Temples of Baalbek

Above:  Temple of Bacchus. Note the person on the extreme left, for scale .

Getting to Baalbek

Today, I make my fourth visit to Baalbek, a place that’s very special in all my travels.

It started with a short taxi ride at 0645 to Cola station.  It was an awfully long wait from 0700 till 0820 for the van to fill up before we could leave town.  I’m rarely lucky with the wait times for these kinds of transport.

After 2h, I got to Chtoura, where it was noticeably cooler than Beirut.  I paid the driver LBP300K (NZD6) and he handed me to another van to take me to Baalbek.  The driver then came back to me to collect the same amount again.  I told him that I had paid but he insisted, so I handed over the second payment.

I have experienced this before where the first driver collects the payment for the entire journey and pays the second.  I don’t like this kind of arrangement as things can go wrong and it certainly did later.

The landscape became less built up and after a while the van was empty.  The driver was a bit reluctant to continue and suggested that I complete the journey in a tuktuk.

I resisted and he waited for a while before continuing.  I was worried that my ride had become a private fare but luckily more people hopped in a little later.

We passed a Shia Mosque, with lots of turquoise tiles on the outside, reminding me that we are in Hezbollah-land here in the Beqaa Valley.

I alighted at Baalbek around 1020 near the Roman ruins.  The driver asked for payment and I explained that I had paid.  When he insisted, I stood my ground and started walking away.

The driver appeared to have accepted my word as I walked into a money changer but when I came out, he had another chat to me.  We went back into the money changer’s so I could have some help with translation.  He even rang the first driver who appeared to deny taking two payments from me.

Seeing that the second driver had taken the time to chase me, I accepted the situation and paid him.  I shook his hand and explained that the first driver was either dishonest or had made a mistake.

Visiting the Roman Ruins

The hassle wasted a bit of my time and I got to the historic site of Baalbek around 1050.

These Roman ruins from the 1^st Century rank up there amongst the highlights of all my travels.

However, the entrance route took me to the least impressive part of the site.  These comprised of the yard and a couple of pools.

Steps took me up to the first of the two most impressive parts of the site, being the Temple of Jupiter.  Only six pillars remain; they are 19.9m high and 2.5m wide.

From there, I descended to the second of the two most impressive parts, being the Temple of Bacchus.  A school group was in there so I waited briefly before entering, so I could enjoy the place to myself.  It’s hard to appreciate the scale of this 31m high temple, unless there are people there for scale.

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Back to Beirut

I finished my visit after an hour and exited the site into the town for a brief wander and then some lunch.

Hezbollah banner in central Baalbek.

Around 1235, I hopped into a shared van bound for Beirut which left immediately.  I paid the first driver but after an hour, he transferred me to a second driver, which happened to be the second driver from my outbound journey.  Yes, the driver that had to chase me for the money but with whom I made peace in the end.

Fortunately, this ride went smoothly with no additional payment required when I reached Beirut around 1500.  It confirmed to me that, yes, drivers do collect payment for the entire ride and pay the second driver but something had gone wrong this morning.

Unfortunately, the van didn’t terminate at Cola or any station where I could find a taxi back to the hotel.  With some help, someone helped me find a shared taxi which got me back around 1540.

I finished my day back at the Canadian-run stirfry shop, this time opting to have the meat and vege on noodles instead of rice.