Suite Beirut

... The cliche that Beirut is the 'Paris of the East' is no understatement, nor is the saying that it is the 'Pearl of the Arab world'. To me the city encompasses East and West in such a way that it is a truly fascinating place to visit.<br><br>We were fortunate to experience the old world charm first hand during our stay with Mr Jamil Azar, in the beautiful district of Achrafiye. We found Jamil's house through an organization called L'Hote Lebanais, which offers unique ...

... Once the oil change was done it was pretty late, so we decided to grab a bite to eat since the caves closed (we&#8217;ll do them tomorrow). So we decided to do some ethnic food and went to . . . Pizza Hut! Hahaha, seriously, it was all Halal meat too! I have a meat lovers thin crust pizza and Ahmed and Chuck split a Supreme pizza. Before leaving we asked the guys working there where to go tonight and so we have some good ideas for tonight. After we left Pizza Hut we went to a place ...

... seeing for a while. It gets tiring getting up every morning and running around a city and seeing everything it has to offer. Sometimes you just want to feel like you are living in a city and not visiting it. This is what I want out of Beirut. The weather was perfect. In between dunks in the pool, I would tell Jacquie and her smoking cousin Nadine about my trip. In return, they would tell me about Lebanon - more specifically about the dating ...

... had already kind of seen views like Bait Mary and didn't have time for both. However, no signage and no map didn't help us find our way to the Grotto plus we didn't have time to waste trying to find it since it closed early. Therefore we decided to turn back and go to Bait Mary by cable car. The cable car was cool because we got to see the entire city and its northern suburbs. Beirut is definitely a stunning city with its mountain range and ...

... helping me find a cheap ride to Damascus) at around 12:30. [Note to travelers: The first time I went to the Syrian border I only had to wait around 2 hours, this time it took 4. Syria has to fax all American passports to headquarters to be checked (no other nationality has to deal with this; except Israelis who aren't even let in) and then they give the border guards a decision on whether to let the American in or not. I know two guy friends who got denied ...

November 28, 2007 Beirut, Lebanon November 28, 2007 We've actually been in Beirut for a while but we want those little pins on our map to be neat so we're putting the Beirut part in here. From Beirut we are making day trips to archeological sites of Byblos and Baalbek. Beirut is one of the nicest cities we've been in since Istanbul. It is very modern and sophisticated. The people here are friendlier and seem to smile more than the people in Syria. And that is ...

... technique worked like a charm except for the fact that i was only able to get a visa for 48 hours. I tried to negotiate some extra days, but the guy was a bit like the soup nazi and stated firmly "You have 48 hours!!!". I did not pursue the matter further and said to myself that i'll make the best of the next 2 days. Once the bus entered Lebanon, I thought it would be wise to start ...

... luggage tag, dented game tin inside, and for all that trouble the stuff inside didn't look like a whole lot. Back through customs to get my bag checked, through the doors to a waiting throng of people (much different from the quiet Saturday night when we'd arrived!) and a guard comes running up behind me to snatch the clearance form out of my hand. That was a little scary. I thought he was trying to check my passport again or something. What an ordeal. We stopped in a ...

... barrels used to age the red wines of Ksara are stored in an elaborate set of caves and tunnels deep beneath the earth. In all seasons these somewhat natural caves (apparently Lebanese that were hiding from the Turks in WWI expanded the caves a bit during their 4 year underground tenure) maintain the same temperature and humidity, making them an ideal storage site for vino. Next up and last on the tour was Anjar, a Byzantine city that was later occupied by the Muslims as a ...

... and eventually discover 3 men huddled around a TV. Luckily one of them speaks english and they explain that the other side of the group which were demonstrating at the start of my trip are now in town. IE - Hezbollah, the guys who took Terry Waite, terrorists basically. They're pro Syria and basically out to cause trouble and so everyone has battered down the hatches for the day. I'm told 'don't go to Martyrs square' as that is where the 1000s of terrorist group members and ...