From Beirut to Dubai

Arrived in Dubai early yesterday morning, will spend 4 days here.

Beirut on last day, had a 'surprise' tour organized by the wonderful people of BAT Lebanon. Work ended noon, and after lunch immediately we hopped into a cute Nissan (as featured in Heroes lol), driven by a Lebanese Jean Reno look-alike. We told him we got a plane to catch, need to get back to the hotel by 6, and yes he rushed allright. It felt like I was in Ronin, truly a unique Lebanese experience.










Situated in the outskirts of Beirut, the Jeita grottos are quite a marvellous spectacle. It consists of a network of underground cave systems, with magnificent rock formations, stalactites and stalagmites and pristine underground river system. Too bad no pics allowed. I was quite sceptical of this initially (Im from Sarawak and we have the most amazing caves), but it was better than I expected, beautiful caves minus the guano!

After that with little time to spare we headed to the ancient city of Byblos. Declared a UNESCO heritage site, a crusader's castle dominates the archaelogical site, surrounding it ruins of temples, ancient settlements, Roman columns etc. The site is a rojak of structures built in different era; from neolithic settlements to Phoenician temple to Roman necropolis to the grand Crusaders castle. So much history and culture evidently displayed by the different styles of architecture.

After all that history and culture, were now in Dubai!! 1st day, first thing on my mind is... mall of the Emirates. Rushed there first thing in the morning, straight to the ski slopes LOL. Cant believe I went skiing in Dubai. It cost us around 200 dirham (around Rm200) for a 3-hour-pass, but man it feels good.... lepas gian ski. Quite worth it, considering my colleague has never skieed before, nor has he seen snow, and the snow was fluffy!!









Arrived in Dubai early yesterday morning, will spend 4 days here.
We decided to warm up after that, and went for the Arabian safari. Hopped on the land cruiser and off we went into the Arabian desert. The driver was quite an expert, always trying to entertain us passengers by doing insane manouevers over the desert dunes, seemingly trying to go down the steepest of the hills and up the highest ones. A few people (fortunately not in our car) vomitted. After all that, late into the evening, went to a arabian camp site, complete with belly dancers, camel rides and bbq.

What a strange experience, from skiing in sub zero temperatures to the Arabian desert in the punishing 40+ c heat all in the same day. I think this is what Dubai is all about.

Beirut update

Surviving 3rd day in Beirut.

So many things going on here in Beirut, I do not know where to start. First of all, bullet marks and bomb holes can be seen everywhere, mostly from the 70's civil war, neglected until now. Army personnel are still patrolling areas especially around government offices, a few tanks here and there. Apparently there are still tensions among the different factions (even if the civil war ended almost 2o yrs ago).

Despite all these, we could walk around at 1030 pm, went through barricades and tents and army checkpoints, and just lepak at night. There's even a road here filled with nightclubs and bars, like Bangsar, only trendier and more stylish. Style is so significant here. The people here are really concerned about looks, and for the ldies it seems like everyday is a fashion show. Maybe too trendy and stylish.

Some parts of town are going massive reconstruction and restoration. The downtown is now well restored and the buildings look beautiful, with a lot of sidewalk cafes and restaurants. Also a lot of high end boutiqes in downtown, a lot of nice cars, I guess a lot of rich people here. Drivers here you can find nowhere in the world, this is the only place so far that I witnessed a car being reversed at a speed of at least 60kmh, on a busy main road!!! Even better, today I saw a porsche cayenne doing just that.

This place is surreal. Some parts make you feel like you are at a beautiful meditteranean city, and other parts make you feel you are at a warzone.

Off to the Middle East!!

Flying to Beirut and later Dubai. Will be back in Msia 23rd. Lepakking at the lounge, there is no better moment to update my blog.

Quite nervous about this trip. This is the first time that it feels funny. I mean I am heading to Beirut. I think the war there just ended last year or something like that. I tried to search for pics of Beirut on the net, and came across a lot of graphics showing ruins in central Beirut or bombed cars and stuff like that. Those were from last year, but still the country is surrounded by Israel, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. Probably the most unstable region off the world. But my hope is to get a pic with a UN personnel with the UN tank in the background.

Looking forward to Dubai, and hopefully can see the Burj. Though dont think there much for me to do there, unless I have the money of course. Lets see if I can bring some Arabian desert sand back.