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A Lebanese Blog

Tag: Beirut

  • Brazilian Olympic Football Team migth call off their trip to Lebanon

    football fans

    Too bad for us, the much anticipated football game between the Brazilian Olympic team and the Lebanese national team might get called off due to the crisis in Arsal earlier this month!

    According to this article in Al-Akhbar today, the Brazilian Football Confederation is now considering moving their training camp to Qatar to guarantee the safety of their players away from the security incidents here in Lebanon.

    The friendly game will still take place though even if the Brazilians insisted on going to Doha but will be postponed till September 6th instead of September 4th.

  • Saint Hoax’s take on the war on Gaza

    Saint Hoax is a Beirut based activist who was best known for the series of posters that went viral a while ago, showing Disney princesses being forcefully kissed by their fathers to raise awareness at statistics around rape and incest.

    Below are his latest posters showing his take on the ongoing war on Gaza nowadays. You can’t but respect his spot on work!

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    You can stay up to date with Saint Hoax’s work by following him on Facebook and Twitter.

  • Beirut Beer – A new beer from Kassatly Chtaura

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    Looks like the spirits industry is one of the hot investments in the country right now as we keep hearing about both entrepreneurs and big companies releasing new alcoholic beverages. Over the past few years 961 beer was launched and several wineries were established in Bekaa and the north, and earlier this year we got J2 Vodka (Polish made with Lebanese water) while Almaza kept on updating their offering with both Almaza light and Almaza lemon.

    And just today, I was browsing Massabki’s page on Facebook when I was surprised to learn that Kassatly Chtaura are also launching a new beer in Lebanon called “Beirut Beer”, which is going to be produced in the Bekaa valey and will be available in supermarkets over the coming few days.

    I also managed to find the below two ads for it on YouTube and they seemed a bit similar to Buzz’s ads (another product of Kassatly).

  • Ellie Goulding live at Biel next week

    Compared to all the artists coming to Lebanon this summer, Ellie Goulding’s concert on July 23rd at Biel is definitely going to be the biggest act this season!

    I already got my tickets from Mix FM and you can reserve yours online at Ticketing Box Office or at any Virgin store in Lebanon.

  • Why is our internet getting worse?

    Following the ministry of telecommunications’ announcement two month ago about the broadband internet packages upgrade and price reductions, you would expect the average speed across the country to be significantly better and our global ranking to improve a bit. But unfortunately, this doesn’t seem like the case since a lot of ADSL subscribers are complaining about their connection!

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    The chart above from netindex.com proves people are right. While July was supposed to witness the new plans taking effect, it is instead turning into the worst month for our internet with the lowest speed in over a year!

    If Boutros Harb knew the upgrades were not feasible then he should have simply just reduced the prices instead of messing the speeds for the sake of coming out better than his predecessor Nicolas Sehnaoui.

    It’s very clear that the top priorities for the minister right now is to work on upgrading the infrastructure to provide households with better speeds as well as supplying internet providers with more E1s to cater for their subscribers.

  • Careem – Another cab app launched in Beirut!

    Seems like it’s the cab apps day on the blog today! I was searching for similar services to Uber in the region and came across this article on the launching of Careem in Beirut.

    Careem is yet another cab app that connects passengers to drivers and works exactly the same way as Uber, except that I felt like the booking process is smoother in Uber. What remains now though is knowing which one has the best fares and service.

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    Careem is available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry.

  • Uber launches in Beirut

    Uber-Logo

    Uber is a on-demand car service based in San Francisco, California that connects passengers with drivers in over 140 cities through a mobile app allowing customers to order a ride, track their driver’s location, and finally pay using their credit card.

    They have already been operating in several cities across the middle east, and they just announced today on their blog expanding to Beirut with Pierre Rabbat and Daniella Rahme being the first two to try their service.

    I downloaded their app (Available on both iOS and Android) and found it quite easy to use. You first need a couple of minutes to create an account and verify your mobile number and you’re good to go. To order a ride, you choose the vehicle type you want and mark the location from which the driver should expect picking you up from and wait. When you reach your destination, your credit card will be automatically billed with no need to tip or carry cash.

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    I haven’t tried using the service yet so I can’t tell how good are their fares compared to local taxi companies and shared taxi service. However, they’re offering a couple of promo codes one for $20 (“UberLovesBeirut”) and the other for $30 (“rabbat“) which I guess is enough for us to assess the service.

    Thanks @Chemali

  • 8 Reasons to avoid Lebanon this summer

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    I’ve been following the #LiveLoveLebanon campaign lately, and I really respect the effort the people behind it are putting to let the tourism industry flourish again. But let’s be honest for a second, would you really recommend Lebanon as touristic destination to a foreign friend of yours?

    I mean I know we’ve got some cool places, but the touristic experience Lebanon offers definitely doesn’t come anywhere near the ones offered by several countries around us like Turkey, Dubai, Cyprus and Jordan maybe.

    So just in case you were saving money for a summer vacation in Lebanon, here are 8 reasons why you should go spend it somewhere else.

    1. Bad infrastructure

    Commuting inside the main cities is guaranteed to get you stuck in traffic for hours, and planning long trips will cost you an an arm and a leg due to our bad public transportation system. Meanwhile, other countries have metro networks to make your life much easier!

    And talking about bad infrastructure, you should probably know we still suffer from power outages here.

    2. Expensive beach resorts

    What’s summer vacation without beach? You probably have been to other countries and are used to the fact that beach is for everyone, but that’s not valid here in Lebanon. Access to beach resorts costs $30-35 / person. And don’t you dare to order a sandwich from their local restaurant, the bill will most probably knock you out.

    On the other hand, nearby destinations have gorgeous public beaches where you can get your own food and snacks!

    People may now argue that public beaches DO exist here in Lebanon. But the question is, are they advertised to tourists?

    3. How the hell do I get there?!

    Ok, we get it, Balou’ Bala and Nahr Ibrahim among many other places are pretty cool. But how the hell can one reach them?! It is true that we have some hidden gems around the country, but well they’re just… very well hidden!

    Unless you know someone here who knows his way around very well, you will most probably just stick to the main boring attractions. (e.g Zaitunay Bay, Hamra, Malls, etc…)

    4. Overpriced restaurants and clubs

    The trend for restaurants nowadays is claiming to use premium Angus beef to justify the inflated prices on their menus. Wait until they hear about the Kobe beef!

    I truly believe we pay a lot of money here in Lebanon for mediocre service and food quality. On the contrary, and trust me on this, you get much better dining experiences in Dubai and Istanbul for less money.

    5. Angry people everywhere

    Most of the people here seem to be constantly frustrated or upset at something! We always have something to whine about. We whine about electricity, internet, politicians, traffic, world cup broadcasting rights, and then we take it all on each others when driving!

    People elsewhere are happier because unlike us they don’t need to worry about basics like water and electricity, and therefore you don’t get depressed everytime you look at them!

    6. No, you’re not scoring tonight

    So you’re coming from one of the gulf region where Lebanese girls have the reputation of being so easy and you’re expecting to get laid with every chick you meet, right? NOT REALLY! Beirut is not the sin city you think it is, and it isn’t really easy to get laid around here.

    If sex tourism is your thing, spare yourself the time and just book a trip to Pattaya, the mother of all sin cities!

    7. Safety first

    How the hell do you plan a trip to a country where explosions occur randomly?! And even if these explosions are thought to be limited to certain areas, WHY TAKE THE RISK?!

    8. Organized chaos

    Lebanon is nothing but a state of organized chaos. We cut off each others when waiting in line, we hate to stop on red signs, we let the valet parking people rule our streets, we block roads for no reason, and yet for god knows why we just love how things go around here!

    For all of the above, just go put your money somewhere else and don’t let anyone fool you with talks about how good the nighlife here is, we indeed have an interesting nightlife scene, but it’s definitely not worth it. Lebanon is seriously so overrated as a touristic destination.

    And finally, you as a Lebanese better stop wasting money on expensive restaurants, clubs and resorts, and I guarantee in a few months you will save enough money to go on a trip or two to some really cool places!!

  • Sanayeh Garden Renovation

    Sanayeh Garden is currently being renovated by Azadea Foundation and is set to open again in May 2014 if all went as planned.

  • Yet another happy video from Lebanon

    This one is sponsored by Mazzat restaurant. I loved the shots at the rock of Raouche.