Enough already!
One of my managers (who has lived in the Middle East) describes the way you are treated as a visitor there as "aggressive hospitality", and I got an overdose of it in Lebanon this week. It started when I arrived at the airport at 2:00am Sunday morning and there was not only a driver (my man Ziad, who merits a post of his own later), but also an employee of the host agency there to meet me. I apologised that he had to get dragged out of bed in the middle of the night just to get me from the airport to my hotel, but he'd hear none of it. Later that morning, Ziad was back with another employee to show me around. We drove up the coast and stopped for a "quick" lunch that stretched to almost 3 hours, and before I knew it the table was covered with food ("You like salad? OK, we'll get one of each. You like sashimi? No? OK, we'll get just a little then. Calamari? OK, you should try both kinds." And so it went...)
[Side note: before going, our friends who visit Beirut every year suggested that it would be wise to avoid the water and fresh vegetables (which are typically washed in water). So what's the first thing that hits the table? Two types of Lebanese salad, along with some lentil/chickpea-type things that were soaked in water. It was all delicious, but yes, I paid the price later--Allah's Revenge, perhaps? (I know, too much information...)]
Anyway, that's how the whole week went--I couldn't leave the hotel without being offered to be taken someplace. Even on mornings when I wasn't feeling well, they tried to have plans for me in the afternoon. (The first day I said I wasn't feeling well, which was partly true but partly just to have some down time in my room, and I was back in my room for probably less than 5 minutes before someone called asking if they should call a doctor for me.) It was incredibly kind and considerate, but after a while it was almost suffocating. I'm used to being a fairly independent traveler, and while that's a little more difficult in Beirut than some other places (public transit is more or less non-existent), it really was strange not feeling like I could go anywhere on my own. The last day I actually had to find a way to sneak out of the hotel without being seen so I could take a walk near the hotel. It continued right up to the end, when Ziad and the same guy who picked me up from the airport both took me back to the airport at 1:00am.
Overall it was a great experience and I met some wonderful people at work and got to see Beirut and the ancient Phoenician town of Byblos, but by the end I felt like Greta Garbo: "I vant to be alone."
[Side note: before going, our friends who visit Beirut every year suggested that it would be wise to avoid the water and fresh vegetables (which are typically washed in water). So what's the first thing that hits the table? Two types of Lebanese salad, along with some lentil/chickpea-type things that were soaked in water. It was all delicious, but yes, I paid the price later--Allah's Revenge, perhaps? (I know, too much information...)]
Anyway, that's how the whole week went--I couldn't leave the hotel without being offered to be taken someplace. Even on mornings when I wasn't feeling well, they tried to have plans for me in the afternoon. (The first day I said I wasn't feeling well, which was partly true but partly just to have some down time in my room, and I was back in my room for probably less than 5 minutes before someone called asking if they should call a doctor for me.) It was incredibly kind and considerate, but after a while it was almost suffocating. I'm used to being a fairly independent traveler, and while that's a little more difficult in Beirut than some other places (public transit is more or less non-existent), it really was strange not feeling like I could go anywhere on my own. The last day I actually had to find a way to sneak out of the hotel without being seen so I could take a walk near the hotel. It continued right up to the end, when Ziad and the same guy who picked me up from the airport both took me back to the airport at 1:00am.
Overall it was a great experience and I met some wonderful people at work and got to see Beirut and the ancient Phoenician town of Byblos, but by the end I felt like Greta Garbo: "I vant to be alone."
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