On my way back home from Koreitem, i passed by Hamra to have dinner at Le Rouge and waste time so i don’t get stuck in traffic all the way back to Jounieh. I am not a big fan of Hamra to be honest, but there are few decent places one can go to for a dinner or a drink.

Once we got in the restaurant, we were asked whether we want to be seated in the smoking or non-smoking area. This new trend in Lebanon is not really working out, as the two areas are practically within the same room with no isolator, so it’s like assigning a peeing area and a non-peeing area in a pool. Added to that, they don’t give you ashtrays in the non-smoking area and expect you to throw you garbage on the ground maybe ?

I ordered a grilled chicken platter and a shanghai salad and my gf ordered a steak sandwich. Funnily enough, the waiter didn’t write down the order and repeated it for us showing that he memorized it, but he still managed to get the steak sandwich with tomatoes and onions, even though we ordered it without them. Even before that, he got us the bill of some other table while we were waiting for our food.

But I was too hungry to be bothered and my meal was delicious !

PS: Le Rouge is also open in Gemmayze.

Went out to Kayan with Najib and a couple of friends after work for happy hour. It’s a nice hangout located just off Gemmayze. The atmosphere is very cozy and the crowd is in its mid-twenties to mid-thirties. The staff is very helpful and they make the best salami sandwich. I say that because I don’t think I’ve ever ordered a salami sandwich anywhere else in my life.

Happy hour is from 5 to 8 pm every day

It is good to see that the law is being applied in some places in Lebanon.

Shanon Elizabeth, or the famous Nadia from American Pie, will join Lebanon Poker team ahead of the World Poker Team event in Las Vegas next month. [Article]

Elizabeth’s father is Lebanese / Syrian and her mother is of Irish, English, German and Cherokee ancestry. [Wiki]

Another nude scene from Nadia and the money is ours ! :D

The other day I posted about the London style black cabs in Lebanon and awhile ago the communications manager from National New Dawn (the company that runs these cabs) posted the following comment:

We are offering a 5 stars Taxi service with many options for free within the ride,we are offering safety, comfortable, options a 5 seats car, as you know taxi driver in Lebanon are the most frustrating drivers, who would tell you his life story during the ride without even asking him, our drivers at London taxi have one job and one mission to take you to the right place at the right time during a safe comfortable ride. And we are planning to have the latest model and only that and import the latest technologies and cars to Lebanon from London. There are also plans to run female-only taxis (Pink Cabs) and have vehicles capable of carrying nine passengers. The new taxi service is the result of a need to upgrade the transportation services in Lebanon, the Lebanese are looking for a comfortable, clean, safe ride as well as the tourist. The Cars will include wifi connection, 5 seats, separate glass between driver and passengers for safety and privacy, credit card payment , 17 inch LCD screen. Sometime Wheelchair access in some taxis can be a real problem but the London Taxi has a shallow ramp due to its low floor line, making it suitable for both manual and electric wheelchair users to safely get in and out of the vehicle straight on to, or from, the pavement. The passenger compartment is spacious and designed to accommodate wheelchair users easily. Once in place, the wheelchair and passenger are secured using special harnesses and expendable seat belts.

Corporate Communications Manager
Rabih Dib

I think it’s pretty cool that you have internet access while on the go. Perfect for when stuck in a traffic jam or when you need to send off an urgent email. I’m also impressed that someone from NND actually checks and reads blogs. Here is a link to their [Website]

Ever noticed the big tree in front of Beit Kataeb Saifi in Beirut- DownTown ?
Not enough trees in Beirut…

One of the things I hate about going to the bank is the fact that people do not wait in line. Everyone is in a hurry and just has a small “mou3amale sari3a btekhod d2i2a”. Don’t you just hate standing in line for half an hour and someone who happens to know the teller walks in and cuts in front of you? Then you have to make a big fuss about it.

Well no more of that in Banque Audi!

When you first walk in, you get a number and you wait your turn like everybody else. (not sure it’s the same way in all branches) Usually companies in Lebanon begin using this numbering system but then for some reason it dies out. It was nice to see everyone respect the system.

Except for this one woman, a typical frenchie madame. She came in and got frustrated that she had to wait in line! “walaw? mesta3jle ktigh, 3ande malyoun shaghle a3mela! badkon etnatghouni bel saf?? shou madghasse?? non mais c’est pas possible, c’est quoi ce boghdel?”. It was nice to see the branch manager tell her “Be3tezer madame, bass keno hon ablik” She then started pacing back and forth, back and forth and cursing in French for a good 20 minutes before her turn came and then she had a fight with the teller! The teller told her “Bonjour Madame” and she just exploded “Bala bonjough bala ballout, 3mol sheghlak w khallesne! nattaghtouni se3a! hay ekhegh magha beje 3a hal bghanche, non mais..”…classy :)

Anyway, good job Banque Audi!

I have a business trip to Amsterdam in May and since I have only one nationality which is “Lebanese”, I have to go through the whole visa application process. I’ve lived in Dubai for 2 years where I applied for many schengen visas from different embassies (german, Swiss, etc…) and I started having my visa extended to,I think, 1 year utmost but since I came back again to Lebanon and canceled my Dubai residence visa, the consulates in Leb disregarded my previous visas if they were issued from a different country, so that was my first shock when I came back. In JAN 2010, I had to go to Amsterdam (on a business trip) and my Lebanese friends kept telling me:

“ l safara l elmaniye a7san men l hollandiye w ahyan, rou7e addme 3endon w ba3den fike trou7e wein ma baddik w ma32oul ya3touke yeha for 3 months” so I went for it…and guess what , they gave it to me for 2 weeks only!”

Today again, I had to apply for a schengen visa since I am going to Amsterdam in May and I said to myself, let’s not play it the Lebanese way and I will apply legally at the same embassy even though I’ve heard that they are very strict and tough. After preparing a deck of documents (which took me almost 2 weeks to request), and of course after taking an appointment, I drove today all the way from Seheile to Sofil and passed through all kinds of Monday morning traffic. It was a hell of an experience!!

1- No place to park (and then the policeman came and told me: soffe honik w sakkre 3al parking la2anno ba3ed ma fata7 )

6- In the afternoon she called me back saying that on one of the documents, the person who signed (which was my boss) is not the same person as the one of the register circular so I have to again pass by and drop her the letter signed by the eligible person!

Even writing all this now, frustrates me again as this is really unfair for a Lebanese to go through all these procedures and especially that I had many schengen visas before (from Dubai, which was so much easier to apply for). After all, we always say: proud to be Lebanese but if you really think about these frustrating things, I sometime think, what are we proud about?

This place was one of my favourite hangouts few years ago, until the food and service deteriorated so i stopped going there for a long while. I decided to go there tonight with my brother mostly because i miss the location. It is situated at the beginning of Kaslik and is more like a cafe trottoir than a restaurant.

I must say the food looked decent and the service was surprisingly good, but it was mostly the location that i enjoyed and my Almaza draft beer. During the summer, the place is always packed day and night during week days and weekends.

There is a way apparently to message between Iphones and BlackBerrys through the “WhatsApp” application. It could be old but i was only told about it yesterday, even though it does not interest me much.

I downloaded it for 0.99$ from the Appstore on Saturday and since then i’ve had network issues. My friends would call me home or mail me saying my phone is closed, even though i would have a full signal. I asked my operator if there’s something wrong with my SIM but there isn’t. I tried another SIM on my Iphone and it did the same problem. The weird part is that other friends in Lebanon downloaded it and had no network issues, unless they are still unaware of it.

Finally i decided to remove the application and everything went back to normal.

If you are wondering what is loquat, it is Aki Dene in arabic. I love this fruit and now is its season. There’s nothing left of the picture above.

In case you missed it 2 days ago here it is. [Dailymotion]

I had a birthday party yesterday at Pierre & Friends, a pub-resto located right on the beach in Madfoun, a region between Jbeil & Batroun. I’ve been to the place before last summer, it’s really nice to go there, chill out and have a drink and even go for a swim during the day or at night. However, make sure that you eat before going there because the food is horrible.

A minor issue about yesterday’s party was that the weather was still a bit cold and so everyone was freezing, but apparently the organizers had that figured out and were planning to light a fire and so they did. Too bad they miscalculated the wind direction and all the smoke was coming our way, so we had to turn the fire off eventually. Still, it was a nice relaxing night away from closed pubs, smoke clouds and loud music.

During the summer, the place gets packed on weekends so i advise those wanting to enjoy a relaxing evening to go there during weekdays. Here are some more pictures of the place.

I spotted this outside Aoun supermarket. It’s a new taxi company that uses the black London taxi cabs. Their phone number is 09 854360 but not sure how much it costs. I’ve been in them before and they’re pretty comfy and roomy. The ones in London have touch screens with tv and Internet access, I doubt we’re getting that in Lebanon. Here is a link to their [Website] and here is a link to their [Facebook Group]

I heard about this Nahr el Mot multi-bridges project months ago, and it seems like an ideal solution to the traffic there, but its implementation is a disaster. Two weeks ago, they decided to open up a road next to the bridge connecting Nahr el Mot to Salloume, therefore putting a bridge in the middle of a highway !

I don’t think i have ever seen that anywhere before, a bridge in the middle of the highway with the rest of the lanes on the left and right ! Add to that Lebanese drivers switching lanes left and right and driving recklessly and you get a living hell :-)

Here is a picture of how it’s expected to look.

[High Res]