Exploring Beirut, Lebanon – An Overwhelming Experience
yeah the colors are
amazing hello I’m James and this is the
winging it travel podcast in 2023 I
spent a year traveling the world with my
girlfriend
Emma join me as I take a look back over
our epic trip and remember to like And
subscribe to keep up with our adventure
hello and welcome to this week’s episode
I joined a tour with vagon 100 Rota
which is a tour operator out of Portugal
and they have small group tours of
Lebanon and it’s run by the local guide
Jiao salso and for this episode I am
showcasing Beirut let’s get stuck in I
decided to fly two nights before the
tour starts and I got picked up at the
airport by a guy called hassin it’s
going to be a popular name in this
episode he told me all about the stuff I
should know about beay and why he loves
the place he dropped me off at the Grand
mesmos Hotel which is situated on Gord
Street which is very close to the port
area which you may have heard of and I
instantly love the hosle vibe great
rooms Wi-Fi drinks and food and a very
nice place to start my trip in Lebanon
one thing to note here is the exchange
rate on the street it can vary between
100,000 and 150,000 to 1 so make sure
you bring cash and dollars but you can
exchange for that street value at a
hostel or hotel so I got $50 worth and
went down out to G Street which had
trendy Western cafes and bars and I
plugged myself in urban Easter for
coffee and brunch for the rest of the
evening I waited for Francisco who owns
the tour group to come in with his group
and Ja was part of that too and I got to
meet Angela Santos who goes by blonde
around the world and is a Creator friend
of mine online and we had great laughs
great drinks and great food a very
pleasant evening the day after was not
an official day of the tour but a few of
us were at the hostel early so we
decided to head out into Beirut and Jiao
joined us for a pre-tour tour of Beirut
and there are a few stragglers from the
seral tour such as petro and Jose and
straight away as we set off to explore I
could see the devastation from the port
explosion many years ago a lot of the
buildings have not been repaired the
ones that had probably had money so they
could repair themselves but as we know
the locals got no help from the
government and as you can see here this
huge building was a government building
and that was immediately abandoned so if
they’re not going to help their own
buildings they’re not going to help
other people’s either and as you can see
instantly the artwork on the walls will
showcase the Lebanese thoughts on the
current situation with that Port
explosion and we then started to stroll
along Garo seeing the artwork and colors
of bay rout and then we walked along the
Port Road called Charles Halo and you
can see the real destruction in the
distance there in the background and you
can’t imagine the force that this
created when exploded a few years ago
and one of the strongest non-nuclear
explosions to date
[Music]
one of the main attractions in Beirut is
the Muhammad Al Amin mosque which sits
there in all its Glory so Grand and
impressive in Mar Square where you’ll
see lots of statues and we even got a
chance to pop inside after the prayers
had finished this is not normally
allowed but Jiao had some contact in
there who allowed Us in for a couple of
minutes and just look at this
spectacular and peaceful view in here
look at those colors a part of this tour
is going into areas not recommended by
the tourist or government websites our
tour guy Jiao had a lot of connections
and we were safe to go pretty much
anywhere we want so the first place we
went to was called bachur This is next
to the digital Nomad and American
University area and it’s kind of known
from being a bit Dangerous by the
Lebanese but we went straight into there
and we had lunch at H’s Cafe and despite
Hussein being a Shia Muslim he was very
happy to help people eat their food for
lunch and offer drinks and alcohol as
well great food a great guy we started
to wander back towards the hostel and as
you can see the very colorful houses on
the streets of beay are from the
colonial French era they’re quite nice
quite hip and this yellow house is
absolutely awesome look at that campan
outside dreamy you meet certain
characters in Beirut and we dropped into
some local Frenchman’s guitar shop had a
little strum on the cords love that and
after a long first day of walking and a
great introduction into what’s to come
we transferred to another hotel called
the mayflower and finished the day off
with a debrief and some great
traditional Lebanese food at T marut
[Music]
the next day was the official start of
the tour and the rest of the Portuguese
contingent had arrived into the hotel
and the hotel served an English
breakfast to the amusement of the
Portuguese contingent so a great start
to the day and we took a walk to explore
the impressive art in the
city some very powerful meetings as you
can see
here and the next on our itinery was the
barri hat building and it’s also known
as snipers Lair and is important for
both Christians and the Muslims during
the Civil War and right next to it is
the Tower of death and you can see the
bullet holes in this building and these
are timely reminders of the grimness of
War we headed back to the mar square
area to check out the St George Greek
Orthodox Cathedral which is next to the
Muhammad al- Amin mosque and next to it
is the strange shopping areas called the
bayroot suits hardly any shops exist
they’re expensive shops and also guard
by the authorities and we were allowed
to walk amongst the area with no one
there just an eerie feel with some Roman
ruins chucked in between those religious
[Music]
buildings another interesting Landmark
Next to that is called the egg this is
an unfinished Cinema complex which was
abandoned during the Civil War and
during the protest in 2019 2020 this was
used to discuss the WhatsApp Revolution
and as of today it’s filled with bullet
holes and
[Music]
pigeons the rain started to come so we
headed towards the national Museum which
has some great artifacts inside and
gives you a great idea of the history of
the area and the
[Music]
[Music]
country again there’s more art on the
streets as we see famous artists and
musicians
represented and let’s take another look
at my favorite house in b
[Music]
we headed back to the area of bachura to
meet one of the oldest people in Beirut
he’s called Hanan and he is over 100
years old and has 75 grandchildren the
amount of History he has in his house is
incredible thanks for the coffee and
here’s a
photo to finish a day J took us to the
chatila area in southern Beirut which
houses a refugee camp and is also the
site of the chatila massacre we got to
hear about the history and the current
condition of this place by our local
guide a and she took us to a Palestinian
Museum which has more incredible history
and thanks a for tea and shown your
stories a lot to take in for this day as
we headed back to base and had dinner at
teabout again and look at the ridiculous
counting of this
[Music]
money next morning was another English
breakfast in the bank and this is the
last full day in Beirut and next up is
the social media famous you
building or formerly known as the
building and it was built by a brother
to obstruct his other brother’s view of
the ocean just because of a grudge it’s
13 ft wide at its widest point and 2 ft
wide at its narrowest you can
technically live in there and it is the
thinnest building in Beirut then we
dipped in to see another side of the
city by going to see the yach club and
Marine at Zuna Bay which again shows the
potential wealth of this place
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
and then it’s back to the sus area and
we saw some expensive shops open this
time but of course no one in there and
got a photo at the I love bayroot sign
we headed back around to the mar square
area where the parliament buildings are
and we got em boiled in a protest for
many of the older generation who had not
been paid their pensions they were not
happy and many of them are ex-servicemen
and I could sense some tension in the
air the Army was ready with the water
cannons and before it kicked off The
Rain came but no one was having that so
everyone went
home after a few photos and some chats
with the locals at the protest we headed
out to another area of the city called
BJ hammud this is the Armenian area we
walk past the set vant Church before
walking through the streets of a busing
area I’ve got a super trendy coffee on
the street check this
out is it
okay England
yeah oh does he oh yeah yeah lunch we
were hosted by someone called arpie who
invited us into a house and Community
Center we sat in awe of her tales as she
explained how her family were forced to
leave Armenia and settle in Lebanon the
energy was special some hugs some tears
so I gave her a hug and got a photo a
fantastic lunch and I love the
conversations in this but so so full
you’re never going to go hungry in lelin
the portions are are huge the plethora
of options is insane and trust me you
need to have an empty stomach for it
this time we walked back to the hotel
via the road a bit closer to the port
area and here you can see the messages
on the wall it is fair to say that
people are not happy with the current
situation and the number of people who
died in this accident is absolutely
terrible and add to that the ongoing
struggle to get compensation for the
billions of dollars worth of damage it’s
just an awful awful situation by an
incompetent government a lot to take in
[Music]
and as I mentioned earlier we are here
in Ramadan so we got treated to a
fantastic ifan meal in the most glorious
of settings the only down point is we’re
so full from lunch that we couldn’t
really tuck in all that much to the food
we done the best we could and it was a
great way to finish the
day the next morning was glorious and
before heading down to cider to continue
the tour we got out at the iconic pigeon
Rock and walked along the cor nese now
the cor Niche is a place in beir and
Lebanon where anyone can come and walk
there’s no Prejudice or division amongst
the people you can be anything in terms
of religion sexuality political biases
everyone is equal and respected and it’s
a much needed space what seems like a
divided country and the vibe was special
as people walked up and down to get
their steps in for the day beay really
did open my eyes up to many different
facets of Life disasters hope religion
political Strife inequality wealth a
lack of wealth crazy traffic amazing
food the list could go on however this
city gripped me and I saw so many
diverse sights and sounds around the
city the Cornish is a dream of a walk as
you soak up the sunset and Marvel at the
city’s Beauty in a weird way it
summarizes the complexity of this city
and join me on the next episode as I
head south to cider and tier before
heading towards ass Syrian border to
balbec subscribe so you don’t miss an
episode and I’ll see you next time
cheers please follow And subscribe on my
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Following on from Turkey, I am now in Beirut, Lebanon, for a ten-day tour with 100 Rotas Viagens, a Portuguese tour company. To start the tour, I began my journey there with local guide Joao Sousa in Beirut, and we checked out many areas of this intriguing city.
In this episode, we check out Gouraud Street, the Port, Mohammad Al Amin Mosque (and inside, too), Martyrs Square, Bachoura, The Barakat Building, Tower of Death, Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Beirut Souks, The Egg, National Museum, Shatila, Grudge Building, Zaituna Bay, Bourj Hammoud, Pigeons Rock and the Corniche.
This episode is about humanity and how fragile relationships can be in a country. The people I met were amazing, ranging from 100-year-old Hussein Hussein in my thumbnail, who served us lunch, to our tour guide Joao, to Arpi hosting our lunch in her house, to the old men at the protests, and so many more.
Unlike most cities, Beirut gripped me; something about it pulled me in. I would love to go back, and I think about the city and the people often. Enjoy and be inspired!
100 Rota Tour Company – https://100rota.pt
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License code: W2CN1Q81NPQ0IFTG
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