Day trıppın Lebanon

Firstly, to look at the temperature display at 10.30pm on your way back form Lebanon & for it to say 28oC & for you to ‏think to yourself 'it's a bit cool ' there has to be something wrong :o) Then again‎ you could just be in the middle east & getting used to the 40- 50oC days.

Today was really cool. So worth the $105us that we had to pay for the day trip form Syria in to Lebanon. It only took us about 3 hours to get form Damascus into Lebanon & our first stop for the day, balbek ruins. It's said to be one of the most impressive Roman sites in the Middle East & it's pretty spectacular. It's a massive temple complex & was just this really nice tranquil peaceful place. It would have been so cool just to have been able to sit there for a couple of hours and soak up the atmosphere; it had a really nice vibe to it. After spending a couple of hours at Baalbek we set off to lunch at a local restaurant which was awesome. They brought out so much food & I had the best Lamb that I've had in ages!!!

After lunch it only took a couple of hours to get to Beirut which is amazing. As we were driving down town we were driven down one of the main roads which is kno‎‎‎‎‎w as the green, or, to the locals, the red line because of all the blood that has been shed there. This road separates the Christian section of town form the Muslum section. It's been 12 years since the civil war ended (1992) in Lebanon. I knew that the country was war torn but I didn't know when the war had finished or what quite to expect. As we drove down the green line there were so many buildings that were still in a state of destruction with various types of bullet holes ‎or damage done to them. Our guide could tell which type of weapon was used by the damage done. A lot of the buildings have been left there as a reminder of what has happened in the past others the owners are still waiting for compensation form the government…

I really didn't expect to gee the sadness that over came me as we looked at these buildings & the people surrounding them as there were getting on with there daily lives. Just as an example, Sydney sides, the green line reminded me some what of Parramatta Rd (with out the car yards). Fair enough (gross generalization coming up form ignorant me) if stupid people want to act out to prove a point but these were peoples homes, lives & children…we're talking about. This is where their children slept at night… Countryman, fighting countryman over politics & religion. It really really saddened me to think of what had happened & what these people have been through & went actually experienced for 17 years before the civil war came to an end. To think that children born during that time would have only know a world in a state of warfare… It's just sad, that's all.

After the green mile we went down town & it was mind blowing to see how modern & western Beirut is. Helen & I hit the shops but I didn't really need anything so didn't part with to much money. Oh but I did buy a lip balm from the BODY SHOP! Helen had been looking for underwear through out the whole Middle East & coul‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎dn't find any‏thing decent until we got there. They even sold bikinis & pretty much everything you get at home. We spotted a Starbucks & I can't even beginning to tell you how human it felt to be able to order a herb tea & sit downstairs on comfortable sofas & chat to Helen. That’s the stuff I miss the most… After hitting the shops we grabbed some Nachos from hard rock café & headed back to the border to go back in to Syria.

It was a great day, next time I'll just make sure that I get to spend more time in Lebanon.

Damascus - Syria, 31st‎‎‎ August 2004, 11.43pm ‎‎