Baalbek

The local IESC guys and my students have been so welcoming and keep inviting me out to dinner or to bars or to visit various places around Beirut and beyond. I was talking to a student, Walid Chdid, about Baalbek - a town in the Beqaa Valley that has a monster Roman temple that I was very keen to visit. But I'd been told the Beqaa Valley is a Hezbollah stronghold and perhaps it's not the best time to visit.

Walid thought it'd be fine and volunteered to drive me there on the weekend. The temple complex at Baalbek is seriously amazing and there was absolutely no-one there. In fact, when we arrived the locals who usually sold things to tourists came out of nowhere and started giving me stuff - I couldn't not accept it - I have 2 Hezbollah t-shirts, some of their training videos and little trinkets. I managed to pay for a hat and some postcards.

We met Walid's brother for an enormous lunch on the way back to Beirut.

We also drove past a lot of evidence of the 2006 war with Israel. There was an Israeli tank on a pedestal as you drove into the town of Baalbek and there were bomb damaged bridges that we couldn't drive across so had to take the old road down and up to get across the valley.

Update: Nov 2009, tragically Walid died in a hunting accident. Terrible - he was a really lovely, gentle bloke - thanks Walid.