Goodbye beautiful Lebanon I will miss you ktir ktir

My last night in Beirut and I went to the 10pm session of "Where do we go now?", the new Nadine Labaki film from "Caramel" fame. Wonderful. It was in Arabic with French subtitles so it was linguistically challenging and kept me on my toes. Now what was it about again! The cinema was packed on a Monday night. Gonna miss this place.

I have experienced Hezbollah strongholds of yellow flags in the Bekka Valley, fantastic food, Palestinan camps with people still yearning for a country most have never even been too, police and army checks, luxury car dealerships and clothing shops that makes 'international Sydney' appear rural, beach resorts, mountain villages with huge homes paid for by the diaspora and most of all warm and friendly people who were always helpful even if they were ready to run you off the road or just run you over.

I would not even hazard a guess as to the immediate future of this pocket sized country surrounded by neighbours only too willing to stick their nose into the local affairs. But with 5000 years of history the show will go on. What a fastastic place.

Only thing left to do now is to collect Zac at spooky Charles Helou bus station, go out for a great lunch and grab a dilapidated Mercedes taxi to the airport and begin the long, tedious trip back to Australia.

And then it is all over.

Last remaining days

In the beginning the unrelenting newsness made for something like blindness. Three years, a dozen or more books on Middle East and Lebanese politics, discussions and dvds on Islam, studying the Arabic language and weeks traveling and now it is all drawing to a close.

Today looking for a something to read at the local book shop I unthinkingly walked past the Middle East section and the Robert Fisks and bought a Kate Grenville. My mind is ready to move.

Last afternoon at the yacht club pool, surrounded by million dollar boats, under a solid blue sky and a temperature that has hovered around the 30C each day I have been here. Only when in the mountains does it get a little cooler. The pool was busy with Lebanese and Europeans the colour of kelpis applying more oil to already over coloured skin and laying under the full sun. While I have taken on all the years of skin cancer warnings and lay on a sun lounge under a huge umberella. I will miss Mediterranean pools with full bar and food service.