Le Vendome Intercontinental Beirut

... one at the queues. All in all that price really isn't too bad for late at night and especially in a new place.<br><br>A $40 ride with one of those gypsy cabs was my first offer and I told him no way. That absolutely offended my wallet. He insisted that is a fair price and I asked him why it only cost me $8 a week ago (Great trick to use by the way). He said the dollar has fallen in value (it can be used here) and that is why $40 this week. I was ready to ...

... surprised me in some new and fantastic way. I knew I would enjoy my time here that first day at the Corniche, but I did not expect I would love my time there as much as I did. I would recommend to anyone that they should visit Lebanon to see for themselves how unpredictable the Middle East can be. And yet, our State Department still recommends against all &#8220;non-essential&#8221; travel to the country, a remnant of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. Now I don&#8217;t want ...

... and definately my highlight of Lebanon. Lebanon is a country thats had its fair share of ***** over the years, it became its own country in the 40's and since the 70's has been involved in civil war after civil war, that coupled with hostilities towards its neighbour Syria and the regular invasion of Israel from the south the poor ****ers havnt had a great few years. It ued to have a considerable christian population which were the governing power for the majority of ...

... was the former president of Pakistan - (Musharaf). I think the others were Lebanese celebrities. We then went to a fortress called Chateau Beaufort. Again, I wasn't that excited about the sight. The day did start to get interesting once we arrived in a town called Fateem. This town bordered Israel. Kimo and I went to some view point and could see Israeli town in the short distance. Of course there was a fence wrapped with barbd wire that separated the two ...

... see the "Casino de Liban" so I let her know. She texted back to say that I would be in Tripoli in under 40 minutes. It was the most beautiful thing that I had seen all day. We drove on, I texted Rawda when I saw signs that said how far I was from Tripoli. At about the half hour mark, the elderly lady motioned to my phone, so I called Rawda again and put the elderly lady on the phone. They apparantly organised a meeting point. We drove into a city (I only know this since street ...

... by the stunning lack of efficiency, or even common sense, at the Syrian border. Even though there was no line up it still took us over an hour and somehow involved three different immigration officials, a so-called "banker" who was really just an overweight guy with a desk and a safe who changed our dollars into Syrian pounds (the Syrian money already in my hand wouldn't work for some reason), shorted us about $1 (limited change at the bank I guess) and finally gave us a receipt we ...

... war, is a good example. It is superficially very elegant with its impeccable faux-Parisian architecture, yet it's so obviously fake that it feels somehow unattractive. And upon these perfectly-kept streets are opulent shops and designer brands, yet the chic customers share the faux-cobbled streets with uniformed soldiers brandishing M-16s. And in the semi-distance, one can see the original Parisian-style buildings which still bear the scars of the civil war. Yet, for ...

... wrong. I just don't like guns. The guns on cops in the US even make me squeamish. We joke about going to the boarders and tossing a stone across or wearing Hezbollah shirts, but Maher made me take a reality check when I wanted to go buy paintbrushes yesterday. I was all set to walk down the street, but he would not let me and insisted on driving me the two blocks. A female American tourist could be kidnapped he said. Duh. I have ...

... with it. We took a day trip to Byblos, about an hour up the coast from Beirut. It has been occupied since the 5th millennium BC (that's millennium not century!) variously by everyone from people just grasping the concepts of cultivation and social organisation and convention, through Phoenicians, Amorites and Egyptians to 11th century crusaders (who, having grasped social convention, were intent on narrowing its definition). It's most recent occupants have been ...

... with a different group of friends on Sunday! This time though, there was a beach party, meaning the bar on the beach (there are several different bars at this place: one by the VIP pool, one by the "normal" pools, and a big one right on the beach) had some DJ's playing hip-hop, R&B and dance music. This meant that many of the botoxed, the tummy-tucked, the nose-jobbed, the worked-out, and the boob-jobbed were dancing on the bar and/or on the tables, doing bodyshots ...