Cheers,
Ben

My last business trip has taken me to Kuala Lumpur, for the 3rd time in the last 7 months. Starts to feel like home

Anyways, i thought i’d try out my Fisheye lens on the Towers, and here are a few example shots of that. Hope you enjoy….

Ben

For more pictures, click on More!

Long time no posting, we just traveled down for a few days to Okinawa and saw this Suigyu at the Ryukyu village museum. They used them for grinding sugar crane in the past which was Okinawa’s main item for export.

More later,
Ben

You’ll need some sort of an application or a way to create and rename files on your iPhone. I’ve used iFile from the Cydia library.

The method I am explaining here uses a blank file instead of the camera’s sound file and upon taking a picture, the phone will play back the empty file, thus the silence.

Open iFile (or whatever you are using) and navigate to the following location:

/System/Library/Audio/UISounds/

Here you’ll find a file called “photoShutter.caf” which you’ll need to rename. I added an _backup after the name simply. Now create a new file and call it photoShutter.caf. This is it folks, the empty file is your shutter sound.

To create a new file with iFile you’ll need to press first Edit and then the + sign. Choose Regular file and name it photoShutter.caf

We reached Beirut in the evening, and since the city is famous for it’s nightlife, we soon hit the town after dinner. Food is exceptionally good in Lebanon, nothing compares to Lebanese food in the Middle East that is for sure. We had a nice walk in the old town of Beirut (locals call it Downtown), checked the shops and old churches and mosques. Beirut struck me as a city a bit similar to Istanbul in the following regard: Istanbul, as well as Beirut has a population very much mixed, Christians, Muslims and other religions live under the same roof. Because of this, Churches and Mosques are often seen side by side which is a pretty rare sight, specially for someone living in the Gulf. See picture below of an example of such:

After our walk in the city, we started asking people what to do at night in Beirut and we came up with an impressive list of 5-6 clubs and 2 streets that are a must when someone is partying in Beirut. We hit Gemmayzeh street first which was one of the most happening streets I have seen in my life to date. There are residential buildings on both sides of the street and at each of them on the ground floor there is a bar or club with open doors to the curious Beiruti or foreign visitor. We were bar-hopping for quite a few hours and I don’t remember the last time when I had so much fun. People are extremely friendly and outgoing, you won’t be able to spend more than 10 minutes at a place before a conversation breaks out between you and some locals. After our bar spree we hit the clubs at around Midnight, first we were off to the “Basement” then later around 2AM to “B018″. The former is a regular club, a ted upscale with limted dance floor space and posh people. The later one is a, hmm how to say it better, a “bad ass” club that was build in an underground bunker that dates back to the war times. The place is really dark inside, hard core house music is provided by the house-DJ and lots of fun-loving people all around you. We were there from 2 to 5 in the morning, and when we left, people were still coming in. Now how’s that for a Middle Eastern night out? The place got smokey from time to time and then the bunker’s roof would be opened up and the crowd was under the stary sky for a few minutes before they closed it up again.

After our night out, we were ready to hit the streets of Beirut for a quick sight seeing tour before my friends airplane takes off and I go back up to the Mountains. Beirut is very mediterranian in style specially around the old town areas, so we enjoyed the warm late March sunshine and sat outside in cafes and other venues.

All in all Beirut is well worth a visit. If you happen to be in the area with a couple of days to spare, I’d strongly recommend stopping over in Beirut for a day and a night.

Below are a few example pictures, for more on Beirut, visit the Gallery.

The old town at night

My friend in front of a Bar on Gemmayzeh street

Coffee in Old Town Beirut – see how badly I was sun burnt from skiing

In a dance-bar on Gemmayzeh street

At Beirut’s most famous landmark

This is it for now, I am sure I’ll return one day and post up more info on Beirut. Cheers,

Ben

I had two weeks to cancel everything in Iran and rebook my trip to Lebanon, and this was no minor task. Lucky for me Lebanon has caught up with the world in terms of Internet and online booking, and I was able to do everything in front of my PC, which was not the case of Iran initially. I normally like to search extensively and book things one by one; however, the short time I had did force me to go with a single company who arranges everything. This is how I got to the following site:

http://www.skileb.com

They have a search engine on the site that helps you build a package that suits your needs. I have first chosen my airport pickup and drop off to match my flights, and then chose the hotel and ski pass and my rental snowboard. All this was done at the site believe it or not, and in less than 10 minutes. I paid by card and received all necessary information via E-mail.

The days were going fast and I was ready to set off to Lebanon. I tried taking my snowboard with me to make sure I’ll have proper equipment but the budget airlines I checked and booked on did not allow this. The air fare costs about 1000AED or 300USD return. Check the following for examples:

http://www.flydubai.com
http://www.airarabia.com
http://www.jazeeraairways.com

I flew in late in the evening after a whole day of work, and was picked up by the taxi company skileb.com has arranged. The trip from Beirut International took 1 hour 10 minutes to Faraya, where my accommodation was reserved at. I stayed at Faraya Village Club , a very modest and cheap hotel with all the basic needs covered like hot water, central heating and clean sheets:). I paid about $40 USD per night for my stay and an extra $20USD for the lift passes and snowboard rental.

I went in late March and expected nearly no snow, but to my surprise, the conditions were great. We had about 120cm’s of snow at the base and 180cm’s at the summit and 80% of the lifts were still working. The resort had about 20 or so lifts and about 50 slopes. I had the real “alpine” feeling, by which I mean you set off at one particular place and ski all day without coming back to the same slope even once. They must have had at least 80km’s of slopes open when I was there.

A good mannakish (Pizza like Lebanese bread) at the slope restaurants cost in the range of $2USD and a beer was about $3USD. This obviously meant I was drinking day in and day out, coming from Dubai and the $10USD and above beer prices.

I had no chance in checking the other great ski resort out, the Cedars, but having seen Faraya and how skiing is done there and for how much, I give Lebanon 5 stars for skiing.

Click here to see the Faraya Gallery at Celifornia.com for more pictures, otherwise see a few examples below.

Cheers,
Ben

And here I am with some Lebanese mountain men from the ski rental shop. They were really nice, every morning they greeted me with Coffee and cigarettes, plus a seat near their warm heater.

And Finally some beautiful Roman era ruins between my Hotel and the ski slope

Cheers,
Ben

I have just received my alcohol license I was refering to in this post.

To get the license you need to be a non-muslim, you need to have a proper job with a salary that can be proven. If you meet all these requirements, its pretty easy actually. Here is what I did:

I went to the Alcohol store African and Eastern at the Dubai Marina Walk, got the application form and filled it out. I then made a copy of my passport, my drivers license and VISA page. With all this, I went to our finance department and asked for a Non Objection letter which states that my company does not mind me having an Alcohol license. Are you laughing yet? Then, I went to the Dubai Municipality and asked their non-objection statement for getting the license. Once I had the blessings of the Dubai Municipalities, I needed a salary certificate from the same office, and off I was to submit my application. It took 3 weeks, the Dubai Police signed off on it, and the Liquor store called me to have the license picked up.

The cost of the license is 160 Dirhams (~50 USD), and for the same value I got a voucer that can be used at African and Eastern. This actually makes the alcohol license free, and to have it is indeed very necessary in Dubai, should you be ever confronted for drinking.

This is how it looks like, cheers: