Travel to Beirut

(I will go back to Beirut in October 2010 and update this article!)

My first travel to the Lebanon was in 1992. The country was just beginning to get better after a long civil war (1975 to 1990) – and everybody told us we were crazy to go there! We were mostly in a town up in the Chouf mountains and only spent one afternoon in Beirut. While the smaller towns in the mountains barely had any traces of the war left, Beirut was a depressing sight: The entire hotel district and the old center had been bombed to pieces and the buildings that were still standing were covered with shooting holes all over.

Since then I had been curious for years to see how Beirut had changed – and in May 2004 I finally went there for a week. What a difference 12 years later! Although there were still some ruins from the war, the town has been rebuilt, especially in the center. Luckily they did not just build new concrete towers but instead decided to renovate the buildings in the Souk area and around the Place de l’Etoile in their original style from the 1920ies with the local yellow stone.

At the moment the houses still look somewhat sterile, but in a few years they will fully show the charme of their French/Oriental mixed style.

There is still a lot of construction work going on, not only for flats and offices but also churches and mosques that very often stand just beside each other.

Outside of the center, the buildings and streets don’t look very different from other towns in the Middle East – but a bit cleaner.

Clearly unique for a Middle Eastern capital is the pedestrian zone around the Place de l’Etoile in the center. It feels like being in a Southern European country with one street café next to the other and people strolling through the streets in the evening. If only it wasn’t for the smoke of the shishas...

Besides some good looking waiters, every café has some employees who are there to prepare water-pipes for the guests. And it’s not just one shisha per table but per person! Also a lot of women smoke them. On a late evening during the weekend when all the places are occupied, you hardly see anything through all the smoke over the tables!

Generally, the local restaurants are a bit cheaper (even the posh ones) than foreign chanes like Häagen Dasz. My Tipp: Order fresh fruit juices, delicious!

The streets here turn into catwalks at night. The women like tight clothes and big hair. But even wearing a head scarve doesn’t prevent them from wearing fashionable clothes and shoes with really high heels! General dress code: Chic for the evening. There’s no such thing as "overdressed" in Beirut – but if you walk around in sloppy clothes you will stick out in a bad way.

And if they’re not doing the "see and be seen" around the center, they go shopping! Actually, a lot of shops in this region only open around 08:00 PM and stay open until after midnight! If you like extravagant clothes and accessories, you are well served in the boutiques around Place de l’Etoile. At the moment, fake (but not very cheap) Dior shoes and handbags are very popular. I bought about 5 pairs of shoes which is a good turnout even for me!

Of course you can also go shopping during the day, for example in the shops along Hamra street. They are a little less glamorous but you will really find one shop next to the other. Prices are on a European level though.

Even more shopping? Around the Souks. This is not a covered bazar but an area with renovated buildings. If you need your supply of original luxury goods (and the according prices), you can have a look around Aïshti.

Most of the restaurants here only serve food or drinks after noon, even the roof terrace of Virgin Megastore that is definitely worth a visit (but not cheap!). The toilets are often very stylish and clean.

If you have spent enough money, go for a walk on the Corniche. This is the long street along the shore. It’s where you will find a lot of hotels and some "beach clubs" that have swimming pools but no beaches – but cost a fortune!

The public beach ist not very clean. Here and on the rocks closer to the city center you will only see men swimming and sunbathing.

But on the Corniche itself people of every age and gender go walking, jogging or bicycling, especially on Sundays. I rented a bike twice to ride up and down. The bicycle rentals are very busy on weekends – but many Lebanese are not very used to riding and prefer to do some rounds on the big space by the rental that serves as parking lot through the week.

Beirut by Night

In the center and around Monot street you can find various nice restaurants that serve delicious Lebanese food for a reasonable price. But most people here don’t eat dinner before 9 PM. Some places also offer a program with live musicians and dancers put their number has decreased lately due to the bad economical situation of the country. Some of the restaurants that had been recommended to me have reduced or stopped their evening entertainment.

One of the centrally situated nightclubs where you can watch live musicians and a dancer along with your food is the Awtar. As usual in the Middle East, people take along their children even after 11 PM! But it’s best to arrive towards midnight when the band and singer start.

When I was there, some of the guests were also groups of (very fashionable) women. And I was the only women in flat shoes while all the others were wearing dangerously high stilettos!

From time to time some people got up to dance to the live music, so of course I had to join them and shake a little myself. Apparently two elderly men liked my dancing a lot because one of them brought an artichoke to my table afterwards – he had asked for a flower, but didn’t get one, so the closest thing to a flower available was this artichoke.

At around 1:30 AM appeared the dancer Bassema. Her show was about half an hour long and like a typical Lebanese she danced on high heels. Her style was very lively and included a lot of accents and hair tossing.

She also did a part with a stick that she used mainly to walk through the tables and get up people to dance with her for a few moments.

My second expedition brought be to a small valley north of Beirut into one of the best known restaurants, the Nahr El Founoun. Its entry is styled like a village place and has various little shops. In a boutique right by the door they sell used costumes of the restaurant’s dancers for about $ 100 – 250 (the only time that I saw costumes in a shop).

One of the walls in the restaurant is made out of glass - I guess they will open it in the Summer, as well as the ceiling. Behind the glass there are some ancient arches in the valley wall that are illuminated as kind of a background decoration.

A standard in the restaurants seem to be to have an oud player and percussionist before the big show starts.

Even though I was there alone I was served 12 plates and bowls of mezze. They really filled the table and I would not know where they would have placed more persons! It was impossible to eat it all – especially since I was served a plate with 3 kinds of meats later on.

Most of the other guests were large groups of families or men. The entertainment program was quite impressing. First they had a band playing alone, then with a singer.

After midnight performed Baheia, a young, pretty dancer that lacked a bit of expression, especially in the beginning.

She was followed by a singer who did mostly Dabke songs which inspired the guests for a little dance or two.

One of the highlights was the dancer Suha Al Malak. Not too young but attractive and blessed with an ample cleavage. She did a long, really good show during which she not only used veil and cane but also stood on a darabukka to do some very long shimmies.

Another possibility to spend the nights in Beirut are the various clubs, mainly on Monot street. But since I was very busy with dance lessons during the day I couldn’t bring myself to visiting one. It’s definitely on my list for next time!

Dance classes

On some days I had an agenda like a manager. Relax? Not in Beirut! One of my goals was to learn as much as possible, mostly I did 2 to 3 hours a day. I booked one of the teachers for 2 hours a day and really profited of it. I guess I have never learned so much choreography in such short time. I even had to practice in my hotel room in the mornings to be able to keep up!

Besides private lessons I also joined open classes in a dance school.
If you want to know more about all this, have a look at my detailed address list.

Other Information

The two most used currencies are the Lebanese Pound and US Dollars. Calculation is easy: 1500 £ = 1 $.

There’s an Internet café at Virgin Megastore for 2 $ per hour. There are other, cheaper Internet places, unfortunately their connections are quite slow sometimes.

European electronics don’t need an adapter, I could load my camera without problems.

Prices for taxis vary a lot. There are no taxameters, so discuss the price BEFORE you get into the taxi. Don’t pay more than 5000 £ in town. There is a minibus called "Service” but not always when you need one… A longer journey will cost you 500 – 1000 £.

If you are not sure about an address (for example if you go to dance lessons) let the receptionist call there and write down directions in Arabic for the taxi driver.

Most people speak French and/or English. People of the educated classes like to throw in some words of these languages into their conversations. Some of the younger generation were born outside of the country during the civil war and have come here later. But there are also those who are French/English educated. In most shops French is the preferred language after Arabic.

Well, and in October I will go to Beirut again! So look forward to updates to this article…