Paris of the Middle East

Flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beirut

We woke at the Kuala Lumpur airport’s Airside Transit Hotel at 0545 and walked down to the departure gate at 0630 for the 0720 departure to Beirut on Malaysia Airlines, via Dubai on the same aircraft.

With about 20 passengers arriving late from Melbourne, we departed a little late.  The A330-200 leased aircraft seemed a little noisier than the A330-300 that I normally fly on with Malaysia Airlines.  Once airborne we were treated to a prawn sambal nasi lemak with crunchy French beans, plus a side of peanuts and anchovies in a separate container to maintain crispness.

The Malaysia Airlines crew today were top notch and really conscientious despite the early morning departure (and an obscene wake-up time for them at home).  In fact, their cabin presence before take-off and after the meal service was quite unbelievable compared to the disinterested Air New Zealand crew ex-Auckland departing after midday (which meant a leisurely wake-up time at home).  They seemed to have someone out in the cabin most of the time, ready to take requests and to chat.  Previously, I had thought Garuda crew were the best in terms of being available, attentive and hospitable.

As the flight was rather empty, I managed to get a 2h doze.  We were offered a sandwich and dessert slice before landing in Dubai.  Here, we were required to disembark and go for a walk around to the departures level to reboard the same plane.  This required a security screening.  It was quite a bit of work for the airline staff to keep track of the number of transit passengers, provide them with transit boarding passes, count the number of such passes collected back in before boarding the joining passengers.

The shorter flight from Dubai to Beirut seemed to drag on.  The cabin got rather hot seated on the as the heat of the strong sun was beating in through the blinds that had been drawn down over the windows.  The meal of chicken kurma and vegetable jalfrezi was quite nice.

Arriving in Beirut

Landing in Beirut, we had to buy visa stamps even though the official information in IATA’s Timatic service said it was free.  Like our previous visit, the officer flicked through a large book and recorded our names in it.

Beirut from the sky.

While the others were waiting for our luggage, I went to the ATM to get some cash.  Unfortunately I was unsuccessful.  Sometimes I find I have trouble when it is in the wee hours of the morning in New Zealand when the Kiwi banks are doing their systems maintenance, perhaps.

Beirut airport taxis are ridiculously expensive for the short ride into the city.  On our last visit, we did a clever trick by boarding a taxi on the departures level.  Drivers there don’t expect to be able to pick-up anyone and will be glad to have any passenger, for a lower fare.

With the four of us today, including two oldies, we didn’t do such a trick.  Instead we went to the arrivals taxi rank and tried to bargain.  We managed to get a ride for USD15 instead of the starting USD30.  The ride was in an old taxi which normally operates as a shared taxi rather than one of the newer private taxis.

Strangely, as we were trying to strike a bargain, the private taxi operators were trying to help us get a deal with the shared taxi operator.

The taxi driver knew our hotel, the Marble Tower Hotel in Hamra and we got there without any hassles.  We had stayed here previously and could have helped him navigate a little if it had come to that.  At the hotel, we were all accommodated on Level 6 but were given two rooms at opposite ends of the corridor.

We took a shower to freshen up.  The shower was in a half-sized bath-tub which was split level.  It had a dangerous slope between the two halves and it was an accident waiting to happen.

Exploring Beirut

We love Beirut and were keen to show it off to Pat and Fiona.  We started with the re-created area of BCD (Beirut Central District) which was destroyed during the war.  It was this highly atmospheric area that resulted in Beirut being called the Paris of the Middle East.  We refreshed ourselves with a cuppa tea at Dunkin Donuts.

From BCD, we took a taxi to the start of the Corniche, near Hard Rock Café and McDonald’s.  It wasn’t far but we had two oldies with us and we wanted to be sure they had enough energy for the walk on the Corniche.

We slowly walked the length of the Corniche which formed the northern edge of the Beirut’s Hamra district.  We enjoyed the view of the sea, the hillside apartments, other pedestrians, fishermen, cats etc.  The walk went uphill for a little bit before the road turned abruptly to hug the city’s west coast.

Here, we decided it was time for a break and possibly dinner.  The sun sets quite early here, around 1830.  But it had started getting dim way before that.  We had a great dinner of fried kibbeh, fattoush salad, kofta, fried cheese pastry and a few other things.  Kim’s mum Fiona seemed to not want too much of the salads but went more for the deep-fried stuff.  I had a laban ayran while the others had freshly-squeezed orange, one of the delights of the Middle East.

Over dinner, many planes flew past heading south.  They would fly past Pigeon Rocks and land at the airport in a couple of minutes.  I had selected seats on our flight today to enable a view of Pigeon Rocks but it appears we took a less common approach.

We took a taxi back to our hotel after dinner and we were in bed by 2000.  It had been a long day from Kuala Lumpur to Beirut but we made the most of the part-day after arrival.