Baakline Waterfalls

This last weekend, we decided to go discover Baakline's waterfalls and river.

Baakline is a village in Mount Lebanon, Chouf district, 45 kilometers southeast of Beirut. Altitude: 850, 920 high (Source Wikipedia).

How to get there:

Driving from Beirut, you take the Rafic Al-Hariri International Airport road towards the south. You keep going until you get to Damour. Then you take the Deir Al Qamar / Beiteddine junction. It will be around 20 minutes straight drive until you reach the Baakline junction on your right. Here's where you think that you're almost there, but you're not!
It will take you another 20 minutes drive from there to reach the lowest point of the valley where you forget how long this trip was!
You can find it on the GPS as "Baakline Riviere".

What to expect:

The photos will do the job:

      

And here are some from Instagram :D

Yes this is in Lebanon!

Tips:

1. The best time to go there is probably during August and the beginning of September, cause you really HAVE to jump in that water! or else you'll regret it later.
2. Take your food with you, and you can rent tables, chairs and a grill there.
   It will cost you around 15,000 LBP - 20,000 LBP per person (10 USD - 16 USD), depending on the available spot, and if it is during weekends.
   Update (26/08/2015): It costs 20,000 LBP all week long.
3. If you want to go on weekends, it is better to go on a Saturday. It is usually crowded on Sundays.
4. If you don't want to spend the day there, Beiteddine Palace, Kaser Moussa (Moussa Palace), Deir El Qamar and even Barouk Cedars Reserve are nearby.

Contact:

There are 4 different spots (parks or whatever they're called) there, I recommend 'Paradise' (The one in the photos). Call Sleiman on +961 70 013 532
Update (26/08/2015): For more information and reservation call +961 3 924669 and you can check their new Instagram page here.

The Entertainer comes to Lebanon

Yesterday was the launching of 'The Entertainer' at Cherry at the top in Le Gray - Beirut.
If you like to try new places, you might find this interesting.
The Entertainer is a book containing a big variety of offers in many categories.
It started in Dubai and is now in 17 different countries with 21 different books.
As for the Lebanese version, the book has 400 offers from 200 different merchants, with 3 vouchers per each.
The discounts are mainly a buy one get one free, so it's interesting for couples and it costs 120,000 LBP.
These are the categories:
- Fine Dining
- Up Market Bars
- Family and Casual Restaurants
- Cafes and Nightspots
- Sports, Pleasure & Leisure
- Health & Beauty
- Hotel Accommodation

Offers can be used anytime excluding all public holidays, and you can use multiple when with a group.
For more details, check their website: https://www.theentertainerme.com/ and all the rules of use can be found here.

The Entertainer is available at Librairie Antoine, or you can buy it directly from their website here, where it's a bit cheaper than its list price.
It might help you survive Lebanon.

The Lebanese Minimum Charge

(I'm back. My last post was back in May, I won't say I didn't have time, i did, but had no mood! hope you still remember me!)

Ever heard of a minimum charge rule elsewhere in the world?
If so, although I never did, we have some very unique standards here in Lebanon.
This happened a couple of weeks ago, but it usually has the same template whenever reserving in almost any restaurant/pub/lounge/night-club in Lebanon:

Them: Sir, each reservation that exceeds 15 persons has to be enrolled in a 35$ formula that includes shared cheese platters and salads (of course in tiny portions) or a 30$ minimum charge.
We require a down payment 48 hours before the reservation and an exact number of attendees a couple of hours before.
Me: What if I reserve twice for 14 persons using two different names?
Them: Hein?!


On a later stage, they informed us that they might reserve a couple of tables in our corner for other clients depending on the number of attendees.
The ridiculous thing is that this happened with a new local lounge in town, and when I went there for the first time, a week before my expected reservation, it was hardly 50% full.
It is not a very well-known fully booked place that can put any boundaries and still be over crowded (I can understand SKYBAR doing that) and it seems it will never be!

My point of view:
Shouldn't they encourage people to come and discover the place before putting some conditions?
Shouldn't they consider that this potential client might bring in 30 others, and that their feedback should be a good marketing tool?! (= more exposure = more clients = more money)
Even if you trained well your bartenders, and mixed some good cocktails, people won't know about it unless they come and enjoy their night. I can develop the best iPhone application ever, but without marketing, especially with a fresh portfolio, my app is worth nothing.

On the other side, Lebanon is suffering one of its worst summer seasons since ever! Protests, electricity cuts, internet issues, phone network issues, lawlessness, tourism failure, high cost of living, weapons, drugs… Instead of making things easier for themselves and for those who can still buy a drink, they double the restrictions!
This country is going down. Prove me wrong.

LONDON

After the success of the 'Missing Z Domination' campaign on Facebook and all related posts and comics, most of you knew that I was the winner of Zaatar w Zeit's competition, and the prize was a trip to London for 6 days + Hotel + Breakfast + Class A football game ticket!
First of all, a BIG thank you goes to Zaatar w Zeit for the beautiful prize and because everything was perfect there!

I can easily say that I went through all over London... Ok except China town.
From Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and London eye to London Bridge, Saint Paul's Cathedral and all around the amazing huge parks!
And since I was there on Halloween, I enjoyed the fully crowded streets of the Covent Garden, Oxford and Piccadilly circuses with all kind of scary/funny costumes, and I enjoyed the London Dungeon at it's best, plus a 5D laser ride!

And to make my visit perfect, I went to Stamford Bridge to watch the amazing Chelsea vs Arsenal game, that ended 5 - 3 (lucky me) for Arsenal unfortunately! (since I was a Blues fan back then... back to roots now ;) )

Enjoy the photos.

Welcome to Stamford Bridge

41,801 fans! Including me.

The breathtaking Saint Paul's Cathedral. 

No photos inside. Yeah right :P

And the protesters outside

Tower of London

London Bridge

Wellington Arch

Buckingham Palace (after the changing of the guards)

The Chimes of Big Ben at 12 o'clock.

The wonderful leaning Big Ben!

الحرية والعدالة لفلسطين - Next to Big Ben

London Eye :) with the Aquarium penguin

From up there!

Saint James' Park

Amy Winehouse.

Obama next to the president :P

El Führer with something stuck in his nose.

Bruce Willis. Amazing details.

Hyde Park

Kensington Palace gardens.

For landscape photographers, Hyde park and Saint James' park are the places to be, especially in autumn.

I got a small conclusion from this trip:

• London is a very beautiful, clean and organized city, and people there were very nice and respectful (when I was there at least). And just to mention, England doesn't have any independence day and was never occupied.
• Lebanon is a very beautiful, unclean and disorganized country, and people here are very arrogant and mean (for my last 25 years). And just to mention, Lebanon has many independence days, and was occupied by more then 5 countries.

If you find this conclusion logic, then good luck!