Searock Hotel Beirut

On a rainy morning HelMan and Herman left Damascus to go to Beirut, Lebanon. The weather wasn't supposed to change much during the 4 days in the country... rain, rain and even more rain. Manuel was amazingly happy about his rain paints and put them on at every possible occasion.

Lebanon- what a weird country. We didn't quite understand the place.... it's really the country of contrasts. You have Muslims and Christians living there (who ...

... resonate deeply in a country still recovering from its horrific and fractious civil war.



This brings us to our next myth: Lebanon is a war-torn country. There are certainly parts of Lebanon that still resemble a war zone. While driving to a winery in the Bekaa Valley, a base for Hezbollah influence, we had to take a detour around a bridge destroyed by Israeli warplanes in 2006. That same week a child was maimed by a previously un-detonated Israeli cluster bomb. During ...

... was good but that was it for me.    Back in the van and off to Harissa we went!  What's to see here?  The huge white statue of Our Lady of Lebanon.  To get there, we needed to take a 9 minute cable car ride up over the city and then a funicular after that.  It was pretty cool but then I like those kind of rides.  Once we got to the very top, you are in awe of this large white statue with her arms opened wide.  She has been ...

... We were 4 open minded guys so we listened. He was actually a very interesting guy and it was obvious that he was highly intelligent. We ended up having 2 separate conversations with the guy that lasted about 30-45 minutes each. All of us were engaged in the conversation but none of us really agreed with some of the major points he the man was trying to "teach" us. He did give us a tip though. He said Armageddon was fast approaching. He predicted that we ...

... open, and before we really knew what we were doing, we had walked through, down some steps and found ourselves stood, awkwardly, in the middle of St. George's Sailing Club. Despite the large number of barmen, waiters, pool attendants and other staff all milling around, we had seemingly slipped in the back door completely unnoticed. Doing our best to play it cool we changed into our costumes, strode over to two empty sun loungers and ordered two martinis, shaken not stirred. Okay I ...

... couple. Since the boot wouldn't close, some kids produced a blue rope and the boot was tied so the luggage didn't fall out. My backpack went into the back with me and the older lady and we were in a vehicle at least. We started the drive out of the airport and followed a few other cars past mounds of smoking ash and piles of dirt. We came up to the end of the airport road and it was completely blocked by a 1.5 metre blockade of stuff. The driver U-turned and went back to the ...

... a similar jump. "Not this time", I promised myself. I was intent on jumping first, as I knew I'd talk myself out of it otherwise. It was all going fine and I was ready to jump when, all of a sudden our white bodies had drawn a big crowd of locals. I decided I'd wait for the local mob to leave before jumping, but Orphee and Nancy both jumped in the mean time. Upon his return, Orphee exclaimed "Ahh Jesus. I swear, I think my ass is bleeding. Look, is it bleeding?". And then ...

... that looks like a purse - kaak - and you tear off the hard top part and use it to spread cheese on the main part, which you've opened up, then sprinkle zataar - the yummy spices - on top and eat. I love zataar. I forgot to say that for lunch on Thursday we had laham bajine (or something to that effect), a meat roll-up sort of thing. Also very good. You sprinkle lemon and a paprika sort of thing on it. We tried liquid yogurt and it ...

... white crossed wood and barbed wire barricades. Young, young men in mountain camouflage fatigues and cherry red berets man the barriers, so habituated to their automatic weapons that they use them for shoulder stretches and bicep curls. In deference to the prevailing peace the APCs on the street corners still have the covers on their turret guns. Downtown is being, via assistance from massive international debt write-off, completely restored (actually they're trying ...

... top of one of downtown Beirut's fairly exclusive hotels, the club is an ultra modern, open-roofed club where the rich, richer, and richest go to be seen. We pulled up to the valet parking just behind a shiny new Ferarri and in front of several Porches and Range Rovers. Once we made it up to the terrace, it was a visual buffet of beautiful people who know they're beautiful. The place even has a private pool and hottub on the 2nd level of the rooftop terrace that can be ...