Beirut
Survival & Maintenance
Dress codes – to Bling or Not to Bling? Exercise opportunities, tailors, dry cleaners, hair & beauty salons, travel agents, airport transport &, travel tips

In Beirut it’s more a question of “Never mind the clothes, what about the jewellery?” Bring good quality fake, the bling-er the better, if you don’t want to travel with the real thing. (And don’t forget “summer jewellery” for showing off on the beach!)

In terms of dress codes, you will see everything from cutting edge Western chic to slinky hejab’d ladies, and all that goes in between. Summer means flesh, broadly speaking (see the plastic surgery entry, below). And serious chic. So pack your party clothes, and your hi-heel sneakers…..and you’re there!

Hair is big – and the more of it, the better.

Jewellery on the beach is a necessity, not just a style choice.

May to November is hot and humid - (a permanent bad hair day, hence the Beiruti’s obsession with hairdressers). But remember it’s cold and can be rainy from December to April – though equally, the sun can appear at any time. Winds across the sea or from the mountains can be cold.

For masterful shoe repairs, go to the incomparable Nadar, located just off Hamra St.

For exercise opportunities, go to Lifestyles, an extraordinary gym and swimming pool in the basement of a huge grey granite building on the hill just above the Riviera Club on the Corniche.

Or if you prefer a segregated scene, Contours is a discreet ladies-only establishment on Rue Clemeanceau.

Or for more exercise opportunities, try Avalon, near the Bristol Hotel on Rue Madame Curie.

Or just go jogging along the Corniche at dawn or dusk, where you will see every form of exercise wear, including ladies in skin tight outfits but fully head and body-covered!

Hair & Beauty Salons

Simon El Mendelek, THE coiffeur and “visagiste” of Beirut, for manicure, pedicure, chignons, blow-dries, cuts, colour and makeup (especially required for weddings!) It’s a bit far off, but worth the trip. ChI had the best mani-pedi in recent memory there, and decided to go for broke and do a chignon and (despite slight trepidation) the makeup at the same time. Why not?! ChI came out from a makeup session looking faintly sixties-oriental Egyptian film star-ish, and decided to temporarily rename herself Zeinab…till she toned it down a bit and re-emerged as a slightly different, definitely Insider Leb but still recognizable, ChI. Tel (01/03) 891 921; 870 565. Amarat Chalhoub, Imm. Haroun, and in the Intercontinental Resort in Mzaar.

 
Image courtesy of www.diadiwan.com

Or if you have less time, stamina or need less bling, go downtown near Verdun, and try either Naiiman tel +961 1 787 858 or Yehya Zakaria tel +961 3 855 011 - both of which do a good blow dry.

Your concierge can make the bookings for you. (Don’t forget – this is a seriously service-oriented economy, and people are really ready to do stuff for you….not like Beijing, in contrast – which is seriously NOT.)

“Outside Assistance”

Plastic surgery is BIG in Beirut. The upside? A LOT of experience. The downside? Everyone tends to look the same – terrific, but the same. The dinner with the elegant blonde in red, with the casual but studied hair, the huge rubies, and the laced sides with apparently not much under it….and men’s eyes on stalks, throughout. Beautiful, sculpted, slim, toned, groomed women, with masses of eye makeup, big hair, long flowing locks. Straight out of Dynasty in the eighties with a 21st century twist.

Travel Agents & “Fixers”

Ship your excess purchases home with the amazingly efficient ARAMEX, located in Sinn El Fil near the Freeway Cinema boulevard, after the Rond Point Hayek in the direction of Daoura. Tel +961 1 484 166 www.aramex.com

Cars to be Seen In – try a champagne coloured fourwheel drive Porsche with a beige suede ceiling – handy for the bodyguard in the front, good for zipping up to the mountains for lunch at Falooqa, and represents understated cool in the Beiruti context. Failing which, the bling-er the better…Beirutis like to make a statement. Ferraris rock, though when times are tense, a lower profile (and/or a really wired bodyguard) makes much better sense.

Reliable Airport Transport: If you don’t want to do what the local ChI Gulfies do, and send your Beamer over from Kuwait for the summer in the mountains in an empty container ship returning from off loading its cargo in the Gulf, at nominal cost, then here are some useful numbers, for airport trips, and in and around town.

Allo Taxi – reliable, ubiquitous, clean, polite, safe… Call them on 1213.
Or
Hussein Shmeiss of Taxi Premiere which offers a safe, reliable taxi service on 03 46 8823.

Directory enquiries (phone) on 1515 is surprisingly good - especially on restaurants. In Arabic or English.

Traveller Tips:

  •   Never, ever come to Lebanon with an Israeli visa in your passport. You will
       not get in, and could even land up in jail.
  •   Always keep car doors locked
  •   Mall’s are out, boutiques are in (less likely bomb targets) so look into places
       like Kitsch in Gemayzeh (a bit like Shoreditch in London);
  •   Try out a new Franco-Arabic Leb expression. Greeting: “Bonjour.”
       Response: “Bonjourtain”.

“Comfort Blankets & “Clutching at Straws”

There are times for even the most seasoned of travelling International Citizens, when you yearn for the familiar, in a sea of stress and obligations…..

  •   KitKats (always and anywhere)

(Actually Beirut is so international that comfort blankets are barely required – historically home to myriad ethnicities, there really is something for everyone.)

Major Occasions

Find yourself suddenly having acquired a Lebanese daughter-in-law-to be, and need to host a wedding? Want to know where to get married in Italy if you are Japanese? Need to throw a tea party for 25 in Cairo? Want to have a “Jumairah Jane GT” in Dubai? Want a face lift or a bit of Botox, to offset the tan? The ChI shares some of her uber-cool locations for special events, and also directs you to the best party planners!

Weddings & Parties

Need to host seated wedding dinner for 750? Only the Biel’s Royal Pavillion, created on land reclaimed from the sea), near the Solidere area, will be large enough. If you don’t like the (to ChI) rather unattractive over-decorated walls (think Louis Farouk…), cover them with plain white semi-sheer fabric, back-lit; install a false (swathed white semi-sheer cloth) ceiling; lay down a temporary new black plastic tiled floor in the reception area; and make myriad silver paper squares made into chandeliers to be suspended from the false ceiling! Flank the entrance arrival route with tall, willowy fake trees, beautifully up-lit in shocking pink (to please the bride!) along the red carpet to the entrance. Into the reception area, with coloured “negative” blowups from photos of the happy couple in many poses – charming and original. Champagne, canapés, viewing the reception line. The main room, try out 80 tables of ten – on each, white and greenish roses in glass bowls, white hyacinth bulbs on every table in glass containers, with little silver packaged gifts from Obegi (such as silver key chains) for every guest. Add Philippe Stark chairs (buy and re sell after the wedding, if you want to be a true Leb insider), white hyacinths and white roses…..and all you need are the guests, for the perfect, understated, yet statement-making event! Finish the evening by drawing back the white diaphanous drapes, to see massive showers of fireworks outside the plate glass windows.

Those hosting pre-weddings celebratory parties and similar events (including christenings) give small presents to the guests – placed at the table on arrival for the seated dinner – often silver dishes containing sugared almonds, small silver mirrors for the ladies, cigar cutters for the men….

For upscale, trendy caterers, if you want to entertain at home, contact Hussein Hadid http://www.husseinhadid.com/home.htm  (nephew of the world-famous Iraqi-British architect, Zaha Hadid www.zaha-hadid.com  ).

But be warned - a typical “small celebratory dinner at home” (for 45 or so, no less) may well consist of a menu ….prepared by the host, or by a “caterer” who could well be the chef of the current - (please note, not the former) King of Saudi Arabia - who is the principal chef on his Lebanon-based yacht, and who naturally moonlights selectively when its winter in Beirut, and the yacht is out of commission. A sample winter menu might consist of tortellini with white truffles, marinated wild salmon, wild rice, endless foie gras, roasted sweet potatoes, endive and Roquefort among a zillion different salads, and not to mention the turkey (if it happens to be around Christmas, regardless of the host’s religious or secular affiliation). Expect the exquisite, the delicate, the refined. And for dessert, buche de noel (Christmas log), the mont blanc with its meringues, chestnut puree and cream, Lebanese sweets, French cheeses …and more.