Goa

To get from Cochin to Goa we took an internal flight. It used to be the case that travel in India involved long bus or train journeys of 24 hours or more to get around the country, but the budget airline revolution has arrived in India and you can pick up an internal flight for as little as £30 - or even less if you're an Indian resident. I was a bit dubious about taking an internal flight but the plane turned out to brand new and there was nothing to worry about. We had a very comfortable flight up to Goa.

We took a taxi from the airport straight to Anjuna which is in the north part of Goa. Anjuna was the place to be in Goa in the late 90's when the rave scene was big here. The government has cracked down on the all night raves here and the party scene isn't what it used to be but apparently it's still the place to head to in Goa for a party and with a full moon due in a couple of days it seemed like a good place to start.

We got ourselves checked into a fairly nice hotel near the beach and then went for a wander along the beach. Our hostel was pretty much at the top north end of the beach and we walked all the way to the south end. There was a funky bar at the far end playing dance music. Above the bar on the cliff tops I saw some paragliders taking off. I took a quick hike up to the top of the cliff and got a few numbers of paragliding instructors in the hope I might take some lessons here. I quickly came back down to the bar and joined Phil for a few beers. As the afternoon went on the place got busier. There were people of many different ages and states of inebriation. I've not seen too many ravers in their sixties before. There was one guy who must have been in his mid-forties who was in a little world of his own, dancing to his own music and running around the beach looking up to the sky with his hands in the air. I'm not sure what he was on but it sure looked like he was having fun. Phil and I joked that he was probably a headmaster of a respectable school back home away on a two week holiday of debauchery in Goa. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling the best - still suffering from a dodgy belly - and despite my best efforts to stay out I had to go back the hostel and lie down missing out on all the fun.

The following day we headed down to the flea market that happens every Wednesday afternoon on Anjuna beach. It's a massive market selling clothing and gifts. I saw a pair of shorts I wanted to buy. The stall owner then told me how truly amazing these pair of shorts were, that they were made in Europe and were probably the greatest pair of shorts ever made. All of this was of course a precursor to him charging me an extortionate price for the shorts. I came in at a much lower price, at which point the stall owner felt the need to remind me just how truly amazing these shorts were. We both of course knew that these were a shabby pair of Indian made shorts that would in all likelihood start to fall apart in about two days time, but I couldn't tell the stall owner this without him feigning great insult and thus dragging out the bargaining process for even longer. My new bargaining strategy is to start at a price I think is fair and then not move on my price. So I did just this. A good tactic then is to walk out of the shop and see what happens. I did this after a few minutes of haggling and he finally relented and gave me my price. I paid about £4 for the shorts but still felt I had paid too much. I put the shorts on in the back of the shop and left wearing them. Two minutes later I put my hand in one of the pockets. My hand went straight through the pocket making a massive hole in it. My two day estimate for when the shorts would start to fall apart had been wildly optimistic.

The following morning myself and Phil were preparing to leave the hostel for the day to hire some scooters and head up the coast. The old lady who owned the hostel told us to pack our stuff up and leave. It turns out she had taken a booking for our room without telling us and now we had to leave as there were no other rooms available. I wasn't very happy about this and voiced my dissatisfaction to her. She told me to pay for the room and leave. I don't think the phrase 'the customer is always right' applies in India. After being unceremoniously ejected from our hotel we went to check out a few other places and found one with a really friendly old Labrador dog that kept trying to get into our room.

Finally much later than planned we managed to hire ourselves a couple of scooters and headed north up the coast. We went first to Mandrem which is one the least developed beaches. To get onto the beach we had to take a rather rickety bamboo bridge over a stream. The beach itself was beautiful but even here there were two or three restaurants on the beach and it didn't feel like it would be long before this becomes as developed as some of the other beaches. We made our way towards Anjuna taking in a couple more beaches on the way. We got back to the hotel and were greeted by the friendly dog. Just then a couple of beggars walked past the hotel. The dog turned nasty and ran over to them and started barking like mad. His owners have obviously taught him to hate beggars. It was pretty funny to see such a placid dog suddenly turn so aggressive and it scared the shit out of the beggars.

Later that evening after some food we wondered down the beach for a drink. It turns out that tonight was the night of the full moon party. We had got our dates wrong and didn't realise it was tonight. We'd missed another party on the beach like the one that occurred the first day we arrived, but after asking around we found there was a party going on in a place called 'The West End'. The place was a little way away and we got in a taxi with two Swiss guys and headed over to check out a Goa full moon party. I'm not sure what I was expecting - maybe thousands of people on a beach with palm trees all going mad. The West End turned out be a club inland playing dance music. It wasn't really what I had in mind. I don't mind listening to dance music in clubs but I'm not really a big fan and have no idea what the difference between techno and trance and such things is. I asked a girl there if she was enjoying the full moon party. She replied that she preferred to listen to forest trance. I didn't how to reply to that so I said nothing. On this evening it was Phil's turn to feel ill and not be up for partying. The full moon party wasn't really what I'd been expecting so I was happy enough to get a taxi with him back to Anjuna. We'd been in the party capital of Goa for four days now and had completed failed to do any partying.

We had a day off to recover from our lack of partying and then hired motorbikes - well Phil hired a bike and I hired a scooter - and headed south for five days to visit the rest of the beaches in Goa. We spent most the day getting to Palolem. Despite plastering loads of suncream my nose still managed to get extremely burnt. Palolem is fairly well developed but it's also a really beautiful beach and the development hasn't really spoiled it that much. I met up with a German friend of mine Nicky while I was here. I met her four years ago in South America and haven't seen her since. It was good to see her again. The three of us had some food and then wandered down to a bar at the end of the beach. There had been loads of music pumping out of a club not far from where we were earlier but it had stopped. We thought the place had closed for the night but it turns there was a noiseless rave going on. Now a noiseless rave for those of you who don't know is rave where all the music is beamed wirelessly to headphones. You need to get a headset to listen to the music. I've never seen anything like this before. It was a lot of fun. There were two DJ's both playing different sets at the same time. A switch on the headphones allowed you to switch between the two sets. You could switch between the two and work who was listening to which channel by the way they were dancing. The strangest thing you could do though was to take your headphones off. It was very peculiar to see lots of people dancing with no music playing. It was kind of a weird experience because when you have the headphones on you can't really talk to anyone. On the plus side when you stop for a rest and have a chat at the bar you can actually hear what everyone is saying.

We spent another day chilling out in Palolem and then the following day headed up the coast with Nicky to Benaulim. We stopped off at a temple along the way. We got shown round and were given Bindi spots. We took a look at Colva beach but it looked a bit too developed so we headed back down south a couple kilometers to Benaulim and found a very quiet relaxed stretch of beach. Nicky just hung out with us for a few hours then headed back to Palolem. Me and Phil spent a couple of days here relaxing.

Phil decided to teach me how to ride a motorbike while we were here. Phil has told me on a number of occasions of the spectacular accidents he has had on motorbikes in the past so he seemed like the perfect person to teach me. I have with me a book on travel health and it has a section on motorbikes. This is what it has to say: AVOID MOTORBIKES: Accidents on (or off) motorbikes are extremely common in travelers. If you don't ride them at home, don't ride them when you are away. WEAR A HELMET: if you ride a motorbikes, have the right gear. Helmets are essential. Open shoes, bare arms or legs may result in nasty gravel rash. Well I carefully considered this advice then hopped on Phil's bike in sandals, shorts, t-shirt and no helmet. I started off a little slowly at first but soon got the hang of it and really enjoyed riding the bike. I'm quite keen to get my bike license when I return home.

After a couple of days chilling out in Benaulim we took the bikes back to Anjuna. We were we stopped off in Old Goa and were going to have a look around but we were both feeling pretty ill, just for a change, so didn't hang around. We did manage to have a quick wander round for Fort Aguada though. We got back to Anjuna and after looking at lots of places to stay near the beach ended up settling for a place in town. We had a couple of days to kill before Merryl - Phil's girlfriend - and our friend Omar turned up to join us.

We spent the days on the beach. The restaurants along the beach have sunbeds with parasols outside them and you can lie on them and have beer and food brought to you - such a hard life. Whenever you ordered food the cows that wandered the beach would come up and attack. They were pretty easy to fend off, but it was funny to see how scared of them some people were. One cow in particular was a long string of snot trailing from his nose. People weren't too happy when he tried to stick his nose in their food. I also got really ill again and spent a day in bed/on the toilet. I took another course of antibiotics and that seems to have done the trick.

The following afternoon we were waiting for Omar and Merryl to turn up. We were sat in a cafe having a few drinks. They were long overdue so Phil popped off to an internet cafe to see where they. He came back 15 mins later looking none too impressed. Merryl had been delayed but would be with us in an hour or so. Omar meanwhile had been deported in Mumbai. He had turned up without a visa. Nice work Omar!

We spent a few more days in Anjuna once Merryl arrived and revisited a few beaches we had already been to so Merryl could see them. We also popped over to a place called Chapora which is where a lot of hippies hang out. We saw three old guys who were in a bit of state. One the guys with his head bandaged up was clearly the worse for wear. I saw him again a little later attempting to ride a motorbike. It gave me a fairly good idea of how he had managed to injure his head in the first place.

I got into quite a fitness regime whilst in Anjuna and most mornings would do some exercises in my room - push ups, sit ups and that sort of thing - and then go for a run along on the beach. On completion of my run and a quick shower I then went to the same restaurant each morning for a very healthy breakfast of fruit salad with yoghurt and museli. Another old guy used run along the beach every morning. I would normally see him run past while I had my breakfast. He took his run to the next level by doing it in a thong. I wasn't quite ready for that level of commitment in my fitness regime.

On one of our last days in Anjuna it was Merryl's turn to feel ill. She turned up to breakfast looking pretty rough. She didn't feel like eating but did order a coke and proceeded to add sugar to it. Phil looked pretty appalled by this. Not long after drinking the concoction she had to go back to bed and lie down. The same day there was another party going at the bar down the far end of the beach. I was actually feeling well enough to go this time and have a few beers and a party. Unfortunately with Merryl being ill and Phil being an attentive boyfirend and looking after her I had to go on my own. But that didn't stop me having a good old shindig on the beach as the sun went down and the stars came out.

I had been trying to sort out some paragliding lessons whilst in Anjuna but was finding it difficult to track any instructors down or get them to answer their phones. By now Phil and Merryl had left Anjuna to have sometime to themselves and I had had enough of wasting time trying to sort out my paragliding course so I booked myself onto a course in a place called Kamshet near Mumbai. I had no idea what the place would be like or what to expect but decided to go nevertheless. This did mean it would complicate meeting up with Phil and Merryl again but I had already spent too much time in Goa and I was keen to get some paragliding in.

Kerala Backwaters and Fort Cochin

We had to get up at 6am to get our train to Alleppey to begin our Kerala backwater tour. We booked the trip from Varkala and all our connecting transport to the boat was sorted out for us. Needless to say at 6am neither of were functioning very coherently. We got packed and went outside to wait for our rickshaw driver to turn up and take us to the train station. After a short wait he turned up. I was so tired I left a full bottle of water by the side of the road when I got in the rickshaw - much to Phil's amusement. We made it to the train station just in time to catch our train. It was a two hour trip and we both had a bit of a snooze. We only just woke up in time to get off at our stop. In all the rush and commotion Phil left his full bottle of water on the train - much to my amusement.

We were met at the station and took to boat company's office. We had a two hour wait before the boat trip began so we had a spot of breakfast and then I wandered around the town of Alleppey while Phil went online. There wasn't really much to see so it wasn't long before I got bored and decided to go online as well. Finally we got taken to the boat. It wasn't quite as nice as the one in the photo but it was nice enough. The trip itself didn't really involve much other than just sitting on the boat in the sunshine while it made it's way through the maze of canals and waterways. The scenery was great and it was a very relaxing day. Unfortunately the water looked far too manky to have a swim in. We were fed very well by our cook and in the evening we stopped up by the canal-side in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Despite the remote location there was the odd house dotted about. Looked like a very boring albeit beautiful place to live to me.

Well the nightlife wasn't exactly kicking here so we had to make to do with a few beers on the boat and played cards to amuse ourselves. The night was very hot in our room and neither of were able to sleep very much. The following morning I managed to get a few cool pics of the sunrise and then had a snooze on the deck before getting back to Alleppey. The boat trip was very pleasant but we paid a lot more to do an overnight trip and we were probably better off just doing a day trip instead.

Once back in Alleppey I hopped on bus to Cochin while Phil had to go back to Varkala to file a police report for his stolen bag, after which he would then come and meet me in Cochin. I got chatting to a guy on the bus and he soon decided that I was his best friend and I would find him a job in a petrochemical plant in the UK. He was a very happy man when we got off the bus and gave me a copy of his CV and references. Not sure what I'm supposed to do with them. On arriving in Cochin I took a local bus to the Fort Cochin area and then found a place to stay and went to sleep for the afternoon.

I got up a little later on and had a wander round. It seemed a lot hotter here without the sea breeze. It's a very quiet relaxed place though. I found the Santa Cruz Church and a look round that. In the evening I had a bite to eat and a beer. They take the whole pretending they are not serving you beer thing to the next level here. You get given your beer in a teapot and then pour it out into a mug. So much more sophisticated than the old hide the bottle under the table routine in Varkala. From now on beer in Cochin was to be referred to as 'special tea'.

Moved hotels the following morning to a nicer place, then started investigating Cochin a bit more. Saw another church then walked along the shoreline. The fishermen have these weird massive contraptions for catching fish. I saw them pull one of these massive things out of the water. It took four or five people to operate the thing. The fruits of there labour where about three pretty measly looking fish. Didn't strike me as a particularly effective way of catching fish. I had a nice pleasant walk along the beach then hopped on a rickshaw to go and the Mattancherry Palace built by the dutch. I had a lot of fun with my rickshaw driver who wanted to take me to lots of shops where he would get a commission rather than the palace. I remained firm and eventually got to the palace without too many detours. The place itself was actually now a museum: there wasn't that much to see but with an entry price of 2 rupees (about 3p) you can't complain too much.

I had a nice walk back to my hotel through a bustling market area then had a lie down and waited for Phil to arrive. When he arrived we went out for a food and then got obliterated on special tea and had a long argument about whether human beings possess free will or just the illusion of free will.

The next day I was too hungover to do much so just took it easy. Saw some kind of elephant festival in the evening. Not sure what it was all about but elephants really are impressive beasts. So huge and yet they seem to walk so elegantly and with very light feet. I started to feel pretty ill later on so just went back to the hotel and had a lie down.

I was still feeling pretty rough the next day but managed to get up and have a look at the Jewish synagogue. I wasn't that impressed by it. Thought it would be bigger. There was a market there as well so had a look round that then got back to our hotel. We had planned to fly the next day to Goa and had already bought flights. We then found out that there was a strike the next day and taxis and buses weren't allowed on the road meaning it would be impossible to get to the airport. We had two options: either get a taxi at 5am before the strike began and then wait all morning in the airport for our flight or move that evening to a hotel near the airport. We plumped for the second option. Getting up at 5am was never really a serious option.

And so we took a taxi to the airport found ourselves a hotel with air-con and tv. The party scene and endless beaches of Goa were awaiting us...

Varkala

I had a pretty long day to get to India. First after arriving early at Beirut to sort out overstaying my visa, I had a three hour wait until my flight left to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Then another six hour wait before taking another flight to Trivandrum right in the south of India. All in all it was a 18 hour journey from leaving my hostel in Beirut to arriving in India. And what was more I arrived at 4:30 am in the morning. After getting my bags and clearing customs I bought a prepaid taxi to take me to Varkala. The taxi was a set price of 1060 rupees. I paid 1100Rs and waited for 40Rs change. The guy on the stall prevaricated in giving my change saying my taxi driver would give me the change. He then tried to give me 5 Saudi dinars as my change which I thought was quite interesting. Finally after being firm and waiting he coughed up the change smiling all the time and shaking his head from side to side. I suppose this thought of thing is to be expected in India.

The taxi ride from the airport to Varkala was very enjoyable. Everything here is so different from the Middle East. For a start it was hot and humid. There were palm trees lining the roads. Lots of people were out and about on the streets wearing strange clothes. Who knows what they were up to at 5am - it was still dark. I got dropped at Varkala just as the sun was rising. Varkala is on the coast and situated on a cliff top overlooking a beautiful beach. Before looking for some accommodation I sat on the cliff tops and watched the sunrise and saw Varkala come to life. Even this early people were out and about. There were locals and westerners exercising on the beach and doing yoga. A bunch of kids were playing cricket. Cricket is the national sport here and the Indians are mad for it. Despite the long journey to get here it was a really refreshing, pleasant way to arrive in Varkala.

And so I went off in search of accommodation. My preferred option recommended in the lonely planet (aka the bible, aka the book) was full, but they directed me onto a place called Africa house. I went in and disturbed one of the owners. He was a was a West African guy and was having a nice lie down and happily getting stoned on a rather strong smelling joint until I disturbed him. I got myself a pretty decent large sized room and then I was so exhausted I slept for most of the day. In the evening there was a roof top African bongo party going on on the roof of my hostel. The West African guy from earlier was playing with a few other people. They finished up pretty early mainly because Kent (the West African guy) got too stoned to carry on.

I had to hang around here in Varkala for a few days and wait for Phil to join me from Israel and as it turns out Varkala is a great place to just hang out and do very little, which is exactly what I did. I spent the days lying on the beach or walking along the cliff tops or eating fantastic fresh seafood in one the many restaurants here. I also got a healthiness kick going on and started running along the beach.

The hostel I was staying was a bit quiet so I checked into another hotel closer to the beach with a nice hammock hanging outside the room. I enjoyed lazing in the hammock for the first few days, but then noticed there were a load of coconuts in the palm tree the hammock was tied to that were directly above my head when I laid in the hammock. I got worried that a coconut would fall off and smash my skull in. From then on I was only able to enjoy lying in the hammock after I had a sufficient number of Kingfishers (the local beer) to allay my coconut fears.

A few days later Phil arrived, although nothing much really changed to my daily routine of lazing on the beach, going for the occasional run and having a few Kingfishers and great seafood in the evening. The nightlife in Varkala is fairly quiet. There aren't really that many bars. You tend instead to just have a few beers in one the restaurants, although officially the restaurants here don't have licenses to sell alcohol so you get your beer in a mug and have to surreptitiously hide the bottle under the table. We did find one quite cool place to drink in though called 'The Chill Out Lounge' which was very handily a twenty second drunken stumble from our hotel. The guys who worked were seriously chilled out. They were so stoned most of the time they had no idea how many drinks we had ordered and so how much to charge us. It's a good thing myself and Phil are honest upstanding citizens and always paid our bills in full.

The currents in Varkala are very strong and it can sometimes be a tad dangerous to go out in the see. Lifeguards patrol the beach, and on days when the current is strong, they stand on the beach busily blowing their whistles and waving their red flags at anyone venturing too far out to sea. We never saw a lifeguard actually in the sea and did wander if they could actually swim or if ownership of a whistle and a red flag were the sole requisites to become a lifeguard in Varkala. We were assured by a long-timer that actually the lifeguards are very proficient swimmers and have rescued a number of people from the strong currents in the past. Despite the very strong waves and currents we did spend a fair bit of time messing about in the big waves and getting thrown around. One evening after a few too many beers we decided to go for a night swim - in retrospect probably not the best idea. It was however pretty amazing. There are phosphorescent algae in the sea here which light up whenever you move in the sea. Was a really great experience to swim through them with every arm and leg movement lighting up the algae. Had lots of fun until a big wave picked me up and dumped me head-first into the sand. I was sporting a very fetching graze on my forehead the following morning.

One afternoon whilst sitting in a restaurant overlooking the beach we heard a load of drums being played and a couple of elephants walking down the beach. I went down to investigate. Turns out an English couple were getting married on the beach. Quite an unexpected occurrence but was a pretty cool romantic thing to do.

Whilst in Varkala we also attended a cooking course and learnt to cook hot and sour soup, fish masala, vegetable biriani, another curry the name of which I forget and some Indian bread as well. It was good fun and all seemed pretty easy to make. Looking forward to getting home and trying some of the recipes out.

Lots of people in Varkala are doing yoga courses and it seems a lot of people come here for a spiritual experience. I was also hoping to have a few yoga lessons myself. They did lessons on the roof top of the hotel we were staying in. Unfortunately the lessons were at 7:30am and I never quite made it to one. Yoga, it would seem, is an activity for early risers.

Sadly it wasn't all fun and games in Varkala. Phil had his bag stolen when he was in an internet cafe. I was pretty surprised by that. In terms of petty theft the Middle East is a very safe place to travel around and we've probably both gotten a bit slack at keeping an eye on our personal possessions. I guess it's not so safe here in India. The surprising thing was Phil is sure it was another traveler who took the bag not a local. That's a pretty shitty thing to do someone, just to extend your own stay for another week or two.

That little incident must have got me paranoid about being robbed. The next day I couldn't find my camera anywhere. I turned the hotel room upside down looking for it, then went to a couple of internet cafes I'd visited that day to see if I'd left it there but could find it nowhere. I couldn't believe my camera had gone as well. I went to the room and told Phil my camera had gone: it took him about two seconds to find it in the first place he looked - under the sheet on my bed - doh!

All in all I spent a good 10 days or so doing very little in Varkala. Finally we decided we really ought to leave although neither of us were all that keen to do so. Nevertheless we booked ourselves on a boat trip to visit the Kerala backwaters.

You may have noticed if you've been looking at my photos that I've decided to give shaving a miss while in India and am currently cultivating a beard. I think every man should grow a beard at least once in his life and India seems like a good place to do it. I've had a couple of positive responses so far so I guess maybe it doesn't look that bad. Who knows, I may even stick with it.

Lebanon

I had just recovered enough from my cold to head out to Lebanon on the day before New Year's Eve. We met a guy called Charlie in the bus station who was missing a leg. He used to work with U.S. Navy and has quite a penchant for using the f-word. He used in pretty much every sentence he spoke; 'Would like f*cking peanuts', 'Get in this fucking taxi', 'You look like a f*cking yankee' etc etc. Having said that he was very friendly and just there to help. We got in a shared taxi to Beirut. I still had a bit of a cold and a embarked on a very impressive coughing fit in the taxi that lasted for about 5 minutes. I think the guys in the back thought I had some sort of deadly contagious disease.

Immigration and customs were passed fairly smoothly and we took a taxi up to west Beirut. This is the mainly Muslim area and took the biggest pounding during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon back in the early '80s. We checked into a fairly grotty hotel and then headed out to check out the notorious nightlife Beirut is famed for. As we walked through town we were pretty surprised by the large military presence in the city. There were quite a few check points with tanks and a fair bit of barbed-wire and razor-wire about the place. However the guys on the checkpoints were all pretty friendly and waved up through. After a few days the military presence didn't really seem at all daunting - just a part of life here.

After a bit of wondering we found Monot Street - a street full of bars and night clubs. We hadn't really seen much nightlife while in the Middle East and we were like kids in a sweetshop. We visited a few bars and clubs checking out a few places for New Year's Eve. Strangely enough the next morning there were a load of photos on my camera that I don't remember taking.

Most of the next day was spent in bed recovering. Finally got up in the early evening and it was off to celebrate New Year's Eve. The Lebanese certainly know how to party. A lot of the bars and clubs were ticketed and sold out, but after a little wander around we found ourselves a pretty cool place and settled in for the evening. We had a pretty good night - the bar provided hats, masks, balloons, party poppers and all sorts and we partied long into the night and I did some very impressive dancing on my bar-stool.

We did manage to crawl out of bed the following day and see a bit of west Beirut heading out along the Corniche, a long stretch of pavement following the coast round. It was quite a nice way to spend the day slowly ambling along, watching life go by. It all seemed a lot more European here and we even saw a few people going out for a jog - something I don't think I've seen since leaving home. We stopped off in a pretty nice restaurant by the sea had a bite to eat.

The following day we finally made it out of bed before midday so we could check out and look for somewhere nicer to stay. We got a taxi over to east Beirut and checked into the Talal New Hotel. We were immediately much happier with our choice of accommodation. The place had a nice communal area and there were plenty of other backpackers hanging out round here. We headed out for a bite to eat in the evening and found Germayze Street. This was a really funky place with loads of cool bars and restaurants and would cause us to stay in Beirut much longer than we had expected. Our first night here however we couldn't get into any restaurant for food as everywhere was booked out with reservations. We had to make do with sitting in an Irish bar until midnight and then finally we were able to get into a restaurant.

Well for the next few days it pissed it down with rain, so our lives consisted of mooching round the hotel all day cursing our hangovers and the weather and going out on the lash evening to work on getting a new hangover. We met a few cool people in the hotel so we had plenty of drinking partners for the evening.

A few days later we finally managed to venture out of Beirut, only for a day trip mind you, to town of Baalbek. In more recent times Baalbek has become a headquarters for Hizbollah. On entering the city there are large pictures of the Ayatollah and a little further in town an Israeli tank that was captured during the civil war is proudly displayed atop a column. However Baalbek is also the location of one the most impressive and well preserved Roman temple ruins in the Middle East and this was our reason for coming here. The complex consists of three temples, the temples of Venus, Jupiter and Bacchus. Although the site itself isn't that big, you can walk around it an hour or so, it is the scale of the ruins that really impresses - they are huge - and I believe the temple of Bacchus is one the best preserved covered Roman temples in the world.

We were planning on leaving Beirut the following day but in typical fashion after a night out on Germayze street didn't make it up in time for checkout. Instead we embarked on another day trip to Byblos to see yet more Roman ruins. Not as impressive as Baalbek but certainly worth a look. And so finally the next day by some miracle we got our arses out of bed before midday and made it out of Beirut and headed up to Tripoli. We spent a late afternoon and evening here had a quick wander round thew souq that was closing up and had a bite to eat and an earlyish night - no funky nightlife in Tripoli I'm afraid.

The following morning we carried on to Bcharre in the mountains. It was pretty cold and snowy here being at an altitude of almost 2000m. We had a wander from here up the Cedars of Lebanon. The cedar tree is the national emblem of Lebanon and appears on the flag. Sadly there are not too many of these trees remaining today - some of which are reported to be over 1000 years old. The few that do survive are now protected and there is an active program to preserve and regenerate the forests. Although not overly spectacular, it was good to see a bit of Lebanese heritage and the walk up there in the snow was pleasant enough, apart from when a car decided to hurtle past me through a puddle and completely soak me.

We spent the night in Bcharre and were treated by our host Tony to wine and potatoes for dinner. I had grand ideas of some kind of wine-potato casserole, but no we had a bottle of wine and as many plain roasted potatoes as we could eat. The next morning we got up and did some hiking down the Kadisha valley. This is a beautiful place to hike and made for a great day. Rather unexpectedly we stumbled across the Elisha monastery and had a look round there. As the afternoon wore on the weather came in so we headed back into town in time to visit the museum of Khalil Gibran - a Lebanese artist, poet and philosopher. Rachel gave his most famous book 'The Prophet' for and Christmas and having hastily read it the bus up to Bcharre it was good to the see museum, which is also his final resting place.

After the museum visit we took the bus back to Beirut. We finally managed to catch up with Natalie when we got back and also got to see her new place before hopping on a bus and heading back to Damascus to renew our Lebanese visas. We spent a couple of nights back in Damascus and saw Rachel again, it was absolutely freezing. Me and Phil were sleeping in all our clothes including thermals, plus about 20 million blankets and were still cold so we were quite happy to go back to Beirut.

On returning to Beirut we stayed at Nat's place in Dowra. Leah was also staying in the flat as well. We arrived to discover a bomb had gone off in the area an hour or so before we got there. Leah was leaving the flat as it happened: apparently the whole place shook. Leah certainly looked a bit shook up. It made us all feel a little uneasy. But there's not much you can do - well actually we could have left the country - so we just carried on with things.

After a couple of days hanging out in Dowra - it's a really nice area Nat has found to live here, lots of cool shops and little cheap restaurants and the best chicken kebabs in the country - we went south for a few days. We headed right to very south first to Tyre. There are a few Roman ruins about the town and it's a pretty quiet laid back place, but not that much to do so the next day we went to Sidon.

We wanted to visit Beaufort castle, which occupied by Isreal during their invasion of the country. it's now back in Lebanese hands and appears to administered by Hizbollah. We had to get a pass to go to Beaufort castle which was obtained easily enough and we then took a taxi the castle. We got stuck on our way there as there was a big demonstration going on. We weren't sure what it was at first and I felt a little uneasy about it. After about fifteen minutes or so though the procession passed and we got on our way. It turns out it was all related to a Muslim festival - I forget the name of it - but basically people go around cutting their heads and drawing blood from themselves. There were lots of people walking around with what I assumed was red paint all over themselves. I'm fairly sure it was paint and not blood anyway. We got to the castle and had a good look around. There isn't that much left of the castle as it has been bombed quite a lot but it does afford great views over Lebanon and I can see why it would be a point of strategic advantage.

Hizbollah are very popular in the South of Lebanon and it's not that difficult to see why. They are regarded in the prominently shia south of the country as being the only force to defeat Israel and end their occupation of the south country. On top of that they are very well-funded and have used the money to rebuild roads and infrastructure in the south of the country as well as building schools and hospitals which the government are either unable or unwilling to do. On the other hand Hizbollah's critics in the country claim that it was Hizbollah's rocket attacks and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers that was the cause of Israel's bombing of the country in 2006 and that if they wish to be taken seriously as a political force they should disarm. There is currently a political impasse in Lebanon with Hizbollah and it's pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian supporters trying to gain more influence in the government. These moves are being opposed by Christian majority that tends to be pro-western. It is these tensions that could boil over into another civil.

We returned back to Beirut and to Nat's place and did a couple more day trips while based there. One to the teleforique which is a cable car up the mountain. It was a fairly nice trip up and gave good views out to the sea once up the top. We also went to the Jetta Grotto with Nat. This a couple of caves full of stalactites and stalagmites. We went up to the furthest cave and walked through. It looked fantastic. It's a huge place and it goes down really deep as well; you can only walk through a small part of it. We then carried on the lower cave which has a lot of water in it and took a short boat trip through the cave and back again. It really was an amazing place. Unfortunately no camera are allowed in the place so I don't have any pics to show you.

Whilst back in Beirut another bomb went off in the area. This one assassinated the police chief who was heading the inquiries into all the bombings in the country. Again the tension increased in the country. A few days later 8 Hizbollah supporters were shot dead when protesting about fuel and water supplies. It did start to feel like something could really kick off here soon. By this time Phil had already left Lebanon and gone onto Israel. My second visa here was coming to an end so I decided it was time to leave and get a flight out to the sunnier climes of India.

I did have a little spot of bother leaving though. I booked a flight from Amman as it was cheaper to fly from there than Beirut which meant I had to take a shared taxi over the mountain to Amman. On the day I left it was snowing in the mountains and the taxi was trying to charge me extra because he said he needed snow chains to get over the mountain. I thought it was all a load of bollocks and refused to pay any extra. When we actually got the mountain there was a checkpoint where the military were sending anyone back down who didn't have snow chains on. Well we had to stop and put ours on but they turned out to be completely crap and fell off after not very long at all. We struggled on up the mountain and it wasn't long until I and another passenger in the taxi had to get out and start pushing the taxi up the mountain in freezing blizzard conditions. That was lots of fun. After a while we decided enough was enough and turned round and headed back to Beirut. One of the women in the taxi was kind enough to invite us back to her place for a nice cup of tea.

All in all this meant I missed my flight out of Amman and the road over the mountain stayed closed for a few more days so I had to buy a new flight from Beirut. This little kerfuffle also meant I overstayed my visa. It didn't turn out to be too much of problem though - just had to pay a small fine and they let me go on my way. Of more interest at the airport seemed to be the contents of my backpack as it went through the x-ray machine. I had to open up my main backpack. The security guard was very suspicious of my universal plug adapter. Obviously seemed to think it was a bomb or something. He showed it to his mate who gave it the ok. I also had some incense sticks. He was suspicious of these as well. Now I was being suspected of drug trafficking rather than being a bomber. He showed these to his mate as well. He gave them a smell then turned round and looked at me, gave me the thumbs up and said 'Very good!'. He clearly approved and I was free to go and continue on to India.