http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Middle East , Lebanon en-us Tue, 13 May 2008 20:54:13 BST Tue, 13 May 2008 20:54:13 BST Wow I never thought I would get here... Yes Lebanon famous for wine Lebanese bread and civil war. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to spend a day there to see it post civil war and find out what it was really like behind all the hype. I can attest that it's a lovely friendly and scenic place. While there are lots of seriously armed soldiers around particularly around the border http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-270524.html We got on the road early toward Lebanon. We had to get thru bunch of paper work leaving Syria then a bunch more to enter Lebanon. Like that was not enough the Lebanese border guards demanded moreldquofolloserdquo lots of American dollars . Now about Lebanonhelliphelliphelliphelliphellip I think Irsquove said enough. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-269480.html hi how are you http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-267965.html hi http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-267336.html hi from ambaba saida lebanon http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-267059.html From the moment I stepped into Beirut International Airport I knew that Lebanon was going to be a very different travel destination. Armed military and police scoured the arrivals hall and I had to pass three passport checks in order to enter the country and on each occasion every page of my passport was checked twice once forwards and once backwards. The immediate impression of Beirut is t http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-259697.html Wir stehen frh auf und klappern das Stadtzentrum von Beirut ab wobei unser Vormittag der Stadt sicherlich nicht gerecht wird. Die Stadt bietet so viele Kontraste dass es fast erschreckend ist Neben der wirklich hbsch wiederaufgebauten Innenstadt die an Paris erinnern soll ob ihrer Verschnrkelung bisweilen aber auch Disneyland genannt wird sieht man Flchtlingszelte. Neben pompser Mosche http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-259387.html Who knew a country 34 the size of Connecticut would have so much to offer We did. That is why Emily and I spent our February Eid break in beautiful Lebanon home to Beirut or the Paris of the Middle East as many say. While flying in it was surreal enough to see the snow tipped mountains pop up out of the sandy brown Arabian Peninsula. Snowboarding on those mountains with amazing views of t http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-253031.html Hello all Guess what I got a cool Australia boomerang key chain with a kangaroo on it for my room key from my Aussie friend Itrsquos pretty. Irsquom looking at it now. So as of tomorrow when I will send this email out I will have officially been at school for exactly one week Today I went to Bath. It was fine. But we didnrsquot really have much time there to appreciate it. We go there http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Tripoli/blog-242520.html some pics http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-236156.html Yesterday is but today's memory tomorrow is today's dream. Kahlil GibranMy transit visa for Lebanon was only for three days but I was having so much fun that I decided to overstay my visa... with my fingers crossed that the consequences wouldn't be too serious. Everything always seemed to work itself out so my plan was to ride on this high tide of optimism. My idea to get the http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Baalbek/blog-222055.html Approximately 90 kilometers northeast of the city of Beirut in eastern Lebanon stands the magnificent temple complex of Baalbek the ruins are one of the holiest places of ancient times. Before the Romans conquered the site and built their enormous temple of Jupiter long even before the Phoenicians constructed a temple to the god Baal there stood at Baalbek the largest stone block construction f http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Baalbek/blog-221545.html Dan says... This trip started out with a lovely little jaunt down Beirut's equivalent of state highway one. The open road driving here is the undisputed worse either of us has seen. If a car is passing a car which is already passing another car and the only option for this first car is to drive on the extreme wrong side of the road to get past both cars at once even if there is another car com http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Tripoli/blog-212580.html If you take a look at the map of Lebanon which is situated at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea bordering Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south you will realize that Lebanon is small. Most people will be surprised that there are unlike most other countries in the Middle East no deserts in Lebanon. The landscape varies from beaches at the coast to mountain ranges with snow http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Tripoli/blog-206515.html Yousef Omar Aarti an American girl we met in Damascus and I managed to get a share taxi in Beirut for probably the best deal we could ever get 400 Syrian Lira per person which is roughly about 8. It's still a considerable about being that we are in the Middle East the land of oil A Lebanese man also joined our taxi and he turned out to be one of those friendly grandfatherly types. He http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-205082.html Once known as the Paris of the Middle East Beirut was long considered the most liberal and laissezfaire city in the region the joie de vivre is evident. Without a map telling me I was in the Middle East I could be at any coastal city in Southern Europe. Despite the recent troubles the country has been facing and the political instability which adds to the uncertainties about the future http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-202252.html Saabumine oli suhteliselt valutu. Peale ristksitlust eelmise aasta Iraanis kigu kohta ja kolmandat korda le ksimist'' Kas sa testi tahad ikka Sriasse minna'' li piirivalvur templi passi hdes tagantjrgi ''Eks sa ise tead''. Kuna viisa ankeedile mul kllakutsujahotellibroneeringu kohale midagi kirjutada ei olnud siis nneks kell kolm sel unise peaga ei pannud ta thele et olin http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-201836.html The kids and I took a trip down memory lane for me at any rate. We saw where I used to liveschoolswimeat.... It was a short 5 day trip but the first of many Im sure. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-173422.html I get my first taste of Beirut at the airport in Amman where a young Lebanese knockout is causing a commotion around Gate 6. Shersquos immaculately dressed in designer jeans and kneehigh boots and a massive Louis Vuitton bag that shows a very creative interpretation of the word ldquocarryon.rdquo The airport employees are more or less queuing up to get a better look with one guy in par http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162194.html Irsquom sitting outside a Starbucks in Achrafiyeh when a group of men with walkie talkies flood the street. Theyrsquore wearing leather jackets and cheap sunglasses and toting around big cardboard boxes that are straining at the bottom. Theyrsquove unfurled a few flags around the square bright white banners with a single green cedar in the middle and tied them to the trees and telephone http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162193.html Irsquom getting used to my morning coffees in the Gemayzeh Caf with the sunlight pouring through its walllength windows and Gourard Street slowly coming to life outside. Therersquos a long oak bar against the back wall and mustardcolored walls that somehow give an air of reassurance. Old men sit with their Turkish coffees playing backgammon and arguing in quick mirthful Arabic. A woman http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162192.html The first guy who stops me stern and mustachioed and as grave as a surgeon generalrsquos warning asks me point blank ldquoWhy are you hererdquo I take a second to reflect. Irsquom standing in the middle of the ragged tent city that Hizbollah first began to occupy in Beirut four months ago. A crowd of men curious and crossarmed and sporting pious little beards has started to gathe http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162190.html On the road to Tripoli our bus has slowed to an agonizing crawl. Along with the usual snarlups yoursquod normally find leaving the capital itrsquos been an added bonus of last summerrsquos Israeli campaign that Lebanon seems to be stuck in a perpetual traffic jam. The countryrsquos roads are still pockmarked from a month of pummeling by IDF bombs while bridges are being hastily rebuilt http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162189.html On my way out of Tripoli I load up on sweets the cityrsquos signature vice picking up a few kilosrsquo worth for friends then packing a dense plate of haliwat aljebneh a cheesebased gutbuster into my belly. In the increasingly desperate Battle of the Bulge Irsquove been fighting with my waistline this round grudgingly ends in sweet mouthwatering defeat. Back in Beirut though http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162188.html Before heading north I catch up with Eliana a CouchSurfer I crossed paths with in Cairo two months ago. Shersquos just gotten back from a week in Paris and Rome eager to show off pics of her shapely body in front of the Coliseum or wrapped in the arms of a tall muscular Italian named Mikhail. She invites me to a friendrsquos house in Achrafiyeh an elegant pad decked out with abstract scu http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162187.html In Tyre I meet a young American a traveler who shanghais me at a local restaurant where Irsquom enjoying a plate of hummus. He sits down and pulls his wild orange hair into a ponytail and orders an espresso that he drinks with nervous freckled hands. Wersquore sitting in the shade out front the minibuses coughing out exhaust and dozens of young boys puttering by on scooters. He just arriv http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162172.html To negotiate the checkpoints around the south Irsquove taken a trip to Sidon an hourrsquos drive to the north of Tyre to get permission at the cityrsquos army base. Itrsquos one of the few places on earth I suspect where soldiers can brazenly kiss on the street puckering up to their commanding officers and planting dozens of wet ones on each otherrsquos cheeks. I spend a pondero http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162170.html They say that to know Lebanon you have to know the south but they should add that to know the south your best bet is to hitch a ride on the back of a UN convoy. Even in the best of times southern Lebanon is as fraught with peril as a Jerry Bruckheimer flick. Hizbollahrsquos staunchest support is in the southrsquos tiny villages while the areas that surround the border on all sides Sheba http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162167.html Therersquos a small fracas at the entrance to the auditorium where British journalist Robert Fisk is preparing to give a trenchant lecture ldquoAfter the Collapse Disengagement in the Middle Eastrdquo on Western policy in the region. A broadshouldered woman with silvering hair has pushed her way inside using her massive tote bag as a battering ram. Security a meek old guy with panic http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162166.html A few days after their disappearance this week the two Sunni youths are found dead on the side of the road near Sidon. There are nervous nights in Beirut. In my hotel lounge the ownerrsquos watching the news with his nargileh pipe planted between his lips the smoke piping from the corner of his mouth and a grave look on his flushed features. ldquoChoufrdquo he says gesturing to the scr http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/blog-162165.html