Flying into Beirut

It’s been exactly 2 weeks and 4 days since I landed in Beirut. It is also my first weekend out of the hotel (I moved into a little studio and will stay here for 3 weeks until my apartment is ready). I thought it would be nice to mark this little milestone with a quick post about my arrival here.

The flight from Auckland to Dubai was pretty standard. It was only shortly before I boarded my plane to Beirut that it hit me – “I really am going to Lebanon”. I slept through a large part of the Dubai-Beirut leg, but I was awake enough to eat breakfast, look out the window, and study the airshow for our route. 

Dubai from air

Desert sands - somewhere over Saudi Arabia

I have to confess being a bit apprehensive about the idea of flying so far after the recent air disasters. Looking at the map prior to departure did not fill me with confidence as the most direct route from Dubai to Beirut meant flying over Syria. After the MH70 Ukraine incident, flying over a warzone was certainly not appealing.

I needn’t have worried. The airshow showed that we were flying along a corridor across Saudi Arabia, staying well clear of the Iraqi border. At a point where I expected the plane to turn north-west to cut across Jordan and Syria, we continued flying due west into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Somewhere around Cairo, we finally turned north, flying towards and over the Mediterranean, until we turned east towards Beirut. Later at the hotel, a quick Google search shows that Emirates stopped flying over Syria earlier this year and that this detour adds 45 mins to 1 hour’s flying time. Royal Jordanian has followed suit, but Middle Eastern Airlines (the cheapest) continues to fly over Syria.

Little sliver of the Red Sea. Not very red at all.

Sinai Peninsula, Egypt

It was on the approach to Beirut that I was glad I had the foresight to arrange for a window seat. I was on the port (left) side of the plane and had a view of the mountains of Lebanon looming out the clouds mysteriously as we approached land.

First glimpse of Lebanon

Beirut airport is at the southern end of the city, so a north-south landing meant I got to see lots as we approached the runway. Beirut is quite hilly and the Mount Lebanon range looms up large in the city’s north. The city itself appeared quite built up and densely constructed from air. Buildings are built almost right to the edge of the runway – it almost felt like the plane was skimming some rooftops as we rapidly descended. I would later discover that my office is right under the landing path of approaching planes. There have been times where a low flying aircraft directly overhead has drowned out office conversation. 

The Beirut southern suburbs (no pictures) near the airport are considered to be rather rough, unsafe places especially for the clueless foreigner and house some Palestinian refugee camps. The main airport road bypasses the southern suburbs so I only got a brief glimpse of them as my taxi took me to my hotel.

Anyway, so we landed and as I set there waiting to leave the aircraft, it all felt rather surreal. I looked out the window, staring at the buildings at the end of the runway trying to comprehend the fact that I was REALLY in Beirut. Soon enough it was time to leave the plane and get on with the business clearing immigration, collecting bags etc. Then it was out of the airport and off to start my new life in Beirut - for the next few months at least.