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Hello From Izmir!

By Rami on April 8, 2018 in Travel

If you follow me on Instagram then you probably know I’m currently in Izmir for a digital networking event hosted by Middle East Airlines along with several bloggers and media figures.

The city is quite nice with many attractions and touristic sites around it, and history buffs will certainly enjoy it for the ancient city of Ephesus and the house of virgin Mary which we both have visited. For that I really hope MEA will soon consider establishing a direct line to it at least during the summer to make it more accessible especially for those who are interested in religious tourism.

Aside from bringing media people together, MEA had a few cool announcements to make. First, they are working to expand their fleet and as of 2019 they will receive 15 new aircraft, among which 11 are Airbus 321 and 4 wide body airplanes (either the 330 or 787-9) and they will all be equipped with WIFI onboard. They are also working to complete the expansion of their headquarters which will include a green building, a massive hangar to accommodate their big planes, in addition to a gym, a sport court and most importantly a kindergarten dedicated for their employees.

Chairman Mohamad El Hout also mentioned some hints about the expansion of Beirut Airport and I recommend you check all about it on Gino’s blog who made superb effort gathering a lot of information about it.

I will soon write an article summarizing all the interesting stuff you can see here in Izmir in addition to how you can probably include it in your next trip to Turkey even if you didn’t directly land in its airport.

A Different View of Raouche and The Pigeon Rock

By Rami on April 6, 2018 in Activities

I lived my whole life in Beirut and never knew you can actually buy a boat ride around the coast and the Pigeon rock until last year!

I always knew about the two small fishing ports in Dalieh (Raouche) and Ain El Mrayseh, but a friend last summer told me that people can pay the fishermen in Dalieh for a cool boat ride around the area. So back in October I decided to take my kid and do it and we absolutely enjoyed it. I’ve been to a few similar rides in Byblos, Saida and Tripoli but to be honest they’re quite dull compared to what you see in Raouche. And now that the weather is getting nice for such rides, I recommend you plan it because it gives you a very nice perspective of the seaside and pigeon rock.

First of all, you should know how to reach the Dalieh fishing port which is located right next to the Movenpick Hotel. On your way to Movenpick, slow down before reaching its entrance and you will notice a small unpaved road to the right, stop your car there and ask one of the fishermen you will find there to assist you for finding a parking spot at the port entrance. Don’t try driving further down the road unless you have an SUV because it can seriously damage your car.

Going down to the port by foot takes a couple of minutes, but make sure to negotiate the price for the ride with the fishermen before you go. I recall we paid around $50 for 4 adults and 3 children on a ~20 minutes ride. And more importantly, make sure to also have a mosquito repellant because you will definitely need it on the way down.

Don’t be surprised with the port state once you reach it though. It is very ill equipped because the government was supposed to revamp it in 2012 but it unfortunately never delivered and even tried to privatize it, hence why you see the fishermen who live there complaining on the news every now and then. Add to that, the water surrounding it was full of trash coming from the Costa Brava when we went.

So, once ready, hop into the small boat (no life jackets by the way), enjoy the views, and make sure to talk with the guy steering the boat because all fishermen there have so many interesting stories to tell (our guy was called Mohammad Itani). You will see several sea caves, among which is the one below Dbeibo Cafe where a seal supposedly lives. The boat will also go a good distance into the sea for you to see the coast, and on the way back you will approach the pigeon rock and sail inside the hollow part in it.

On the way back from the port, you can’t not see the small houses where some fishermen live, and the contrast you will see between these poor wooden houses and the adjacent luxurious Movenpick is just awkward… However, the setting of their terrace and the views they have from it is so beautiful.

I personally have no idea if the families living there actually own their properties by law, and I also don’t know how legal are the attempts to privatize the area. However, the fishermen who work there definitely deserve a better port and it is a shame for the government to keep it that way. Elsewhere in the world you would see a whole economy built around such rock formations, but then again this is how things are here…

Anyway again, do not miss this cool ride if you have never done it before.

Compensating For The Lack of Public Spaces in Beirut

By Rami on April 5, 2018 in Environment

One of the things I really struggle with every weekend is coming up with a new place to take my kid to for some outdoor fun. The options in Beirut are quite limited due to the lack of public spaces/gardens so most of the times we end up at a closed playground, which I absolutely despise, and sometimes at some place up in the mountains when the weather permits.

However, I’ve been lately thinking that the Municipality of Beirut actually does have the capacity to compensate for this lack of public space during the weekends and holidays at minimum, and they can seriously focus on this instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on what they label as attempts to revive Nejmeh square.

Beirut has a lot of big schools such as Lycée Abdelkader, La Sagesse, Makassed and International College to name a few, in addition to many public schools as well, and most of them have large fields with kids playgrounds. So why not can’t the municipality agree with a couple of large schools in every area to open their doors during the weekends in order for the people to enjoy a casual troll or jog away from the polluted streets or even bring their kids to play and spend some time.

I know the whole thing is not as simple as just opening the schools’ doors and it definitely needs money and human resources to make it happen, but the municipality can take it as an opportunity to provide jobs for part timers who are willing to participate. Moreover, schools can also benefit by offering to rent small kiosks for business owners for example.

So yes, instead of pouring money into pointless projects and initiatives, how about we simply try to make use of what’s already available?

What Al Murr Tower Was Supposed To Become

By Rami on March 28, 2018 in Architecture, Uncategorized

I was searching for some info about Al Murr Tower last night when I stumbled upon some interesting stuff about it. I actually always knew the structure was built by Michael Al Murr back in the 70s but I never knew Solidere had plans for it in the90s.

According to this article from The Daily Star in 1999, Solidere claimed the tower in exchange of shares from Michael Al Murr as part of the reconstruction plan for Beirut cnetral disctrict, and was originally intending to demolish it and replace it with another high-rise building to house their headquarters in addition to office spaces for other companies and a rooftop restaurant on the last two floors.

The whole thing however was called off when Michael Al Murr felt unsatisfied with the terms of the sale and asked for his tower back. You can read all about it here.

Other sources on Facebook also claim that the reason nothing was done with the tower during all the past years is basically due to the damage incurred to the building structure during war days which probably can’t allow for further works to be performed, but I’m not sure how credible is that.

I know the everyone simply just got used to the tower its area was even named after it, but with all the fancy buildings nearby, it looks really ugly now and I don’t mind having it demolished. Doing it with explosives would make a good I guess! Otherwise, allowing graffiti artists to take it over would also be a cool idea.

Second photos via Beiruti Atik FB Page

Heyoka Arabic Productions

By Rami on March 24, 2018 in Videos

Most of what I watch on TV at home are foreign movies and series that I get from torrent websites, and except for a couple of shows, I rarely follow Lebanese TV channel because most of their stuff are either pointless like the famous talk shows or utterly stupid like the murex d’or worthy drama series.

However, I’ve been recently loving some of the Lebanese content I’m finding on Youtube and Facebook and the ones I follow the most are the shows produced by Heyoka, a collective founded by a group of movie enthusiasts. They currently have two main shows, Movie Court presented by Anis Tabet and Daniel Habib, and Kazdoura presented by George Khalaf and Stephanie Atallah. The two shows are really simple, one reviews movies and the other is about street food, but I personally find them more entertaining than anything on TV.

Anis and Daniel are quite knowledgeable about the film industry and you got to enjoy the episodes they do to butcher some Lebanese movies, and apart from that they sometimes host Lebanese actors/directors for interesting talks about their work and the movie industry in Lebanon. On the other hand, George and Stephanie have a cool chemistry in Kazdoura, they have a good taste and it’s always funny to watch them tease each other in each episode.

Other projects they were involved in also include “El3ama malla show” featuring Ghayd Chammas a few months ago which was also pretty cool to follow.

You can follow Heyoka’s new videos on their Youtube channel as well as on Kazdoura’s Facebook page and Let’s Talk About Movies page.

Wissam Kamal is Preparing a Stand-Up Comedy Show for The Deaf

By Rami on March 20, 2018 in Culture

It’s always good to see someone putting effort and energy to help people with disabilities, and this is what Wissam Kamal is in his own way trying to do to make deaf people feel less left out when it comes to stand-up comedy shows.

Eight years ago, and in one of his very early shows, Wissam noticed a deaf girl laughing to his jokes by either reading his lips or when her friends where explaining them to her in sign language. So he made it a point to learn the language, which he has been doing for 8 years now, in order to use it to prepare a full show for deaf people and he is now few steps away from making this dream project come true and possibly going international with it since sign language can to some extent be understood everywhere.

With such hard work to make the show possible, Wissam is being such an inspiration and I really hope we get to see his performance the soonest.

Inside the $27M Penthouse in Sama Beirut

By Rami on March 20, 2018 in Architecture

Check out this video shot inside a 1,400m2 two floor penthouse apartment in Sama Beirut that is reportedly selling for a whooping $27,000,000.

Needless to say it is massively big and sports an amazing 360 degree view of Beirut, with a pond on the 1st floor and a pool on the second. Watch the video and eat your heart out! 😛

The video was by the way taken by a guy called Thor from Denmark who left his home country in 2013 to travel the world countries without flying. On December 2017 Lebanon became the country number 143 on his list and you can follow his journey here.

via reddit

Raising Awareness on Modern Architectural Heritage in Lebanon

By Rami on March 13, 2018 in Architecture

Banque Libano-Française recently started a blog to engage people with the progress made to build their new headquarter in Charles Helou area, and they’re taking advantage of it to also raises awareness on modern architectural heritage in Lebanon by talking about 12 significant landmark projects which influenced the architecture scene in the country between 1926 and 1997.

As part of this project, the Director of the Arab Center for Architecture George Arbid will be sharing interesting notes, pictures, plans, sketches and studies once every week on a certain building/structure around town.

So far they covered Charles Corm in Achrafieh, Saint-Georges Hotel, Carlton Hotel (demolished in 2008), and Starco building. The presented info are quite interesting and will certainly make you see the buildings that still exist nowadays from a really different perspective.

They still have 8 buildings to talk about and you can follow the series here.

Emirates Airlines to Operate A380 Test Flight to Beirut

By Rami on March 12, 2018 in Travel

Emirates Airlines announced last month it will be operating an A380 test flight to Beirut Airport on March 29th in order to test the operations and necessary infrastructure to later accommodate a regular A380 service to Lebanon.

This is a (somehow) big deal now for our airport because when the A380 was unable to land in Beirut when it was first introduced 10 years ago since it needs special infrastructure unlike and other plane. So I assume the ministry of transport and the Lebanese civil aviation authority did the necessary upgrades in order to finally make it possible.

The double deck A380 is by the way the world’s largest passenger plane, and I’ve heard a lot about the luxurious experience that Emirates offers on its first and business class from friends who tried the service (check what is it like here on Youtube). I’m not sure though how cost effective will this luxury be aboard the 4 hours Beirut-Dubai, but I imagine people who take long-haul flights will definitely appreciate it. I personally wouldn’t mind a refreshing shower on a 14 hours trip!

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