nobody could replace them...

Suddenly the Sudirman’s song – Pelangi Petang or literally the evening rainbow touched my mind and soul. My vulnerable eyes were flooded with glittering tears triggered by the nostalgic lyrics and sweet melody of the song sung by one of my favorite’s Malaysian entertainer – Sudirman Hj Arshad. Born in Temerloh Pahang on 25 May 1954, some described him as a ‘People Singer’; some called him a ‘Singing lawyer’; and to me he is just a humble creative honest philanthropist who has left a legacy to the music industry in Malaysia. He left us and this temporary world on 22 February 1992… no wonder his stories, songs or even his Chow Kit Road concert were broadcasted by all the local TVs last week!
The melody reminded me of my beloved mom who left me in December 1976, when I was 11 years old. I was crying the whole day till the reservoir of my eyes went dry, mourning and grieving about my future…. Alhamdullillah, praise only to Allah swt, somebody picked me up and brought me to Miri where life and hope was granted by Allah the Almighty. I was grown up in Miri then, until I married to the daughter of another woman whom I really admired and inspired – Hjh Baidah Binti Abdullah. Allah swt love her most, she departed this short span world alone…. I mean alone in her house at Piasau Jaya…none of her kids were around when the angel of death finally pulled her last breath.

“You came like a rainbow; with no light but you’d delighted us; and you had enlightened and inspired us..” chorus of Pelangi Petang by Sudirman Hj Arshad
May your soul rest in peace bless by Allah swt.

LN00: Lebanon Adventure

We continued our backpacking trip to Lebanon on 8th of April 2010. We moved out from Al Balad Hotel at 07:20 hours. Amid the chilly morning of Dimashq, Ahmed had waited for us with his Hyundai H1 since 07:05 hours. We arrived at the Syrian border around 08:40 hours after a brief stop at the tomb of Habil. Actually, from Dimashq to the Syrian border through the Mezzeh highway is about 30 kilometers away or about 30 minutes drive. Alhamdullillah, the weather was on our side and all of us were zealously excited to see what Lebanon has to offer.
We spent or rather wasted about 50 minutes of our time at the border merely because of the unorganized implementation of processes. I believed there are systems and good processes in placed, but because of the poor management and attitude of people, time was wasted, customers grumble and tarnished the image of their beloved country. What had agitated me most during the 50 minutes was; we were ‘kicked’ from one counter to another, etc. and at one instance, there were group of people who came later immediately entertained simply because of ‘felus’. It was a matter of principle. I’d prefer to stay hours in the queue rather than denying my dignity.
We left the border at 09:30 hours and arrived at Lebanon border 15 minutes later. As we approached the border, we were a little bit worried by the presence of fully equipped masculine looking army and police officers. They were however, very friendly and kind to us. It was more organized here as compared to its neighbor. While waiting for Azmi to settle the immigration matter, amid the freezing weather, we had good sips of tea and coffee at the nearby kiosk. Amir helped me to change my USD at one of the money changer 50 meters away from the Immigration office next to the well-maintained public toilets. Despite many cars and people, it took us about 30 minutes to clear up all the necessary things.

After happily crossing both borders, we went through Baalbek, but we decided to go straight to Jeita Grotto and skipped visiting the historical spots of Baalbek, which mainly are just the ruins or remnants of the old castle and palace. At a glance, the scenarios at the border town and other suburbs were more happenings, modern and serene as compared to Syria. Nevertheless, that was not what we were here for!.

Lebanon or Lubnan in Arabic or Malay is officially the Republic of Lebanon. Located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon is bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has dictated its rich history, and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity.

The distance between the Lebanon borders to Beirut is about 60 km. However, we spent almost 2 hours crossing the mountain range before arriving at the coastal region of Lebanon mainly due to heavy traffics on the narrow winding roads. This was one of the things that Lebanon needs to look into seriously – the road system.

LN01: Jeita Gretto - our Half Cooked Experience!

Lebanon is a country of karsts areas rich with mountains that offer spectacular scenery and scenic view and the mountainous caves are spread in different regions. In one of these regions in the valley of Nahr El-Kalb at 18km North of Beirut, is found Jeita Grotto, one of the most marvelous natural wonders in the world. The road leading to the caverns is carved in the mountains and surrounded with trees. The all around beautiful nature is perfectly in tune with the site.

Our main intention of visiting Jeita Grotto, one of the popular touristic spots of Lebanon, was photo shooting session of its magnificent water cave. We arrived there at around 11:15 hours, the weather was nice and there were only few groups of visitors at the lower grotto – basically its main entrance.

With a magisterial splendor, the grotto is characterized by extraordinary limestone concretions of stalactites and stalagmites sculpted naturally in different forms, sizes and colors. That was what I read.

I went to the tickets counter and enquired from the friendly charming English speaking staff all the details, the dos and the don’ts of Jeita Grotto. The price of tickets for 10 of us, which includes the teleferik ride, visit to both lower and upper Grottos, was about 100 USD. Very impressive indeed! But what turned me off, the lady informed me that we are not allowed to take photo, unfortunately!!!!!Hence, we cancelled off our plan – which did not conform to our main objective. Feeling cheated by the information I read in their website, we ended up taking photos at the base or at the entrance of the Grotto.

LN02: The Lovely Jouneih

18 km north of Beirut is Jounieh; the playground of the Middle East as described by "The Washington Post" few years ago. Beautifully located on the majestic Bay of Jounieh on the sea coast of the Mediterranean, Jounieh, is the city of ancient civilizations and a modern business center for the today visionary entrepreneur.
This city still retains some of the charm of yesterday in the old stone souq area near ferry terminal. The area-known as "Old Jounieh" has recently undergone an overhaul and there are outdoor cafes and restaurants mixed among boutiques, artisan shops, banks, supermarkets, hotels of all categories. The beach line was awesome, sexy and lured our temptations.
It is said that, during the summer season, a night time ascent and descent gives you a remarkable sparkling view of the Jounieh and bay area. During the spring and early summer months, you can leave a balmy sunny day along the cost and arrive at a fog enshrouded terminal building on the top.

After wandering around the ‘old’ and ‘new’ Jounieh, our hunger forced us to stop at KFC, located in front of the beach line. Muhammd Afiq and I went to the Western Union to change my USD and we spent some time exploring the beautiful spectacular beaches and the well-organized/designed town - and still developing. The people were in general belong to the high-class categories, wearing branded attires and driving high end cars, such as Porsche, X6, Lamborghini, etc. Sad to mention, Pesona or Gen2 or any other similar species, were not in the list!

I must say, the cost and standards of living here is relatively high. Ranked 4th in the world, the total GDP (2010 estimates) of this 4.3 million population was about 59 Billion USD, which gives another number of 15K USD per Capita. These facts had proven me wrong. As the saying goes; “seeing is believing.” It was always in my little mind that, Lebanon in general was still under-privileged and far behind from the development line. The attitude of the people had helped the country to bounce back from their past dramatically positive.

LN03: Byblos

From Jeita Grotto we went to Byblos or Jubayl in Arabic. It is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate, about 42 kilometers north of Beirut. Byblos is believed to have been founded around 5000 BC, and according to fragments attributed to the semi-legendary pre-Trojan war Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon, it was built by Cronus as the first city in Phoenicia. Today it is believed by many to be one the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world.
It is attractive to archaeologists because of the successive layers of debris resulting from centuries of human habitation. The site first appears to have been settled during the Neolithic period, approximately 5000 BC. Neothlithic remains of some buildings can be observed at the site. During the 3rd millennium BC, the first signs of a town can be observed, with the remains of well-built houses of uniform size. This was the period when the Phoenician civilization began to develop.

Today, Byblos is a modern city. It remains one of Lebanon's biggest tourist attractions, mainly because of its rich history and scenic mountains overlooking the Mediterranean. Most of the people of Byblos are Maronite Catholics.

It is a prosperous place with glass-fronted office buildings and crowded streets. But within the old town, medieval Arab and Crusader remains are continuous reminders of the past. Nearby are the extensive excavations that make Byblos one of the most important archaeological sites in the area.

We performed our obligation prayers at a small mosque called Masjid Ibrahim Adham within the tourist area of the Byblos port. Next to the mosque was a souvenir shop owned by very friendly old men (could not recall his name). After the congregation prayer, we had the chance meeting group of Lebanese from Tyre of the southern Lebanon. And, as for remembrance, they invited us to take picture with them, who were mainly teachers in profession.

The Lebanese is one of the beautiful species created by Allah swt not only by their physical appearance, but also their ascent, hospitality and attitudes. Albeit the destruction resulted from the commotion with their neighbor, they managed to recover and bounced back expeditiously in many aspects – infrastructure, economy and morale. Last year, where many countries around the globe hit by the recession, they have recorded a positive increase of tourist visiting them.

LN04: Beirut that I know...

It is one of the places in this world that I must visit. Alhamdullillah, with the wealth and health granted by Allah swt, my dream came true. I have read and heard lot of stories about Beirut especially its ‘involvement’ in the never ending story of Israel-Arab crisis. Even though, the ambience and the relationship are considerably improving, but some of the wounds are still bleeding. CNN and some other Western media persistently conveyed half cooked messages to the people around the globe and some (news) of the stories were fabricated. They were, however, had successfully convinced people with their ‘news’ that had created a negative perception about the Arabs in general. Ironically, the Arabs or the Muslims themselves (definitely not all) influenced by the propaganda merely to satisfy their desire and on the other hand, sad to mention, had disregarded the truth of the Qur’an and al Hadith.
Talking about Beirut, it is positioned on a peninsula extending westward into the Mediterranean Sea, about 94 km north of the Lebanon-Israel border. It is the largest city in Lebanon and accommodates more than 2.1 Million inhabitants. The city is flanked by the Lebanon mountains; it has taken on a triangular shape, largely influenced by its situation between and atop two hills: Al-Ashrafieh and Al-Musaytibah. The Beirut Governorate area is of 18 square kilometers, and the city's metropolitan area is of 67 square kilometers. The coast is rather diverse; rocky beaches, sandy shores, and cliffs are situated beside one another.

One of the most famous districts at Beirut is Raouché – a densely residential and commercial neighborhood. It is known for its upscale apartment buildings, numerous restaurants, cliff-side cafés and its wide seaside sidewalk, the Corniche, where strollers and joggers crowd the pavements in the evenings and weekends.

During one fine evening, we joined the crowd at the Raouché’s corniche. We strolled along the corniche while enjoying the Mediterranean breeze and meeting people from various parts of the world. Fun and entertaining! We went to the sexy beach and climbed the nearby cliff – for photo shooting of course! It was awesome! Some Lebanese teenagers greeted us in Chinese and some smart dude politely asked us - “where are you from?” – A standard question we normally we received from Arab kids, and sometime – “what is your name?”

Off the coast of Raouché, there is a natural landmark called the Pigeons' Rock (also known as the Rock of Raouché). Located at Beirut's western-most tip, the two huge rock formations, which stand like gigantic sentinels, are a popular destination for locals and visitors alike. Unfortunately, the timing was not suitable to capture the uniqueness of these rocks. I was not actually satisfied from the result of my efforts – see top picture above. Anyway, taking photo at this popular spot together with other craze shutter bugs was indeed a very memorable experience.

One thing that I must mention here; while sitting and relaxing at corniche, you will be able to see many high-end charming cars driven by exquisites and gorgeous high class Lebanese. Masha Allah! I paused and recalled a famous analogy: A good ship is called a ship when it functions excellently crossing the wild ocean. It needs water to function, but if the water fills in the haulage of the ship, it will not be able to function and sink. Henceforth, we need the world for us to build ourselves for the life thereafter, but be careful ! …Don’t let the world enter in you.