Such a little country


Beirut :: Lebanon

What's good about Lebanon.

Places: Beirut, Baalbek, Sidon, Tyre & Tripolli.

Coolest thing I did: Saw the best Roman ruins ever at Baalbek. Better than Rome.

Coolest thing I didn´t know: The Phonecians used to bury statues of their babies when they belived the gods had healed them. The Museum here has loads of marble statues of little fellas.

Lebanon is an interesting place. Thanks to the massive amount of bombing that went on during the civil war and Israeli incursions of the 70s and 80s, much of the city of Beirut has been rebuilt over the last decade. This gives the place a very glitzy feel, even if most of the people here live below the poverty line. There is a definite dual ecconomy here, with young, well-to-do things spending up big in the boutiques whilst even a 10 min walk into the suburbs will yeild people with dirt dreadlocked beards living in bombed out shells of buildings. It gives some interesting cultural clashes. I spend a whole day buming about in cafes near the university here and I found most of the young arabs speak English to each other in a think American accent whilst watching Egyptian pop music on MTV. There are groups of girls wearning about 10kg of gold each, sunglasses inside whilst smoking apple tobacco through waterpipes. I was told by a Lebanese Canadian staying in our hostel that it's just not seen as cool to be too arabic.

Like most of the Middle East, the things to do are see old ruins and learn things about the people of the country tou are in. I'll start with the ruins.

Baalbek has the best Roman ruins I've seen ever. And I've been to Rome. The site itself is made even more impresive by the fact the foundation of the temple is shrouded in mystery. There are huge stones that form the base of the temples that people can't agree on the origin of. Some people say Babylonians, other Assyrians. Some say little green men. Anyway, they were ancient before the Greeks or Romans took over Phoneica (the old name of the lands that make up Lebanon). None the less, the temple of Baccus there has survived wars, floods and earthquakes to remain mostly intact. Before the whole PR debacle of the first world war, the Kaiser of Germany paid for it to be excavated and there is a plaque commemorating his visit in 1898. It was taken down by the French after WW1, bought by a hotel owner who kept it in his lobby until the 70s and finaly rehung in the temple after the civil war when the Krauts gave the Lebs more money for restorations. The Germans really are paying alot for the bad press all those world wars gave them.

Tyre and Sidon are in the bible. There are ruins there, but they aren't very impresive. However, Tyre has one of the biggest remaining Palestinean refugee camps in Lebanon. That was an eye opener. Guarded by Syrian troops, the place is a shanty town surrounded by barbed wire and anti tank traps. For the first time in either Syria or Lebanon I felt a bit threatened. These people have had a bad run of things over the last 50 years and they aren't too keen on Westerners wandering about looking for ruins. While I can understand their frustrations with the world, it dosen't make me feel anymore comfortable when people start yelling at me for no apparent reason. At least the Syrians had all the guns, so nothing too bad could happen.

I have made myself a promise not to write anything about Israeli-Palestinean politics here. It's too complex and I'm no expert. It's one thing to give opinions with impunity about the politics of the Byzantine Empire, people are not likely to contradict you. However, everyone here knows way more about modern Middle Eastern politics than I do and aren't afraid to express it. I'm a bit sick of hearing about baby eating Israelis and their conspiracy to take over the world.

I was shocked to see soldiers on nearly every street corner armed to the teeth with assult rifles. I was even more shocked to find out most of them are Syrian. Since the Lebanese government asked for Syrian help during their civil war Lebanon has become a vassal state of their cousins over the border. It's never a healthy sign when there are UN staff and foreign military personel walking the streets of your country. In the near future, the Lebs will have to do something to regain their country.

So, the nightlife. Beirut is one of the only places in the Middle East with a nightlife and they know it. I restricted myself to one night out on the town and I think I'm going to have to award myself the "take a long hard look at yourself" award this morning. Beers cost 5 (british) pounds and spirits are 10, so it was all fancy stuff last night. I haven't been at my peak since I've lost alot of weight and have barely drunk since Budapest, but last night I was a shell. Add to this the fact the bartender was very generous with his servings and I made a bit of a dick of myself. I don't have real solid memories but I do recal running out of the bar screaming without paying my bill. I also left a snail trail of vomit pretty much up to my bed in the hostel and managed to wake the whole building trying to get into an unlocked door. Clap clap. It won't be the last time I say this, but I'm getting too old for this shit. Not so much because of the fact I can no longer hold my alcohol, but because I care when I make a fool of myself. I can no longer build up my self respect only to have it dashed on the rocks of wastedness repeateldy like I used to.

This may also explain the crimes against spelling, grammar and the truth in this entry. I can't be arsed editing this morning. Right, I'm off to crawl into a corner and shake for a while.

Little bits of Damascus


Beirut :: Lebanon

My best day was my last one. Also, the severe differences on crossing into Lebanon.

Places: Damascus & Beirut.

Coolest thing I did: Watched an old bloke tell stories in Arabic whilst drinking tea and smoking the narghila.

Coolest thing I didn´t know: "If you don't have a girlfriend, you can use prostitutes. They are very pretty but expensive." - Direct quote from a tips book written by travelers visiting a guesthouse in Damascus.

My last day in Damascus turned out to be one of the best ones in all of Syria. I was pretty much over the place and decided to start my last day with a sleep in. This was a good idea, as it allowed my ever ill guts to settle. I then had a light breakfast and negotiated a haircut and shave with the bloke at the end of the street my hotel was on.

The old bloke must have been about 70, with no teeth showing and dentures that were missing about half the replacements. He used hand clippers with his partial arthritis to give me my second haircut of the journey, the first being in Morocco 6 months ago. The #2 all over finished, he then began with what was a very shaky hand on a cut throat razor shave, which worried me a bit. However, he managed the whole thing without cutting me once and was overjoyed when another regular customer of this came in and could translate for him. He managed to get some basic information out of me and was instantly my best mate. Everytime I walked past from then on there would be that toothless grin, and invite for tea or at least a "Salam" (which means hello/welcome).

I did more tourism, seeing mosques, palaces and churches. I took my own pace and managed to meet a Shia from Iraq who tried his best to convince me that it was now safe to visit. He pointed out what they needed more than ever there was tourist money. I pointed out people are still getting shot for looking like westerners, especially with the US military style haircut I'd just got. The last thing I wanted to do was wander the streets of Baghdad looking like a US marine off duty. My bravery dosen't extend that far.

I spent the afternoon reading the paper at a cafe near the Omayyid Mosque, the key landmark of the old city. After a couple of teas I decided to do what the locals do and smoke a waterpipe of apple tobacco, the narghila made famous by Jabba the Hutt. Whilst sitting there I struck up a conversation with two 20 year old Syrian blokes who have just entered the I.T. industry and have wide eyed dreams of going to work with one of their older brothers in Las Vegas. With a vast knowledge of Western music (via mp3 downloads) and basketball I had one of the more close-to-normal conversations of my trip. They told me narghilas had only become trendy again recently, and used to be only for the old blokes. They also mentioned they liked to fill the thing with whiskey instead of water for added effect. Thought the translation was off, I think they also soak the tobacco in LSD as well sometimes. I don't trust that stuff, and as a result don't know the chemistry well enough, but I don't think that would work.

While we were sitting there, this old guy in a fez gets up on a special chair looking over the cafe and takes up a sword in one hand and a book in the other. The boys explained to me he tells stories of Arab history every night to great effect. While it was quite confusing (as it was all in Arabic), he likes to yell alot, bang his sword on a metal table to cheers from the crowd and often has them in stitches. I think he was making an example of me by pointed at me everytime he mentioned "infadels" (which made everyone laugh), but it was in no way anything but a bit of fun. I loved it.

One thing I liked about Syria is all the hotels and guesthouses catering to backpackers have bound exercise books where travelers can write tips to each other about everywhere between Istanbul and Cairo. They range from very useful to side splitingly funny to illegible to political. I tend to find anyone who picks a forum like that to tell their political views only picked them up 10 minuites ago. My favourite onesider was a tip telling people not to go to Israel and thus "...give money to Sharon (the butcher) to kill Palestinean babies." Anyone who has been following Middle Eastern politics for more than 10 mins knows Sharon's nickname is "The Bulldozer", not "The Butcher". Ametuers.

Here's a tip, if you go to Syria, you fill out a card of your personal details like in every country in the world. Keep this, don't throw it out like I did. While it only costs $US2 to replace at the border, it sends bus drivers into fits and they threaten to not let you on their bus because they think you will hold it up.

Another tip, everytime you are in a toilet that has paper in the Middle East, steal as much as you can carry. While I know this is probably why most don't have paper, you don't want to be the last one sitting with no paper when the music stops. It's a dog eat dog world.

Today, I got to Beirut. It's a stark contrast. You can get papers published today in English (instead of 5 days ago), the food places are more recongnisable and clean & people seem to have money. Seeing as they are coming out of a huge civil war and have been the victims of a proxy war waged between Israel and Syria for the last 2 decades, things feel better here. While that unstopable Syrian hospitality isn't as strong with the hip, urban Lebanese here, it feels a whole lot less repressed. While Assad the younger ni Syria has been far more liberal than his papa was, there's still a certain tension in the air. Despite the fact half of Beirut's buildings are still waiting to be rebuilt, and the cops look like soldiers, it feels so much safer.

The only place I can compare to Beirut is Sarajevo, and even then it's hard to make. There are loads of buildings still in a state of ruin here, but instead of faceless communist blocks like Bosnia, the buildings here are shells of beautiful French-Arabic townhouses and shops. The eyesocket windows are all covered by twisted wrought iron balconies. In some cases, shops have opened up on the ground floor even if the next 4 are a hollow shell. Trendy cafes have been built next to bullet pocked shells. Seeing as Beirut itself stopped being involved directly in the wars in the 80s, it's taken a long time to rebuild, but it's getting there. It's nice to see alot of restorations rather than ultra modern concrete things. It will help avoid another Skopje (my absolute least favorite capital in the world).

Alot for such a small gap, but I had a very good last couple of days. I didn't want to get them lost in stories of weak bowels. Things are most wonderful.