The scent of gardenias perfumed my first days in Beirut in May Like the gardenias, Beirut is back in bloom. When we arrived to Lebanon in May , tourism crashed. Due to instability in the region, the governments of Saudi Arabia and other wealth Gulf states instructed their citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon.
That was as much politics as safety concerns, and Beirutis themselves were still out at restaurants, beaches, bars. I remember wandering downtown Beirut with my parents on their first visit in November We saw one lone foreigner besides ourselves and the migrant workers cleaning the streets.
He wore cargo pants and a large camera slung around his neckโmore likely a journalist on assignment than a tourist. A street cleaner, a businessman and two cops.
Not a lot of other tourists back in The visitors we hosted between and were intrepid, unperturbed by the utter lack of other tourists.
Baalbek in I bump into Westerners with blonde hair and knobby knees. Chinese tourists with map in hand. Minivan and all! As well as an entire busload of Lebanese tourists. On a Friday no less, not even the weekend. We went to Batroun and Byblos, and bumped into more tourists wandering around, taking selfies against the backdrop of the sparkling blue sea.
