Travel Blog | About TravelBlog | World Facts | Travel Wallpaper | Travel Forum | Travel Insurance | Services | Cameras

Lebanon Travel Blogs

Background: Lebanon has made progress toward rebuilding its political institutions since 1991 and the end of the devastating 15-year civil war. Under the Ta'if Accord - the blueprint for national reconciliation - the Lebanese have established a more equitable political system, particularly by giving Muslims a greater say in the political process while institutionalizing sectarian divisions in the government. Since the end of the war, the Lebanese have conducted several successful elections, most of the militias have been weakened or disbanded, and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) have extended central government authority over about two-thirds of the country. Hizballah, a radical Shia organization, retains its weapons. During Lebanon's civil war, the Arab League legitimized in the Ta'if Accord Syria's troop deployment, numbering about 16,000 based mainly east of Beirut and in the Bekaa Valley. Damascus justified its continued military presence in Lebanon by citing Beirut's requests and the failure of the Lebanese Government to implement all of the constitutional reforms in the Ta'if Accord. Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000, however, encouraged some Lebanese groups to demand that Syria withdraw its forces as well. The passage of UNSCR 1559 in early October 2004 - a resolution calling for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon and end its interference in Lebanese affairs - further emboldened Lebanese groups opposed to Syria's presence in Lebanon. Syria finally withdrew the remainder of its forces from Lebanon in April of 2005.




Links: Lebanon Travel Blogs (all) | Lebanon Travel Photos | Lebanon Travel Forum | Hotels in Lebanon | Lebanon Facts | Map of Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon Location




Hostels in Lebanon
Latest Lebanon Blog Entries
Lebanon Photos











Day 12. (21/04/09) (Fried Mike for dinner …) What a horrible day, “man am I tired?”. For a starter of all good days, I had to get up at 7am, I reckon it was a good 20 degrees, usually I’d not think that’s a bad think, and I didn’t to start with, but apparently EVERYTHING is in Beirut, which means EVERYONE is going to Beirut, which leads to cars amassing through he streets, so it took us one hour to merely get to Downtown Beirut, and then it took us another two hours to bloody find the Danish embassy, which was [View Full Entry]

MikeLalti - Mike Rami Lalti | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
567 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 24th 2009 | 27 Views | [diary=393541]


Day 14. (23/04/09) (Left Behind) I knew had it coming, and now I’m sitting at some Starbucks Coffee shop, at El Rauché, looking at the sea, sipping ice coffee. Yesterday I was in the airport, to see my dad check-in, leaving me behind, which means I’m on my own now, in one way or another it makes me happy, on the other hand knowing I won’t be seeing my dad get’s me sad, but I’ve been at the embassy and signed me in so they know I’m here and where I’m living while I’m here, and been trying to refresh my [View Full Entry]

MikeLalti - Mike Rami Lalti | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
479 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 24th 2009 | 36 Views | [diary=393544]


Day 15. (24/04/09) (Welcome home granddad.) Yesterday at night my granddad finally got home from the hospital, still unavailable of moving his right hand side of the body and still talking gibberish, but he’s home and it has definitely brought joy over the building to have him here. last time I mentioned that I would save a few lines about transport, and I thought what would be a more suited place than in the wan, which I get from and to Beirut in, sitting here right now with the laptop up seems kind of weird because everyone around me are [View Full Entry]

MikeLalti - Mike Rami Lalti | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
757 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 24th 2009 | 31 Views | [diary=393549]


Day 6. (15-16/04/09) (The Brain Eater) Well, There’s not much to write about, I’m not really seeing/exploring much these days, my grandfather is still in the hospital and I’m pretty by his side all day long, all though I’ve had a few hours outside the hospital, just to change surroundings a bit, yesterday I went to Palace Café, which is one of the more exquisite Cafés in Lebanon, I was there last time I went to Lebanon, and it was really something that helped my mood, since sitting in the hospital wouldn’t exactly be a huge part of “your dream trip&rdqu [View Full Entry]

MikeLalti - Mike Rami Lalti | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
667 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 17th 2009 | 38 Views | [diary=391600]


The days have been so weird, it feels like it’s more than a week ago since I wrote to you guys last time, and in all fairness it’s three days ago, however since I came it has been quite much in and out of the hospital, but that will of course get a lot better when my grandpa gets home, and he seems to be getting better, he has been improving. Just as well as the days have been weird, I’ve seen and learned a lot, I’ve come to a point where I know my whereabouts when, I’ve become familiar with [View Full Entry]

MikeLalti - Mike Rami Lalti | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
626 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 13th 2009 | 46 Views | [diary=390271]


I woke up at half past 10, after a mere 4 hours of sleep, extremely excited, went to Palazzo (One of the Local pizzerias’) for one last time for the sake of good old times, which turned out to be far more time consuming than I thought, so looking at the clock at some point we hurried home, I packed the last bits of cloths, moved some music and etc. on the new little notebook which I had apparently acquired somewhere along the line of being a mindless zombie, Monica then came to pick me up to take me to my [View Full Entry]

MikeLalti - Mike Rami Lalti | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
867 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 13th 2009 | 39 Views | [diary=390260]


On Sunday, we woke up early and putzed around for a while at Starbucks (I know... but it's open early!), which turned out to be a fountain of useful information. First, we learned that today was daylight savings here. Then, I finally asked someone about the taxi situation because I am oh so tired of paying so much for cabs and Ryan isn't big on waiting around for buses. It turns out you just have to ask the cab, "servees?" which roughly translates as, "are you a service cab and not someone who is going to charge me a private cab [View Full Entry]

thebenders - Lisa and Ryan | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
779 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 10 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 6th 2009 | 121 Views | [diary=388159]

vineyards in bekaa valley
at the baalbek ruins
columns from the temple of jupiter, baalbek

It was still raining on Saturday morning, so we decided to head north to the ancient City of Byblos (now called Jbail) to check out the archaeological site there. The drive along the coast was really pretty, and it only took about a half hour to get there once we got in a cab (but at least an hour driving arond the City in a bus before that, in an attempt to stop using cabs so much). Byblos was inhabited starting 7000 years ago and became a major trading center during the 3rd millenium BC, when it traded cedar wood and [View Full Entry]

thebenders - Lisa and Ryan | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
390 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 7 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 29th 2009 | 145 Views | [diary=385688]

crusader castle in byblos
roman theater in byblos
temple of the oblisks in byblos

On our first full day in Beirut, Ryan woke up earlier than me (for seriously the first time that either of us can remember since we met over 5 years ago). He headed out to find an internet cafe but it was only 7:30am so the only thing open was Starbucks. He checked in with work and did some quick coding and then I met him about an hour later. We headed up next to the university for breakfast and had some wonderful scrambled egg thing with lamb in it, and some kind of grilled cheese thing (not a sandwich, grilled [View Full Entry]

thebenders - Lisa and Ryan | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
590 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 13 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 29th 2009 | 203 Views | [diary=385679]

hamra neighborhood near our hotel
buildings in hamra near our hotel
starbucks, for shame

Lebanon has been a country with many surprises, of course, the majority of these being enjoyable. Perhaps the best surprise of this trip though was getting the opportunity to feel Roman. Or when I say Roman, in this case I mean walking through the well preserved ancient Roman sites (and when you have the temple all to yourself, who's going to stop you from pretending?). Even though I traveled to Rome in Italy after my time in Lebanon, at this time of writing, I would still have to argue, Baalbek Lebanon has been the best Roman historical site I have visited. [View Full Entry]

gypsy_teacher - Nathan D. Bryant | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
955 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 46 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: August 30th 2009 | 108 Views | [diary=422473]

Another face of Bacchus temple
Dionysus himself?
Selling of sweet drinks