The Road To Ruins

The plane touched down at 4am, seven hours later than scheduled.  I had flown from Dubai to Beirut, then back again after ridiculously bad fog had made it impossible to land.  No sooner had the pilot got the wheels down on the tarmac back in the UAE came the announcement that after re-fueling we would be trying it again.  Luckily I had had the row of seats to myself so I was able to lie down during the flight and get a little bit of rest.

By the time I got through passport control and out of the airport I was ready to crash.  I jumped in a taxi and instructed the driver to take me to the hostel I had earmarked for my stay.  I had intended to Couchsurf in Beirut, but a late cancellation and numerous no replies left me resigned to conventional accommodation.  Upon arrival at the hostel, I was informed that there was no room for me for the remainder of the night and I got a similar response from two other places nearby.  I was willing to fork out on a mid-range hotel for the night just to get some sleep and get my bearings during the day.  It was not to be as after 45 minutes of walking around the area I didn't stumble across a single hotel.  It was after 5am and everywhere was deserted except for a few hole-in-the-wall bars that were still in full swing.  My body refused to countenance going for a beer at that moment so I went back to one of the hostels to beg for a bit of floor space.  The night watchman opened the door further to reveal that every bit of the floor space had already been taken.  There would be a bed available at noon, I was informed.  Back on the street, a 4x4 pulled over and a ridiculously attractive girl poked her head out of the window and asked if I was looking for a ride.  Hot girl, 5.30am, offering a guy a ride?  I took a peek at the driver and saw it was a guy who knew how to handle himself and that accepting her offer was only going to lead to two possible outcomes; she was a working girl, or this was a Honey Trap and I'd find myself in a bath of ice with my kidneys removed.  I politely declined.  My last hope was to find a park bench and catch a few hours sleep on it until daylight fully broke.  It was easy enough to find, except that there was already a cop sitting on it.  After ascertaining where I was from and that, yes, I did like football, I pumped him for some information.  A thought struck me and with a few simple instructions ringing in my ears from the rather nice cop (makes a change on my travels) I found myself in a mini-van out of Beirut.

That was how I found myself spending my first day in Lebanon not in Beirut as I had thought, but in Baalbek, a town in the Beqaa Valley about 85km northeast of the capital.  The Beqaa Valley is better known for two things; growing a lot of hashish and opium poppies, and being the heartland of Hezbollah.  However, I was on my way to the place the Greeks called 'the city of the Sun.'  The ride through the Valley was pleasant enough with small villages and towns passing by and the snowy peaks of the mountains flanking the road.  It took me back to Central Asia except here the roads were paved and at no point did I feel like the van would go crashing into a ravine at 100km/hr.  A constant feature also unlike Kyrgyzstan along the road was the presence of police and military checkpoints with guys armed with AK-47s (OK, I have no idea if that's what they were carrying, but if Hollywood has taught me anything, then all Arabs and Commies tote Kalashnikovs, right?).

I arrived in Baalbek, no longer tired but excited to be on the road again.  It had been a while since my last little trip anywhere and it was nice to be exploring somewhere new again.  I had some pastry with cheese filling for breakfast and washed it down with some chai before sauntering over to the reason I was there; the well-preserved Roman ruins.

As a testament to Roman power and wealth, four giant temples were built on this site to honour Jupiter, Venus, Bacchus and Mercury (though the one to Mercury was built at a location separate from the other three).  As these ruins have been particularly well-preserved, it is easy to get a real feel of history and what the place was like 2000 years ago.  The sheer size of the temples, stones and trilithons are mind-bogglingly huge and, much like the Pyramids in Egypt, still leave a debate about how such feats of engineering were achieved so quickly with the tools at their disposal.  Halfway through my walk around and caught in my own thoughts, I was approached by the second nice cop of the day, who offered to be my guide free of charge.  He didn't speak much English, but I think he was just looking for some company as I imagine 'Ruins Guard Duty' is not exactly taxing work.  Up on higher ground, it was wonderful to see the mountains in the background and marvel at location.  I'm a sucker for ruins and mountains.

After taking another mini-van back to Beirut, I managed to check in to a hotel and hit a couple of bars with two Swedish guys who had also just arrived.  It wasn't how I had planned to spend my first day in Lebanon, but it turned out for the best.