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.
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