Lovely, lovely water!

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We've had another quite chilled out, not-very active day today in Beirut. We've been around most of the sight in the city I think, and been shown around mosques by Muslim friends who could really explain what things meant and how people use them day-to-day. We're getting to know the city now, when to pop out for Zaatar (thyme) or Jebneh (cheese) Manooshit (sandwiches, if you say it quickly it doesn't sound so bad!), where to go to refill the mineral water, which roads to walk down to grab a taxi easily, which roads to NOT walk down to avoid being beeped at by every other car driving past which will inevitably be a taxi trying to pick you up. We're adept at crossing roads now, we even sometimes manage the local nonchalance of strolling across 3/4 lanes of traffic without breaking stride or waiting for a gap in the traffic. I'm pretty satisfied that we could find our way home from most places in the city without too much trouble too, without having to resort to a taxi. Having said that, they are so cheep here! When you get in any taxi you can ask for 'service' which will cost just 2,000 LL (less than 1 pound) each, set rate (unless you're going a very long way). You may have to share with other people if the driver picks up someone else going the same way, but that's not happened to us yet. You can pay 10,000LL if you want the whole cab to yourself.

We've also finally got running water at the flat now! I don't think I mentioned this at all in the last blog, but when we arrived last weekend the flat we're staying in had had no running water for a week already - at that time they thought it was just an unusually long break in the supply (water stops for a couple of days occasionally here if the reservoirs get low) but it soon turned out that the pump for the flat had stopped working. After getting it replaced, we had a very poor supply for an entire evening before it stopped again, except for an occaisional trickle out of one tap if you left it for a few hours. So we've had no showers, no washing up water, not even water to flush toilets with, all week except when we buy lots of mineral water from the shop (which is common use for drinking water anyway so big bottles are pretty cheap)! After the pump was replaced and 'fixed' by some cowboy cousin of the landlord, the boiler blew up, then a lightswitch blew up when I turned it on, and the electricity for the whole flat has gone out several times besides. I thought French wiring was bad, but when you have an open plug socket in the wall directly beneath a shower nozzle I suppose you should expect these kinds of things... Still, we've had a good electrician and plumber in today who have fixed everything except the washing machine - we finally have water gushing out of the taps and the second bathroom works for the first time in a month!

Of course, 10 minutes after the plumber finished, the electricity went off as it does every day for 3 hours across the city (a different 3 hours every day) so the boiler's not been on to heat any water yet for a hot shower yet. We are all very excited at the prospect of having warm showers this evening though after it comes on again at 6! The internet cafe and many shops have prviate generators that they run off during that 3 hours a day, in case you were wondering how I can be blogging in a city-wide blackout.

I'm told that in the South, where most towns are governed by Hezbollah rather than the state (who control Beirut) that water never stops. The state only provide around 7+ hours of electricity a day there though (there is only one power station for the whole country, that cannot provide enough power for everyone 24/7 so it is rationed), rather than 21 here, but Hezbollah (which essentially opperate as a welfare-state) provide an additional 10+ hours to all the residents so it works out quite similar by the sounds of it. One of our friends here comes from a village in the South, and Fouad has a work-permit for the region, so next weekend they are going to help Dee and I get permits to visit the region for a few days and they will show us around. Without the permits, we would only be allowed to stay in the two main towns, Saida and Sour, so this way we can see some of the more interesting ruins in the area, and drive through the beautiful countryside and visit our friend's village.

We've also been out in the bars a bit more. On Friday night we went to a little restaurant called the Kensington, which gave us a delicious 6 course meal for just $25 each! The chef didn't mind at all that I am vegetarian and Dee vegan. My favourite course was probably the root vegetables cooked in chocolate sauce. So we took our time over the meal and then went to another bar where we met more friends and it turned into another lock-in (they seem to be standard here, closing time just means when they stop letting new people in) so although we had intended to go to a club we decided to leave that till another night since we didn't even leave the bar till nearly 4am!

I'm really looking forward to going to Damascus (in Syria) tomorrow. Hopefully the border crossing won't give us any problem since we already have our visas, and it's an easy 3hours bus ride city-city. Everyone keeps telling us how much we'll enjoy it there, the Old City sounds fascinating and the nightlife as vibrant as Istanbul. We'll be there for just a few days this time and come back to Lebanon for the weekend trip to the South.

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Comments

[Penny]

Hello
Hi Andy I just love reading your blog - get a vicarious pleasure from seeing all these places I'll never see, through your eyes. There must be a book in it! Looking forward to the next one. Not sure about root vegetables cooked in chocolate sauce though.... Lv P X