1 | $ | = | 1,600 | L£ |
1 | DKR | = | 293 | L£ |
1,000 | L£ | = | 0.63 | $ |
1,000 | L£ | = | 3.42 | DKR |
Arrived in the afternoon. No bureaucratic problems. We had obtained a visa for the country in advance from the Lebanese Embassy in Sweden (phone +46 8 665 19 65).
The taxi drivers in the airport are a fine example of why you must always bargain and shop around in these countries: The guys just outside the arrivals terminal offered to drive us to the center for $22. We walked away from the first crowd of drivers and after shopping around for a couple of minutes we found a driver who took us downtown for $6 (always establish the price before entering the vehicle).
We soon realized that the Lebanese money and US dollars were equally viable as units of exchange; still it pays to exchange: the prices seem to be a bit higher whenever you ask to pay with dollars. Exchanging money was easy; there were small private exchange shops all over town. We didn't have much luck shopping around - The rates seemed the same everywhere. The exchange shops accepted travellers cheques ($2.50 commission). I don't know if the exchange shops or banks accepted Danish currency.
We tried to find one of the cheap hotels mentioned in the guide book (I forget the name and I don't have the book any more). This was far more difficult than we had expected. Apparently, the hotel simply wasn't there any more. The reason is probably that the building has been torn down in order to build something new. We were not the only ones to be confused: when we asked for directions people were very helpfull, but apparently they couldn't make out the way any more. In addition it is not possible to find any up-to-date maps of the city.
It was 6 pm and it was dark - many parts of the city don't have street lamps. There were lots of soldiers in the streets and even tanks on some street corners. Construction was going on everywhere, but still a lot of bombed buildings stood as monuments of the long, dirty war. All in all it was a pretty spooky experience walking around trying to find a non-existant hotel...
After two hours of walking in the Beirut maze we got to the port area in the eastern part of town. Here we found a bunch of low-cost hotels. The signs were in Arabic only. We agreed on a double in one of them [beirut1.jpg]. The room was pretty dirty and the beds didn't have sheets - the price was quite steep: $10 for a double. As you will see, we ended up not staying there at all; in fact, we never spend a night in a hotel in Beirut. So unfortunately I can't give any useful hotel recommendations. Prepare to spend quite a few dollars if you are going to stay in a hotel in Beirut - you will probably have to spent around $20+ a night for at decent double room.
My friend had been coughing a lot in Rome. Now it was pretty bad and in addition he had fever. We suspected a pneumonia so we decided to do something about it. After eating dinner at one of the (expensive) Pizza Huts in the city center, we walked down to the hospital at the American University of Beirut (AUB).
The AUB hospital was of a surprisingly high standard. The facilities are modern and the employees seem to be highly qualified. As there was nothing unusual in the X-ray and the blood tests were normal, Kasper was told to wait and see and to come back in two days or if the situation got worse. While Kasper was being examinated, I talked to some people in the waiting room. It's a small world: One of them, Ali, had a son and brother in Denmark. He was surprised and happy to meet Danish people and after talking for a couple of minutes, he invited us to stay at his place for as long as we wanted. Great! We arranged to meet Ali at his work the next day.
The doctor examining Kasper didn't have an reason to hospitalize him, however he wouldn't let us go back to the filthy hotel. Although this seemed a bit paranoid to us, we didn't refuse when he arranged for us to stay in a room belonging to one of his colleagues; the colleague was on duty and wouldn't be needing the room that night.
Quite confused after the eventful day, we fell asleep in some guy's room near the hospital.
October 9th.
The doctor from last night, Abdullah, woke us up in the morning. Kasper got an appointment with him for a follow-up consultation the next day. And the extremely friendly Abdullah offered to show us around the university on the same occasion.
We got our stuff at the hotel and drove to Ali's work, a small autoshop in the middle of town. Ali took us to his home in the western part of town. Ali had an apartment that he normally hired out, but at the moment it was empty - so we were given the key...
While Kasper was resting, I took a walk around town. At a beach west of the town I met a Syrian guy who was working as a painter in Beirut. He wasn't the only Syrian working in Lebanon. A large number of Syrians go to Lebanon to work. Although they are cheap labour to Lebanese companies, the wages are far above the normal Syrian wages.
Palestinians refugees constitute another low social classgroup. They are still not recognized as Lebanese citizens, rather as a somewhat troublesome group of refugees. This seems to be the case in other Middle East countries, as well: Of course people have sympathy with the Palestinians, but the sympathy seems to be out of the hatred towards the Palestinian's enemies, the Jews, rather than a genuine friendship.
The lowest social class, you don't see in the streets, they stay indoors all the time. They are the women from Sri Lanka that you can apparently 'buy' from agents around town. You can buy them for - say - five years for a small amount covering the agent's expenses ($1500 per 'slave'). For a symbolic wage they will clean your apartment and clothes and cook your food. We even met a guy who had a remote control in his living room; when he pushed the button the Sri Lanka woman brought us coffee... For the record: I also met people who treated their Sri Lanki workers very well.
I took the sidewalk along the coast to the AUB. On my way I saw cars that even rich people in the west could only dream of. I also met agressive beggars sitting on the sidewalks nursing their children.
People might think that Beirut is a dangerous place - and it is... but not because of guns or hostage seeking terrorists. No, Beirut is dangerous for a different reason: The traffic is simply a mess. Sometimes the roads are one big traffic jam. When there is less cars, people drive like crazy. The highways are in a bad condition at many places, however people still drive too fast and overtake in ways which you previously imagined could only happen in movies.
At the main entrance to AUB is at Bliss Street. I got a visitors pass and took a stroll around. AUB is like a refreshing oasis in the middle of the big construction ground called Beirut. This is where rich families from all over the Middle East send their youngsters. Competition for admittance is supposed to be fierce and the tuition is probably still the best you can get in the Middle East - although it seems questionable whether the university has been able to keep up the academic standard after so many years of war, after so many years of having been cut off from the rest of the world, after all the people that have fled because of the war? The prestigous institution causes a lot of envy: The great majority of people who don't have the money to go there will tell you that the AUB students are snobbish, which is probably true. We also heard that a large number of the AUB students have drug problems (probably a bit exaggerated).
The AUB is beautiful because of its nice buildings and nice parks. Apparantly it is also the spot where all the most beautiful girls of Lebanon gather.
The university has a great little archaeology museum. Entrance is free. There's also a post office, but $1 for sending a postcard to Europe is expensive and some of the postcards never showed up at their destination; try the central post office instead.
In the evening our host took us to an area north of Beirut called Jounieh (pronounced 'jounee'). There's restaurants, bars, striptease clubs, casinos etc. There's a cable car to even more restaurants and bars on the top of the mountain ridge next to the coast; if you are looking for a good bar, a place called Oliver's is supposed to have a really good atmosphere and nice prices.
On the way back to central Beirut we were stopped at three military road blocks. This is routine in Lebanon. Looking European, we did not have to show our passports. All the guns you see in Lebanon belong to the various army forces operating in the country: The police are heavily armed. There is the Lebanese army. There is the Syrian army which occupies the country all the way down to Saida (Sidon). Finally, 'militias' operate in the southern part of the country near the Israeli border.
All the military is a bit scary. But the people in Beirut are used to seeing guns, and it seems that most of them are content with the massive military presence. They don't see them as a threat but rather as police protecting them against criminals. This is not the complete story, though, most Lebanese people hate the Syrian occupation, but they dislike instability even more. And they hate the Israeli enemy enough to see Syria as a somewhat allied country. So they resentfully accept the Syrian occupation as unavoidable at the moment.
The soldiers won't bother you. Only, don't take pictures of them without asking; most requests are refused.
Different secret security forces are probably all over the place, but the Lebanese people don't seem to be very oppressed by this fact - contrary to Syria where people really have take care when talking politics.
October 10th.
Met with Abdullah in the morning. Kasper's coughing and fever was still not too good, so Abdullah decided to subscibe some antibiotics which turned out to work well. Abdullah took us to AUB again. We saw the department of biology where Abdullah had done some teaching after his pre-med.
In a shop, Kasper was surprised to meet a guy who spoke Danish (he had stayed in Denmark for a couple of years). He invited us to stay with him, but we refused as we had perfect accomodation already. Lebanese hospitality is extreme. It's probably because of different reasons. First of all the general Arab hospitality. Secondly, many Lebanese people have friends or family abroad, so they are eager to meet with people coming from 'outside'. Also, as mentioned before, the Lebanese people are not oppressed as in Syria - so they are not afraid to associate with foreigners. Finally, the Lebanese people are glad to see tourists: Tourists are a sign of things getting better again - signs that peace finally arrived (?).
Sometimes the Arab friendliness is difficult to deal with. For example, it's hard to accept when your host insists to pay for dinner - out of a wage which is often way below the minimum wage in your home country. It's hard to accept when people re-organize their entire house in order to make room for you to stay for the night. But accept it, enjoy it. It's rude not to enjoy friendliness. You might consider bringing souvenirs from your home country; this way you can always pay back with presents if you feel uncomfortable with all the kindness.
In the evening our host took us to a telephone shop because we wanted to make some calls to Denmark. The Lebanese phone system is a story of its own. The ordinary, cable based phones are very unreliable. Those who depend on telephones buy cellular phones - the Lebanese GSM cellular phone system is highly modern and reliable. But when you want to make international calls, you must go to a phone office. There's private phone offices all over the city and it pays to shop around; the fee for calling Denmark was $1.50 a minute; there didn't seem to be an evening discount. Collect calls or 'Denmark Direct' were not available. But maybe you will be able to find an office that will let you do the call-back trick mentioned in the November 5th text. We had no difficulties getting a connection to Denmark, although the conversations were complicated by a long delay - half a second of delay between each party really breaks a conversation apart.
We wound up the evening at a nice cofee/tea/hubble-bubble café on the promenade overlooking the sea in the north-western corner of the city.
October 11th.
In order to withdraw cash with his Visa Card, Kasper had to try many banks before he found one that accepted Visa - "Credit Liban" did. Their commission was $5.
Getting around town by public transportation is actually very easy. Whenever you want to go somewhere, you flag down one of the 'service taxis' - these are normally old Mercedes cars, often with a red number plate. They are cheaper than ordinary taxis because several passengers share the fare. Then you ask "serrvize?" to avoid being charged a (higher) taxi fare. If you get an affirmative reply, you tell the driver where to go. If your destination is on the way to the other passengers' destination (which is very often the case, for some reason), you jump in. When you reach your destination, each passenger pays. The amount is quasi-fixed: If you look like a (rich) tourist, the driver will maybe try to ask a higher amount than the usual one. Be sure to establish the fare before entering. When you become accustomed to the system, just pay the usual amount when getting out of the car. When you look like you know what to pay - and the amount is reasonable - the driver will probably not try to make you pay more. The Lebanese taxi drivers were actually the most honest drivers that we met on our trip. Late at night you should expect to pay more than in the day-time. The fare was usually L£1,000-1,500 a person no matter where we went in Beirut.
- - From here we took a service taxi to Saida, fee: L£3,000 per person. When going long distances with service taxis you have to wait for the taxi to fill up before leaving. As we were in a hurry to go, we decided to pay for an extra seat so the taxi could leave right away. Also, sometimes you may choose to pay for an extra seat in order to drive with more comfort: For the taxi to be full, there must be five passengers plus the driver... In the taxi was a Lebanese man now living in Germany - he was on holiday in Lebanon. He originated from Saida, so he offered to show us around town.
In Saida there is a small Crusader castle on an island right next to the beach. The setting was nice, but if you plan to see other Crusader castles on your trip, you may want to skip Saida, as the castle there isn't very impressive. The German took us around town; there was a nice little souq (covered market) and we had a good fast-food meal at a stall near the service taxis for Sour - if you're looking for something exotic, try their spine-sandwich [saida.jpg]. If you don't have much time, skip Saida.
At a little square near the fast-food stall mentioned above, we caught a service taxi to Sour (L£3,000 per person).
The Roman ruins in Sour were very impressive; we spend a lot of time there, so unfortunately we didn't have time to see the part of town next to the sea - it's supposed to be charming, full of old houses.
At four o'clock we caught a service taxi back to Beirut. It's advisable always to go before it gets too late - this applies to almost everywhere in the region: If you go too late, it may be difficult to find transportation, and you end up having to pay an awful lot.
October 12th.
Went to a cinema to see "Batman Forever". The tickets were expensive - $6.50 each. The movies retain their original soundtrack/language, subtitles are provided in Arabic and French. Unfortunately, the sound was very bad, so it was difficult to make out what the actors were saying. This was also the case when we went to the cinema at other places in the region. If you still want to go to see a movie, the cinemas are in the new downtown area.
The downtown area was moved after the war because the buildings in the old downtown area were badly damaged during the fighting. The new city center is the area around Hamra Street.
At night we went to a bar called "Henry J. Beans'", also known at Hank's. It's close to BUC, another university in Beirut. There were a few other tourists - a rare experience - and quite a few girls. Unfortunately, we were running out of cash, so we didn't stay there long. There's also supposed to be a good bar called "The Lone Star Café" on Bliss Street in the Hamra area, just opposite the main entrance to AUB. Getting alchohol is generally not a problem in Lebanon. The Lebanese beer and wine is drinkable. Imported liquors are - of course - more expensive.
October 13th.
The great walk-around-town day. The best way to appreciate a city - I think - is to walk, walk and walk.
The tourist information office at the Ministiry of Tourism didn't have much to offer. However, they did have a current hotel guide covering hotels all over Lebanon. For the budget traveller, here follows part of the list for Beirut:
Name, Area | Category | Phone/fax |
---|---|---|
Al Mashrek, Hamra | ** | 01/345773/2 |
Flotel Jal el-Dib | ** | 01/406316
01/404854 01/442664 01/416458 01/417250/710 Fax: 01/416770 |
Mace, Hamra | ** | 01/344627
01/344626 Fax: 01/344626/7 |
New Hamra, Hamra | ** | 01/346046 |
Saint-Lorenzo, Hamra | ** | 01/348604/5 |
Moonlight | * | 01/360798 01/352308 |
Parklane, Manara | * | 01/804372 01/804337 |
The tourist information office will let you call the hotels from their phone. For more information from the hotel guide, send me an e-mail.
The Danish embassy is next to the sea in the north-western corner of town:
Office of the Royal Danish Embassy
Imm. New Durrafour
Avenue de Paris
Phone (01) 346 264
P.O. Box 11-5190-Beirut-Lebanon
If you want to see distruction, go from Hamra Street to the former town center. Everywhere, workers are tearing down the war ruins to make space for new buildings. In the middle of the old town center there's excavations going on - a funny sight: 2,000 year old ruins on one side and 5 year old ruins on the other. When you talk to people about the war(s), everybody can tell you all kinds of stories, their memories of the war being very fresh.
Orientation: Street names will sometimes be of use when asking for directions. But more often it works better if you know the name of a big institution or company nearby your destination, e.g. AUB (don't say "The American University" - many people only understand the shortening) or BUC (another university south of the Hamra area). If possible, get somebody to write down directions in Arabic and show the note to (service-)taxi drivers or pedestrians.
Eating out: The budget traveller should stay away from fancy, international places like Pizza Hut. When you want to taste the local cuisine, bring a Lebanese friend as a guide - otherwise you might end up eating the same things all the time. Or you could hope to get an invitation to eat in somebody's home. I have forgotten most of the names of the interesting dishes. A good and fresh appetizer, though, is "tabooli" with parsley, tomatos and more.
October 14th.
Baalbek is the headquarter of Hizbollah, the extremists who used to take people from the West as hostages. Now, even Hizbollah has realized that Lebanon needs peace and the hard currency from tourists, so they have put up a big sign right outside Baalbak welcoming foreigners. Still, the Beqaa Valley is inhabited by a lot of orthodox Shiites and on the way to Baalbek you will see posters with the Ayatollah and Rafsanjani from Iran.
Baalbek is really great. The ruins are extraordinary. The entrance fee is a bit steep. You may hire a guide at the entrance.
As Baalbek is the main tourist attraction in Lebanon, there is actually quite a few tourists. Outside the entrance there is also lots of people trying to sell you all kinds of souvenirs. Among them is a guy who sells ancient coins. Don't buy any! First of all - of course - stuff like that ought to be in museums and should not be brought out of the country. Secondly, most of his Roman silver coins are fake - like many of the coins you will be offered by shopkeepers in the region.
On our return, we packed our stuff and went to the home of Abdullah, the doctor who had been treating my friend. He had invited us to stay with his family for the night. His family were practising Sunnis - but not political fanatics. We had long interesting political and religious talks.
October 15th.
At the entrance to the ruins we met a group of boy scouts with whom we shared a guide.
In some tourist brochures it is claimed that Byblos is the oldest continously inhabited town in the world. Many cultures have left their signatures at the place. There is visible remnants of 5,000 years old stone age settlements.
One of the scout leaders, Jacob, offered to take us to Tripoli, as he was going to go there in the evening - he went to school at a sports institution near Tripoli. First we had to go back to his family's house in (the eastern part of) Beirut because he had to pick up some stuff.
We were - of course- offered dinner.
For the first time we heard a Christian talking about
the war; his version of the dirty war was surprisingly close to the version we had heard from
Muslims. Jacob's father worked in Saudi Arabia, like thousands of other people from the
region: Everybody hates the Saudis, but many people are forced to go there for work.
We got along very well. Jacob suggested that we spent the night at his home in Beirut and went with him to Tripoli the next morning.
In the evening we went to an arcade/pool hall. If we had walked there, we would have been there in ten minutes. Driving took 45 minutes because of a terrible traffic jams; the jams were caused by young people driving around showing off in their cars.
Very early in the morning - before the traffic jams - Jacob took us to Tripoli, known to the locals as "Trraplos".
We wanted to go and see the cedar trees and the cave in the mountains east of the town. So we hired a taxi which took us there and back. The driver got L£60,000 for this five hour trip.
The road to the cave and the trees is breathtaking. Simply beautiful. You might consider spending a night in one of the villages on the way.
The cave ("Kadisha") wasn't very interesting. If you want to see caves, go to the "Je'ita Grottoes" about 20 kilometers east of Beirut. The caves are not mentioned in the guide book and unfortunately we didn't go there. But they are supposed to be worth a visit, even if you only have limited time in Lebanon.
The cedar trees were a curious sight, standing all alone close to the tops of the mountains.
On the way back to Tripoli we continually stopped to take photos. At one occasion an old woman invited us for coffee. Although she and her son didn't speak any english - and we only spoke a few words of Arabic - it was fun.
Tip: Ask an English speaking person to write a note in Arabic telling about you. Show the note to people if conversation becomes difficult because of language problems. Also, bring some photos of your home and family - the Arabs love to talk about family matters.
In Tripoli we asked for directions to one of the hotels mentioned in the guide book. A, seemingly, friendly guy walked us to the hotel; this is not an unusual experience in the region. After having checked in, he continued to be friendly and offered to take us on a walk around town. After a while his clingy nature became annoying and when we said goodbye, he asked for money (baksheesh - e.g. a tip) for his services; after arguing with him for a while, Kasper gave him L£1,000 and he left. After he had left, we paniced: What if he went back to the hotel - what if the receptionist thought that he was a friend of ours and let him into our room? When we got back to the hotel everything was in perfect order, fortunately. Phew. A reminder that even though Arab people are friendly and there is little crime in the region, you should not be naive.
Apart from a quite interesting Crusader castle, Tripoli didn't seem to have much to offer.
In the evening we took a service taxi (L£1,000 each) to a part of town called "Mina" (or "El-Mina"), Tripoli's boardwalk. Here people go for a stroll along the coast and a cup of coffee in one of the small coffee shops.
October 17th.
As we were going to leave for Syria this day, we exchanged some money at one of the numerous exchange stalls in the town. The rates in Lebanon are much better than the rates offered by the Syrian banks, that is, the official rate in Lebanon is the same as the black market rate in Syria. On the other hand, I think there are some restrictions on how much money you can bring in or out of Syria. You may want to look into this before exchanging. We didn't bother, and we didn't have any problems concerning the legality of our money in Syria.
The exchange offices charged $5 for cashing a traveller's cheque. After a little bargaining we got the charge down to $2.50 per cheque.
If you smoke, you may be tempted to bring a lot of the cheap Lebanese cigarettes into Syria where they are a bit more expensive. Don't do it, though. The cigarettes in Syria are much better than the Lebanese counterparts - even well-known brands like Marlboro and Camel seem to taste like shit in Lebanon. Also, the Syrian customs officers will be quite pissed off if you bring tons of cigarettes across the border.
We caught a service taxi to Homs in Syria. The fare was L£6,000 per person .