Lebanese front hosts nightlife, Syrian tourism suffers

Yes, we're back, alive and kickin'! We were not mistaken for English or Americans and publicly lynched. Neither were we hit by a lost scud or a suicide bomber. Instead we experienced the warm hospitality and the friendly helpfulness of the Middle East. Moreover, being Belgian and Christian did give us some advantage: a free ride by an Armenian taxi driver in Aleppo (Syria).

First Lebanon, the land of milk and honey, or better of Mercedes and BMW.

Without exaggerating, I think 50percent of the country's car parkings consists of these cars being it first, second or more hand (with the respective German and Swiss country stickers still on the back of the car), in all their variations and ages (you can easily study 50 years of evolution in carline).

The driving style is Italian. However, whereas in Italy the white lines are just indications for driving lanes, in Lebanon these white lines are not even indications, they often simply are not there. Combined with Lebanon's drivers' slight deviation to the left only leaving room to take over for 75% of your car, you have to honk your way through the traffic, ideally zigzagging.

You have to be able to break promptly and to accelerate immediately if you all of sudden get sandwiched between two cars dangerously approaching you from both sides. We lost half of our body liquid sweating through being driven around the country.

Not only the driving style is Italian, there are more similarities: cell phones being used every 5 minutes, sunglasses, the latest fashion of Milan shops, etc. Beirut itself has a night life comparable to London and New York (with similar prices): we went eating sushi and Mexican, drinking cocktails in fancy lounges in Rue Monot and dancing in the Wallpaper-recommended underground club BO18, with the latest drum 'n bass and a roof which opens to see the stars.

But that's not really what you wanted to hear, huh? That's not really the Middle Eastern image you were thinking of, no? Well, there is more, of course.

There are the bunkers, bullet holes and other scars from the civil war (which only ended about 10 years ago). There is for example the completely ravaged Holiday Inn which was conquered floor by floor and its roof from which they threw a sniper at the end. There are the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps, just minuteds from the luxurious down town Beirut, where massacres took place in 1982. (Because of his alleged role in it, a complaint was filed against Sharon in Belgium which messed up the relations between Belgium and Israel.)

The Green Line which divided East Beirut (Christians) and West Beirut (Muslims, Socialists and the rest) got its name from the fact that it was completely covered by trees and plants during the 15-year long civil war because nobody crossed the line.

Now part of the Green Line is THE going-out area: Rue Monot where young people find each other again. However, although after 10 years everything looks like normal again - the speed of rebuilding the old city-centre is impressive.

The last buildings testifying the damages of the war are almost all demolished - there has been no transition period; no dealing with the past, no trials, nothing. In 1991 they pushed the button to stop the war and that was it. One could wonder about the long term outcome of this.

Beirut is a religious cocktail: mosques and churches, competing in volume when the first call for prayer and the second ring their bells. Sunni, Shiite, Maronite (Catholic), Orthodox, Armenian (Catholics and Orthodox), Protestant, etc. Further we saw Roman ruins (Baalbeck - with a temple bigger than what was ever built in Rome - and Byblos) and Crusader Castles, Phoenician and Ottoman remains. We visited Maronite convents and hermit caves in the steep Qadisha valley and drove through Druze villages in the Chouf mountains.

We walked in the snow on the mountains (when climbing up to the last remains of the original cedar forest - the cedar which you can see on the Lebanese Canadian-like flag) and we were watching sunset on the beach in T-shirt.

But contemporary politics was never far away. Baalbeck lies in the Hizbullah-area (in the north of the Bekaa valley) and it's quiet interesting to see the Hizbullah TV reporting on the war, showing Bush next to Hitler making simultaneous movements and commenting that "History repeats itself."

We also went to the south which the Israeli army occupied for 22 years until 2000. They withdrew in two nights, leaving behind lots of tanks and other stuff which you can find as trophies on the squares, sometimes with a portrait of Khomeini on top.

Our Lebanese friends, politically responsible as they were to give their visitors a "complete" picture of Lebanon, got us through all the check points of the Lebanese and Syrian army (which you can find spread throughout the country by the way) - as foreigners cannot visit this Hizbullah area (the army is not present there and cannot guarantee the safety of foreigners).

We saw the border with Israel, the Israeli and Hizbullah posts suspiciously watching each other with binoculars, a UN post of Indian Sikhs in between. Very absurd. Moreover, there was a holy tomb, recognised by Jews, Muslims and Christians, laying exactly on the border, one side in Israel, one side in Lebanon, the fence splitting it in two, giving access to it from both sides of the border.

We also visited the prison of Khiam, which was run by the South Lebanese Army, with the support of Israel (but which never officially recognised this). When the Israeli army withdrew in 2000, the prison got left behind, prisoners being freed by the villagers.

Circumstances were horrible, several people died of torture.

And then Syria in only 4 days, far too short.

We had taken some days off our program in Syria to add to our stay in Lebanon, as our friends insisted.

We went first to Aleppo where we stayed in Baron hotel, an old colonial hotel, where Lawrence of Arabia and Agatha Christie stayed as well (she wrote her "Murder on the orient express" there) - the ideal place to read "Orientalism" by Edward Said.

We visited the Citadel, went through the souqs, bargained for some jewellery while drinking tea. I loved it, but I am convinced that getting the price down by 1/5 was far too weak. We smoked our narjileh (water pipe) and visited the hammam.

That was quite an experience, especially for me, being able to see the women underneath all those veils - hippopotamuses in sexy lingerie, I can tell you - and finding myself half-naked on the floor being violently massaged by a woman singing in Arabic.

Later we took the bus to Homs (getting a Mr. Bean video on the bus!) and then a microbus to Palmyra.

Palmyra has amazing Roman ruins but the town around it is poor and more or less lives off tourism. As this time of the year is normally high season, they suffered a lot because of the Iraq war. We only met two other Swiss and a French tourist in Palmyra. insisted.

The next day we took another bus to Damascus, this time getting a cheesy Egyptian version of James Bond to watch (after some Al Jazeerah news on Iraq of course), Egypt being the "Bollywood" of the Middle East apparently.

The house we stayed at was situated on the top of Mt. Qassioun, the mountain overlooking Damascus, from which we had an amazing view of the city. Mosques in Syria always have green neon lights - very kitschy - and at night you can see that the city is covered with hundreds of those lights. The next day we tried to do our best to visit the old city.

We went to the national museum, walked through the souqs - bought some tobacco for our narjileh, visited the Umayyad Mosque the mausoleum of Saladin, the famous Arab leader who fought the Crusaders.

We also visited the Azem Palace, one of the beautiful old houses in the city centre. And then it was time to take a taxi to Beirut to catch our flight at night. It was far too short to see Damascus, so we are going to return and to continue our trip to Jordan next time. It tastes for more.

Annelies Verstichel is a Belgian tourist who visited Lebanon and Syria in April. She wrote this record for Alternative