We're off to Lebanon today and our guide is quickly starting to p*** us off.She's late for everything and totally disorganised - isn't the guide the one who's supposed to be constantly waiting for the tourists to catch up???Anyway, we crossed into Lebanon at the Al-Jdiedeh checkpoint and stopped at duty free, then waited for her to do her shopping, then go to the toilet.We kept losing her at the Lebanese entry as we needed Lebanese lira so she was trotting off trying to exchange some money.While she was doing that Maria just got chatting with another guide and got what we needed so we were then waiting for her to sort out her entry!Anyway, we finally entered Lebanon about 1230 and drove to Baalbek, which we have to say was absolutely worth the wait.

Baalbek is a town in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, and is famous for its exquisitely detailed yet monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek, then known as Heliopolis, was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire. It is Lebanon's greatest Roman treasure and can be counted among the wonders of the ancient world. The largest and most noble Roman temples ever built, they are also among the best preserved.Towering high above the Beqaa plain, their monumental proportions proclaimed the power and wealth of Imperial Rome. The gods worshiped here are the Triad of Jupiter, Venus and Bacchus.We spent ages wandering around (this place is way better than the Forum in Rome) just admiring the fantastic site.We got a little sand blasted towards the end of the trip as the wind picked up but it wasn't quite strong enough to blow away our guide!! On the way back to the mini-van I had to use all my self-restraint to avoid joining the Hizbollah appreciation society by buying a bright yellow 'fan-club' t-shirt for a whopping $1.

We were supposed to visit Byblos too but since we were so late getting started (nothing to do with the guide, honest) we had to give it a miss and instead detour to Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds so that she could buy some food for her sons; only KFC is available in Syria!We're sure she wanted to pop into the duty free on the way back too but she caught me eyeing up the border guard's gun and thought better of it!Besides, if she did any more shopping we'd have had to get out of our mini-van and walk home as we'd have run out of space.