So far this blog series doesn’t cover much of my previous travels as it was started when I arrived in Japan and I never quite worked out how to incorporate it all. In the first few weeks of 2005 I did a tour through part of the middle east. My main goal was to see Petra, which I did, the day of my 36th birthday, pretty cool huh!

A part of the that tour taught me through Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. We all had the option to do a day trip to Lebanon and down to Beirut for an extra charge. I wasn’t sure about doing it, and figure I would go with the flow. It ended up all of us were up for the trip (there were only 11 of us for the first leg of the Winter tour), it was an exceptional trip and something that now I thing back on it captured my heart as well.

You don’t realise when you leave Damasus to travel there just how high up you are, or rather the Lebonese mountains. Our first stop after crossing the boarder was Balbeck, and if you want breath taking ruins thats the place to go.