Crowne Plaza Beirut

... came and went and I asked how much longer. He again said "ten minutes" and I started to walk away. Keep in mind the plane was only in the air 20 minutes and finding a ride was taking longer than crossing over to the Middle East. He immediately jumped on his cell phone and started yelling at someone I presume to be the driver. At 11:20pm waiting around just isn't what I have in mind so I made my way to the taxi stand.

After negotiating with 8 ...

... from the world’s largest Roman hippodrome to the world’s only complete Jupiter temple at the awe-inspiring ruins of Balbek, from the lavish Ottomon palace of Beiteddine to the sturdy Crusader castles that dot the entire country, Lebanon has no shortage of world-class tourist sites. And yet, everywhere I went I was nearly alone - alone in sights worthy of crowds to match the Pyramids or the Acropolis. But the crowds will come soon enough - and you should be among them.

... everywhere. Pretty scary really. Anyway, i saw none of that lot and the Beirut i saw was a city thats coming into its own, with a massive rejuvination of the centre and a stunning seafront its easy to see why its labled the paris of the middle east. Lebanon as a country is not what people would think, i get the image of arid, desolate lands with gun wielding arabs looking to cause trouble but that it is not. Its an increadibly mountainous country with great skiing if your into ...

... have driven by dozens of them. I never felt afraid though. There was no reason to be. The town was quite dead to tell you the truth. I hardly saw any people. We did stop at a small restaurant and had a few falafels. The locals there were really nice and asked some questions about us. I am not sure if they were Hezbollah supporters or not. I didn't dare to ask. While we drove around some of the small towns by the border, we did see 3 UN tanks. I thought that was ...

... it back to me. Rawda said that he had agreed to take me to Tripoli for $100 US. In the mean time, the driver had gone up to my army guy and was gesturing wildly and speaking in animated Arabic. He then opened my door and motioned me out saying "can't do, can't do, get out". I got my stuff together as quickly as I could and scrambled out of the back of the taxi. I called Rawda again and told her that the taxi driver wouldn't do it. I found the army guy again, who this time was ...

I have just returned from a fun-filled weekend in Beirut and, wow, was it worth the wait! Personal finances, lack of travel companions, political assassinations and the odd war had conspired to delay or cancel previous attempts to go there, but this time it all finally came good. Accompanying me on the trip were my good friends Orphee, Nancy and Lindsay, and also Orphee's housemate Duure. Having hired a taxi to take us, the three hour (ish) journey from Damascus to Beirut ...

... a black Ixthus inside the pink fish, which made it look a lot less like a breast cancer awareness ribbon! We had originally hoped to put fabric in the ping pong room and that turned into painting one wall. Also wanted to put some borders and curtains in the front room and sponge and sky in the main room and maybe some other verses, but we did not have time. Another day and more people and it would have happened, but that's ok. Now we ...

... replicate it, but, as not much of the original buildings remain, it's all a bit hard edged and clean). Amid the cacophony of jack hammers and constantly horn riding traffic you can wander wide boulevards lined with fine restaurants and exclusive boutiques. Everything is so crisp and new it feels more like Disneyland than the exotic oriental blending the cruise liners used to call in for. Talk to a Lebanese and they want to talk about jobs, politics and cuisine but ...

... just standing there so that people could look at them. It was quite funny actually. Monday was a day off for Canada Day since we all had to work and attend the reception on Friday. I went up to a friend's house in Broumanna with the people I was at the beach with on Sunday. Broumanna is a village in the mountains beside Beirut, about 700m above sea level - high above the heat and pollution of the big city. The view from the terrace was beautiful and I could see the ...