Middle East - Anthony Ham [382]
Cycling
Beirut by Bike ( 03-435 534) arranges bike tours in Beirut and beyond, and rents out bikes by the day, week or month. Give them a call to confirm their current location. The Blue Carrot Adventure Club ( 03-552 007; www.blue-carrot.com) organises mountain biking expeditions, along with a host of other adventure activities.
Diving
Watersports, including water-skiing, boating and jet-skiing (especially in Beirut and Jounieh) are available in Lebanon. Diving is a rapidly growing activity; there are some interesting wrecks to explore. A recommended website to check out for diving in Lebanon is that of the Atlantis Diving College (www.atlantisdivingcollege.com).
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PRACTICALITIES
The Daily Star provides good coverage of local news in English, the daily L’Orient Le Jour in French. The monthly magazine, the Guide, is useful for upcoming events, openings and exhibitions in Beirut. You can usually find it in Beirut’s Virgin Megastore.
The BBC World Service can be received on both 1323kHz and 72kHz; popular locally are Radio One, Light FM and Nostalgie. The major local TV channels are the government-run broadcaster Tele-Liban and five commercial channels: New TV, MTV, Future TV, NBN and LBC.
European two-round-pin plugs are needed to connect to Lebanon’s electricity supply (220VAC, 50Hz).
Lebanon uses the metric system for weights and measures.
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Skiing
Lebanon is also one of the few countries in the Middle East to offer extensive possibilities for skiing. Along with the Cedars (Click here) there are almost half a dozen other resorts to ski or snowboard to your heart’s content; your very best first stop is Ski Lebanon (www.skileb.com), which has information and booking options galore.
Trekking
For companies and resources on trekking, see the boxed text, Click here.
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BOOKS
As well as this book, Lonely Planet publishes a comprehensive guide, Syria & Lebanon. Jean Said Makdisi’s Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir (1990) and Teta, Mother and Me (2004) illustrate the difficult and dangerous day-to-day life of one woman and her family during the civil war, chronicled by Palestinian writer Edward Said’s sister. Thomas Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem (1998) also contains a grimly humorous account of life in Beirut during the difficult and dramatic war years.
There are few contemporary travel books dealing specifically with Lebanon; The Hills of Adonis: A Journey in Lebanon (1990) by Colin Thubron is one of the best. Also well worth reading are William Dalrymple’s From the Holy Mountain (1998) and Robert D Kaplan’s Eastward to Tartary (2001), both with chapters on travels in Lebanon.
For a lighter look at Lebanese life, grab a copy of Life’s Like That! Your Guide to the Lebanese (2004) and its sequel Life’s Even More Like That (2006) by Michael Karam, Peter Grimsditch and Maya Fldawi, with painfully accurate caricatures of Lebanese characters, from dog-walking Filipino maids to Hummer drivers, ladies who lunch, and frazzled foreign correspondents. It’s a must-have companion to people-watching at Beirut’s cafés, and is available in bookshops across the city.
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BUSINESS HOURS
Shops and private businesses in Lebanon are generally open from 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday and from 9am to mid-afternoon on Saturday. Banks are open 8.30am to 2pm Monday to Friday and 8.30am to noon on Saturdays. Post offices and government offices are open 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday, and 8am to 1.30pm on Saturdays.
Restaurants have no standard opening hours, and in Beirut they may stay open all night. We’ve indicated opening hours, where possible, throughout the chapter.
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COURSES
Many students come to Beirut to study Arabic. The following centres provide courses for foreigners:
American Language Center (Map; 01-366 002; www.alc.edu.lb;