Cedars

Hama (Syria) --> Tripoli --> Bcharré (and Les Cèdres) --> Byblos (and Jounieh) --> Beirut (with daytrips to Sidon, Tyre, Baalbeck, Beiteddine Palace and Deir al-Qamar) --> Damascus (Syria)

Lebanon is a genuine east meets west country. It looks more modern and funkier than the obvious comparison, Syria: better roads, newer cars, people dressing a little sharper. However it still has that Middle Eastern / Medeterranian feel and has its fair share of castles and Roman all squeezed into a wee strip of land; if sea and mountains are your bag then go to Lebanon. It also has lots of soldiers on the streets (and in Beirut private security guards too) not just strolling around with their guns but often sitting on their armoured vehicles at key intersections.

Which, initial shock aside, means guaranteed safety. It also means tourist hassle due to checkpoints and armed people in uniform getting twitchy about which building you point your camera at (I was stopped just three times for this transgression).

Also, for reasons completely unknown (perhaps just luck), the clouds which had shrouded my route through Syria for the last week suddenly lifted for the entire duration of my two weeks in Lebanon.

I started in Tripoli, a small but bustling port town, and spent my time soaking up some true winter sunshine, a highly recommended pastry shop (which also does amazing ice cream too) and enjoying somewhere different. It was noticeable that some buildings had Sarajevo-esque shrapnel and gun damage on their facades but that's surely a trivial issue.

After Tripoli I headed to the town of Bcharré high in the hills south east of Tripoli. Basically it's a small and on a mountain and - of much more interest to me - very close to Les Cèdres, a ski field very close to the remains of a cedar forest dating back to Biblical times (but which nowadays seems to comprise about three cedar trees). I spent one day skiing in between falling over but still enjoyed myself immensely.

Heading to Beirut, I stopped at the delightful little town of Byblos - ancient trading post with Egypt and Greece (guess where the cedars went), home of the modern alphabet, and where Mary's family live (and they put me up and put up with me :) for three nights). I passed the days pottering around Byblos and going up the teleferique at Jounieh.

On then to Beirut and I can honestly say that this was the only place in Lebanon that I didn't take a liking to: more soliders than they know what to do with, lots of cranes and building sites, a "shopping street" that looked positively rural, a city centre that was barren because of the security and tourist highlights which include two large rocks.

However Beirut is still the beating heart of Lebanon and it's very easy to get to and from there to pretty much any other place in Lebanon within a few hours. So I used to it get to the ancient Roman city of Baalbeck, with its monsterous Temple of Bacchus, Beiteddine Palace, Sidon and Tyre; all of which make for excellent daytrips and are worth visiting.

You'd also think that with the all this security around the obvious thing to do would be to carry your passport with you at all times. At. All. Times. However, always keen to thumb my nose at authority, I never did. Not until the day the minivan taking me to Sidon was pulled over for a spot check and the only person without an ID to show was me. I explained (with a local interpreting) that it was back at my hotel in Beirut (which it was). He gets me to step out of the minivan. After repeating me story he lets me on and some soldiers in the minivan made the point to me (through my interpreter) that he could have arrested me. Clearly he's a pleastant chap then.

Some days later, armed with my passport this time, my minibus is pulled over again. Naturally I thrust my passport right at the soldier who's doing the check - he, however, gives it the most cursory glance ... not even long enough to read any of the information - and then spends his time laughing and joking with the young ladies in the front seat. Bastard.

So, with Lebanon finished I headed to Syria to see the bits I had skipped the first time.