Category: Travel

I passed by Bakdash when I was in Syria. It was impossible to resist, the ice cream just looked delicious. What surprised me the most was the amount of traffic they had, They were serving ice cream non-stop!

I’ve had a ton of people ask me what I thought of Syria so I figured I would dedicate a post to it. I had heard sooo much negative stuff about Syria that I arrived expecting the worst but it wasn’t that bad. Border security didn’t give me any issues even though I had a Canadian passport. No one asked for a bribe or even hinted to wanting something. The road from the borders to Damascus was gorgeous and reminded me of the drive from LA to Vegas. Damascus is and looks really old and everyone seems very poor but one things for sure, they sure know how to make the most amazing kebabs. The first night I had dinner at a restaurant called Abu Kamal and they had the best kebab’s I ever tried. The restaurant had been around for over 60 years so I figured they had time to get the formula right but next day for lunch I stopped by this random kebab place on the street and again I had the best kebab I’ve ever had! How the hell is it so easy for them to get kebab so perfect?? I could probably walk into a bakala and ask for kebab and it would be the best kebab in the world. The prices are also sooo cheap!

The hotel I stayed in was called Semiramis Hotel. The website says its 5 stars but I don’t know how thats possible. The hotel was decent, I am guessing for Syrian standards its like superb but it really was just standard. The room was big and the location of the hotel was right in the city, walking distance from a lot of things. I had some free time the next morning and headed to the famous Syrian souk (forgot the name) which was ok I guess, not my style.

The airport was the biggest disappointment. Its old, small, unorganized, dirty and boring. But my Damascus stay wasn’t bad, I wouldn’t go there on a vacation but I didn’t mind passing through.

My escape from Lebanon was a long and adventurous one. Looking back at it now it was an interesting experience but while I was in the car on my way to the Syrian border it was a completely different story. I wasn’t afraid or anything but I really didn’t like the idea that at any moment the road will be blocked and I would have to turn back and cancel my whole trip.

The roads from Lebanon to Syria were randomly getting blocked with burning tires, rocks and sand mounds. There were a lot of taxis offering to take people to the border but none could guarantee you would get there because of the way roads were getting blocked randomly. I needed a “sure thing” and this is why one of my relatives hooked me up with this guy who managed to arrange a series of rides from one area to another until I finally got to Damascus.

The main theory behind changing cars after every area is that the drivers would be very familiar with the roads. So for example if I take a car with a guy who lives in the neighborhood, if one road is blocked he would know another way out and if that road is also blocked he would know another way. By the end of my journey I had taken 6 cars including one that was a van that carried fish! As you can see from the photos, we didn’t stay on the main roads or even the inside roads, we spent most of the time on muddy farmland trails.

The Syrian border I went to (Daboosiyeh) was pretty empty but thats because the roads to get to that border were all blocked. I had some friends who had left much earlier in the day and had gotten stuck at another Syrian border for over 6 hours. Nat did a great job in getting me a Jazeera Airlines ticket before they got sold out and then managed to find me a room in a hotel to stay in even though most hotels in Damascus were fully booked. Anyway I am back and its good to be back but I will be leaving again in a couple of days to Munich.

Doesn’t really show much since the heavy fighting started later in the evening. The machine gun fire has gotten louder outside my hotel room. I have the balcony door open so I can hear the outside sounds. So far I heard 2 stray bullets land on the street outside. I have no clue why the idiots are shooting skywards… [YouTube]

Thanks Saeed

I am back at my hotel now and I have the balcony door open. I can hear heavy machine gun fire outside but it isn’t close, its in the next neighborhood. My hotel is located in Achrafieh which is on the edge of the Christian area where everything is pretty much normal. The lobby is filled with tourists who I am guessing are freaked out with whats going on outside. This might sound weird but the machine gun fire outside is pretty soothing. I guess hearing the gun fire in the distance kinda keeps me in the loop with whats going on and the fact thats its not close by is assuring.

I just bought a Jazeera Airways ticket from Syria to Kuwait that leaves on Saturday since the Beirut airport is closed. I now need to find a cab that will take me to Syria. My biggest concern is that the main road to Syria is blocked so I have to take another longer road that will take me 5 hours! That’s a plane ride from Kuwait to London!

Looks like I am stuck in Beirut. The airport is closed and doesn’t look like its going to open anytime soon if anything it looks like there will be a war with hezbollah. Now I am going to try and leave Lebanon through Syria. Sucks.

As of this post the Beirut Airport is still closed because demonstrators have blocked all the roads leading to the airport. My flight is tomorrow so hopefully the airport will be open by then.

Varouj is an incredible Armenian restaurant located in a tight backstreet of Bourj Hammoud in Lebanon. The place is tiny on the inside with only 4 tables and the restaurant is run by a father and son, the son cooks while the father takes care of the guests. Anyone who’s watched the Seinfeld episode with the soup Nazi will feel right at home in Varouj because the father is Lebanon’s version of the soup Nazi.

What makes Varouj unique other than the really good food is the character of the father. We were five people having lunch and we were ordering the cold appetizers when the father decided we had enough appetizers and walked away. He wouldn’t let us order any more. Then when he felt it was time he came to us and asked us what hot dishes we wanted and while we were ordering he again told us that he thought we had enough and walked off. We wanted frogs for example but he refused telling us we already had enough dishes. Then later he even decided to cancel one of our other dishes. So we ordered frogs again and again but he kept telling us we didn’t need it. The table behind us called the father and told him they wanted some soujouk and makanek (kinds of sausages) and he told them not now later. Its crazy. He also wouldn’t remove a dish from the table unless it was wiped clean.

The food was delicious, we ordered: hommos, moutabal, fattoush, loubyeh, batata harra, labneh, tongue, spleen, kibeh neyeh, sheep balls, little birds, chicken liver, chicken wings, basterma, soujouk and makanek. All the dishes were the best I have ever tasted.

The way everything is priced is also interesting. Basically nothing is priced and there is no menu. You go in, you order what you want and in the end he will tell you how much you need to pay and you don’t even get a receipt. Our bill came out exactly 100$ but according to my friend if we had ordered less or more the bill would have still come out the same. If you are planning a trip to Lebanon this is a place you need to try if you want a taste of local cuisine. The best way to find the place is to ask a taxi driver in Bourj Hammoud to take you or give the father a call on 03-882933

I am starting to sound like an old beat up record. Tomorrow I am leaving to Beirut for work and I will be there for 10 days. I am staying at a different hotel this time around, one with better Internet access and one thats also in a better location. I think I have two more trips before the summer and then things should get back to normal.

A lot of you (like 99.9% of you) don’t like the sneakers I like and thats absolutely fine by me. But one thing I hope many of you will agree with me on is the fact that Foot Locker and Athletes Foot in Kuwait have the safest and dullest collection of sneakers imaginable. Walking into both those stores yesterday was depressing. After visiting my favorite sneaker stores in London like Size? and Offspring (Foot Patrol sadly closed down) Athletes Foot and Foot Locker both seemed dull, generic and PG rated.

My biggest regret from my London trip was not purchasing the Puma Disc Blaze sneakers. I can’t get them out of my head, kinda like Tara Reid’s boob at P. Diddy’s thirty-fifth birthday party. Its like driving by a car wreck, you don’t want to look but you really can’t help not looking and thats how those Puma’s were. On the bright side I did get the Adidas Oddity’s which I posted about in November.

I don’t mind the local stores selling safe sneakers for the mass, in the end they need to make money and they won’t be able to without catering to the large public. But how about a little corner for the people who want something more than just a white sneaker with 3 black stripes?

Anyway I took some pictures of various sneakers I saw at Offspring which I wanted to share with my readers below. As you can see colorful weird sneakers are something of the norm in London. Visiting a sneaker store in London will actually help you understand and appreciate the London 2012 Olympics logo.

The picture above is of the outside of my favorite Size? store which is located on Neal Street. Offspring’s most popular location probably is the one inside of Selfridges.

One of the places I was looking forward to visiting while I was in London is the hummingbird bakery. Some say that most of the cupcake stores in Kuwait were based on the hummingbird bakery, that might be true but I haven’t tried their cupcakes. My main reason for visiting the hummingbird bakery is for their Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake which is just incredible. Sadly there are only two hummingbird bakeries in London so there is very little chance that a branch will open up in Kuwait. If you ever visit London make sure you pass by the hummingbird bakery and then make sure you visit Ben’s Cookies for the best cookies in London.

After finishing work today I decided to walk along the river past the London Eye. I actually thought I was walking back to the hotel but only after around an hour walk did I realize I was actually heading the wrong way. As I was about to turn back I noticed an interesting looking bridge in the distance. Turned out it was the Millennium Bridge which I had seen in pictures before. Its a pedestrian bridge that stretches out across the River Thames and it looks really futuristic because of its low profile. I took the picture above before I got on the bridge and the one below from the bridge.

Here are links to better pictures I found on Flickr.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

Just checked into my room awhile ago. The subway ride was pretty long but comfortable and interesting. My room faces Oxford Street which is pretty cool.

I’m leaving to London early morning tomorrow and coming back Saturday. Most of my posts the next couple of days will probably be from my phone since I am not sure yet if I am going to be taking my laptop.