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How can one describe Lebanon? A few choice words like, fantastic,
open, culturally diverse, beautiful, etc come to mind, the people
are fantastic, love to know where you are from and are more
than happy to buy you the first round (which is always appreciated)
and who would have ever thought you could get snow in the Middle
East??
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Way too crowded this day
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I think I have been in Saudi to long
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Unfortunately we had little chance to stay in Beirut itself,
we managed to see it from the car window as we sped through
and it looks like the “wild West” of the middle east, I thought
we had lots of security in Saudi but there are just soldiers
with machine guns in the streets all over the place (might worry
those not used to it but from Saudi it is just taken as part
of the region), but from all accounts from local’s and other
tourists we met at the ski resort it has a fantastic night life
and is well worth the trip, and in that vain, I will be heading
back in March for some more snow boarding and to taste the delights
of Beirut and the famous igloo bar which I will describe later.
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It was a pleasure to escape with only a 2.5hour flight from
Bahrain to Beirut, with of course the well behaved performance
on the flight we managed to arrive in one piece, although we
were the source of amusement for the air stewardess’s. The drive
to the resort was one rollercoaster ride, everyone thinks that
they are Michael Schumacher as they speed scarily close to other
cars and overtake where you would swear there was no room, having
come from Saudi, you tend to sit back and enjoy the ride, although
a couple of times you wonder if you will make it.
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Heading off the trail – why confine
oneself to the prepared trails??
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The Lebanese Army & Us
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Our hotel was right in the heart of Faraya Mzaar, the biggest
resort in Lebanon, the hotel was 5 mins drive from the ski field
and we literally could ski right back to the hotel road, with
a 50m walk to the front door, could not have asked for more.
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The snow on the first day was fantastic, clear blue skies,
fresh fall the night before, and there were fewer than 100 people
on the slopes, 2m base and lots of fresh snow off-piste where
I spent most of the time having fun down virgin slopes with
not a single other trail in sight, beautiful, rolling hills,
no real extreme runs, but just plenty of nice trails and off
piste that was so accessible from the main trails that you had
no real risk of getting lost.
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What an awful day – sure wish I was
working
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Way too Crowded on these chairlifts
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And of course the nightlife, well, as per normal, we gave our
all, and tried to make a good impression with the locals, the
local ladies are stunning, one in particular was as we say here
‘habibi al eni” anyone that knows Arabic will understand, our
first experience in town was with a few ladies from Bahrain,
when we ended up in our local bar, Café Mansour, and were joined
by three lads from the Lebanese army, in full camo gear, needless
to say, after a few more drinks we were all swapping gear, drinking
up large and having our own dance party with the café’s owner,
till the wee hours of the morning, the photo’s are fantastic,
how often can you be caught riding on the shoulders of the local
army lieutenant. Mansour, who owned the café, was so fantastic
he even offered to close the bar and drive us down to Beirut
to party in the nightclubs – where else do you get that sort
of hospitality.
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The next night was an R&R, the batteries were flat from two
days snow boarding (and of course I am slowly getting older)
and partying so we had a quiet day and having managed to ski
every day, we could not complain about a little rest and relaxation.
Then to celebrate our last evening we went to Igloo, amazing,
it is a restaurant where you need to reserve a seat to sit at
the bar! It is that popular we could not believe it, there we
were, being the well behaved lads we are (or should that be
were), enjoying the environment, having come from Saudi, the
way the local’s go at it partying is the most refreshing sight,
very outgoing, open, and the ladies love dancing on the bars
and tables whilst others are eating their meals, and of course
‘habibi al eni’ was there, we were all blown away by the quality
of the meals (ops we forgot to eat but the meals looked good)
and the scenery, and drinks (one called aarac – nickname “adult
milk” - local petrol with an ouzo flavour), and ended up smoking
a Cuban cigar at 4am in the morning in some below zero temperature,
so much so I will be heading back, hopefully to connect with
a local guide to see some of the other tourist sights, and without
fail numerous photographs were taken, I will attach a few as
thumbnails to this email for you all.
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Cubans at 4am – only lasted another 2mins after this…..too cold
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Warming Up at Igloo Bar
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I jokingly had fooled around before I went, when my colleagues
here told me I was likely to come back married to a Lebanese,
laughing at the jokes I was like sure marfi mushkala (no problems)
as I had seen them on the Lebanese music channels, and damn it,
would you know it, they all look like as gorgeous as the ones
on the music channels – how about that, now I figured it wouldn’t
be a bad outcome if I did return to Saudi with a bride in tow
who can speak Arabic (bonus for my lessons), but alas, and mother
you can stop fretting, it wasn’t going to happen over a weekend,
but enshalla one day (and one habibi in mind). |
 Would you believe in the Middle East?? |
I was really
hating this attention…honest – Wonder why I want to
go back (boys can send you others on request)
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