Date: 24 September 2011 05:53:36
With one eye on the news, and one on my Arabic books as I try and get in some last-minute revision, I am looking forward to my three-week trip to Lebanon: I leave Thursday.
I've always wanted to visit Lebanon; perhaps due to having Lebanese friends, perhaps, in the words of a friend, as I never seem to go to 'normal' places :) , perhaps its history: probably a mix of all 3. My plan was to do Syria and Lebanon -- but I think it is best to avoid Syria for now. As well as the history, the scenery [cedars, mountains] -- and the food, oh my, the food! -- I am hoping to get to a few monasteries as well.
Books always seem to take up a lot of my luggage. Even on short trips, within Australia, books are a constant companion. As I usually travel alone they are useful while eating meals, waiting at airports or railway stations, or to pass the time of an evening...
I will say this guidebook, Footprints Lebanon, has been an absolute wealth of information and a delight to read; it was very helpful as I looked to travel around on my own. I am often a bit wary of over-reliance on guidebooks, but this has been a great help. I also plan to meet up with a group (Vamos Todos) for an hike one Sunday which should be good fun as well as a chance to meet and chat with some people.
I am also someone who tries to read about where I am travelling before and during my trips; not necessarily overly intellectual and not necessarily the exact areas. When I went to Germany in 2003 I took Mark Twain's A Tramp Abroad and delighted in reading his travels in Germany; though I daresay I enjoyed an appendix, The Awful German Lanuguage, even more!
Before I headed off to Georgia, I read the wonderful novel, Ali and Nino: A Love Story [an Azerbaijani youth who falls in love with a Georgian princess], Roger Rosen's informative and readable Georgia: Sovereign Country of the Caucasus and The Ghost of Freedom by Charles King. I also read about the lives of Georgian Saints as we visited their shrines or places of residence through The Lives of the Georgian Saints by Archpriest Zakaria Machitadze: and found some of the photos and information were provided by one of the tour leaders of the tour I was on!
In preparation for Lebanon I delved into Robert Fisk's amazing, yet heart-wrenching, read, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War, which gave much information to me on Lebanon's recent wars, an area I was very ignorant in. I have Lebanon: Through Writers' Eyes [an anthology of selections of writings 'from between 1800 BC to the last summer'] to take with me, and I also plan to get a translation of an recent Lebanese fiction author to take with me from the local library. I only came across Khahlil Gibran's The Prophet this year [yes, I do live under a rock I think!], and there was also a great exhibit on him at NSW's State Library earlier this year which was enjoyable and informative. And I'll probably dip back into William Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain.
I find these help me a bit to get into 'the spirit' or mindset of the place I am in, or at least of those who have travelled before me. I do not think, or expect, any great insights as if I were living there, because travelling and living somewhere are two very different things, but at the same time it helps me to understand a little more which to me has to be a good thing -- and I simply enjoy it as well.