have you ever visited the Lebanon?

Has anyone ever served in an army that invaded the Lebanon?

that's part of the attraction of the town - drinking a sundowner while staring at a poster of the Ayatollah.

hitchhiking is easy.

given how cheap cross country buses are we never tried this.

oh and this funny castle that some kooky guy built for his high school sweetheart and he put a bunch of audio animatronics inside.

that's Musa Castle! I really wanted to visit but never got round to it. bah.

where did you stay in beirut? i ended up in some guesthouse above a car wash with this volkswagen hanging off the roof.

In Beirut we stayed in these student apartments near the American University. It was cheap and nice enough and recommendable for those on a budget. I will try and remember its name. We used to stroll into Hamra and go for a nightcap in the Cafe Modca, which has since closed down.

Apart from the Hotel Palmyra (which is the best hotel in the world) we didn't stay anywhere outside Beirut.

oh just go! the war ended 16 years ago, the country is entirely safe to visit. You will have a great time.

I liked the sound of the one that was built in a former massacare site where the seats are all coffins. BO18 or something like that.

DV, I think this has to do more with the fact that Alex and his wife are about to bring a fire honourer into the world in two months.

Yeah! Just ask the Human League!

If you want to be old school, you should go to Hamra in West Beirut and see if Café de Paris is still open. Centreville has sucked a lot of the life out of Hamra, so it may be gone, but I recommend looking for it.

Walimat is very nice restaurant in Hamra. You would also be a fool not to relax at a café/restaurant/bar combo on the Corniche some evening.

If you spend any time at all in Lebanon, I really really recommend Baalbek. The ruins there are perhaps the most impressive things I have ever seen.

Did you go to any clubs in Beirut?

Incidentally, did any Lebanese people you talked to insist that you go to the Jeita Grotto caves? We went there eventually to shut them up.

but YES! it does really have an animatronic model of the guy as a boy being spanked by the teacher who said he would never be rich enough to own his own castle! then i got a picture taken with the kooky old man.

it's worth a return trip to lebanon, i'd say. not really, but if you're in the area again.

Jeita was much mentionned but we ran out of time so had to skip it. Same thing for the Casino du Liban, which I really wanted to check out.

was that yer man who owned the castle? rock.

There is meant to be some wax museum in the nearby village where some guy has taken it upon himself to recreate gruesome scenes from Lebanon's history (particularly focussing on bizarre events that took place up there in the Chouf), did you see that?

Were either of you in the Byblos Fishing Club restaurant? Is Pepe The Pirate still alive?

everywhere I went was much more sedate.

Were there any other diners when you were there? We dined alone. This was a recurring experience... I think the Lebanese eat out at four in the morning or something.

The Jeita Grotto was interesting, but sure you can get caves anywhere. We shunned the Casion on the same basis, but we seemed to spend a lot of our time going past it. Apparently Miss Universe was held there a couple of years ago. Everyone was very proud of this.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/middle_east/article6916787.ece

pretty good article.

I may be going in May!