Before describing my visit to the bay, I keep asking myself why is it called Zaitunay (زيتوناي) ? How is that the English translation of زيتوني or even زيتونة?

Anyway, I finally visited Zaitunay bay on Monday night and I loved the place. As you can see from the picture above, It’s a very nice place to take a walk and enjoy a fine dinner. I didn’t try any of the restaurants there yet but you can read about them [Here].

Not all restaurants are open yet. The ones that caught my attention are Croc Magnon, a steak house opened by the same people behind Brgr Co, St. Elmo’s which is a seaside brasserie, Salmontini a seafood restaurant, and Classic Burger Joint which was pretty packed.

During winter time, I don’t think many people will be walking on the Zaitunay bay as it’s getting very cold, however in summer time the bay promises to be packed at all time. The wooden dock is relatively small right now but there are plans to extend it as you can see [Here].

On a last note, ladies going in high heels will have a hard time walking on the wooden dock.

I could not have asked for a better explanation on why N7W is a bad idea. Added to all the reasons I mentioned in my earlier post, here’s a long study that proves that winning the N7W competition would not have boosted tourism the way Lebanese imagined it would.

Check it out [Here].

PS: This is a google-translated article, so you might find some wrong English terms or sentences.

The photos show the hotel from its opening, through its destruction and finally to its reconstruction and grandeur today. Check them out [Here].

Via Jad Aoun

I’ve been criticized by my family, some friends and blog readers for not supporting nor voting for Jeita. I promised to keep quiet until the campaign’s over but now that it’s done and Jeita lost, I will explain why N7W was a bad idea all along.

1- As many bloggers have pointed out earlier, UNESCO does not recognize this competition and the voting is a joke. You can vote a zillion times, come up with a zillion fake emails and I received in the past week not less than two or three emails asking me to download softwares that help get Jeita more votes. So it’s a competition of who can cheat better.

2- Putting aside whether this competition is a scam or not, what truly pissed me off was the amount of money the Lebanese government and those behind the Jeita Grotto campaign were investing into this competition.

From what I heard, not less than 10 Million Dollars were spent over the past 4 years. Let’s assume it’s only 10 Million Dollars.

- If Jeita were to win the N7W competition, how much time will it take us to get back this kind of money? Were they expecting the whole world to start coming to Lebanon to see Jeita Grotto? Do you really think people will start going to the Amazon or Komodo more now because they won?

- Assuming more tourists will show up to visit Jeita. Has anyone done an estimate on how much it will cost us to prepare the Jeita area for tourists? Has anyone seen the road leading to Jeita? The restaurants next to it? The trucks that empty their waste in the valleys near the Grotto? Of course not.

- Assuming more tourists come and a plan has been put in place to turn the area around Jeita Grotto into a touristic one, can anyone imagine the traffic that will result from such a thing? Did the concerned ministry take this into consideration? Keep in mind the road leading to Jeita is the one leading to Feytroun, Hrajel, Ajaltoun, Klayaat and most importantly Faraya.

All this being said, only a fool would spend that much money without calculating the estimated return on investment because there’s no way we could have profited from this competition.

3- Last but not least, did anyone take a look at the 7 winners? No offense to Jeita Grotto, but objectively speaking, we don’t deserve to be among the winners. If I were not Lebanese, I would have easily picked 7 different wonders.

4- On a last note, is our country that financially stable to afford wasting millions of dollars over such a campaign? Isn’t it better to invest them in public schools? Or protecting whatever is left of our forests and planting more Cedars?

I would rather donate the money to the Lebanese National Audiovisual Media Council so that they start registering our blogs and websites than enter this stupid n7w competition.

I hope I was not too harsh but what we did throughout this voting campaign resembles sending money to a Nigerian prince and refusing to admit we’ve been scammed.

I have a feeling some people consider Beirut to be a country rather than Lebanon’s capital. I was checking out Mustapha’s post on the “5 reasons to visit Beirut” and how three out of the five reasons refer to spots outside Beirut, and found out there’s more of those misleading articles.

Check out TripAdvisor and VirtualTourist for example.

This small church is close to Saydit el Nourieh monastery and the view from it is just breath taking !

I am surprised they didn’t come up with a venue for weddings next to it yet.

[Photo Taken by Dominique Akl]

This photo as well as many others are part of the competition held by the Environmental fund for Lebanon. One of the most impressive pictures is the one below taken by David Habchy and entitled “Nature Clash”. It portrays the nature clash at the blue line: the border line between Lebanon (right side) and the Occupied Land (left side) (Landscape format). Same land but with different use of its resources. [EFL]

You can check out all the pictures [Here].

[Source]

The grotto of Afqa gives birth to Lebanon’s largest river – Ibrahim River – which flows out through several outlets, streams, and water pools. The cave’s gaping entrance dominates the mountainside, as water gushes out making its way down the valley below.

When the flow of water slows down in the summer, it is possible for one to enter the cave and explore the many tunnels and chambers deep into the mountain.[Link]

I remember very well the first time I visited Afqa Cave because it was on 9/11. We rented bikes and took off from “Pic Blanc” in Hrajel and rode all the way to the cave. The road is a bit tough as there are lot of roads to climb but it’s quite fun and you go through many beautiful villages. Once you get there, there’s a restaurant at the bottom of the cave overlooking a beautiful waterfall. We went up to visit the cave but did not dare go in deeper as we were not equipped and it was pretty dark.

It occurred me this year that it’s been a long time since we did this trip, so I called some friends to try set it up, before I find out by mistake on the news that you can’t get there anymore. Apparently there’s some illegal construction going on and there are lots of troubles between the residents and the ISF and Lebanese army and roads are being cut.

A footage on TV showed how some areas leading to the cave have become and it’s really sad. Lots of ugly buildings and constructions left and right.

I am waiting for problems to end to plan another trip and see if the cave and its surrounding are still as they were. Until then, I urge the Ministry of Tourism to take better care of the cave and organize trips to it cause the two times I went, I could have bombed the cave for all I care and no one would have noticed.

We received an email from one of our readers back in July saying that he spotted a billboard in Kaslik revealing the opening of an American Eagle Outfitters store.

Well the banner is up there now and it looks like they are opening soon.

For those who don’t know about American Eagle Outfitters, it’s a leading American clothing line which offers casual clothes to men and women from age 15-25 and is well known in the states for its originality, good quality and affordable prices.

Even though such news don’t really interest me as I don’t shop much, it’s good to have new clothing stores and more importantly to see Kaslik attracting more and more stores and getting back to life.

Thank you Joe

Hani Nassar, a teacher, and his wife Barbara – who is battling bone cancer – and children Leonie and Leonard, 11 and 10-years-old, embarked on their journey on July 1 in Sidon and have since traveled across the country in a caravan painted as the Lebanese flag.

The aims of the journey, Hani Nassar said, were to show the coexistence of the Lebanese people; to reveal the beauty of the country and its people and finally to show the resilience of the human spirit. [DailyStar]

The Nassar family visited 1655 villages and towns in Lebanon and had every village or town’s mayor sign the Lebanese flag they plan to present to the President of the Republic Michel Sleiman.

The cool part is that they had planned to sleep in the caravan all 80 days, but instead only spent 15 nights in it as locals of most of the villages they visited welcomed them in their houses.

PS: I was just going through my Google reader and noticed I posted at almost the same time as Mustapha from the BeirutSpring did using the same title. Damn!

A tiny arguile for 15 Euros. Spotted at a local store during my visit to Milan.

This store caught my attention as I was walking through Milan’s streets. When I mentioned its name to my dad when I got back, he told me that the Sawaya guy (William Sawaya) is a Lebanese and a good friend of his and that he has started this business some 30 years ago.

Going through their website, it looks like they are well established in Italy and in the World. They’ve even been assigned to design trophies for FIFA events. [Link]

PS: I did not notice the old guy/girl in the picture until later; he/she pretty much says a lot about fashion in Milan and how people dress.

One of my favorites places to eat while I’m in Lebanon is Mother. It’s a small restaurant located in the old souk of Byblos and I actually first found out about them after reading about them in the New York Times.

It’s not just one thing about the place thats good but it’s a combination of many things. First they have a pretty good variety of dishes on their menu without it being huge. It’s also the kind of menu where if you shut your eyes and randomly pointed at a dish you couldn’t go wrong with. They also have this amazing goat cheese salad which is by far one of the best salads I’ve ever had anywhere. For the main course depending what day of the week you visit they usually have a special being grilled. I always end up with a steak cooked either medium or medium well depending on if anyone is going to be sharing with me.

What sets them apart from all the other places in the old souk is the service. The waiters and waitresses are knowledgeable, friendly and the best I’ve had in Byblos. Price wise they’re not cheap but they’re also not over priced. Appetizers are generally under 20,000LL while main courses are around 35,000-60,000LL. They supposedly have the most incredible Tiramisu as well but since I hate Tiramisu I never got to try it. It’s a good place to take visitors and tourists but if you’re going to pass by on a weekend it’s probably a good idea to reserve a table since they do get pretty busy. For more information you can check out their Facebook page [Here]

That’s a very nice idea not just for tourists but also for Lebanese. I don’t remember ever walking around discovering Beirut. You can check out more about it [Here].