The race to the buyout – how we might be in a bubble
Longevity is what I seek. Today, the majority of our social and economic system prizes instant gratification, quick money and the shortest path to completion. This is not a rant against our system or people’s material priorities, rather I hope to discuss the lack of long term vision amongst many of our brighter minds. You will die, but your creations can live on if you build a culture around them. If I had to boil it all down to one phrase it would be to say: We must figure out how to avoid shirtsleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations.
I work in the start-up and software world, which is a place that places IPOs, “fuck-you” money and fast growth as its raison d’être. John Doerr, the famed venture capitalist, proudly stated about his career, “we witnessed the largest, legal creation of wealth on the planet”. Venture capital firms relish in the glow of a fast and profitable sale to a large company. It is sad that so few companies, especially in the technology space, pride themselves on long-term thinking, durability and consistency.
In contrast to start-up culture, Japan prides itself on longevity. The Imperial House of Japan was founded in 660 BC by Emperor Jimma and is still running after nearly 2500 years. The oldest hotel in the world is in Japan and a disproportionate number of the oldest companies in the world are Japanese. Building something that lasts centuries is exponentially harder than building something that lasts decades, let alone years. Americans often criticize Europe and Japan for moving too slowly, having too little GDP growth, and too little speed. But, the real test of a social-economic system cannot be made over 20, 30 or even 60 years – you need centuries.
I am hardly the first to say this. The great minds at the LongNow foundation, which include Jeff Bezzos of Amazon.com, understand this. They wrote a great piece on the history of debt here and are building a clock that will last 10,000 years – that’s what I’m talking about!
Everywhere I look in the tech space I see a dangerous emphasis on speed. Though there is genuine long-term wealth creation going on, I think we are in another tech bubble. Yes, certain companies have a lot of cash, but this partly due to a taxation problem. The main tell-tale signs of a bubble are absurdly high salaries for developers who CEOs feel they can leverage, but are themselves leveraged by investors. There is nothing wrong with working with others to go faster, but it is a bit concerning when so much is being spent so fast. I might be wrong, take a look at the great discussion about a potential 2011 tech bubble at HackerNews here.
Part of the problem with tech investment is that it works. Technology can indeed be incredibly profitable incredibly fast. But those profits can disappear just as quickly as they came. Planning for the short-term has become endemic.
Fundamentally, to build for the long-term requires you need to resist temptation. Temptation comes in many forms – venture capital, buyouts, leverage, credit – but all leads down the same path of destruction as soon as you stop peddling fast enough.
The seminal study on temptation by Michelle vanDellen outlines how children who control temptation to eat a cookie turn out better – health, wealth, happiness – than children who can’t. Leverage is a cookie.
Despite the fact that most people in the tech space are very good at resisting personal temptation, they still seem to emphasize the quick payoff at the corporate level. It seems likely that the high levels of personal leverage from mortgages, credit cards, and student loans push us towards get rich quick schemes. Add onto that the jealousy of your neighbour or office mate’s stock options, car, house or wife. That is the foundation of a bubble.
Sometimes the best indicator of a bubble is your local taxi driver. As gold hit 815$ an ounce in 1980 (2150$ in 2011 inflation adjusted dollars), a Wall Street investor was riding in a taxi cab when the cab driver mentioned he was planning to buy gold as an investment. The investor got out of the cab, went upstairs to his office and sold all his gold positions. Gold plummeted to 300$, where it stayed for over 20 years. When everyone is doing one thing, do the opposite.
Rather than build something durable many companies are created with the aim of being sold to someone bigger, VCs want out in under 5 years, and people jump from one job to another every 6 months. This strikes me as an unhealthy system, but hey, that’s just me.
The second, and potentially worse, impact of short-term thinking is the shift in the workforce. Because of the pressure to relieve debt and the drive to buy the things others have, the smartest people move away from durable businesses that take decades to build and go towards get rich quick social media schemes. Just as Wall Street has absorbed some of the best minds of our generation to do high frequency trading (something that clearly adds no value to society), amazing software developers are being used to build social-media-analytic-optimizational-cross-promotional platforms, whatever that is. These great minds of our generation should be building technology that helps run society – hospitals, education, infrastructure, communication and yet unforeseen things only they can imagine.
I believe in the power of technology to change the world, but we need to frame our socio-economic system to value long-term thinking. As the three pigs should have taught you, you need to build in stone, not wood. The true test of a great company is not how much money it makes today, but how long it lasts as a value creation vehicle for society as a whole.
Think big, move fast and aim long. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned.
For your viewing enjoyment, the The Three Little Pigs.
Published on July 20, 2011
Help, I need somebody!
For the past year I’ve been trying to find a reliable software developer who wants to build a long-lasting sustainable business. Ok, that sounds a bit cheesy, but in contrast to most propositions that start that way, my main company, Nimonik, actually makes money and is growing at 100% a year. It is a painful growth with a long sales cycle, but when we do get a client, they always stick around. We need someone who has the technical chops to tackle iOS – Rails App synchronisation, verification of differences on remote pages, and dynamic linking to content based on semantic algorithms. Don’t say you won’t be challenged!
To better understand my approach to business and why I think this is a great opportunity, take a look at the founder of AutoDesk to his employees way back in the 80s here and see what Stephen Wolfram has to say about building a long-term company.
One main caveat is that we do not believe in external financing and are running everything with real revenues, sweat and our own seed money. Some might say that stunts our growth, but we feel it allows us the independence and freedom to build the business as we see fit. There is a lot of work left to do and a huge market out there, yet few people seem willing to take that jump.
Despite being active in the community, opening up government data, organizing open-data hackathons and personally emailing many developers, I have had a remarkably difficult time convincing them to join us. No doubt, their 150$ an hour rate is hard for us to match, but do people really want to be a consultant all their lives? I know I didn’t and that’s why I quit to start a company. Don’t people want to build a company that they can stand over with pride? Am I crazy?
We believe in long-term hard work, in independence and in doing for others as you would have them do for you. I clean the dishes of my employees, put their pay before mine and strive day in and day out to provide a challenging and dynamic work environment. People before products, but products before money.
We offer strong technical challenges, flexible work schedules and a great team of honest, nice, hardworking people – yet we keep losing talent to social media startups who are financed to the hill. What to do? Does any developer have an interest in building a long-term business anymore? Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but it feels like the ease of credit from banks, VCs, and angels has devalued sweat equity. We can pay a reasonable salary, but what we really want is someone who is passionate about their work and building something that will span generations.
Email me to chat jbrun@nimonik.ca about the job posting found here.
Published on July 12, 2011Automation of the workforce
I just read The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future
While the idea is not new (see Luddites), Ford’s main point is that few economists have explored the possible implications in depth. Much of the book outlines the possible consequences of automation, which in my view are very difficult to quantify. A legitimate concern for governments around the world will be the impacts on their tax base as more and more income is generated by software companies, automated warehouses and other online products which rely on limited human intervention. Without human salaries, there is little to tax. Since automation can be located anywhere, companies will lean towards states and countries that offer the lowest tax rates.
To compensate for lost revenue, Martin Ford proposes a gross margin tax, basically a tax on operating profit. He also proposes a sliding scale for deductions of salaries. In his mind, a company would be able to deduct 200% of a 50k salary and not be able to deduct anything above a 400k salary. This would amount to a stunted salary cap and could be a very interesting solution to the growing income inequality in our society. I think both ideas should be investigated in greater depth, the book does not however do so.
While I enjoyed Martin Ford’s exploration of the potential impact of automation on the economy, I do think his timeline is too fast. Technologists and IT people often only see the tremendous automation in their fields and extend it to the entire world. Their lack exposure to some of the more manual jobs – construction, retail sales, product distribution – push them towards very fast timelines (and libertarianism, though that’s another story). The vast majority of the global economy is not software or robotic.
What automation will do is to free up labour for other tasks. Rest assured, there is no shortage of work to be done in this world. The real question is how to allocate resources and motivate companies and people to work in fields that might otherwise not be highly profitable. Lest we forget, as late as 1780, over 90% of society was directly employed in agriculture, today less than 2% of workers create far more food than we ever thought possible. Yet, unemployment is still relatively low.
The reality is that as automation increases we need to put in place mechanisms to train people for other jobs and allocate resources to employ them. It is said that there are two ways to tie up large male populations in developing nations – the military or construction.
The problem of automation and its effect on the tax-base are real. California is home to Apple, Google, Facebook and other tech giants but cannot balance its books, this might very well be the canary in the coal mine. As Bill Gates recently discussed at TED, we need to reconfigure government to ensure tighter oversight and better allocation of resources. Part of the solution is open-data and open-governement (that’s another story).
While I do believe that we need to seriously reevaluate our taxation system and the way government works, I would like to address the core of the book that proposes vast unemployment due to automation.
Labour sources
Ford claims a great amount of labour will be freed up in the coming decades thanks to automation, I will not dwell on this since I think we can agree. The largest places for job cuts probably include automated transportation (Google car), integrated software (Mint, accounting software, medical scanning software…), self-service machines (grocery checkout, ATMs), and coordinated autonomous robots (warehouse clerk robots). Where I differ with Ford is that I think there are already many places these people can go to find new work and even more yet to be created. Notably, a recent McKinsey report suggests the internet has created 2.6 jobs for every job lost – not something Martin Ford would have predicted (executive summary here).
Labour sinks
Art
I firmly believe that humans are creative animals. We much prefer to sing, dance, paint, film and express ourselves artistically than fill out Excel spreadsheets. Thus, with increasing automation, we should see increasing amounts of art. Based on the amount of art we see online, this is already happening and is eating up people’s time that has been freed by automation. We simply need a better way to finance the arts.
Construction
Second, there are a ton of infrastructure projects to be completed. Most societies, including developed ones, still lack high-speed rail, adequate sewage systems, roads, highways, buildings, housing, ports, energy production, and other essential items to a modern society. This is a massive human employment sink that can be driven by the government.
Education
Third, far too large a portion of society lacks education or could be better educated. Stated simply, we need to allocate far more resources to the education of our children if we want them to build the robots and software Martin Ford predicts will arrive shortly. People in the software and high tech industry tend to be surrounded by educated and motivated people, they then conclude that people who are not highly educated must lack effort or discipline or both. By that logic, we would see far more children of software developers flipping burgers and MacDonalds, but we don’t.
In addition to changing the tax system, we need to change the way we allocate access to opportunity. If we do nothing, automation will drive us towards a plutocratic society with huge income inequality. Education is not just schools and teachers, it is a formative environment which values hard work and discipline. Access to higher education often means access to a network of people who are ambitious, driven and likely to succeed in life. A large part of affirmative action is giving access to these networks to people who might otherwise not have access; affirmative action goes well beyond providing access to educational institutions. If we hope to balance the odds for all members of society, we need a lot more people working in this field.
Efforts by people at the Khan academy (see recent TED talk) both automate the traditional job of a teacher and allow for a wider and more efficient distribution of education, but the end result is a more educated population. We just need to ensure these people can find jobs, a common joke in Russia is that it is the only country where your cleaning lady has a PhD. Again, this becomes a question of financing, but no one questions our need for more education. As George Orwell said, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” We need to run faster.
In conclusion, while I do agree that automation will continue to accelerate at an accelerating rate and will replace millions of jobs, our biggest question as a society will be how to tax and allocate resources. Central planning does not work, but neither does a free market. Rapid and vast automation will force us to make decisions sooner than we might think.
See this other interesting rundown of the book here at the Singularity Hub.
Published on July 10, 2011Canadian History is actually fascinating
Canadian history is not boring. In fact, it is far more interesting and dynamic than one might expect. In contrast to many countries, we are a country formed not so much by war and violence, but by flexibility, negotiation and a tireless work ethic. We might lack dramatic civil wars, bombings or martyrs, but we should stand proud that we live in a country that prefers the pen and the word to the sword and the bomb.
Cicero once said, “Not to know what happened before you were born is to be forever a child.” It is with that spirit that I set out to brush up on my canadian and quebec history. Below are four books that I recently read and highly recommend. After reading these books I have a deeper, though still superficial, understanding of what it took to build our country and the trials all the men and women had to overcome. Canada remains a country unfinished – we lack a finalised constitution and still have strong unity issues – but we need to know where we came from to know where to go.
Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fisher
This fascinating book tells the story of Samuel de Champlain, undoubtedly the father of Quebec and by extension, Canada. He was a man who devoted his life to the establishment of a permanent colony in Canada, he regarded First Nation people as his equal, and managed to succeed in the both the politicized French courts and the harsh Canadian winter. What really sticks out is just how precarious Québec was, the French were by no means enthusiastic colonisers and Québec was largely financed by venture capitalists. His efforts to maintain peace with the first nations were instrumental to the survival of Europeans in Canada, his form of peace-building would later be emulated by other Canadian leaders and has become a defining part of what it is to be Canadian. Champlain was also a talented cartographer, manager and seaman, a true renaissance man. If not for Champlain, there would be no Québec and no french speaking people in North America. The book should be mandatory reading for all Canadians.
Extraordinary Canadians – Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin by John Raulston Saul
This excellent, though short, book delivers an insight into the partnership and friendship the two men formed. L-H Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin were the key creators of a bilingual and responsible government in the 1840s. Their efforts to appease sectarian urges in Upper and Lower Canada in the 1830-1850 period paved the way for a peaceful confederation in 1867 and the birth of a nation that included English and French. Their work also set the tone for future generations of Canadians who would continuously face the challenge of national unity. Though not a detailed historical work, it does give you a greater appreciation for the precariousness of the Canadas in the mid 19th century and how we nearly became an American state or an English speaking nation. These two men doggedly negotiated their way through mobs and racism to help birth the nation.
A Short History of Canada by Desmond Morton
This is a whirlwind tour of Canadian history from the first European settlement to 2005. It focuses on the national leaders and prime ministers that shaped this country and is a great overview of the formative parts of our history. It sadly skips over certain important treaties and dates, but nevertheless delivers a well balanced overview of our country.
Une Histoire du Quebec par Jacques Lacoursière
Ce bref livre offre une histoire fascinante du Québec, de Jacques Cartier à Charest. C’est un excellent survol de notre histoire nationale, des hommes et des femmes qui ont bravé la neige et les conflits religieux pour créer une ile francophone et progressive dans une Amérique du Nord anglophone. L’histoire reste parfaitement factuelle, M. Lacoursière vous offre un excellent survol de notre histoire pour ceux qui ont possiblement oublié leurs cours de secondaire.Canadian history is not boring. In fact, it is far more interesting and dynamic than one might expect. In contrast to many countries, we are a country formed not so much by war and violence, but by flexibility, negotiation and a tireless work ethic. We might lack dramatic civil wars, bombings or martyrs, but we should stand proud that we live in a country that prefers the pen and the word to the sword and the bomb.
Cicero once said, “Not to know what happened before you were born is to be forever a child.” It is with that spirit that I set out to brush up on my canadian and quebec history. Below are four books that I recently read and highly recommend. After reading these books I have a deeper, though still superficial, understanding of what it took to build our country and the trials all the men and women had to overcome. Canada remaine a country unfinished – we lack a finalised constitution and still have strong unity issues – but we need to know where we came from to know where to go.
Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fisher
This fascinating book tells the story of Samuel de Champlain, undoubtedly the father of Quebec and by extension, Canada. He was a man who devoted his life to the establishment of a permanent colony in Canada, he regarded First Nation people as his equal, and managed to succeed in the both the politicized French courts and the harsh Canadian winter. What really sticks out is just how precarious Québec was, the French were by no means enthusiastic colonisers and Québec was largely financed by venture capitalists. His efforts to maintain peace with the first nations was instrumental to the survival or europeans in Canada, his form of peace-building would later be emulated by other Canadian leaders and has become a defining part of what it is to be Canadian. Champlain was also an talented cartographer, manager and seaman, a true renaissance man. If not for Champlain, there would be no Québec and no french speaking people in North America. The book should be mandatory reading for all Canadians.
Extraordinary Canadians – Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin by John Raulston Saul
This excellent, but short book delivers an insight into the partnership and friendship that the two men formed. L-H Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin were the key creators of a bilingual and responsible government in the 1840s. Their efforts to appease sectarian urges in Upper and Lower Canada in the 1830-1850 period paved the way for a peaceful confederation in 1867 and the birth of a nation that included English and French. Their work also set the tone for future generations of Canadians who would continuously face the challenge of national unity. Though not a detailed historical work, it does give you an greater appreciation for the precariousness of the Canadas in the mid 19th century and how we nearly became an American state or an English speaking nation. These two men doggedly negotiated their way through mobs and racism to help birth the nation.
A Short History of Canada by Desmond Morton
This is a whirlwind tour of Canadian history from the first European settlement to 2005. It focuses on the national leaders and prime ministers that shaped this country and is a great overview of the formative parts of our history. It sadly skips over certain important treaties and dates, but nevertheless delivers a well balanced overview of our country.
Une Histoire du Quebec par Jacques Lacoursière
Ce bref livre offre une histoire fascinante du Quebec, de Jacques Cartier à Charest. C’est un excellent survol de notre histoire nationale, des hommes et des femmes qui ont bravé la neige et les conflits religieux pour créer une ile francophone et progressiste dans un Amérique du Nord anglophone. L’histoire reste parfaitement factuel, M. Lacoursière vous offre un excellent survol de notre histoire pour ceux qui ont possiblement oublié leurs cours de secondaire.
Published on June 30, 2011Lebanon in Two Weeks
My two brothers and I recently visited Lebanon for two weeks. Our trip was fantastic and I wholeheartedly recommend Lebanon to those in search of fun, sun, culture and great food. Having travelled extensively, I confidently proclaim that the Lebanese people are the nicest, most welcoming people I have ever had the good fortune of meeting. Traces of human existence in Lebanon date as far back as the 6th century B.C. and many sites, such as Byblos, have seen six empires – Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and French come and go. Lebanon is a rich country that has sadly seen far too many years of sectarian and regional war.
- Martyr Square in Beirut in 1982 during Lebanese Civil War
The civil war (Pity the Nation by Fisk, Radio Interview with Fisk), which lasted 15 years and ended in 1991, Syrian domination and the recent Israel conflict in 2006 has left the country in a difficult position. Nevertheless the country seems to be rebuilding and on some sort of path to recovery – though income inequality remains a major hurdle to a true democracy. I hope that one day, a democratic and peaceful Middle East will emerge from the rubble of conflict. An economic cooperation zone and network of high speed trains between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt would could turn the region into an amazing place, let’s hope, for the sake of the lebanese people that this comes to pass one day.
A large part of the economy is driven by the banking sector, thanks to its very low tax rates and proximity to oil rich countries. The country is tiny, you can drive from end to end in about 4 hours and the food is delicious. The country is made up of many different religions, beliefs and backgrounds, from Muslim to Christian from Arab to Phoenician. It is a country that defies most standards and still has a way to go, but it is a remarkable place that expresses so many of the challenges human societies still face.
The remainder of this post is more of a travel log. For those interested in our itinerary and costs, read on. All prices have been adjusted per person based on triple room occupancy.
*************************************
We landed in Beirut and quickly made our way to the underwhelming, yet lonely planet certified, New Talel Hotel for 15$/night. Despite its name, it is not new and you can quickly tell that it is run by a bunch of guys in their mid twenties. We explored Beirut’s nightlife, from Gemmayzeh street to the student Hamra district. Though reputed for it’s nightlife, we were a bit unimpressed, but again, that is coming from a bunch of Montrealers. Beirut is an interesting city and the food was amazing – lots of walking, coffee and narghila. The museum at the American University in Beirut is well worth a visit, but the most popular activities in Beirut are certainly driving fast, eating, smoking, drinking and lounging by the pool.
The Lebanese are amazingly welcoming people, constantly asking where we are from and going out their way to help us. They did not try to aggressively sell us their wares and generally offered reasonable prices right off the bat. It is a nice change from many other countries where they treat tourists like ATMs. The food is amazing, did I mention that?
In the Hamra district, we definitely recommend Li Beirut bar for their happy hour 6-9 PM and Prague bar was also bumping. On Gemmayzeh street, all the bars were fairly similar, small and busy. The women in Lebanon are beautiful, though there are rumours they might be getting a little help.
After Beirut, we made our way to the Jeitta Grotto, an impressive cave network that is well worth the visit. From there we moved up to Byblos, a charming seaside town that was once a hotspot for celebrities and big whigs. There is a decent public beach nearby and some shops in the town that sell great fossilized fish and sea creatures. The highlight is the ancient city, which was home to over six civilizations and started in 7th century BP. We stayed at a camping hotel about 2 km out of town, about 15$/person.
From Byblos, we headed to Tripoli, a seaside Muslim city that is famed for the 2007 violence between government forces and Palestinian refugees that spilled onto the streets. We found the city quite safe, the souks were really authentic and there are no shortage of madrassas and mosques to visit. The highlight might be the citadel which sits atop the city and is well worth the 2$ entry fee. Be absolutely sure to eat falafel from the stand just down the street from the great mosque, we waited an hour for him to open, but it was worth every delicious bite. We stayed at the charming small hotel El Coura for about 20$/person.
From Tripoli we made a night excursion with some newly minted Lebanese friends to Batroun, a seaside village that is full of bars and lounges, clearly an escape from the conservative Tripoli. Great sheisha and food in the café we visited.
From Tripoli, we made our way via taxi to Syria for a day trip, we would have normally spent more time in Syria, but the repression of the democratic movement was in full swing. The border was not pleasant, be sure to have lots of US dollars on you, but we did somewhat surprisingly make it through. Crac de Chevaliers is the largest crusader castle in the world, huge, intact and isolated – it was well worth the expensive visit, but should ideally be done during a wider Syrian visit. We swung by the ancient St. George Monastery on our way back to Lebanon. The Syrians were notably less friendly than the Lebanese and we were very happy when we walked back across the border, it almost felt like going home.
Back in Tripoli, we promptly paid our falafel friend another visit, 0.75$ falafel is truly a godsend. We also popped by the famed sweet shop Hallab, which was delicious and had wi-fi, something remarkably hard to find in Lebanon.
From Tripoli, we took a bus to Bartoun, were we got a taxi to go to the city of Doum. Doum is a beautiful mountain city made quite rich by its arms dealing and manufacturing industry. The taxi then continued to the beautiful region of Tanourine, leaving us at the last city. We mulled around the pretty city, I fell in a sewer, leaving my leg filthy, bloody and my brothers laughing. From there we negotiated a 20$ taxi to Bacharé.
Bacharé is beautiful and is home to the Maronite Christians of Lebanon, who form the core of the Phalangist party a.k.a. kabeob political party. They are renowned for their militias, the inspiration the founding father drew from Nazi like discipline, and the massacre of Sabra and Shatila. That being said, the city is clean, affordable and the people are very welcoming. The region really is stunning, we spent a day walking through the holy Qadisha valley, visiting churches, alters and hermitages. Very worth the trek. We stayed at the Tiger hostel for 10$/night.
From Bacharé we grabbed a 50$ taxi to Baalbeck via the mountain road, which is a magnificent drive. The ruins of Baalbeck date back to the 2nd century AD and are simply amazing, the sheer size of the structure and the intact temples really do take your breath away. These are the largest Roman temples in the world and were built so large in an attempt to impress the locals and temper the popularity of the rising Christianity. If you can, try to visit the site near sunset, and there is a great hotel with balconies looking onto the site for only 10$/night.
From Baalbeck we took a bus to Zahlé where we visited the Ksara winery, nearby Anjaar ruins. The Anjaar ruins are a little underwhelming after Baalbeck, but they do give you an idea of what a Umayyad city might have looked like. The Ksara wine visit is well worth your time, especially considering it is free and you get to see ancient roman cave systems that are now used as stock rooms to age the wine. We stayed at the very authentic Akra hotel, (20$/person) – definitely recommended.
From Zahlé, we hitched a ride with a mini-bus to an intersection, from where we hired a taxi to take us to the 19th century castle of Beiteddine, very nice. From there, the taxi continued to Dar el Amar, a lovely town with some cafés and a wax museum, not much to report for this spot, but worth a quick stop.
From Dar el Amar we headed to the southern city of Tyr via a free ride with some nice beer drinking fellows, followed by a bus ride. This city has some ancient roman ruinds and a nice public beach where we lounged away the day. In theory you could scuba dive in some of ruins and thermal vents, but the sea was too choppy when we were there. We stayed at a newly renovated hotel bar on the waterfront for about 26$/night.
After Tyr, we headed north to Sidon where we hired an amazing guide to visit the water castle and then strolled through the souks. Just in front of the water castle, we had, by far, the largest falafel wrap I have ever eaten – well worth the 1.25$. The soap museum is very much worth your time, but a few hours in Sidon is all you really need.
We then headed back to the big lights of Beirut, this time we stayed at a religious hostel called Le foyer de la Sagesse, a great find for 25$/night. We meandered the streets and visited the amazing archeology museum, definitely worth it. We completed our Lebanon trip with a bang: we started the night at the Abdel Wahab restaurant, definitely the best Lebanese food I have ever eaten, and then headed on over to the massive nightclub, Beiruf where we partied like Arab princes until our 6 AM flight, leaving the country with memories that will last a lifetime.
Lebanon is highly recommended, feel free to email me at jbrun@jonathanbrun.com with questions.
My two brothers and I recently visited Lebanon for two weeks. Our trip was fantastic and I wholeheartedly recommend Lebanon to those in search of fun, sun, culture and great food. Having travelled extensively, I confidently proclaim that the Lebanese people are the nicest, most welcoming people I have ever had the good fortune of meeting. Traces of human existence in Lebanon date as far back as the 6th century B.C. and many sites, such as Byblos, have seen six empires – Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and French come and go. Lebanon is a rich country that has sadly seen far too many years of sectarian and regional war.
- Martyr Square in Beirut in 1982 during Lebanese Civil War
The civil war (Pity the Nation by Fisk, Radio Interview with Fisk), which lasted 15 years and ended in 1991, Syrian domination and the recent Israel conflict in 2006 has left the country in a difficult position. Nevertheless the country seems to be rebuilding and on some sort of path to recovery – though income inequality remains a major hurdle to a true democracy. I hope that one day, a democratic and peaceful Middle East will emerge from the rubble of conflict. An economic cooperation zone and network of high speed trains between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt would could turn the region into an amazing place, let’s hope, for the sake of the lebanese people that this comes to pass one day.
A large part of the economy is driven by the banking sector, thanks to its very low tax rates and proximity to oil rich countries. The country is tiny, you can drive from end to end in about 4 hours and the food is delicious. The country is made up of many different religions, beliefs and backgrounds, from Muslim to Christian from Arab to Phoenician. It is a country that defies most standards and still has a way to go, but it is a remarkable place that expresses so many of the challenges human societies still face.
The remainder of this post is more of a travel log. For those interested in our itinerary and costs, read on. All prices have been adjusted per person based on triple room occupancy.
*************************************
We landed in Beirut and quickly made our way to the underwhelming, yet lonely planet certified, New Talel Hotel for 15$/night. Despite its name, it is not new and you can quickly tell that it is run by a bunch of guys in their mid twenties. We explored Beirut’s nightlife, from Gemmayzeh street to the student Hamra district. Though reputed for it’s nightlife, we were a bit unimpressed, but again, that is coming from a bunch of Montrealers. Beirut is an interesting city and the food was amazing – lots of walking, coffee and narghila. The museum at the American University in Beirut is well worth a visit, but the most popular activities in Beirut are certainly driving fast, eating, smoking, drinking and lounging by the pool.
The Lebanese are amazingly welcoming people, constantly asking where we are from and going out their way to help us. They did not try to aggressively sell us their wares and generally offered reasonable prices right off the bat. It is a nice change from many other countries where they treat tourists like ATMs. The food is amazing, did I mention that?
In the Hamra district, we definitely recommend Li Beirut bar for their happy hour 6-9 PM and Prague bar was also bumping. On Gemmayzeh street, all the bars were fairly similar, small and busy. The women in Lebanon are beautiful, though there are rumours they might be getting a little help.
After Beirut, we made our way to the Jeitta Grotto, an impressive cave network that is well worth the visit. From there we moved up to Byblos, a charming seaside town that was once a hotspot for celebrities and big whigs. There is a decent public beach nearby and some shops in the town that sell great fossilized fish and sea creatures. The highlight is the ancient city, which was home to over six civilizations and started in 7th century BP. We stayed at a camping hotel about 2 km out of town, about 15$/person.
From Byblos, we headed to Tripoli, a seaside Muslim city that is famed for the 2007 violence between government forces and Palestinian refugees that spilled onto the streets. We found the city quite safe, the souks were really authentic and there are no shortage of madrassas and mosques to visit. The highlight might be the citadel which sits atop the city and is well worth the 2$ entry fee. Be absolutely sure to eat falafel from the stand just down the street from the great mosque, we waited an hour for him to open, but it was worth every delicious bite. We stayed at the charming small hotel El Coura for about 20$/person.
From Tripoli we made a night excursion with some newly minted Lebanese friends to Batroun, a seaside village that is full of bars and lounges, clearly an escape from the conservative Tripoli. Great sheisha and food in the café we visited.
From Tripoli, we made our way via taxi to Syria for a day trip, we would have normally spent more time in Syria, but the repression of the democratic movement was in full swing. The border was not pleasant, be sure to have lots of US dollars on you, but we did somewhat surprisingly make it through. Crac de Chevaliers is the largest crusader castle in the world, huge, intact and isolated – it was well worth the expensive visit, but should ideally be done during a wider Syrian visit. We swung by the ancient St. George Monastery on our way back to Lebanon. The Syrians were notably less friendly than the Lebanese and we were very happy when we walked back across the border, it almost felt like going home.
Back in Tripoli, we promptly paid our falafel friend another visit, 0.75$ falafel is truly a godsend. We also popped by the famed sweet shop Hallab, which was delicious and had wi-fi, something remarkably hard to find in Lebanon.
From Tripoli, we took a bus to Bartoun, were we got a taxi to go to the city of Doum. Doum is a beautiful mountain city made quite rich by its arms dealing and manufacturing industry. The taxi then continued to the beautiful region of Tanourine, leaving us at the last city. We mulled around the pretty city, I fell in a sewer, leaving my leg filthy, bloody and my brothers laughing. From there we negotiated a 20$ taxi to Bacharé.
Bacharé is beautiful and is home to the Maronite Christians of Lebanon, who form the core of the Phalangist party a.k.a. kabeob political party. They are renowned for their militias, the inspiration the founding father drew from Nazi like discipline, and the massacre of Sabra and Shatila. That being said, the city is clean, affordable and the people are very welcoming. The region really is stunning, we spent a day walking through the holy Qadisha valley, visiting churches, alters and hermitages. Very worth the trek. We stayed at the Tiger hostel for 10$/night.
From Bacharé we grabbed a 50$ taxi to Baalbeck via the mountain road, which is a magnificent drive. The ruins of Baalbeck date back to the 2nd century AD and are simply amazing, the sheer size of the structure and the intact temples really do take your breath away. These are the largest Roman temples in the world and were built so large in an attempt to impress the locals and temper the popularity of the rising Christianity. If you can, try to visit the site near sunset, and there is a great hotel with balconies looking onto the site for only 10$/night.
From Baalbeck we took a bus to Zahlé where we visited the Ksara winery, nearby Anjaar ruins. The Anjaar ruins are a little underwhelming after Baalbeck, but they do give you an idea of what a Umayyad city might have looked like. The Ksara wine visit is well worth your time, especially considering it is free and you get to see ancient roman cave systems that are now used as stock rooms to age the wine. We stayed at the very authentic Akra hotel, (20$/person) – definitely recommended.
From Zahlé we headed to the southern city of Tyr via a free ride with some nice beer drinking fellows, followed by a bus ride. This city has some ancient roman ruinds and a nice public beach where we lounged away the day. In theory you could scuba dive in some of ruins and thermal vents, but the sea was too choppy when we were there. We stayed at a newly renovated hotel bar on the waterfront for about 26$/night.
After Tyr, we headed north to Sidon where we hired an amazing guide to visit the water castle and then strolled through the souks. Just in front of the water castle, we had, by far, the largest falafel wrap I have ever eaten – well worth the 1.25$. The soap museum is very much worth your time, but a few hours in Sidon is all you really need.
We then headed back to the big lights of Beirut, this time we stayed at a religious hostel called Le foyer de la Sagesse, a great find for 25$/night. We meandered the streets and visited the amazing archeology museum, definitely worth it. We completed our Lebanon trip with a bang: we started the night at the Abdel Wahab restaurant, definitely the best Lebanese food I have ever eaten, and then headed on over to the massive nightclub, Beiruf where we partied like Arab princes until our 6 AM flight, leaving the country with memories that will last a lifetime.
Lebanon is highly recommended, feel free to email me at jbrun@jonathanbrun.com with questions.
Published on June 25, 2011