Category: Travel

I just came back from dinner. It was great, I went to a place called Roadster with 6 hot chicks (including Nat) and I was the only guy. Really cool.

Tomorrow we are coming back to Kuwait. I can’t wait since Kuwait is more my home then Lebanon is. At the moment I feel like a tourist here living out of my suitcase… which is actually true so I can’t wait to get back to my own home and my own car.

I didn’t take as many pictures as I was hoping to. Nat bought 6 DV tapes before we left and we managed to use only 10 minutes from the first tape. I took only a handful of pictures with my digital camera while I managed to finished 2 rolls of medium format film using my Holga. For some reason taking pictures and video wasn’t on our to do list.

This I believe is my last post from Lebanon, hopefully the next one will be from Kuwait.

I was walking in this shopping district in Lebanon when I thought I spotted a Sony PSP in the display of one shop. On closer inspection it turned out to be a fake PSP surrounded by a Fake Nintendo DS and fake iPods. Click on the link for a picture of the display. [Picture]

One of Nats friends here in Lebanon has a Great Dane called Hugo. He looks like a motherfucker.

Awhile ago me and Nat drove up the mountain a bit to check out the snow and fuck was I shocked. There was A LOT of fucking snow, like a lot more then I had expected and imagined. I don’t remember a Christmas where there was this much snow by now. I got up to Faytroun an area before the ski slopes in Faraya and I had to turn back because the car was starting to slide and slip. I took some pictures though and video, the temperature was minus one. I will try to get the video online but here are the pictures:

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

Update: Here is the video, you probably need quicktime to view it. [MPEG 1.8MB]

Yesterday morning it was five degrees celcius where we are staying at. On my way down to sea level I saw cars coming down from higher up the mountain with snow on their roofs. Its tradition that when it first starts snowing in your area you pile up as much snow as you can on the roof of your car and drive around like that as a way of informing people down below that its snowing up in the mountains where you live.

All of Lebanon seems to have the flu. I think the sudden change from its hot enough to wear a tshirt to its cold enough to store your frozen goods on the balcony has caught many people by surprise. Nat is sick and I am not, but I think thats going to change today. I feel it coming.

Note to self: Chivas Regal will not give me a hangover.

I drank more than half a bottle yesterday night and I woke up early today morning without a headace. First time that ever happens.

I was in the supermarket with Nataly when we were passing the alcohol section and I told her that if I lived in Lebanon I would have a huge bar in my apartment and draft beer. Just as I finished my sentence I saw the most amazing thing. A mini Heineken keg!!!! Fucking rocks, 5 Liters of fucking draft beer for only KD5! ($15). I quickly got one and its now sitting in my room infront of me. I would open it and start drinking now but I am worried I would be too drunk to go out later tonight. I vote this mini keg the best invention of the decade! Now if only I can figure out how to sneak one of these into Kuwait, its fucking heavy!

I got a really cool book today called The Polaroid Book. I haven’t opened the package yet so I don’t know hows the book inside. I just really love the books package and I am afraid to open it. Looking at the reviews on Amazon it seems other readers also didn’t want to open the package. I guess I will just keep the book closed until I get bored of the package and then tear it open.

Today for lunch we went up higher into the mountains where the weather was freezing cold. There was a slight drizzle but sadly no snow.. yet. According to the weather forecast it will start snowing in the next few days. I did catch a glimpse of a snow covered mountain top which was good to see. Its only Day 2 here but it feels like day 20, I have managed to get so much done in these 2 days its unbelievable.

Just woke up with my first hangover in like 3 years. I was to drunk to drive yesterday so Nat drove me home. I could have driven its just that Nat has been nagging me to drive the car and i figured its a lot safer in the middle of the night when no one is on the road lol. I love Alcohol!!!!!

I past by Virgin tonight. Two different Virgins actually, the main large branch and another smaller one. Virgin here is way different then in Kuwait. They actually have cool stuff here, better music, way better books and their DVD section is fucking huge. Even the smaller branch I went to tonight had a foreign movie section divided by countries! Virgin Kuwait is way larger then Virgin Lebanon but they size doesn’t matter in this case.

The weather in Lebanon has been great so far. Its been raining and cloudy and freezing ass cold, today its a lot colder then yesterday. I went and got my rental car, a black Peugot 307. Its pretty cool, in Kuwait my sister has one but it looks ugly, here it looks great. Lebanon does this to cars, it makes them all look great. In Kuwait even if you have a porsche it looks normal, here a Porsche sparkles and shines. Its weird, there are a ton of cars I would love to own here like a VW Golf or a Ford Explorer which I wouldn’t want to own in Kuwait. Oh and guess what.. I haven’t seen a single Mitsubishi Pajero nor a Toyota Prado since I arrived! There is also no sand or dust! I love it here so far.

The picture above is the view from the balcony where I am staying.

I went to the supermarket today and stepped into the alcohol isle. Its fucking amazing! I really miss it. I got 2 bottles of red wine (Chateu Kefraya), 1 bottle of white wine (ksara blanche de blanche), 2 bottles of Ballentines Whisky (my favorite) and 1 bottle of vodka (stoyshka or something, the cheapest and the best). I also got munchies and a whole bunch of other crap. Final price like KD20. Thats like half the price of one bottle of alcohol in Kuwait.

I arrived to Lebanon today noon. The flight was amazing, very comfortable, few people on board, great service and best of all I sat in row 4. More details on my Jazeera experience later. I am now trying to find a car to rent, so far I think I am going to get a black Peugot 307 for like $40 a day. The weather is great here, its cold, raining and dark. Nat wants me to get off the web now and not post while I am on vacation but that will not happen. Tonight we are going out to drink and party. I already started drinking during lunch but I was just warming up for tonight.

Note: I am on dialup someone shoot me!

I got a new Eastpak backpack called the Little Beaver. Its from the Breakaway series made specially for traveling. Its made for people who go on short business trips because there is room to put clothes in it. I currently don’t have any clothes in my backpack but I do have the following:

– iPod Video
– Sony PSP
– Shure E2 earphones
– Sennheiser PX100 headphones
– Parker black pen
– Nikon D70
– Holga
– 4 rolls of film
– My eastpak camera bag (yes bag in a bag)
– Power adapters and cables for the ipod and psp
– passports, cash and other documents
– Wired Issue 13.12

For pictures of the bag [click here]
The bag cost me KD32 and I purchased it from Eastpak in Salmiya opposite Marina Mall.
With all the stuff above there is still a ton of room left!