Bonjour Liban

If a picture is worth a thousand words, surely being there is worth a million words. The last few days of my off days was occupied with a trip to Lebanon, Beirut being the main destination and other places along the way, Byblos, Bekaa Valley, etc. Despite all the security concerns and political bullshit and what nots running everyday in the news now, me and Charles were pretty sure that everything was ok.

(Beautiful snow capped mountains and the first big sign of civilization!)

So with the million dollar assumption made, we packed our backpacks and duly hopped onto the service taxi that took us across the Syrian-Lebanese border through snow capped mountains for the 3 hours journey to Beirut. Our first stop for what would be an unbelievably nice trip.

The first moment we crossed the border onto the Lebanese immigration office, we were truly caught by surprise by how the world on the other side of the fence was different to the many middle east countries i have been to. The immigration officers were so friendly and throughout the 4 days in Lebanon, the hospitility that was bestowed upon us by all walks of people that we came across made us feel like we were not in a middle east country with war threats looming at the window sills.

Although the streets in Beirut were littered with police and army personnels every 50 metres armed with tanks and M-16's, i think the main job of those guys were mainly to become guide to lost tourists or being a mobile sophisticated interactive map and city guide. Every one of them that we chanced upon never failed to give a smile and greet us in either English, Arabic or French.

Beirut is also well known in this part of the world as the Paris of the middle east and walking through the streets of the city truly verified the claim. Suffering from civil war that hit the country till the 90s, the city was left with a bunch of Ottoman era buildings that were badly damaged leaving behind structures with only supports and holes in walls. Since then, the city have been rebuilt to something that you would have to see with your own eyes to believe.

(What was the Holiday Inn hotel that was left as it is after the war. It was never rebuilt unlike the adjacent buildings and now is one of the landmarks in the city centre)

Although there is no war, we were trying hard at attempting suicide with the amount of McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks and what nots we were indulging in for the 4 days. Mind you, we were deprived from all these life necessities in Syria for the past almost 1 year :p

(You can only imagine my jubilation!!!)

Shopping was the main agenda when we were there considering the sale that was on and the lack of avenue to spend our hard earned money in Syria. Every new day was a new quest to another shopping centre to find the things we need and conquering virgins...ermm..Virgin Megastores i mean.

(Hard Rock Cafe: Spreading early Christmas news)

Of course i also visited some other places, when the shopping centres are not open. Nothing much to shout about, a few small towns here and there, one being Byblos, one of the oldest continuously inhabited town in civilization. Also had the chance to visit and tour a winery in one of the mountain areas. Chicks serving free wines, gotta love 'em!

(No, they don't sell them wines by the barrels..)

I may seem full of praises for a country others would probably view as a shithole and would pretty much avoid at all costs, but well, the main reason i enjoyed the trip so much was probably because we went there expecting so little but then actually got so much in return. Certainly was not what I expected for a country in the middle east where terrorists are said to breed like mosquitoes.

One sure thing is that this is a country where i have seen the most number of Porsche's in a day and where 6 cars out of 10 on the road are BMW's. If the world thinks that Lebanon is run by screwed up people who just wants to go to war in the name of religion, i surely hope that one day they will stop by in Malaysia and tweak things up a lil bit! I would surely love to have one of them nice cars in my garage!