A blog by someone new to blogging, set in Beirut, by someone new to Beirut.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Lebanon makes the news!!

Now the ski season has finished, the Grauniad has seen fit to publish an article on its website... Slightly exaggerates the queuing times, but a positive piece nonetheless!!

http://travel.guardian.co.uk/activities/wintersports/story/0,,1743124,00.html

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Just an ordinary day...(s)

Not very much has happened over the last couple of weeks. In fact, its been a bit like living back home in that we've been out and about (including a karaoke session), but nothing specifically really worth blogging about. We've both been a bit run down and tired so last week really was nothing to write home (or on the internet) about. I have it on good authority that lots of people get ill at this time of year as the weather becomes warmer (my friend Suzy at work) and I can point to several people who have been ill too!

Despite the spread of lurgy in Lebanon, I have been on a wine tasting trip with my friends Hazel and William and her parents. The vineyards in Lebanon are set in the most spectacular locations, in the Bekaa valley, with snow-capped mountains in the background. The wines are great too!

Today we went up into the Chouf Mountains to have a look around (chouf means 'look' or 'see' in Arabic). So we had a look in the Look Mountains! Ahem. It is absolutely beautiful there - really green and the weather, although very cool, was sunny. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so you will have to take my word for it!

This week is very busy in work terms for Dom - less so for me, although I will be heading out and about again - I was in the North this week, taking pictures of schoolchildren eating food for the charity's website (all very illustrative). Then on Friday Vicks and Judith arrive! Our second visitors!!

So hopefully next week I will have more to report on...

Monday, March 13, 2006

Syria Pictures

I've looked really carefully, and I can't find the axis of evil on any of them...







Syrian Sojourn


This weekend saw the first of our many (hopefully) trips to Syria. One of the reasons for choosing to live in Lebanon was the fact that you can access Syria easily (well, foreigners can, for the Lebanese entering Syria and the Syrians entering Lebanon it has got a lot harder over the last year). I say 'easily'. 'Easily' means taking around an hour to get your passport, your travelling companion's passport and your car's passport stamped in and out of each country. It makes you long for the EU and the cursory glance your passport is given at the entrance to Eurostar!

Anyway, once we were through passport control (which also has the longest no-man's land I have ever crossed - about 5km!) we headed off for Damascus. (N.B for future visitors: I am exagerrating the timings for literary effect. Do not let this put you off coming to Syria). It was quite strange to see buildings not damaged by gunfire, to be honest. We didn't get to see too much of Damascus apart from the Souks this visit, but there is a very beautiful Mosque in the old city, and one of the oldest churches in Christianity - the church St Paul visited after his conversion on the road to Damascus. I too, waited for my Damascene conversion, but it did not come. I think I was on the wrong road.

So the weekend was spent in a reconnaisance fashion. We scoped out some good places to take my parents and my sister Jo and her husband James when they come out in the next few months. There is loads to see! Saturday we went down to Bosra (not to be confused with Basra in Iraq). This is one of the most complete Roman Ampitheatres in existence, and is built in black granite. Its preservation is thanks to the fact that it was covered in sand for a few hundred years. As we had sandy rain in Beirut for much of last week I am hoping that the preserving qualities of sand extend to humans, and that I will not age very much this month. But back to Bosra. The Ampitheatre is huge, and the acoustics are amazing. Unlike many ampitheatres, this one has not been hollowed out into a hillside and so the human effort required to build it must have been phenomenal. Next to the theatre are the ruins of the old city, and one of the oldest Mosques in existence - still in use today. Pictures follow below:

Oh well, picture appears above. One day I'll get the hang of this. Pictures will now follow in the next post.

You will note from the picture that appears at the beginning of the post, despite my best efforts, that there are some orderly queues forming in the base of the Ampitheatre. These queues were made up of some Syrian schoolchildren who were on an educational visit to Bosra. We had a brief chat with them - me using my Arabic and they using their English and we were about the same level!! I was delighted to realise that I have the same educational attainment in Arabic as an 11 year old Syrian girl in English. Truth be told, they were probably better, but I think that was because there were 10 of them and so they could pool their knowledge. Anyway, there is a photo of them with their teacher in the next post.

So, Bosra accomplished, we headed back to Damascus and the Souks (which are fab!) and went out to a really nice restaurant in the Christian Quarter in the Old City. The food in Syria is not as consistently good as in Lebanon, but in the good restaurants (which still cost under a tenner), the food is certainly the equal of the food we have had in Lebanon - and maybe a little better because there is more spice to it...

Sunday was spent visiting the Grandaddy of all Crusader Castles, Krak d'Chevalier. This has to be seen to be believed and the photos will do most of the talking for me. It is H.U.G.E and very well preserved. The view is fantastic and you can see why it occupied such an important strategic point. You can see enemies approaching for tens of miles. The castle itself is also impregnable, even today. In fact, its defences were never breached and it was only ceded by negotiation. How civilised.

Interestingly, or not, next to Krak is a restaurant were Sean Connery once ate. This is also the restaurant's main selling point - or so the owner would have us believe. Personally, I thought the views were a better draw...

Our historical appetites satiated, we headed back for the border and Beirut. Syria is an amazing country - it has so much more space than Lebanon and so many ancient and medieval sites to see. The only sign that you are in a one-party state are the ubiquitous photos of Bashar Assad and his father, and perhaps the reluctance of the Syrians to really discuss Syrian politics. (We had dinner with some friends of Dom's). One other sign might be that people actually obey traffic laws and stop at traffic lights, but I think that this is the norm and that Lebanon is the exception here!

This week, I will be resting.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Pictures of the South

This picture is a view from Alma Chab
This view looks towards the border from the school roof

The two pictures above are of the Lebanon-Israeli border...

Break for the Border!

The Lonely Planet, that esteemed publication which tells me most of the things I need to know about Lebanon stops somewhere short of Tyre (Sour in Arabic). This is not because Lebanon's territory ends there, oh no. This is because it is not actually that easy to travel more than about 10km south of Tyre if you are a tourist. This area borders Israel and although the territory is no longer disputed, (the Israeli army finally left in 2000), the area is not considered to be completely safe. It is run by Hizbullah, who make a pretty good job of it, providing social care, hospitals and the like for the area. Hizbullah now have 2 Ministers in the Lebanese government (the Energy Minister and someone else!) and so are quite far removed from the Hizbullah of old in some ways. However, they still have their weapons and the big debate in Lebanon is whether they are classified as a militia (in which case they should disarm) or the resistance against Israel. So far they are still the latter...

Anyway, suffice it to say that if you are a British tourist, you will not be able to get into the far south of Lebanon very easily - which is a shame, as it is absolutely beautiful. However, if you go on a field visit with IOCC to some of the schools there, you not only are able to pass the checkpoints (after a fashion - I was greeted with the words "she doesn't look Lebanese". Well, clearly I don't - I am not very slim and ultra stylish!), but you are also able to stand within 500m of the border with Israel.

As I said, the area is beautiful. Once past the checkpoint we drove along the coastal road - still under construction - and made our way to Naqoura, a border town. The 'border' is actually a couple of km wide as on one side you have Lebanese, and on the other, Israeli forces. You also have the UN present, and we drove past their camp. I think they are mainly Fijians there at the moment. No idea why. Maybe it was their turn. I wanted to get a picture of the UN tanks, but thought, on reflection, that I was lucky enough to get through the checkpoint, I wasn't really ready for a scrap with men with guns.

So, we got to Naqoura, which is, as you might imagine, very poor. You can see the gate/building through which you pass to get to Israel. Again, I wanted to take photos, especially of a road sign that said "Palestine" pointing straight ahead (most Lebanese maps refer to all of Israel as Palestine), but again I felt that being surrounded by Lebanese soldiers on one hand, and no doubt Israeli surveillance on the other meant that photo opportunities would have to wait!

From Naqoura, we went up into the mountains for a short while until we got to a village called Alma Chab. This village was split in two in 1932 when the Israelis retreated back from areas of Lebanon they had occupied. Half of the village remained in Israel, the other half is in Lebanon. The only area they share is the cemetary. We spoke to some of the teachers at the school there. When the village was cut in half, families were separated and many have not met again since - although they can see each other at a distance. You can see Israel from the roof of the school and one teacher was telling us that when her cousin got married she could only see the wedding and half of her family by going up there and waving. Going to Israel from Lebanon is not an option. If a Lebanese was to go over the border, they would not be allowed back in the country. Many of the people in the Israeli half of Alma Chab are also not that keen to have it reunited with Lebanon as their standard of living in Israel is much higher. Better healthcare, schools, jobs etc.

The saddest and most sobering story we heard was that of a young woman who, on hearing that her father was dying in the Israeli half of Alma Chab, set off to go and see him and hang the consequences. However, as she crossed the 'no-mans land' she was seriously injured by a landmine - she lost her leg.

Despite these stories, and the poverty and threat posed by Israel, the people are incredibly friendly and welcoming. They all practised their English on me, and I did my bit of Arabic, and I felt very lucky indeed to have been able to visit this area... I get the feeling it won't happen again!!!

Below follow the usual photos. They are not excellent as I was somewhat constrained as I have explained above. However, if you want to know which direction Israel is, look for the antennae/pylons/anything that makes you thing that there is a massive army presence nearby, which they are not afraid to use!!

That is the end of my 'intrepid blogger' post - I'll post more mundane details of my social life/blue run on the snowboard/fantastic Lebanese night out soon!