Category: General

I have to say, that Lebanon is a land of contrasts. I read that in the Lonely Planet guide and its really true. Mountains by sea, rich next to poor, expensive cars driving beside the most claped out car you have ever seen. Its all here, and compressed into a tiny space. Beirut is bustling city, but once we left it, we were straight into mountains and valleys which were very beautiful, and very reminicent of Greece. I’ll try and post some of my photos a bit later.

It’s interesting to see the different cultures of different people, and those cultures change and you move around the globe. As we came in to land at Beirut airport, as soon as the wheels touched the ground, about 10 people stood up and started queuing in the isle ready to disembark. The steward was strenuously telling them to sit down and wait till we came to a halt, but they just made out like they were deaf and couldn’t hear him. In the end he had to get up and tell each one, individualy to go and sit down. The contrast between that and landing in Bahrain was quite striking, even though it was the same people on the plane, there was no unrullyness as we came in there.
In the Beirut airport, there were many signs and audible announcements stating it was no smoking, but as soon as we got to the table to fill in our customs form, these two guys (who were not from lebanon) started smoking! Maissa gave them an earful but they just said sorry, and carried on. It seems when in Lebanon, do like the Lebanes.

Well, its about 12:34 am, and Maissa and I have just finished packing and sorting stuff out for our trip.
It’s been a nerve racking time, sorting out the tickets and planning this trip. We almost gave up on it but at the last moment, our travel agent came through with the goods and got us a great ticket. (thats a whole other story in itself).
Tomorow we just have to finish packing and stuff and we’ll be set to go.