5 Days In Lebanon

With Tony being of Lebanese descent we couldn't not take a trip to the "Paris of the Middle East". After ignoring the travel warning on Trip Advisor I managed to find a great little hotel tucked in behind the corniche (waterfront road) in Beirut. It was Eid and everyone was on holiday so it was great to find somewhere near Hamra Street.
Before describing our wonderful visit I will share a lesson we learned. We had booked a transfer  to our hotel from the airport. As we came out of customs we looked for a sign with our names on and spent the next hour trying to contact the company and find out where our driver was. Eventually an airport worker rang the number on his mobile and found out the driver was parked outside the terminal door. He had been inside and was looking for two "tourists". He didn't have a sign because he thought he could pick us out. I suppose it was a compliment, looking like locals, but it wasn't funny at the time.
Getting back to the trip, the hotel was five minutes to Pigeon Rocks and a couple of cool cafes with awesome views of the rocks. We spent the first afternoon / day wandering the corniche and came across a carnival. We couldn't resist the ferris wheel ride which gave us wonderful views of the surrounding area. Dinner was at a cafe, mezze and wine while watching the local football on TV.

The following three days were booked for tours. "Golden Holiday Tours" provided us with the wonderful Oxana, our tour guide, and Nasser our driver. The first day we headed off to Baalbeck via Zahle, where Tony's grandfather grew up. The mountains in Lebanon are amazing, very steep compared to NZ, and numerous. We saw our first statue of Mary, with her arms outstretched, overlooking Zahleh as we drove through the area. Christianity is alive and well in Lebanon! Baalbeck is known for it's temples, which are still in great shape considering they have endured earthquakes and civil wars. On the way back to Beirut we stopped in a Anjar, a city from the Omayyad period. I must mention that while we had lunch near Baalbeck we were entertained by men speeding past in car shooting their rifles in the air. We were told by Oxana this is normal as it is a Hisbollah area.

Finally found a street sign that said Zahleh

Baalbeck ruins were great for rambling around

The crossroad at Anjar

View heading back to Beirut from the valley floor

Day two's tour took us back into the mountains to Geitta Grotto. If you don't see anything else you must see this place. It reminded me so much of Waitomo, without the glow worms. Byblos was our next stop. Built over centuries, it includes a port, a citadel and many temples. Outside the citadel the municipality have made it law that all buildings should be in keeping with the crusader type buildings. We found a wonderful shop which sold fossils so we bought a 100,000,000 year old ancestor of the salmon - very cool! Last stop for the day was a gondola ride up to Harissa to see the Virgin of Lebanon. Beautiful views back towards Beirut and Jounieh!

No photos were allowed inside the grottos.

Iti found a cannonball to play with at Byblos

Several sarcophagi were found buried in a very deep pits

The souk at Byblos

The view from our gondola heading to Harissa

Tony on his way up to the Virgin at Harissa.

Day three was back to the mountains, in a different direction again, to the Chouf Mountains. Oxana, being the wonderful guide she was, filled us in on the history of the area and of stories of locals who still live there. We visited Deir El Qamar, a small village with narrow streets and a beautiful church of St John. Not far away was Beiteddine, the palace used for the President's Residence, which we were able to wander through at our own leisure. I loved the simplicity of the place, not as ornate as some of the other palaces we have seen in the Middle East but just as beautiful. The mosaic exhibition was huge, as were the mosaics. I thought the mosaics in Jordan were impressive but these are far better preserved. Our final stop was the cedar forest, a reserve in the rocky mountains where the cedars are looked after by local rangers. Many of the trees date over 200 years. If you're looking for tour guides in Lebanon I'd suggest you have a look at Golden Holidays. They worked out the cheaper than the hotel's tour operators and were very reliable and friendly.

St John's Church.

One of the many mosaics at the palace

The palace court

Oxana, Tony and I at the Cedar Forest.

Day five was left to us so we headed off to the National Museum for the morning. The government has done an amazing job restoring the building after the war. I hope when Egypt has the new museum built they take a look at the Lebanese museum displays. The headsets and apps for laptops were free too. It took us about an hour to get back to our part of town as we had decided to walk. Didn't lose any weight though.
The food was wonderful, the shopping in Hamra St was okay and the tours were well worth booking. If we ever get back to Beirut again we will head further south to areas we missed. Five days was plenty to get a taste of "Paris".

The ground floor of the museum

Artefacts found in the obelisk temple at Byblos

Tony & Iti outside the museum.

Back Home in Cairo

 Oops! This has been sitting in the drafts for over a week...
It's been over a month since our Summer Break officially finished and two weeks since Jase and Chloe returned to NZ.
It was so nice to share some of our "home" with them while they were here. Apart from dragging them into school (under the pretense of having a look around) they managed to see quite a bit of Cairo. Luckily school was delayed due to changes being made with the Kindergarten area so we were able to play tour guide for a few days. A ride on the Metro train service, taxi rides and walking the streets of Maadi are so very different from NZ but they took it in their stride. I'm not sure the outside temperatures were to their liking but they seemed to acclimatize quite well. Tours of the Citadel, Khan el Khalili, a falukka ride, and Coptic Cairo were with us while the Giza pyramids, Saqqara and Dashur pyramids were seen with Memo. We even managed to organize a day at Ain Sokna beach for them, something we still have to do ourselves. There are probably other places we could have organized for them but they were only here for 10 days. For my birthday prez they took us to the Light & Sound Show at the pyramids, which was beautiful. Their departure has left a big hole in our apartment. We miss having them here blobbing out on the couch or playing scum during power cuts.
So it's back to school for us. There have been major changes - some good and some not so good but we shall see how they play out. I'm missing Katie's camaraderie but I'm sure the two newbies I'm working with will settle in. I am so glad I have Tony with me so I don't have to go through some of the settling problems that some of the single teachers have had. This year's class are very different from last years. I have my work cut out for me so I'm giving myself til Xmas to get them into shape for some quality learning. Sadly next week is a holiday so it's one step forward and two steps back. (We've only been at school 2 weeks).

I love this photo of Jase and Chloe at Giza.

Shopping at the Khan. Chloe covered up for the occasion.

Movie the more shopping at City Stars.

Falucca ride on the Nile ...

Followed by dinner at TGIF.

Classroom was all set up. Thanks to Jase, Chloe and Tony

Managed to prepare a roast dinner for friends - Kiwi style. Needed two legs
of lamb and a few bottles of wine. Downside was the dishes.

Eid decorations at school

Galabeya Day at school...

... meant dressing up like an Egyptian (for some of us).

It really is about time I publish this post. We head off to Lebanon early Sunday morning for another holiday. We've heard Beirut is beautiful so we are looking forward to it.

Sri Lanks R & R part 2

We decided to do a day trip down to Galle, about 18 km south of Hikkaduwa. It was definitely worth the trip. We met a local while waiting for the train and he helped us by organising a tuktuk driver to drive us to different places in Galle. The total 5000R including a tip was quite cheap considering he was with us for about 45 km (we paid per km).

The rain came down during the last day and a half before heading back to Colombo. Unfortunately the 2 bedroom exotic apartment (more like a bach) we were staying at had no lounge so we had to retreat to our bedrooms. Don't get me wrong, there were long periods of dry weather in between the heavy showers and it wasn't cold. We even managed to walk along to the train station on our last day before another shower hit.

Getting to the Unique Towers Hotel in Colombo was a challenge because of  tuktuk drivers increasing their prices for tourists. After arriving, Raymond's 10.30pm transfer was organised along with a driver to take us to Kandy (the train we were hoping to catch was fully booked), then we wandered off for a final dinner at Pizza Hut. It was definitely not up to the usual NZ standard for quality and service.

We loved spending those few special days with Raymond and hope to see him again before another year passes. I will admit that Tony can't have the same in depth "league conversations" with me that he had with Raymond. Maybe he'll visit Cairo inshallah. 

Spotted this small Hindu temple squeezed between some shops.

The temple for this standing Buddha is built into rock.
Inside are beautiful paintings and statues of Buddha's life as
well as an enormous resting Buddha.

Pole fishing tourists. Not sure they caught anything.

Outside the second gate of Galle Fort.

This new Hindu temple is not far from the train station
and has taken 5 years so far to build. 

Tony and the caretaker cleaning up rubbish on the beach
outside our apartment. He buried the rubbish in a hole
he dug. Tony's went into the bin.

View from our bedroom door during a shower.

 The morning of the 16th we were transported to Kandy which is over 100km north east of Colombo. We arranged with the driver to stop at the elephant orphanage but ended up at the Millenium Elephant Foundation in Pennewala. Paying 2000R each hopefully went towards the upkeep of the elephants because both the mahouts and the helper staff expected tips as well. When we questioned the driver for the second time about the orphanage he told us this one was more fun because you couldn't ride the orphan elephants but you paid just as much to see and feed them... which is what we wanted to do in the first place. It was a shame we couldn't get a refund and leave.

The Anna Shanthi Hotel was a lovely little hotel, owned by a Sri Lankan and his Australian wife, only 5 minutes walk from the Kandy Lake. It was only about 30 minutes to walk into town so we spent most of our time walking in Kandy. Even though we only had one full day and the afternoon of our arrival day, we managed to fit in a lot. We found a couple of really good cafes to eat at and managed to dodge Burger King too. Even though we missed the big festival for the area there were still celebrations happening that we were able to observe in the Sri Dadala Maligawa, the Tooth Temple. Our other highlight was our walk up to Sri Maha Bodhi Maha Viharaya which is on the hill overlooking Kandy.

Kandy Lake.

Sri Maha Bodhi Maha Viharaya Temple. This Buddha is
88 feet tall and overlooks Kandy.

The view from the foot of the Buddha back towards Kandy.
Our hotel was at the far end of the lake.

Kandy has a modern city mall as well as the market.
Makarel, prawns and lake fish are sold here.

Monitor lizards, turtles, numerous birds, lake fish and monkeys
share the lake area with the local people.

Monkeys make themselves right at home in the trees
and on house rooves.

The costumes and dancing at the cultural show were beautiful.

 Outside Sri Dadala Maligawa, the Tooth Temple

A golden Buddha inside Sri Dalada Maligawa.

The rear view from the last photo. The walls are lined
with golden elephant heads and large paintings showing the story
of the Buddha's Tooth.

Our final day in Sri Lanka has been spent travelling back to our hotel in Negombo. The Gateway Hotel is a little bit of luxury before heading back home to Cairo tomorrow morning. We were even upgraded from a standard to a superior room. Lots of TV channels - rugby league and cricket have been covered.

Even though we were constantly hit up to reach into our wallets we did enjoy Sri Lanka. The people we have met have been very friendly and helpful. All have had some degree of spoken English which they had either learnt in school or through their interaction with tourists. My highlights were the range of  food on offer, the beautiful Buddhist temples and being up close and personal to the elephants. There were really only two disappointments - the inconsistency with tuktuk prices (even with the "government approved" ones) everywhere we visited and the rubbish on the beach at Hikkaduwa. Sadly the rubbish on beaches seems to be a recurring observation...

Our summer is just about at an end. We started our journeys through Morocco, Portugal and Sri Lanka at the end of June. We've experienced so much packed into these two months and yet it's only been a taste of the world we live in. "Where shall we go next holidays?" I started to wonder as we drove towards the end of this chapter this morning ...