Lebanon: A Middle Eastern Gem
Hello everyone,
I am writing to you from Hanoi, Vietnam, my former home of 2 years! I arrived today after being gone for 19 months. Vietnam just re-opened to tourists 12 days ago! I’ll be here for 2 weeks and I already know it’s going to be great. I began this month in west Asia and I am ending the month in Southeast Asia! More on Vietnam here.
This update, however, is a quick recap of my trip from nearly a month ago, to now one of my now favorite countries: Lebanon! Yes, you read that correctly, and I hope your misconceptions about Lebanon will be reconsidered by the time you’re done reading.
Lebanon is an incredible place - I spent 5 days there and stayed in Beirut the entire time.
It’s important to understand what’s happening in Lebanon right now, as the country is currently going through a multitude of crises:
On August 4th, 2020 there was an explosion at the port that killed 200, injured 6,000-7,000 and left 300k people homeless, and added $15 billion USD in debt to Lebanon’s economy. The investigation into what happened was suspended in September 2021 - this made global headlines so you probably heard about it.
In October 2019 there was a widespread revolution in response to planned taxes on fuel, tobacco, and WhatsApp. Protests expanded as people were angry about the failure of successive and incompetent governments, economic stagnation, widespread mismanagement, and corruption.
The protests led to the collapse of the financial system - the Lebanese pound is one of the world’s most hyper-inflated currencies due to severe economic problems and rampant inflation. In November 2019 everyone’s money was frozen in their bank accounts and remains frozen until further notice. Following the protests in October 2019, banks closed for an unprecedented 2 weeks and then illegally restricted everyone’s access to the money in their accounts. Banks didn’t and still don’t allow account holders to withdraw money in USD (which is used to pay for imports). As of March 2021, some $107 billion was frozen in Lebanese banks. Banks have limited foreign withdrawals to $200 per week (and the official rate of $1 = 1500 must be used) and there are allegations that large portions of money in the bank have been smuggled out of the country by authorities.
Food and basic medicine are becoming more expensive and harder to access as imports become significantly more expensive (in 2021 there was a fuel crisis as well that resulted in long lines at gas stations but that has since subsided).
There is currently a limited supply of electricity so for most of the day people rely on generators and for several hours a day there’s no electricity at all.
Lebanon hosts 1.5M+ Syrian and Palestinian refugees (an estimated 25% of the population).
Covid pandemic (the least of their concerns, considering everything above) .
And yet life goes on…
And because life goes on and I have heard wonderful things about Lebanon, I wanted to visit! And it did not disappoint!
Excellent tea in Beirut
From my firsthand experience, I can report that contrary to what the media narrative is, Lebanon is not dangerous. It’s perfectly safe and the food is incredible!! There’s a food shop called Barbar - it’s a 24-hour Shwarma place. Absolutely amazing!! So cheap too. I’ll take that any day over a 24-hour McDonalds.
The food is incredible
When I arrived I noticed that Beirut is the city of contradictions. The road from the airport is named Imam Khomeini avenue (named after the Iranian ayatollah aka the leader) while my hotel was on John Kennedy street.
People are incredibly friendly and despite the economic crises, people are resilient. The revolution/protests are no longer occurring - everything is calm on the streets. But the economic problems remain and it’s quite obvious. It’s a bit hard to try and explain everything I saw and put that into words, but overall it’s such a cool place with so much history, great food, and great people. Everyone is very curious and open. I met lots of Syrians who are always interested in talking and it’s really perspective-widening to hear some of their stories.
Lebanon is quite a small country geographically but there is so much to see and do. From Beirut, you can drive almost anywhere in the country. 2 hours north is the historic and colorful city of Byblos. I sadly didn’t get to go there but that’s where the phonetic alphabet comes from.
In the northeast, there is the ancient city of Baalbek. I did go there and it was super cool! Baalbek is home to the world’s best-preserved Roman ruins and along the way you go through snowy mountains and pass the turn-off for the Syrian border. When I was there, I was the only tourist - there was literally no one else at the Baalbek ruins.
Baalbek — home of the best Roman ruins outside of Rome
In the south, there is Sidon, Tyre, and more. I wish I could visit more places next time!
There is so much to see and do in Lebanon and it was truly fascinating to visit. I hope to go back soon and see more. The adventures continue over the next 2 weeks!