Sunny, Happy, Tasty Lebanon!

Our recent trip to Lebanon was done a little differently to the way we have done things in the past. We actually hired a car for the entire time we were there. Im reasonably certain that is the first time we have hired a car during our tour of a country. The reason we took that approach was mainly because Lebanon is a relatively small country, and also because the landmarks and luches we wanted to get to were dotted all over the place. Seeing as Lebanese public transport doesnt have the best reputation, and given our short time in the country, we opted for the car.

The first two days we spent exploring Beirut, which is a congested, unplanned city covered in monuments, churches, mosques, ancient ruins, modern ruins, small restaurants and traffic jams. Apparently out of the 4.4 people living lebanon, almost 2 million of them are in Beirut. But thanks to large parts of the city being historically significant, there isn't a lot of space to redevelop the roads to account for the modern population.

The overcrowding and traffic dont seem to worry the people too much however, and despite the crazy traffic, people are actually quite polite on the roads, at least relative to Dubai, which is like driving in a destruction derby stock car race. In fact, Lebanese manners extended to all forms of interaction, including total strangers actually offering to help us out and give us directions. Did we really look that lost? In one or two cases, people who struggled with english went as far as getting us to follow them in their car in order to show us the right way to go. Waiters, shopkeepers, children, and just about everyone except for airport customs officials were all a delight to deal with.

While in town, we found a few lovely little places to eat at, including Le Chef, which is locally famous for making very traditional lebanese food, and making it well. Also, Kate and I enjoyed a lunch at a kitchen which made a range of dishes from locally grown produce. Wow, it was some of the freshest stuff we'd had in a while. Notably the raw kibbeh was just incredible, and I think we each had about half a kilo of raw meat on the day...

Once we had explored the various old buildings on show in Beirut, we hopped in our little car and battled our way to Zahle, up in the mountainous central part of the country. If you ever go to Lebanon, make sure you explore the mountain towns, since the scenery up there is epic, there is almost no pollution, and there is more space to roam and relax.

Zahle itself was a pretty little town, full of small coffee shops, and antique stores. In fact, it reminded me of Katoomba, near Sydney, only with no one wearing clothing made from parachute material. We stayed in a crumbling hotel on the banks of the river, left our stuff behind and went to a lunch we had booked at a local vineyard. The brunch was set next to the vineyards, in a backyard area full of picnic tables. It was rustic, but didnt feel fake or pretentious. It was just like sharing in a family barbeque with the people running the vineyard, and we had a great time. The food was simple but delicious, and made with so many fresh ingredients also grown locally.

Just one observation about Lebanese food - each dish we tried was great. There was never anything we didnt like. But I learned that there wasnt really a need to spend a lot on a meal in order to get something which was of a high quality. To the point that ordering something more expensive often resulted in a dish consisting of the same ingredients as a cheaper dish, only rearranged slightly. The best example of this is the shawarma, which is like a doner kebab in australia, and contains all sorts of pickled vegetables, sauces, meats and veggies, all wrapped up in fresh bread. Absolutely delicious, and they cost just about nothing. But order a 'meat plate' for about 20 times the price, and you will get all the ingredients listed above, arranged neatly on a plate, with a side dish of some variety of sauce, and another plate for bread. Obviously you end up just making your own mini shawarmas anyway, so whats the point? My point also translated to a few other dining experiences we had, and the moral is a good one - that you dont need to spend much at all in Lebanon to get a very good meal.

Back on track, after we left Zahle, we found our way to Baalbek, which is on the other side of the mountains to Beirut. It is also home to some out-of-this-world Roman ruins. I mean, after seeing the Parthenon in Greece last year, I thought we would have trouble appreciating Roman ruins again, but Baalbek is home to the world's best preserved Roman-era temple. I think we took about 400 photos on the day, and there are some more in the Lebanon album. We spent hours climbing all over the ruins, and trying to wrap our heads around the sheer scale of the enormous blocks of stone used to make the thing, not to mention to overall structure itself.

Next stop was Bchorre, back up the mountains. Its worth noting that along the way we stopped at the top and took a few pics showing the clouds wrapping around the smaller mountains around us. So beautiful.
Bchorre was quaint, but the cloud cover made it hard to appreciate the scenery. Still, we found a small bakery making fresh manakish covered in oregano and labna cheese, so we were more than content during our time there.

Last stop of our tour was Byblos, which is a big town about an hour north of Beirut, and home to still more ruins. Not nearly as impressive in any way as the ones in Baalbek, but the accessibility of these to short-stay tourists landing in Beirut make them a lot more popular. Also, the coastline around that part of the country cannot be looked at without making you feel relaxed. And so thats what we ended up doing for most of our last three days. Lying around in the surf, or on wooden chairs atop a cliff face, just soaking up the sunshine and the perfect sunsets. It was the best way to wind down a big week of exploring.

Personal achievement: I didnt die on the crazy roads!

Till next time! 
//Brendan