- Day 5 E-Mail & Photo Sampler -
Baalbek - Bekaa Valley and environs
it must be Sunday, a lot of the towns are shut down. Lebanon has a pretty observant Christian community and things were real quiet today. made it very nice. we took our first organized tour today, Nakhal Tours of Lebanon's tour east to the Bekaa Valley. after yesterday, this was a welcome break. nice small group, only two other people. French lady from London who was retired, on a whim called up her old boyfriend from 1956 who is Lebanese and was touring the country for a week and visiting him and his family. other was a young Parisian lady working w/ an NGO helping people who are deaf and cannot speak (but are not dumb!). Guide and driver rounded out the group.
stopped quickly at the war memorial, is a concrete structure with tanks, antiaircraft guns and other huge implements of war cast together so they cannot be used. drove over the hill into the Bekaa Valley. Is a fabulous breadbasket area. facing similar problems to CA central valley. crops can be imported cheaper than they can be grown here and farmers cannot make a living. from the number of housing complexes we saw being built it appears the solution is the same also, build houses on the some of the world's greatest farmland.
was interesting to see the nomads who perform the migrant farm labor here. not the Bedu (Bedouins)! they are considered gypsies and also perform fortune telling and other hocus pocus. they live in square felt sided tents that look nothing so much like a cardboard shack.
stopped at a very nice little ruin, Anjar, before getting to Baalbek, the granddaddy of roman whatsits. was a nice little walk around, resident gate kitten let me scritch his ears.
on to Baalbek and only word is WOW! a few of the pictures may show the size of it, but they do not even begin. have attached a few pictures that may help. is amazing the level of detail in the stuff at the site.
after Baalbek on to lunch at a streamside restaurant. was quite an experience, had a spandex clad horde (six?) of mountain bikers clicking through. was a bumper car and train rides for the kids, quite a festival atmosphere. was about 3 pm and they were just starting to warm up, would be getting crazy tonight. i tried arak with my lunch, was like drinking liquid licorice. as was taking pictures lady came up and started speaking, she was a French teacher, very limited English, but very sweet, was there with her niece, cute little creature about 4 with blond hair and was very shy. Lebanese are a very fair featured people, as well as being exceedingly attractive. interesting the comparison to the Syrians. the Lebanese can tell a Syrian by looks and have gathered impression they do not care too much for them in general, i guess it is because Syria still occupies them...
on to the winery. interesting story, Roman tunnels found by priests, they use it to store their wine making fruits. Bekaa grows a great deal of grapes. in WW1 they shelter local people by having them extend roman grottos beyond their 2km original depth. no-one knows what the Romans used them for ...
back to Beirut, road takes us along the famed 'green line' get to see interesting juxtaposition of bombed out buildings and rebuilt new stuff. but what really broke my heart was some of the ancient business and mansions, things that you would be thrown in jail for breaking a lintel of in Berkeley, shot all to hell. this country was really torn by the war and is just beginning to heal and the scars are amazing when you get to see some of what was destroyed.
tired, dad sleeping, off to Damascus tomorrow ...
SEE DAY 5 PHOTO ALBUM FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS DAY.