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Middle East - part III

Beirut, Baalbek, Jeitta Grotto

Hector Yague
2005-10-07 15:33:50

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and BMW's territory, and prices have been jacked up accordingly.

Beirut had been till WWII a french colony, and locals have kept the culture somehow over time. They are all bilengual (french and arab), and you can even find small groceries (spelling?) run by old men selling french delicatessen. Delicatessen you pay the $@^# out of yourself for, of course.

Seriously, Beirut is as opposed to the rest of the Middle East as it gets. I cannot figure out where the money comes from here (not petrol, Lebanon has little of it I hear). Skyscrappers are being built left and right, and glassy-high-tech-looking buildings make their way to top over the rest.

Beirut is settled in an extremely fertile valley facing the Mediterranean, all guarded up by protecting mountains. This creates a micro-clima within the mountains set, and therefore the area is very very green, and the humidity is way over of that in Syria. I even got a cold the first night from the temperature difference between here and Damascus, which is only 250 kms away. I guess it's a similar phenomenon than in Marbella in the SE of Spain, but pushed to higher limits.

And last, but not least, Beirut is home of some of the best nightclubs on this part of the hemisphere. Huge mega techno clubs where lebanese dance the night away at the pulse of colored lasers and 20 inches pumped-up speakers. Needless to say, drinks are 8 euros per shot. Ouch!

Baalbek

Once upon a time a wonder of the ancient world until enemy civilizations and an earthquake in the XVIII century placed its envious grip on it, BaalBek was originally a Phoenician worshipping site to the God Baal. Unfortunately, the main temple (Jupiter's temple) is now a days a shadow of that once was, but from what's left you can picture on its mind the sheer size of this thing. There are some 22m ...