Ministry of Tourism & Tickets

My son was in town with his girlfriend this summer, and as she is a ‘newby’ to Lebanon, we had to do the touristic circuit. It doesn’t bother me, I love getting on the road, and Baalbeck never fails to impress me. I did notice something funny though.

Our first stop was at the temple of Niha. Niha is probably my favorite, because every time I get there, I am the only one. It’s like you have a private temple, all to yourself. And there are another two in that neighborhood, further into the mountains, in rather poor state, that are not even guarded.

 The man at the entrance let us in.

“It’s for free,” he said.

What? Is it a free day today? I asked.

“No, we do not have tickets anymore.”

He had run out of tickets. I kid you not.

And although I admire his honesty, how hard is it for a Ministry of Tourism to get the guy some ticket booklets?

Very hard, it seems.

Because the next stop was Baalbeck. This temple, which would attract thousands and thousands of visitors a day if it were in a more popular setting, such as Europe, asks and entrance fee of only 10,000 LBP (5,50 euros) for a Lebanese and 15,000 LBP (about 8 euros) for foreigners.

But instead of 3, we got 7 tickets. 

The confusion was cleared up when the man explained, 

“15,000 is 3 x 5,000, and 10,000 is 2 x 5,000. You see, the tickets of 10,000 and 15,000 are finished. I only have the 5,000 left.”

Why you would have booklets of 5000 when the going rate is 10,000 and 15,000 is another story. Besides, can’t they get a simple machine that prints them on the spot? Is there are a reason why the admission process needs to be as archaic as the temple itself?

And when we got to Anjar, world’s first shopping mall.  There they had run out of tickets of 6,000 LBP, and so we got 2 of 3,000 LBP. Seriously now. 

It seems that while the world is going forward, we’re not even standing still. We’re moving backwards rapidly.

There was a time when I had high hopes for this country.