Hezbollah tshirt? anyone? anyone?
On Thursday I reluctantly headed to Baalbek alone, a city about 2 hours north of Beirut with another deserted roman city (seeing a pattern yet?) and supposedly the "seat of Hezbollah". I didn't really see much evidence of this other than regular checkpoints and the fact that my bus consisted of about 8 soldiers and little 'ol me. On the way home a man opened the door and waved a rifle around inside to check passports, but after a cursory glance at me he didn't even bother to look at mine.
The trip to Baalbek was uneventful except for the obligatory older man trying to hit on me. This guy was a little more persistent going so far as to tapping me awake despite my best efforts to pretend to be asleep. I otherwise arrived safely. I was feeling just slightly paranoid though, every time somebody asked me where I was from I would meekly say "china".
Near the entrance of the ruins there were a number of men selling postcards, guidebooks and yes, hezbollah tshirts. I debated if I should buy one for the novelty factor, but decided I would probably never be able to wear it. These guys were pros though...at least 2 of them spotted me from 30 feet away and began ran and seriously CHASED me down the street. I finally had to yell "LUH!" really loudly and angrily before they would leave me alone.
Baalbek itself? I'd say not as good as Jerash in Jordan and better than Palmyra in Syria.
I stopped by Ksara winery on the way back to beirut but arrived after they closed so was only able to briefly walk around and look at the scenery. One of the guys who worked at the winery saw me wandering around and happily walked me around telling me the history of the place, so....no wine, but still good.
the ride back was more adventurous. and without going into too many details i'll just say these four words: old man touching himself. I'm not really sure what's worse...that this happened right next to me on a public minibus, or that I have actually reached a point where I am SO blase about this type of stuff that it didn't even bother me.
The trip to Baalbek was uneventful except for the obligatory older man trying to hit on me. This guy was a little more persistent going so far as to tapping me awake despite my best efforts to pretend to be asleep. I otherwise arrived safely. I was feeling just slightly paranoid though, every time somebody asked me where I was from I would meekly say "china".
Near the entrance of the ruins there were a number of men selling postcards, guidebooks and yes, hezbollah tshirts. I debated if I should buy one for the novelty factor, but decided I would probably never be able to wear it. These guys were pros though...at least 2 of them spotted me from 30 feet away and began ran and seriously CHASED me down the street. I finally had to yell "LUH!" really loudly and angrily before they would leave me alone.
Baalbek itself? I'd say not as good as Jerash in Jordan and better than Palmyra in Syria.
I stopped by Ksara winery on the way back to beirut but arrived after they closed so was only able to briefly walk around and look at the scenery. One of the guys who worked at the winery saw me wandering around and happily walked me around telling me the history of the place, so....no wine, but still good.
the ride back was more adventurous. and without going into too many details i'll just say these four words: old man touching himself. I'm not really sure what's worse...that this happened right next to me on a public minibus, or that I have actually reached a point where I am SO blase about this type of stuff that it didn't even bother me.
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