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Category Archives: Middle East
Coastal escapism.
I needed out. Out of walls, weapons, checkpoints and people convinced of being on first-name-terms with God. I needed a place where bigots were rarer than pandas, alcohol plentiful and the attitude on weed lax. I needed Tel Aviv. Tel … Continue reading
Posted in Israel, Middle East
Tagged Alfa Romeo, AM-PM, Bauhaus, Boulevard Rothschild, Boutique, British Airways, Bus Station, Clouds, Corniche, Independence Trail, Israel, It, Jaffa, Kite, Kite surf, Kite surfers, Med, Mediterranean, Middle East, Promenade, Saturday, Sea, Sherut, Stephen King, Storm, Sunset, Supremes, Surf, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Wind, Winter, Yafo
21 Comments
Behind the wall.
It takes a while for me to get the hang of Checkpoint 300. Eventually a corridor in nude concrete and steel, half prison half abattoir, delivers me in a street cul-de-sac’d by the wall. Closed shops and scraps of paper … Continue reading
Posted in Israel, Middle East, Palestine
Tagged Abu, Aida, Amman, Arafat, Army, Art, Asia, Banksy, Bethlehem, Bibi, Camp, Concrete, Flash bang, Graffiti, Hamas, Hezbollah, Holy Land, Islam, Israel, Jesus, Manger, Middle East, Nasrallah, Nativity Square, Palestine, Peace, Peace in the Middle East, People, People watching, Photography, Rachel, Rain, Refugee, Religion, Road, Roadblock, Security Wall, Segregation, Settlement, Skunk water, Sponge granate, Stencils, Stinger granade, Street photography, Terrorism, Tomb, TWA 840, UN, Urban photography, Wall, Walled Off, Walled Off Hotel, Yassin, Yitzhak Rabin
40 Comments
Jérusalem la nuit.
It’s not a long ride from Ben Gurion to Jerusalem, especially if it’s 4 AM and there’s little, in terms of traffic, to slow down our yellow-and-white sherut van. We weave in and out of the most conservative neighbourhoods of … Continue reading
Posted in Israel, Middle East
Tagged Bethlehem, Bread, Bus, Checkpoint 300, Christianity, Church, Coffee, Damascus Gate, Dawn, Ethiopian, Ethiopian monastery, Franciscan order, Frankincense, Haredim, Holy Sepulchre, Islam, Israel, Jerusalem, Middle East, New Gate, Old city, Palestine, Sepulchre, Sherut, stone
21 Comments
“You’d be home by now.”
People in Lebanon spend more than 16% of [their] individual productive time in traffic. Urban Transport Development Project – World Bank For six months, straddling a winter and early summer of a few years ago, I tried commuting to work … Continue reading
Posted in Lebanon, Middle East
Tagged Beirut, Bicycle, Bike, Bike to work, Burn fat, Cars, Chain effect, Commuting, Congestion, Jolly Waggoner, Lebanon, Murales, Murals, No Oil, Peddling, Pollution, Public transport, Spray art, Street art, Traffic, Tube, World Bank
18 Comments
Beirut people watching.
Humanity is the best spectacle, in this city where gated communities rub shoulders with bombed-out, charred shells. Pneumatically-enhanced bimbos and babes driving Dodge Camaros on one end of the spectrum and ragged Syrian children tapping on their rolled-up windows for … Continue reading
Posted in Lebanon, Middle East
Tagged Art, Beirut, Corniche, Hamra, History, Mediterranean, Middle East, People, People watching, Phoenicia, Phoenicians, Sea, Street, Syria
12 Comments
You Were Filthy But Fine.
“You were filthy but fine” sang James Murphy in that LCD Soundsystem jewel that is New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down and I, for once, think that it could very well fit to Beirut. Spotless, it certainly … Continue reading
Posted in Lebanon, Middle East
Tagged Antiques, Arabic, Armenia, Armenia street, Art, Cedar, Dust, God, Graffiti, Lebanese Civil War, Lebanon, Middle East, Murales, Photographer, Protests, Stencil, Street, Street art, Writing, You Stink
12 Comments
Remembrance for scatterbrains.
Landing takes place at night. We descend into the warm Mediterranean air, those of us sat on the left-hand side being treated to a royal view of the entire city of Beirut lying, invitingly, beneath us. Here is Ras Beirut, … Continue reading
Posted in Lebanon, Middle East
Tagged Alawite, Architecture, Asia, Beirut, Beit Beirut, Christianity, Civil War, Demarcation Line, Druze, Green Line, Hamas, Hezbollah, Holiday Inn Beirut, Iftar, Iran, Lebanese Civil War, Marina, Maronite, Martyrs' Monument, Middle East, Nightlife, People, Photography, Ramadan, Religion, Skyscrapers, Street photography, Taif, Travel, Urban photography, War
18 Comments
Approaching Beirut.
Beirut, Paris of the East. Beirut, mother of laws. Beirut, the city that can be Rio, Miami and 1943 Stalingrad all within the same block. Beirut, the filthy. Beirut, the ironic (another French legacy I suspect). Beirut, you’ve got the … Continue reading
Posted in Lebanon, Middle East
Tagged Beirut, Cedars, Civil War, France, Graffiti, Holiday Inn Beirut, Lebanon, Mediterranean, Middle East, Phoenicia, Rubbish, Sunset
17 Comments
Bethlehem, or how the other half lives.
Call me ignorant, but Bethlehem always evoked pastoral ideas, of secluded grottos – or shacks, depending on the version you liked the most – and of comets. What we found was (once we got on the Arab bus that no … Continue reading
