waiting for me was the taxi driver with my mispelled name on a piece of paper, he took me to Al Nazih Pension, Jamal welcomed me and took my passport and promised to give it back the next day. The dorm rooms are nice with sturdy beds, there is one dude in my room already sleeping, Peter from Belgium, ... read more

Woke up early to leave for the next city, Erbil, about 180 kms away is the capital of Kurdish Iraq. I have to wake up reception, still sleeping at 9am, paid my bills and he wrote me a place I can stay in Erbil. Walked to the share taxi stand next to the bazaar, I paid 15,000 dinar and waited half an hour to get more people before we set off. 3 hours more or less we drove into dry desolate landscape, brown and arid at this time though there is already a chill in the air as it is now autumn, I noticed a number of checkpoints and we got checked 3 times, most soldiers can't read Roman letters and they thumb through my passport meticulously and asks where I am from as if my ... read more

The driver of the minivan came to the train station wait area to tell us he is now boarding for Batumi, we waited half hour and off the van went, rain is still going and the roads are slippery but did not stop the driver from driving like a race car driver even in turns he does not slow down, prompting the women in the van to tell him to slow down, we stopped in one town for 15 minutes so the men can smoke and scratch their ba@#s maybe, no new passenger got on so we dont understand why we waited long. It was early eve when we arrived in Batumi, a bit disoriented we pulled out the LP and found the street we are on and eventually got to the hotel of our choice, ... read more

Tbilisi once again, after a 3 hour trip from Kazbegi, we arrived late afternoon and said our goodbyes to Juan as he goes to stay in the city while we took the metro to the train station, it was so crowded and busy and took awhile to buy the chips for the train, then I realized its the end of the month and everyone is queueing up to buy new metro cards for the month or something. Everyone is staring at us again in the train, Till said I should be used to it by now, somehow I never did. At the trains station we were told the train is fully booked and we have no choice but to just buy our ticket for the next day and stay the night in Tbilisi, problem is we ... read more