Ancient Phoenicia and Modern Lebanon

New Year Eve at Le Gray

Lebanon had been on my Must-Visit list for ages, since I had already been to many of its neighboring countries: Syria, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, and Iran etc. My love for this region was founded on my long-held interests in the origin of human species and cultures, thanks to a marvelous world history teacher at Beijing No. 50 High School. Each time I thought of going there, however, Lebanon would be in some sort of turmoil.

Ski Mzaar Lebanon

It was therefore a relief that I finally made it, despite a near-miss due to delayed arrival back to London from Beijing caused by the snow.

Our first stop in Lebanon was Mzaar where we ski-ed for a few days. We were lucky that the resorts opened ahead of schedule due to early snow this year and the slopes were unexpectedly ski-able. Further there were far fewer crowd than many ski resorts in Europe I have been to, particularly around this time of year.

1200 ton Stone of Pregnant Woman

Our next stop was the famous Baalbek, whose famous Roman ruins and the 1200-ton "Stone of Pregnant Woman) have been beckoning me for years.

Hotel Le Memoir was a charming old hotel, recently refurbished. But it was cold. The young man working at the hotel told us heating would only come at 9pm. The heating did come punctually but the shower was not warm. I was

Hotel Le Memoir in Baalbek



Hotel Le Memoir in Baalbek



looking forward to next morning for the hot shower, but only discovered that the plumbing was broken and there wasn't even cold water. The hotel employee was extremely apologetic about all the inconveniences. At least the day looked bright outside and pleasant, but it weren't going to last long.

Baccus Temple in Baalbek




Tigerli finally in Baalbek - happy me!

 

After we emerged from the museum inside the impressive Baalbek ruins- (Temple of Jupiter and Temple of Baccus) in mid-afternoon, the weather changed dramatically and cloud covered the entire sky. It drizzled and showered.

We had by then realized that there were VERY few tourist

establishments in terms of cafes and restaurants, AND we had planned WAY too many days in Baalbek. Our hotel was booked for 3 nights but we had almost finished visiting the archaeological sites in the first afternoon, except the famous 1200-ton stone. How were we going to kill the rest of the time?!

Baalbek's Butchers

We had tried a local Shawarma joint for lunch and found out there seemed to be only one real restaurant -Scheherazade in Baalbek. The view from Scheherazade was beautiful-overlooking the Temple ruins, but the place itself was bare and cold. One bizaar thing about Baalbek was that the electricity came on and off. We found out later that Baalbek had only limited municipal electricity supply and most businesses had to supplement their power with generators. The reason? We were told the central government in Beirut does not like the Hezbollah party which controls Baalbek so tries to starve it off through such measures.





Arcada owner making my pizza



We took this inconvenience in stride and the next day made ourselves at home at the Cafe Arcada, the only good looking cafe with a hot fireplace in town-a blessing on an unseasonably cold day (we were told this was the coldest in 15/20 years). The friendly owner Mr. Awada turned out to have lived in Paris and Manchester some twenty years ago and made us very welcome.

Abujula Bakery offered me so many freshily backed and spinach cookies and refused to accept money 

The hospitality of Baalbekans was remarkable. I had been offered food to taste by a lady in his Cafe earlier in the morning. When we took a walk in the old town to see how locals lived, I had to learn to stop showing any curiosity in the locals' food after being offered a huge pile of spinach cookies freshly out of oven at the Abujulal Bakery! My belly felt like a balloon at the end of the day.

Little girl fluent in English and whose father has been to Guangzhou Trade Fair

We made friends with young locals who showed me how to smoke the water-pipe and told us about the reformed former-Hashish-farmer-turned-iman who was driving a huge SUV. We chatted about current politics and who was responsible for the assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri (there seemed to be no consensus on this). I don't even want to pretend that I know Lebanon's history - it reads just so complicated with the constant changing political landscape and SO many different permutations of alliances among the 18 official religious groups.

Mr. Awada took us to see the 1200-ton stone in the Roman quarry in his own car to avoid us walking in the cold rain. So in the end the long stay in Baalbek turned out to be very interesting and I even missed it when we finally bid good bye.

Remnants of Civil war in Beirut



Little chapel in Beirut





Christmas in Byblos

 Weather in Beirut was also unseasonably cold and rainy. Evidences from the civil war dot around the city, ranging from bullet holes on building walls to abandoned decrepit buildings.. Beirut is famous for its night life, and Lebanese are remarkably nonchalant about bombs and bullets, hardened by years and probably centuries of instability. In fact, if one looks back at its 8000 years of history, the ancient cities in this region have witnessed so many changes and have had as their overlords the Akkadians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and etc. Like any ancient cross-roads, it is a salad bowl of cultures and religions that would inevitably lead to conflict. Just look at another example- Afghanistan.

Roman Period Stone Coffin

Beirut National Museum

Byblos, the oldest city with continuous human inhabitation for 8000 years is further such testament. Its archaeological excavations showed the earliest human dwellings, Roman temples and crusader citadels all on the same spot.

Master of the God Baccus



Beirut from Le Gray



3000 year old Byblos Stone Coffin

In fact, every few years one or another political figure would be assassinated and Lebanon appears to be under constant tension of conflict. But the Lebanese do not let this affect their optimism and possess a joie-de-vivre unmatched by many.

London, London: So Near Yet So Far -3-day Historic Journey from Beijing to London

Sunday Dec 19:

5am: I rose from bed

5.45am: Headed to Beijing International airport

8.00am: Depart from Beijing for HK with Dragon Air

11.15am: Arrival at HK Airport

12.00pm: Got into Cathay Pacific Lounge to wait for 2.55 pm Cathay Pacific 253 flight to London

2.30pm: Was informed flight would be delayed due to Heathrow airport closure in London and more news to come at 3.30pm.

4.00pm: Got informed CX 253 would be delayed to 6.15pm.

6.00pm: Still no info

7.15pm: Got informed our flight was also cancelled, like several other flights to London

7.30pm: Checked into Airport hotel adjacent to airport courtesy of Cathay Pacific (they provide such excellent service!).

12.00am: No more information to come after my repeated inquiries so I went to sleep watching Nat Geo docos.

Monday Dec 20th:

6am: Checking BB (Blackberry) for Heathrow info. Smsed HK manager to ask help for Cathay flight info.

8.30am: Info said to check with Airlines but airlines said Heathrow still closed.

9.30am: Went to Cathay Pacific Inquiry Desk

10.00am: Was told to re-book flght at Ticket Desk

10.30am: Was informed to go to Check-in Desk since I asked if I could get on Paris flight as Heathrow is still closed.

10:50am: Checked in for Paris Flight

11.15am: Checked out of hotel and met with HK manager

12.30am: Went through airport immigration

2.00pm: Wondered if flight was still on

2.30pm: Glad to hear boarding announcement

2.55pm: Departed for Paris on time!!!

9.15pm: Landed in Charles De Gaulle Airport in paris on time, after over 13 hours.

10.00pm: Distressed to find out there were no Eurostar tickets to london for several days to come. Started working on other options: local trains, ferries, even bus etc.

10: 45pm: Booked on train from Paris- Calais, ferry from Calais to Dover, train from Dover to London for next day.

11.00pm: So Relieved my bags made it to Paris too, as they were checked in Beijing. Another sign of a good airline with excellent service!

12.00pm: Checked into Hotel in Central Paris.

Tuesday Dec 21st:

4.45am: Woke up to plan for bus or taxi journey to Calais just in case trains don't run.

6.00am: Friend Jon replied to sms that the first two trains to Calais seemed cancelled. Checking bus and taxi options.

8.00am: Had a camomile tea for breakfast

9.00am: Checked out of hotel

9.15am: Met with French Tv producer

11.00am: Finished meeting and had quick lunch at hotel

12.30pm: Arrived at Gare du Nord and retrieved train ticket to Calais. Looked promising -the train was not cancelled!

1.15pm: Ordered a decaf expresso and a double cognac to go with at the Station Brasserie

2.28pm: Left with train for Calais

4.20pm: Glad to arrive in Calais train station despite 20-minute delay. Although the station was a nightmare to get my heavy suitcases up and down the staircases, I managed.

5.00pm: Finally got into a taxi (sharing with 3 other nice English people) to head to the Port to take the P&O Ferry across the Channel.

6.00pm: Left with ferry which was actually scheduled to leave at 5.05pm. The three English: a mother and daughter couple, and a young man were helping me with my heavy bags.

6.30pm: Arrived in Dover (Hurray!!!)

7.00pm: Got into taxi with blue Disco lights driven by a good-humoured Iraqi fellow, and got to the Dover Priory train station in Disco mode.

7.15pm: Bought a round of drinks for my helpers and order a vodka for myself at the pub opposite the station.

7.44pm: Left Dover.

8.50pm: Train pullled into London's St Pancreas station.

9.15pm: Said Goodbye to Matt, Ruth and Jeanne.

9.45pm: Arrived home. This would be Beijing time 5.45am Wed Dec 22.

After dealing Volcanic Ash, European snow, I can deal with anything.

Killing Fields

King Henry and Princess made a complete cleaning of the blesbuck 42 Ha Tigers Roar camp so nothing was left for them to hunt. We decided to swamp them with Hulooo brothers who had been in the 100 Ha Hunters’ Palace camp. Hunters Place is very open in most parts of the camp with little cover, which presented a huge challenge for the tigers who are stalking ambushers that need cover. Dr. JD Smith remarked that if the tigers can hunt here in such open habitat, they should have the skills to hunt anywhere in the world, and would probably even have a much easier time hunting in their native habitat in China.

Despite the difficulties, Hulooo brothers managed to take advantage of stormy weathers, making kills of a good number of blesbuck and implalas who either took shelter in the dense bush areas that they avoid in calm weather conditions, or were disoriented by wind, thunder and lightening. We understand the challenge for a cover-needing tiger to hunt the third fastest African antelope –blesbuck, so we released a few bush-loving impalas into Hunters’ Palace. Interestingly, soon after two impalas became Hulooo brothers’s victims, the rest took to joining the blesbuck herd, running as the blesbuck run and eating as the blebuck eat. Still, another impala lost its life to the brothers.

Time for King Henry & Sister to give it a go in Hunters Palace as well. They were swapped with Hulooo brothers on November 14th. I can only say Bravo, youngsters! Since they went in, we had been unable to see them often, as they would hide themselves to consume fruits of their labour. Princess, being the shyest tiger at Laohu, was even a scarcer sight. On the rare occasions I did see her, she was on the lookout for her next victim. Just like her petite, shy mother Madonna whose hunting skills had been underestimated but proved she was a stealth hunter after having been observed making two kills in the space of 25 minutes, Princess had to demonstrate that she too, even smaller than her mother, had to prove her worth. But having witnessed the way she stalked the prey, I have no doubt that she is more than capable of doing her job. In fact, experience over our seven years of rewilding shows that tigresses are in fact better hunters! Helped sometimes by the stormy weather lately ,Princess & bros made kill after kill. A total of four blesbuck were hunted by them in a 10-day period, in this most challenging rewilding training camp.

Meanwhile, a fresh load of blesbuck were introduced into Tigers Roars and after a resting period for the blesbuck to settle down, Hulooo brothers were moved inside on Nov 18th. A Kill was made instantly during our monitoring, nevertheless inside the trees. What followed in next couple of days became an enigma for us for days to come, making us brood over as to what exactly happened. In the morning monitoring on Nov 19th, only five blesbuck were seen in the open area in Tigers Roars. This was highly unusual as Blesbuck are open land animals. However we took it that the other thirteen were temporarily taking shelter in the trees, disoriented from the storm the previous night. And they were sure to come out soon!

However, evening came and gone and another day came and gone. Still no sight of these missing blesbuck. Further, Hulooo brothers themselves were nowhere to be seen. They couldn’t possibly killed thirteen blesbuck in one night, could they? We started to wonder. This was a most unlikely scenario though. Last year in August, the brothers made a heavy toll on prey by hunting 11 blesbuck in a short period. But that was still in 10 days. Killing thirteen blesbuck in one night seemed just too distant a possibility!

Four days went by so we must solve the riddle. We drove into Tigers Roars on Monday Nov 22 to try our luck. When we eventually found Hulooo and JenB, we couldn’t believe our eyes. Their whiskers and nose were dirty and smeared with blood. If we didn’t know about the missing blesbok, we would have thought they had a bloody fight among themselves. What was more, their bellies were like balloons, particularly that of Hulooo who always has a weakness for food. It was clear that they had been feeding non-stop, not even bothering to lick themselves clean. After putting in their acknowledgement of us, Hulooo and JenB quickly disappeared into different directions again, as if afraid something could happen to their booties. We can hear the sound of bones getting cracked coming from inside the trees and river bed.

There was no doubt now that Hulooo brothers did make a killing-field out of Tigers Roars. But what happened to Coco?? Was he simply too fat to come out to greet us? Or was he injured during the hunting spree?? I couldn’t bear of the thoughts any longer so sent out a “search” party on Nov 24th to find Coco. Fortunately, he responded to the predator whistle, albeit feeling deceived. He refused to come out again next day the whistle was blown.

We continued to marvel at this most unusual hunting event, where three tigers wiped out three quarters of their entire month of food supply in two days. Could this because Hulooo was turning three on Nov 23rd and the brothers threw a hunting party for him to celebrate his coming of age??
Thing didn’t stop there. In the stormy night of Nov 25th, a further blesbuck lost its life.

Laohu Valley Reserve

It's cool down here

I hate heat

One by One

Caught in the Act

Why Hulooo so happy?