Androka and Antsikoroke – a village closer to Ambohibola – were part of the villages that have seen women leave to work in Lebanon and I had the fortune, or rather misfortune, to find out that two of these women are now missing. The Androka woman was supposed to return home 3 years ago and the Antsikoroke woman was supposed to return home 12 years ago. Shocked yet? Let me continue, the Androka woman stopped sending money home at one point for no known reason and the Antsikoroke never even contacted her family. Now you might think I’m jumping to conclusions here by claiming that both women are probably enslaved or dead but what if I told you that 17 Malagasy maids died in Lebanon last year? What if I told you that foreign domestic workers are not covered by Lebanon’s labor laws?

An interesting and must read post by a Lebanese who spent two months in Madagascar as a WWF volunteer. [Link]

I finally got around to putting together this video I shot last week when I was in Lebanon. I rented a snowmobile up in Mzaar near the ski slopes from a company called Highland Club. It costs $100 for an hour but they have better deals on longer journeys. For example they can take you from Faraya to the Cedars and back for around $400. That’s a 3 hour trip each way and comes to around $65 an hour. If you’re interested in taking out a snowmobile you can call them on +9613860867 if you want to do the Arz trip or just head up near the slopes and stop by any of the snow mobile places there. [Vimeo]

The MEA pilots are still on strike even though the strike was supposed to end yesterday. My wife went to the airport today and turns out her flight out of Beirut Airport was canceled and she was stranded there along with hundreds of other passengers. I managed to book her on a Jazeera Airways flight back to Kuwait but I have no idea if MEA will refund her ticket or not.

I didn’t have a problem when the pilots were delaying all the flights by two hours. I actually was effected by their strike and they had my full support on it. But completely canceling flights that’s a completely different thing. While a two hour delay is a hassle, canceling flights is a life changer. It has a much bigger effect on everyone. Imagine you’re on vacation somewhere around the world and your flight back to your home has been canceled. I’ve never been in that situation and I hope I would never have to. They had a lot of support from passengers and people when they were delaying flights by two hours but by canceling all the flights I believe they’ve lost all the support they had including mine. I was with the pilots before, but I’m not anymore.

Note: It’s interesting that I couldn’t find any news on this strike neither on Naharnet nor Daily Star.

When I traveled two weeks ago, I had the chance to go wait in the VIP Cedar Lounge for a change instead of roaming around in the duty free stores.

The place was nicer than I expected and had free internet access as well as free access to an open buffet and bar. The food however wasn’t that great as it mainly consisted of cold sandwiches, croissants and a small table for desserts.

I had a 3 hours wait, so after I ate and had a drink, I took a walk around the lounge and found a Kids area. I am not sure why it is called a Kids area as PS3s, Wii and Arcade games are not just for children. Also, you don’t get “Kids Area” when you translate “Salle des jeux” or “Sallat Al Al3ab” to English.

Anyway, I went in to try out all the games since there was no one and I had 2 hours to kill but it turned out nothing was working for some reason. So I headed back to my couch, watched some TV and browsed the internet.

It is definitely much better than waiting like everyone else does as the couches are really comfortable and the place is not crowded and you have free internet, but it is not that fancy for a VIP lounge.

You gotta adapt… Horses can’t play polo in the sand! You gotta use camels for that!

Spotted at Jeddah airport in Saudi Arabia

I travel to Dammam a lot for work. I recently downloaded the Trip Advisor app to see if there is anything to do in Dammam… I got my answer…

BTW, I checked in to Beirut Airport using Foursquare, to see if I could get the 10% discount on perfumes as I mentioned in an earlier post.

I was a bit worried that the salesperson wouldn’t be aware of the promotion and I’d have 10 people causing a commotion, trying to figure out what I was talking about. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that everyone knew about the promotion! I showed the saleswoman my iPhone screen and the manager came over and gave me the discount.

If I was in their place I don’t know what I would have done. I keep reading about planes being stuck on the runway for hours and I find it horrifying. Imagine being stuck on the airport tarmac for a duration longer than the actual flight back home.

More pictures and the full story [Here]

I travel a lot for work, mainly between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia but for some reason, I can’t seem to get used to the turbulence, it keeps scaring the hell out of me.

Last night, I had a flight from Dammam to Beirut @ 8:20 PM.

I got on the plane at about 8:00 PM. A couple of minutes later the electricity went out… I’m not very superstitious, but I don’t think the lights going out is a very good sign! It was funny coz some of the passengers started joking “n2ata3et el kahraba? Wselna 3a lebnen bi hal ser3a??” (Electricty cut? We’re already in Lebanon?)

The lights came back on about 10 seconds later. The boarding was completed and the captain asked the flight attendants to “arm doors and cross check”. As we started pulling away from the gate, the lights in the cabin were still flickering… It didn’t look very good

We had just started to taxi when all of a sudden the engines shut down! The captain then said “Cabin crew, disarm doors and cross check”. He then said that we were facing a small technical problem and that it will be resolved ASAP.

All of a sudden an ambulance and a firetruck parked right outside the aircraft.

Without electricity, the AC wasn’t working. Seeing as it was a cool 35 degrees with humidity, everyone was complaining about the heat. A weird looking truck parked right under the plane and started to pump in cool air. I had no idea such a truck existed to be honest.

And as we all know, all Lebanese people think they are knowledgeable in just about any topic. So a bunch of passengers walked to the front of the plane to share their experience and advice with the flight attendants… These are some of the comments I overheard:
- “Eh, ana sayra ma3e kaza marra, mesh awwal marra… walaw!” (This has happened to me so many times before.. come on…)
- “Hal meshkle akid khassa bel landing gear, ana 7assayt awwal ma tle3et 3al tiyyara enno fi shi ghalat..” (I’m sure this has to do something with the landing gear, I felt it the second I stepped on board)

About an hour and a half later, the “minor problem” was fixed (BTW, they didn’t tell us what the issue was). During that time, a couple of passengers stood up, gathered their stuff and asked to disembark. They were let out, but they had luggage checked in. So we waited for another hour for their bags to be located and removed from the plane

So we finally took off at about 10:45 PM. The flight was horrible to be honest, very turbulent, but after 4 glasses of Black Label, I felt like I was on a roller coaster and almost passed out

You have to read this story, it’s horrible. A Lebanese couple who were traveling from Istanbul to Beirut via MEA witnessed an act of racism on board the plane. A male Lebanese passenger complained to a MEA flight attendant that he did not want to sit next to a black man. You read right, he did not want to sit next to a black man, I mean wtf? If that wasn’t bad enough what happened next was even worse, instead of the MEA flight attendant asking the Lebanese guy to go back to his seat and shut the fuck up, she instead forced the black man to change his seat (probably sent him to the back of the bus plane).

While the whole world is moving forward around us we’re stuck with dial up speed internet, no electricity, the same politicians bickering over and over and to top it all off we’re racist. According to the pilot who spoke to the couple this incident was nothing compared to the amount of racism they witness on board flights from Dubai and Africa.

I find this very depressing…

Here is the blog that has the post on this incident [Link]
I found out about this story from the Lebanese Anti Racism Movement blog [Here]

1) ATV trip from Faraya to Arz
2) Paragliding from Harissa
3) Visit the Jeita caves for the first time (they’re 5 mins from my house)
4) Tour Lebanon in a small Cesna plane
5) Watch Lebanese men wrestling in Mayrouba (Abou 3adal was going to be there)
6) Ham & Cheese sandwich at Torinos in Gemmayze
7) Lunch and Arak with the bedouins in Hermil
8) Go to the beach
9) Have a cheeseburger at Road Runners in Bourj Hammoud
10) Check out the underground Lebanese nude female wrestling scene

I am leaving tonight for a 5 days training in St-Petersburg, Russia. I have never been to Russia nor Eastern Europe before so i am excited about this trip even if its short.

St Petersburg, ‘Venice of the North’ is one of the best places to visit in Russia from what i heard and read. Lots of attractions to visit and the night life is great. Unluckily though, it will be rainy all week long and it is relatively cold now.

Last but not least, everytime i mentioned to anyone here that i was leaving for Russia, he asked me to bring him back a girl from there (one girl requested a guy). So i thought i open myself a super night club if am bringing back that many girls lol!

I mean seriously, so what if we have a lot of Russian girls working in super night clubs here, does that mean they are all prostitutes?

I will have my laptop and the hotel i am staying in has internet, so i should be able to post from there.

До скорой встречи. ! (See you soon)

A friend of mine recently stayed at the Le Gray hotel in downtown Beirut and he posted up a review with pictures which you can check [Here]

I took a trip to Lebanon this past weekend and people… it was AMAZING! Lebanon is seriously booming… there was a zillion and one events and it felt depressing that I couldn’t go to all! It’s like taking a kid to a candy store and asking them to choose just ONE kind of candy. Anyways, that’s not the purpose of this post. I want to post about the airport (which I still refuse to call Rafic Harriri International Airport).

I arrived to Beirut on Wednesday night. Along with my plane, there were 2 other planes that arrived around the same time so it wasn’t busy. Passing through passport control was quite quick, so I was pleased. I got to baggage claim and to my surprise there weren’t any trolleys! I searched the entire baggage claim area and could not find trolleys. I asked one of the employees and he told me to check on the sides but that most probably they weren’t any left since there’s lots of incoming planes. I looked around and only saw that only passengers from one of the arrived planes were collecting their baggage.

What traffic?!

How can an airport that’s expecting over 2 million tourists in the next 2 months not have enough trolleys for more than 1 incoming plane?

I ended up paying someone to drag my bags for me which made me feel terrible! I don’t enjoy the fact of having someone dragging my 25+ kg bags around… especially since he was an old man.

While leaving last night, I stopped at Cafematik for a snack and to watch the Spain vs. Paraguay game. Unfortunately, they did not have the channel that airs the game. I then went to buy a wifi card so I can get online. The guy told me wifi connection has not been working at the airport for the past week.

Seriously?

I don’t mean to sound like a spoilt brat but I do not consider trolleys or wifi access at an airport, as busy as the Beirut Airport, to be optional items to add.

The New York Times has an article today called 36 Hours in Beirut where they recommend going to Beirut for a quick weekend getaway. The article mentions a lot of cool places like Al Mayass, Souk El Tayeb, Beirut Art Center, Kayan and Behind the Green Door. A very cool article for Lebanon. [Link]

Thanks NS

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?