Ful (sic) Lebanon, mate

Usually there is some truthful basis to stereotypes. British people do seem to complain about the weather an awful lot. Americans do speak very loudly. And it seems that aspects of the Lebanese stereotype aren’t only present among those in Australia, but also those back ‘home’. First, Lebanese guys and girls around my age are constantly on their phones either talking to someone or just using it to listen to music. They are all dressed in real or fake designer clothes, and most of the cars on the road in Beirut are either hotted up or luxury. I’m not joking about this last part, so it must be something that carries over into later life. In Beirut, half of the cars are luxury of some sort (BMWs, Mercedes, Porsche, etc.), another quarter are taxis, which are also Mercedes, just from the 50s and 60s. The final quarter is comprised of what we’d call the ‘day-to-day’ cars, the commodores and falcons of the Middle East, and the hotted up youngsters. This data is based on a survey undertaken by yours truly at a sidewalk café along the Beirut cornice.

Lebanon still shows the scars of the civil war, which ended in the early 90s. There are still bullet-ridden buildings scattered around the place, no less occupied now than they would have been back then. But since the end of the war, conspicuous consumption has ruled the day. This seems to be why there are so many luxury cars and designer clothes. The Lonely Planet guide summed it up well in saying that after the war, Beirutis tried as fast as they could to start living the good life again. The bars and clubs in Beirut are among the best in the world.

I went to the south, but was unable to go to my primary target, the Al-Khiam Detention Camp where Israel held prisoners without charge as a deterrent to others. Apparently the conditions when the Red Cross were allowed in in 1995 were mind-boggling. However to console myself I went on a tour of the Ksara vineyard, which makes wines of international repute aged in barrels stored in underground tunnels (see photo), and visited the temples at Baalbek. The temple of Jupiter apparently has the largest standing columns in the world.

However the first of my two highlights of Lebanon was the Jeita Grotto, north of Beirut. In my diary I just wrote ‘amazing’ a few times, before trying (but failing) to explain just why they were so amazing. There are two giant caves (maybe 300 or 400 mitres tall) that each stretch back around 6km into this mountain. And they are FULL of stalactites and stalagmites of all shapes and sizes. Things that have been forming since before human existed. For one of the only times in my life, I was speechless. If you are in the region (Romania or the Sudan count as the region), you must come here. Cameras weren’t allowed, so I can’t show any photos. Memories will have to do.

The second highlight was visiting Al-Badawi refugee camp just outside Tripoli. I’ve never visited a refugee camp before, but as one of the sorts of places I’ve thought about working in the future, I thought I should probably check one out. There is so much to write about it, but the primary thing is that it was not what I was expecting. The camp was set up in 1952 to accommodate the first Palestinian refugees, and is currently undergoing a bit of a crisis, as fighting in another camp has seen another 30 000 people arrive. It took a day to organise clearance to talk to a number of well-placed people, but in the end I spoke to a number of people from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and a number of refugees. I got a whole lot out of this experience, and am still in email contact with one of the guys who works there (my guide, photo attached).

Now, just so that a few of you can have a giggle at my expense, I had a couple of medical issues in Lebanon. The first was that I got conjunctivitis in Beirut, and woke up in the mornings with my eyes sealed shut. With eye-drops, this went away after a couple of days. The second is that due to the amount of exercise I’ve been doing, my left big toe and knee have decided to play up. My big toe had some bone compression issue, and my knee has become quite severely swollen. I went to the doctor and they sucked a few hundred mls of liquid out of it with a giant syringe. Then they gave me a pile of anti-inflammatories and let me go. I went to another doctor today (3 days later) because it came back. Apparently ‘rest’ doesn’t just mean ‘take more taxis and walk slowly around the castles’. He gave me more anti-inflammatories and now I am resting for a few days.

Hope you’re all thoroughly amused, as I now walk like a wooden-legged pirate, though perhaps with even more grimacing.

p.s. Also, thanks to everyone who is writing comments to my blogs. It’s nice to know people are reading and that you care enough to write comments *sob*. Please keep it up!