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Three guys travelling around the world in search of snow, culture, experiences and a great time. You can also find us on Facebook under Hiutale - Travellers with skis.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Caves, party and some nice wine.



Our driver came to pick us up from Mzaar after we called Ron for a new plan. The bad weather rolled in sooner than we thought, so there was no idea in staying in Mzaar. We drove down the serpentine and the further we got, the better the weather started to be. When we reached the Jeita Grotto, which is one of the biggest caves in the world, the sun was already shining. The Jeita Grotto is located on the half way when driving from Mzaar to Beirut.

We went to the ticket counter and not for the first time there came a fuzz about our cameras. The lady at the counter told us that we need a permission to film in the caves and guided us to the manager of the cave complex. The manager wanted us to sign a form that we are doing a story about the caves and that not one picture will be sold or used by anyone else than us. After this little formality we were on our way into the caves. 

The caves are in two levels and first we went to the lower one, which is accessed by small boats. When we were entering the caves from a shallow entry hole, Blumi thought that it almost felt like we were cruising down the river Styx and entering the Hades world. After the shallow opening, the cave opened into an amazing hallway. The size of the cave blew our minds away as it is big enough to fit a jumbo jet. The boat ride goes maybe for a few hundred meters before the turning point and heading back. We got some unbelievable footage as the boat slowly moved through the cave. 



We went to the upper part of the cave next, to which you can walk in through a manmade tunnel on the side of the mountain. The upper cave is even bigger and the highest point from the water to the ceiling is 108 meters high. There is a path and a huge stair case called Snake Passage. It was designed by a student of a well known Brazilian architect called Oscar Niemeyer. We walked through the passage and every time some tourists walked by us our guide was yelling, TV! TV!, so that people will know that we're a TV crew with permission to film. It is strictly forbidden to film in the caves. I think it might be that they want to sell more pictures from their own archives. I can understand it because even for a beginner it would be really easy to take really good pictures of the formations there. There are stalagmites and stalactites all over the place forming pillars with extraordinary forms. You can find a huge mushroom, an aliens head, Blumi even found the Virgin Mary, with Jesus on her lap. The passage itself is 750 meters long and it ends into a small amphitheater with better acoustics than a concert hall. They actually have had many famous symphony orchestras playing there because of the acoustics. They told us that the sound lasts there for seven seconds. From this point on the caves still continue for over 7 kilometers, which is the length of the discovered part so far, but the archaeologist believes that it goes even further. The caves were amazing, but we still had a lot to do for the day, so it was time to continue our journey towards the city of Beirut. 

We got to our hotel in Beirut at around five in the evening and as a positive surprise our hotel looked really decent. It was an old Parisian style hotel, with nice lobby and a working Wi-Fi. It really is hard to find any decent connection in these countries because the government is always trying to mess with the line. We got our luggage to our room and then it was time to hit the streets to find something to eat and to check out some nightlife as well.

Our hotel was located next to the port and it was called Port View Hotel. The port area is filled with small local bars and pubs and the feeling is really similar to Paris' side alleys. A couple of things that differs it from Paris is the trash and the civil war ruined buildings all around. 


Like in Casablanca it is sad to see how badly the economy and the war has erupted the city. We saw a lot of almost collapsed buildings on our walk around the city. Anyway, we were able to find a nice place to eat with local cuisine and a nice staff. The food was really good, and as always, we ordered a bunch of different courses to taste and a bottle of local wine from Ksara vineyards. 

We met some students on a holiday from Istanbul with one of them actually Finnish, and after the dinner we head for a few beers in some local bars. To mention one, there was a really good live music bar called Bar Louie with an excellent cover band called "Who killed Bruce Lee" from Beirut. One funny thing about this bar was that they added a music fee to our check which was around 8 Euros, but the funny part was that they didn't mention anything about any fee when we entered the bar, must be a local custom. Well, the band was so good that it was totally worth it.

After some nice music and a few beers we continued our way to this one kiosk or small grocery store that one of the students knew to be a nice place. There was a storm roaming over the sea, so with the view over the city to the sea, this kiosk was an amazing place to watch the lightnings and drink some really cheap beer. They even gave us a table and some chairs on to the street for a better view. After the amazing display from Mother Nature it was time to head back to our hotel to get some sleep before the next day's trip to Baalbek ruins and the Ksara vineyards.


Our driver came to pick us up from the hotel early in the morning, and once again we over slept. He called us from the reception desk and after a few apologies and super fast packing we were on our way. One thing about Baalbek is that it is located in Bekaa Valley, which is a hizbollah controlled area, so it is more than wise to go there by a tourist bus or taxi. With a rental car you can really get into trouble with the police and all. 


Because of the tension here in Lebanon, there were military personnel with tanks everywhere and roadblocks after every 5 to 10 kilometers when we drove to the ruins. The ruins of Baalbek are from the Roman time and they are worth seeing. We didn't get inside the ruins because of the cameras once again, but we got some pretty nice footage filming outside the ruins. 

After an hour of filming we headed to the vineyards further down south in the the Bekaa Valley.  Ksara is the biggest wine producer in Lebanon and they have one of the best caves in the world for aging the wine. We got a nice tour from their PR-executive, Rania Chammas. 


She showed us the caves and told us all about wine production and a nice story about how a hunter accidentally discovered the caves by following a fox when he was hunting. After the tour it was time to taste some wines. 


We tasted two whites and one rose and they were all excellent. All the wines had a really fresh taste. After the first tasting we had a light lunch at the vineyard's restaurant and tasted some reds. The lunch was amazing with some really good cheeses as a starter, some fresh salad as a main course and one of the best cheesecakes I have ever tasted as a desert. At this point I thought that I really love my job. 



We talked about the situation here in Lebanon and how it is evolving over a few glasses of wine and time just flew by. The really nice PR-lady even gave us all a free bottle of the wine that we liked the most as a souvenir and it was time for us to climb back to our minivan and head back to Beirut. I really would love to stay there longer.

Once we got back to Beirut it was already evening, so we just made a quick pit stop at the hotel and went out to see a different part of Beirut with good snack food. At first the plan was to find something to eat and then go see some night clubs. After wondering around the area for an hour and because we were really tired after a long day we changed our plans and headed back to our hotel. The next morning it was time to go back to the mountains and we thought that we needed the good night's rest.  Hopefully some powder snow was my last thought before I fell asleep.

See you in Cedars.  

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Mountains, beaches, good food and friendly people – that is Lebanon.




We arrived to Lebanon at 3 AM. Our normal flight landed at 21.35, but we weren't onboard in that one. No, no, we missed our connecting flight in Doha, Qatar, due to a way too short time to change from one plane to another. There was only 40 minutes between the landing of the first and the departure of the next flight. We had the slowest possible airport bus driver in the world, and the transfer desk lines were tens of meters long. Even with our good cutting-into-the-line skills we didn't manage to get to our transfer gate in time. So, waiting it was. The nice lady on the transfer desk luckily gave us some vouchers for free food and beverages, because we ended up having a nice 5 hours to spend at the airport before the next flight.

So, we finally got ourselves to Beirut airport and our driver was waiting for us at the arrivals lobby with my name on a big sign, pretty V.I.P. Well it felt V.I.P. until I saw our transportation. It was an old Toyota Hiace, the minivan edition. And the driver (don't know his real name) got quickly named Vatanen after an old rally driver from Finland, because of his driving habits. The guy charged every corner probably two times too fast and it really felt that some times we were on two wheels. Well, if you think that there is 60-70 kilometers from the airport to Mzaar, the ski resort that we were heading to, and the guy drove it in an hour with 1500 meters vertical. I believe you get the point how fast he was driving. 

He even drove us to a wrong hotel at first, but that might have been my fault, because I told him to do so, hehe. I thought that we are going to a hotel that our guide Ron mentioned to me in our mail exchange, but apparently not. The only thing that we found from the first place was some drunken guy sleeping in the hotel lobby and otherwise the hotel was totally empty. Ron had actually reserved a nice chalet for us next to the lifts, so it was better that way in the end. It felt so good once again to lie down after almost 24 hours of travelling. 

We woke up at around seven o'clock the next morning, all super ready to go skiing. The feeling is just amazing, when you're standing next to a lift, putting your skis on and you know that it is going to be a great day. As the weather forecast had promised two days of good weather, we decided to go check out some lines on the first day and then go film them the next day. We cruised around the resort, which is actually really big, and looked for some nice spots to film. We focused on finding more the lookers than the nut crackers and accidentally ended up finding both in the same spot. We found the lines standing next to a window in this one café on the top and Ape suddenly said to me “Wow, this slope down from here looks kind of steep”. So we skied it down from the side and went to have a look from under it. It looked perfect. The lines were maybe 45 degrees steep from the top, then a drop or two into a huge face. We took some guiding photos and headed back home. On the way back we found one fun run with spring snow that we filmed with the head cams and took some snapshots from small cliffs close to it. 

The evening went chatting on Facebook and drinking coffee. The one and only bad thing in our chalet was that the grocery store was way down in the lower village. So, we had to walk for maybe a kilometer to get there and another one back uphill for some food and water, nice. Well, we are three sporty guys so it wasn't that bad, hehe. 

The next morning I woke up well before my alarm clock. It was filming day. I had gone through the line so many times when I went to bed that I can't even count the times. I was so stoked on the chair lift on our way up and even more stoked when we realized that the best light comes to my line and we are going to film it first. So, I went up on the lift once again and took one more photo to guide me to the right spot. From the top station I had to ski and walk for a few hundred meters to get to the starting spot. Ape guided me from the bottom with hand signals and with a little help from the photo I found the right place. I put my skis and helmet on, set my gear and I was ready to hit it. I signaled the guys that I am ready, and once I got the ok signal back, I was on my way. Everything went just the way I had pictured it in my mind. First three turns, then a sliding stopper and then charge it over the cliff. It felt so good when I was riding down the face and I knew that I got it. I have to say that that is one of the best feelings in the world. 

Next it was Blumi's turn. He chose a run with two cliffs on the other side of the mountain. One long turn, a drop, then a long stopper and another drop down to the face and skiing away. It was a nice solid run with two nice cliffs in it. 

Then it was Ape's turn. Ape's run was maybe the most difficult of the three with two drops and less snow than the first two. Ape's head is perfect for skiing the big lines and once again he went big and in total control at all the time and killed his line. The line skiing is all about knowing your own skills and keeping your head cool. You should start from the smaller and easy lines and move your way slowly up to the bigger ones over time. 

Later on in the afternoon we just skied some fun stuff for the head cams, and watched and filmed some locals doing crazy stuff on the slopes. It really is fun to watch the families having fun on the slopes and not just staying at home watching TV. 

One funny thing too is that you can buy so called super food from the parking lot after a hard day on the slopes. There are all kinds of nuts and dried fruits for sale in an old car's trunk and trust me they are tasty. If you think that Parrot's nuts are good, then these will blow your mind away.  

Later on in the evening when it was dinner time, we decided to eat out, because none of us was up for the grocery store walk again, hehe. Really, it's at least 150 meters of vertical and two kilometers there and back, no way after a filming day. There was a nice small café/restaurant on the ground floor of our building that also manages the chalets that we were living in. They served really nice sajj, which is a tortilla styled pancake with cheese and ham in it, and it is really good. The owners make and bake them on a half ball shaped pan outside the place, and everything they put on them is really fresh. They also serve alcohol and play music really loud, which seems to be normal in every sort of bar and café in Lebanon. People live for music in Lebanon.

The next morning was planned to be our last filming day, but when we opened the curtains in the morning the plans suddenly changed. It was pouring rain hard and the whole mountain was in the clouds, so it was a no go for us. We called our friend Ron from the SkiLeb and asked him to re-organize our trip a little bit. He contacted us after an hour and we were on our way to check out Beirut. 

See you there.




Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Dubai, the land of the mad scientist.


Jet lags are something that often come when you’re doing what we do - traveling a lot. And yet it still never had crossed my mind that it can occur even when you’re flying from Morocco to Dubai. The time-difference is only 4 hours, so it really blew my mind. We arrived in Dubai early in the morning, and boy were we tired.  We didn’t sleep at all during the 10 hour flight, and we even had to change once in Doha, Qatar. But at around 8 o’clock in the morning, we had finally arrived. The good thing was that our friend Ari, who lives in Dubai with his family, had reserved hotel rooms for us so that we didn’t have to do it ourselves. The hotel was located next to the Mall of Emirates, which was actually a really good thing, because Ski Dubai is located in this certain mall. Ski Dubai was something that had been in both mine and Blumi’s mind for a while, and we really wanted to see it. For the rest of the day, Ari drove us around the city and showed us the new side of Dubai, with all of its unfinished huge buildings and he told us all about the unbelievable plan of a mad man to build the three palms and the globe on the sea. I think that they are actually planning on building even more weird stuff to Dubai.

So after breakfast the next day, we packed our camera stuff and headed to the Ski Dubai without the skis. It was time for some snowboard mania. We figured that maybe we should try snowboarding because the Ski Dubai with its 65 meters of vertical doesn’t really give that much thrills for us with skis. Well, I have been snowboarding for years between the ages 9 and 16, and for me it was just something fun to do. For Blumi, it was more thrilling, I guess. It was his fifth time on a snowboard, but he did well. With the balance of a lemur, he easily managed to ride down the hill without falling for even once. The riding in Ski Dubai is actually pretty okay, and I even tried some rails with the board, good times. They have two lifts, one chair and one poma and they say that they have 5 slopes, but in reality there really are only two. After snowboarding, we went to have some after ski-coffee at Starbucks, Ape’s favorite.



A funny thing that happened was that we met Johannes and his father by accident at the cafe. They were having a father-and-son vacation and so of course we wanted to spend some time with them. It really felt great to speak some Finnish to someone else than just the two guys travelling with me, hehe. We went out to check this one area in Dubai where the locals go out to eat and party every Thursday. You can find the different side of Dubai from these small alleys. The food is excellent, and despite the fact that everyone is trying to get you to buy a watch, it is a place that you really should go to when you visit Dubai.

We went to eat in this one Indian/Pakistanian restaurant, and you can really feel the difference between all the real places and the artificial new Dubai. Dubai really is artificial and everything is manmade. The water consumption of Dubai must be enormous with the plants and all set on the dry desert. And even the people seem to be something else. Not snobby, but yet still somehow different, with no smile on their faces. This is probably something that you can find in every big city in the world, so go check out the local stuff where ever you’re traveling.  




We had something else in mind the next day, or actually it was Ari’s idea first to go ride some ATVs in the desert. And in our heads the idea developed into an idea of spending a night at the desert. Ari came to pick us up from the hotel, and we arrived to KTM’s ranch at around noon and met the other guys planning to join us for the ride. There were two older skiers, one snowboarder, one dude I didn’t know, and us. All set to go out in to the desert. The ATVs were 450cc KTM’s and I think they were powerful enough. I actually had a 525cc if it makes any difference, hehe. At first, all the acceleration and everything felt fun and driving was exciting, then the reality hit came. We had to drive tens of miles to our destination. And although the sliding on the dunes is fun, I started to regret that I had signed in to this trip. Well, after a nice and bumpy three hours of driving, we were finally there, in the place that Ari had picked for us to spend the night at. Dude, it was next to a high way. On the way to this ”place” we drove through a nice gully on a pretty big hill, which would have made a perfect place to camp with its view over the desert. Anyway, as the boys weren’t planning on spending the night next to this outstanding road, they started their way back home before the dark and left us standing there with our ATV’s and no shelter. Oh yeah, didn’t I mention that it was raining heavily? The plan was that we’d drive to this destination and the guy from the KTM ranch would bring us the tents and some food. Well, when we called the guy he was somewhere helping some dude with his broken bike. So, luckily Ari’s friend told us the directions to the nearest gas-station and he even gave us a GPS-tracker to guide us there. Driving 15 kilometers 100km/h in pouring rain, and we were soaked. At least we had some warm place to sit in. After some careful planning, we decided to head back to the ranch and to our hotel. There was no point spending the night in a tent next to a highway in heavy rain. The funny part was that it only rains three days a year in Dubai. Once again, what are the odds? After another 15 kilometers in rain, we were back at the ranch and our friend Tupe was waiting for us and he gave us a ride back to our hotel. After this it was pretty much some food and lights out.

On the next day, boys wanted to go ride the ATVs again and if you read the story above, you will propably understand why I didn’t want to join them. Don’t get me wrong, it is fun to drive the dunes in soft sand, but the 80 percent of the driving is shitty in between the rocks and bushes. So, I decided to stay at the hotel and do some writing. The boys came back in the afternoon, and as I suspected, the sand had been great and the girls were topless and whatever. They really seemed to like the ATV-stuff more that I did.  The evening went wondering around Dubai and doing some last shots from the city and its skyline.

The next morning it was once again time to pack our stuff and change the country. And this time we headed to some real snow, to Lebanon.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Good bye Casa, Hello Dubai.


Our friend Omar came to pick us up from the airport at around three o'clock in the afternoon. The morning had slipped by us chatting in Facebook with our friends and drinking coffee at the hotel lobby. Now when I look back to it from our third hotel lobby since that one, it kind of makes we wonder was it worth it to go to Morocco.

Marrakech itself was dirty, but yet a very interesting city. The High Atlas Mountains were unbelievable and especially the hike to Mt. Toubkal was something I will never forget. All the people we met in this country were far from what people in the Western world expect them to be. Almost without any exceptions people are kind, welcoming, happy and even though some of them have so little, they still manage to keep a smile on their face. You have to admire their spirit, and that is why everyone should visit Morocco at least once in their lifetime.

Now back to our story of our trip to Casablanca. As I wrote earlier, Omar came to pick us up from the airport and we drove to Casablanca through the flat deserts of Morocco. We arrived to Casablanca at dawn, and the first thing - as always - was to find us a decent hotel. Luckily, Omar had friends everywhere and he was able to find us a nice place in just a few minutes. The hotel was old and there were two different sides in it. There was the normal side and then the budget side. We of course went for the budget side, and despite the fact that there was no hot water, no pillows and the room temperature wobbling around +12ºC, the hotel did its job. It gave us shelter and a place to sleep. 

As we got ourselves checked into the hotel, it was time for dinner. During our drive we asked Omar about the food in Casablanca and he told us about an excellent seafood place. The place is located near the fish market so the fish is always absolutely fresh. Omar guided us through our orders, and it seems that it is more than wise to ask what is fresh, rather than look at the menu in these sorts of restaurants. The food was amazing, and as the plates flew by, we really started to like Casablanca through its cuisine. The evening went the same way as the three to come were destined to go – by sitting in the hotel lobby shivering and surfing in the mysterious places of the Internet.


We woke up early the next day and headed to the fish market, but at the gates we received a No No from the police officer, because of our cameras. So, filming was not allowed at the port. We decided to go sightseeing the old new city's streets and talked about everything. Omar called us at around 11 o'clock and we met him at an old marketplace with a small fish market inside it. We took some photos and shots and Omar wanted us to try the oysters. The old lady selling the oysters had already convinced me to try them, but when Omar told me that his daughter eats eight or nine of them every time they come there, I was sold. We put the cameras rolling and down the hatch goes the oyster. When the time came to say something about the oyster, I went speechless. It was unbelievably tasty with all the lemon and everything. It was so different from the oysters in Europe. Ten times better, to say the least.




At the market we told Omar about our misfortunate trip to the first fish market and he started laughing at us. He wanted to go there with us, so we jumped to his Pathfinder and drove to the fish market once again. He just nodded at the officer and we were in. Omar is a pretty well connected guy it seems. The fish market is a huge place, where the fishermen come to sell their daily catch every morning. Some of the fish are sold through auctioning, including the tunas and the marlins, and the rest of the fish are sold from small tables to whoever wants to buy some for their daily needs. The fish market is an exciting place to visit in Casablanca if you want so see what the ocean has to offer. 

In the evening we went to this one local spot to have something to eat, and it seems that you really have to know the places in Casablanca to find something proper to eat. We ordered three courses of meat and fries, and that is what we really got. The fries were okay, but the meat was absolutely hideous. We thought that it had to be some cat caught from the alley or something. We managed to eat some of it, but not all because of the taste. 


The next day it was time to do some fishing. A couple of days back I had asked Omar if there are any shore fishing spots next to Casablanca. He told me that his brother-in-law is an ambitious fisherman, and that he can probably help us out. So, as the location that we were heading to was 20 kilometers from Casablanca, we went for an early start once again. We drove to Omar's brother-in-law's home first, and then headed to our destination. The location was a beautiful sand beach next to a quad rental. We borrowed our gear from the owner of the quad rental and headed to the beach. The fishing was angling with sliding weights and a hook. On the hook we put a small piece of squid as a bait that we had bought from a fish market on our way to the beach. And so the fishing began. After an hour, Ape seemed to have something on the other end of the line, but after five minutes of struggling, the approximately five meters long fish got away. There was a café on the side of the quad rental as well, and the staff brought  us a keg of beer and some paella to eat. They even carried us a table and some stools to the beach, easy livin'. So, we didn't catch any fish, but it was still a memorable day at the beach for us.


The day just wouldn't have been right without a few after-fish beers, so we headed to a beach club close by that the guys knew. The place was packed with maybe 50-year-old rich guys and lots of young girls, and the music was pumping hard. Jet set people dancing everywhere, and what more can I say than that the place was of the hook, so to speak. After a beer, it was time for us to head back to Casablanca and to our lovely hotel lobby.


Our following day started with a coffee in the new center, and I went to see how a local sports shop looks like. And something funny happened as well. We met our goofy guide Rachid from Marrakech. If you think that there are 5 million people living in Casablanca, what are the odds to meet someone you know? Anyway, Rachid wanted us to visit the Twin Towers to see the Casablanca from its side to side. The view from the tower's roof café is unbelievable. You can see the whole spread of Casablanca's thousands of blocks and all the way to the sea. We bought flights through the Internet and Rachid played some piano. He even had his dog sitting on a stool next to him listening him playing. Nice time spent, and once again we were on our way back to our stunning hotel. The city is pretty much seen in just a few days, so we decided to just spend the last day hanging out in our hotel.


The last morning we headed to one café with a faster Internet connection near our hotel to fix our GPS-tracker. After a few hours of trying, it kind of started to work, nice. So, the last thing to do in Morocco for us was to get a couple of shots done and to go for a short lunch with Omar. Omar really knows the places and once again the food was amazing. We ate some Moroccan salad, olives, fish balls, tongue and cole in marinade. It was so tasty in all the ways imaginable.

After the lunch it was time to head back to our hotel and start heading to the airport. We pre-ordered a BIG taxi to pick us up. Well, it was big, but not in the way we had hoped for. An old Mercedes 230D without folding backseats, nice and funny. The driver tried to fit our 190cm long ski pack sideways to the trunk first, with us laughing next to him. After a while, he let us do the packing. We have been traveling enough to know how to pack cars, we told him. So, two rollers in the trunk, four backpacks on our laps and the huge ski pack inside the car reaching from the windshield all the way to the back glass, and we were on our way. In this kind of  countries they have carriers at the airports, and with just a few euros you will have all your luggage carried all the way to the check-in counter. They even give you the visa forms that you need in order to leave the country of Morocco. So forward we go, said an old woman in the snow and we were off to Dubai.