Palm Beach Hotel Beirut

... t because we had near miss after near miss on the way into Damascus. Then again, we never collided so maybe the beads do work. Thank you Allah for delivering me safely to Syria!!<br><br>The van service's office was the last stop in Damascus and the driver told me in limited English one of their cars could bring me to where I was staying. Dubiously I asked how much and he told me we would find out. The front door was locked with the clerk taking a nap behind ...

... of the story is that the guy let me drive the bus woooop!! And I got away quite safely.. Yesterday, I went to Baalbeck, where I had another interesting encounter with men, and again, shimmied out of there quite safely, but breathing a sigh of relief for my self defence classes back in the day. There was close to being a baalbeckian boy out there with swollen crown jewels and bruises elsewhere, I can tell you! After a cup of coffee with him, we went to visit his friends who had ...

... Penn à propos d'Entre les murs, que je suis allé voir juste avant le départ ; le distributeur avait jugé bon de flanquer l'affiche du film de la citation, parce que dans le fond ne pas être comme les autres c'est être super. Extraordinaire, donc, dont le sens a été parfaitement dévoyé par l'usage commun, est l'adjectif le ...

... quite the experience. One that I will never forget. After Suzuki bought his nargillas, we took a city bus back to our hostel. After a short rest, I went to a bar called Treesome (not Threesome) with Kevin (Ireland), Charles (Holland), Kimo (Germany) and JJ (USA). I liked the bar. It was a bit trendy which was fine as it has been a while since I've entered a trendy place. I don't really have trendy clothes but that's ok. The one thing you notice about Beirut is that everyone has a ...

On Friday I decided to walk around Beirut since I didn't have the time to go anywhere outside of the city, as we had gotten back to Beirut at around 12 from Khiam. I checked out the American University of Beirut where everybody's father in Jordan went to school at (everybody, as in the wealthy who I primarily hang out with) and many of their own kids did as well. The campus is absolutely gorgeous and I could definitely see myself there. I ...

... French is the language of the nice restaurant on the corner and some of the halls of power. English is the language of business and some kinds of urban hipness, etc.] Moreover, hamburgers are ubiquitous, and you can pay for them in dollars. And, unlike in Morocco and Spain, they don't come with ****in fried eggs in them. Civilization. Young women dress totally Western (and fancy), and head scarves are rare. Of course, we spent a ...

... areas. It was utter destruction, mostly civilian destruction, the likes of which cannot be expressed through a TV screen, and it only reinforced my view of how egregiously disproportionate the Israeli bombing campaign was, and I felt angered and embarrassed as a Briton to think that Tony Blair had refused to condemn the attacks. And now he's the new Middle East Quartet envoy - it would be laughable if it wasn't so insulting. Whoops, getting all political for a moment ...

... 6-series BMW's and top of the range Range rovers, sit next to empty, bullet pitted, bombed out shells of an otherwise identical building. Mortar damaged or palaeshial there was no middle ground. I also got the feeling that the Beiruti want to be European, the rich and well to do chat in French as they walk there dogs (yes dogs in the middle east!) on the promenade, their money looks suspiciously like Euros (most other countries ...

... sushi extravaganza, one of the best we'd ever had. Our host had apparently picked up on our incessant barrage of questions, so this time he invited two additional friends to help shoulder the burden. Samaa and Tallal, a recently engaged couple who also lived in Beirut, were kind enough to offer their views on a host of topics from marriage and dating to religion and politics as we all stuffed ourselves with sushi, maki rolls and impeccably fresh sashimi. Again, the food was ...

... as the Temple of Jupiter, in fact it was known as the 'small temple' in antiquity when its actually larger than the Panthenon in Athens!! You enter the temple up a flight of thirty steps and three landings. Columns support huge friezes decorated with lions and bulls. The ceiling is of curved stone, decorated with scenes of Mars Diana, Vulcan, Bacchus..... it was just incredible to wander around such a magnificent and ancient building, so much of which is still standing, having ...