Games Up

Our last morning in Damascus - how would we spend it?  In the Bazaar, of course!  One of the main handicrafts in Damascus is inlaid wood work.  There are many beautiful jewelry boxes and furniture pieces made from many different types and colours of wood which have been cleverly mastered to fit together.  I had my eye on a board games table which folded out from a slim side board to a card table.  The salesman told us that it would come apart into two pieces which would in total weight 10 kg and one piece would even be small enough for hand luggage on the plane.

Apart from the stones which I had been collecting along the way and the odd souvenir, we knew that between us, we were 10 kg under the total allowed weight.  It seemed do-able!

After bargaining the "best" price it was organised for the packaged table to be delivered to our hotel just in time for our departure to the airport.  This occurred about 15 minutes late and the packages seemed slightly larger than what I recalled hand luggage was supposed to be.

Arriving at the airport, we tried to check in our two suitcases and the two pieces of table (as we were advised that the table pieces would certainly not be allowed as hand luggage).  After some discussion and dubious looks, we were allowed through and took our places on the flight to Abu Dhabi.

A three hour flight and we were in Abu Dhabi and catching the bus to Dubai.  After about an hour, we passed some landmarks which told us that we were nearing the centre of Dubai.

Lebanon!!!

After much to-ing and fro-ing about crossing the border to Lebanon, we made the decision to take the risk and visit Beirut for the day.  After all, catastrophes only occurred just we left a place - floods in Brisbane, the rioting in Egypt and then the government sacked in Jordan.  Beirut had had riots the week before but we had been assured that things had settled down.

We hired, Ali, a Lebanese man to drive us there and back.  The news reports from Beirut were accusing Syria of secretly running the Lebanese government.  Just to be sure that our car was not stoned, we had opted for a Lebanese numberplated car.  About a 45 minute drive from central Damascus and we reached the border with Lebanon.  After hopping in an out of the car at various checkpoints, we were finally in Lebanon.

Stopping in a village to change money, we were surrounded by beggars demanding money before we even tried to get out of the car.  Their hands were all over the windows.  It was hard to even get out but we eventually made it in and out of the money changers unharmed.

The drive soon became a journey through a snowy mountainous region and plenty of the cedar trees for which Lebanon is famous.

Arriving in Beirut, everything seemed like a normal big city - no burning cars or bomb damaged buildings. There was plenty of construction going on and reasonably heavy traffic and some crazy drivers - but after Cairo, it did not seem as bad as the descriptions we had been given.  Heading for the seaside, we were able to get an indication of how far along the coast this city reached.  Beirut is built along the coastline and up into the high hills which rise quickly from the sea.

We took a drive up to a catholic church with large statue of Mary and great view over the city.  On reaching the gates of the church, there was a military checkpoint (of which we had seen many since crossing the border).  We were ordered out of the car, questioned and our bags searched. The car was checked thoroughly for radio signals and bombs underneath.  Proving that we had no sinister motive, we were allowed in and got a great view of Beirut before sunset.

Road Trip

Taking a local bus, we travelled for four hours from Aleppo back to Damascus.