Lebanon 24/7

The media famously portrayed the young Lebanese jet set driving
through the battered capital in a sporty red convertible, flaunting
trendy sunglasses and expensive outfits, the wind in their hair.
The war with Israel caused me to cancel my trip, but this odd
cliché caught my attention and intrigued me even more. I had to
go to Beirut, no matter what.
Everything went smoothly once I landed at the small, modern
Rafiq Hariri airport. The signs at customs seemed absurd to me:
Lebanese in the left lane, Arabs in the right. As if Lebanese people
weren’t Arabs. It was only later that I discovered that many Lebanese
people feel Phoenician, claiming as their ancestors the Phoenicians
who inhabited the land from 1500 BC. This learned group
settled in the city of Byblos, north of Beirut, and developed one of
the world’s first alphabets (which forms the basis of our alphabet).
Recent DNA research has proved the Lebanese right; the majority
are indeed genetically related to the Phoenicians, rather than to
the Arabs. A collective sigh of relief was breathed all over Lebanon
when this news broke.
From my past travels through Egypt I had found taxi drivers in the
Arab world to be lying, cheating thieves. Once, in Cairo, a driver
told me he had no change, but only after taking my banknotes. He
then forced me out of the car. So I arrived in Beirut as a cautious
man, to say the least. I ignored the men shouting ‘taxi, taxi’ in
the arrival hall (who tend to be the crooks) and went outside to
the official taxi rank. There I found a driver who said he knew
my hotel and offered a fair price to take me there. Off we drove,
into the busy late night traffic, in a ‘free style’ that immediately
reminded me of Egypt. It was my first experience of what I later
realised were the driving rules of every Lebanese driver: overtake
from the left or right on the highway? Fine. Take up two lanes? Be
I In Beirut
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