Dr. Myriam- The Dental Aesthetic Clinic

Category: Travel

10 days in Lebanon (day 2/2) en route to Jeita – just for fun

June 13, 2018

En route to the magical Jeita grotto 18 Km north of Lebanon, the road leading to the caverns is carved into the mountains and surrounded with trees. There lived a family enchanted by the cool swept of the air and the smell of nature.

The ALjeji family 🙂

A family of four

a daughter and a son

a happy servant

but one day,when the son was away, the wife and the daughter got mad and would like to leave the mountain, but the father refused.

I’ll shoot if you say no!

axe if she doesn’t succeed 🙂

but the father triumphed. the wife and daughter agreed to stay.

and they lived happily ever after 🙂

the end… just for fun, the story is not real. 🙂

Photography @ Jeita

Cheers,

Jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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June 25, 2018
10 days in Lebanon (day 2/1) Dog river to Jeita cave to Jounieh

June 13, 2018 – Dog River

Nahr al -Kalb (Dog River) runs 31 km from a spring coming from Jeita to the Mediterranean sea.

There are about 20 commemorative inscriptions (stelae) on the rocks at the mouth of the river. It sum up the history of Lebanon, from high antiquity to the present. It includes Egyptian inscriptions,Assyrian and Babylonians inscriptions,Classical antiquity inscription, Islamic inscription, Colonial and Lebanese inscriptions.

June 13,2018 – Jeita Cave

From Dog River , we headed forward to Jeita Cave. Camera and Cellphones were not permitted inside. This is the most amazing cave I ever seen. So clean, has an access tunnel and walkway for tourist to have safe passage without disturbing the natural landscape.There’s also cableway to transport tourist to the Jeita grotto and a small train on the ground to exit the area. The Cave is divided into two level, the upper level which has the walkway access of around 750 meters. The actual length of the cave is around 2, 130 meters. It has the longest stalactite in the world measuring 8.2 meters long. Gigantic! The Lower level can be access only by electric boat for a distance of 500 meters.

Unique Statue outside the Jeita grotto.

The Guardian of Time Statue

The Phoenician garden at Jeita.

June 13, 2018 – Jounieh

After the awesome trip to Jeita, we headed to Jounieh looking for the best shawerma 🙂 I was hungry and my friend kept on driving, I told him, this shawerma must be worth the trip, indeed it was! And not only the shawerma but the scenery along the shore was fantastic. Jounieh is a costal city about 16 km north of Beirut.

Cheers,

jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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June 24, 2018
10 days in Lebanon (day 1) Pigeon rock Beirut

June 12, 2018 – Day 1

My best friend of 28 years and her family left Jeddah for good so I took the Eid holiday with them in Lebanon. I arrived in the afternoon of June 12, 2018. There was no big fuss at the airport. It was like coming home to my own family. His sister, mom and brother were very accommodating. On landing Beirut,I noticed immediately the beautiful houses on the mountain, the narrow road with up and down hills and yet the cars were all double parked on the streets.You must be a very good driver to reach your home alive 🙂

After 15 year-long civil war,It’s amazing to see the houses that withstand the time, along the newer buildings. The house in front of my friends’ house was built 100 years ago. Wow! Bullet holed building near the newer modern building.I was not able to take photos of the downtown center.

The mosque and churches were also standing side by side. Veiled ladies along side women with crop top. This is just awesome multicultural differences in reality.

Our first destination is Raouché rock (pigeon rock) as tourist, you never been in Beirut if you don’t have the mandatory photo of the rock 🙂

This is a natural landmark which is also known as Sabah Nassar’s rock.

On June 8, 2014, Michael Haddad, paralyzed from chest down climbed the pigeon rock and planted the Lebanese flag on top, as a part “defying disability to the top” raising awareness on water pollution and marine life threats. If you like to read more about him, pls click here

It’s a beautiful sunset for the first day minus the mosquitoes bites that I got from going down to the place 🙂

cheers,

jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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June 23, 2018
Casa Santa at Jardin de Miramar

Would you like to see Santa on Summer time?

Me: I wish!

Well, there’s a place in Antipolo City, Philippines called CASA SANTA – a museum of 3,700 Santa’s collected around the world and it is open all year round. There’s a minimum of 5 persons to open the place and each has to pay 180 Php or if you are willing to pay 900 Php even your group is less than five, they will still open it for you. And if you opted just to hang around the place, its free! Garden de Miramar is a three hectare garden event venue.

I took advantage of the “mom’s day” no one was able to say no 🙂

hey santa ! the door is open 🙂

You can find the smallest to biggest Santa in this place, impressive! You can also see his bedroom, dining room and even his bathroom 🙂 Though I must say that the place is dusty and creepy, it should be more festive. Maybe on Christmas, it is a different scenario.(hope so! )

Ladies…ho..ho..ho..ho..seven months to go..

Location: 276 San Jose Ext. Bgy. San Isidro Antipolo City
Telephone No.: 584-3199

Cheers,

jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

May 21, 2018
Pinto Art Museum

Art and nature at Antipolo City!

We were lucky the weather was cool and breezy, so we were able to walk around the six galleries.It is about 1.3 hectares of green plants, white building galleries showcasing contemporaries arts, paintings and sculptures of Filipino artist

Every corner, is a nice place to take photos but don’t worry I will not post all the photos so as not to spoil your imagination. This is a lovely place to spend the afternoon.

There are two cafeterias to sit ,relax ,enjoy the food and the scenery. We just had our lunch so we just ordered cheesecake and halo-halo.

Ladies, there are a lot more to see in this museum. Come and see it !

Entrance fees: 200 Php per person

Cheers,

Jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

May 17, 2018
Etihad Business Class: a Review

aerial view of abu Dhabi

I had the opportunity to be in the business class of Etihad airways. (I know, I told myself not again!) I have no problem with the in flight service but this is my second time to fly that I was stranded for a day. It’s a hassle to be delayed even though they accommodate you to a five-star hotel like Al Raha Beach Hotel in Abu Dhabi. The bathroom of my hotel room is as big as my master bedroom in my house in the Philippines. Seriously yes!

entrance to the bathroom

the toilet room

bath tub

shower enclosure

The lobby was still decorated with a holiday theme at the time of my checked in.

It’s a festive moment but my mind was busy about my mom being hospitalized back home , I knew if it was a different time, I would say Thank you Etihad for bringing me to this place.

Al Raha beach hotel (my window view)

Here’s peek of how Etihad business class looks like 🙂

a mixed emotion indeed!

i had pre order of oriental vegetables meal

This is the Business Class lounge in Abu Dhabi Int. Airport, its complete with buffet, sleeping area, spa and you can even take a shower if you would like to refresh.

Would I take the same flight?

Etihad airways? hmmm maybe If I am not in a hurry and I don’t mind being stranded for a day, Yes!

Ladies, where is the next adventure?

Cheers,

Jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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February 6, 2018
Year end hike to AL Shifa

A lot of good and not so good things happened in year 2017,..live at the moment, enjoy day by day, count the blessings. See the little things around, appreciate the beauty of nature and embrace the changes. Easy to say yeah? But hey! 2017 is almost over and we’re still here, isn’t that wonderful?

Hence, the weather is cool, we decided to spend the weekend at Taif. It was breezy and cool. We ate our breakfast at our favorite sand dune, which by the way is getting smaller every year. 🙂 like ..its their economic crisis too?

Spending time with this wonderful people at the end of the year is priceless. Children are growing so fast …meaning we are growing old too, I think soon we will be as tiny as this sand dune 🙂

We will miss you my friend but it isn’t good-bye for us, soon we will see each other and reminisce the happy good old days, that is.. if no one got affected by this dreadful condition called Alzheimer.

One day, we will look at our crazy photos with so much giggles and laughter.

It will be like a hole in the sand, gazing with awe that once upon a time we were here and suddenly year 2017 is gone, let’s look forward to year 2018 with more enthusiasm, hope, inspiring and of course more beauty 🙂

HaPpY NeW YeaR!

Cheers,

jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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December 30, 2017
early to rise, early to hike

One friday morning’, the only friday off I have 😦 after working for five consecutive days, here I am waking up early at 4:30 in the morning, so I can meet my friends and hike in a mountain full of dust 🙂 and not to mention hills full of rocks and sands.

but don’t get me wrong, I always looked forward to the weekend activities with friends, full of laughters and of course, our tummy is full of food as well 🙂

So, here are some photos we took in between hiking up and down the hills.

biker and hiker in tandem

missing home?

long walk to shopping mall 🙂

bikes on top

sunrise

happy

Cheers,

Jamilamimi @beautybeyondfifty

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December 10, 2017
Mountain Bikers of Jeddah

Friday Sept 22, 2017 – Jeddah KSA

I woke up at 5 in the morning to watch the race of mountain bikers in Jeddah. This is my first time to be in this place. I was determined to take photos of bikers, I thought for a while it is all Filipino cyclist but there are also different nationalities who gather around cheering their compatriot. Indeed! It was cheerful morning, all the photos of bikers I took were mostly smiling 🙂

see how cheerful they are!

I took random photos of the riders, spectators and I think the satisfactions are all written in their faces! It’s amazing to note that even though they were so exhausted they still managed to smile.

and of course! my friend would also like to try cycling with her ever supportive hubby 🙂

Cheers!

Jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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September 22, 2017
Four days Road Trip – in search of Mt. Sinai – the finale- Maqna (Well of Moses)

Day 4 -Monday Sept. 4,2017

From Jeddah to AL Ula (Madain Saleh) to Tabuk, a long four days road trip, 3 hotels, adobo, al baik, lamb mandi to pizza and ice cream, that was awesome!

Maqna or Magna is located in Tabuk province. It was known that “Bir Al Saidni” is the well from which Moses rolled away the stone to draw water for the flocks of Jewish settlers.

Fast forward, before we reached the area, we passed a small area of water along the way.And I was thinking how difficult it was for Moses and the Israelites coming from Egypt, passing through the Gulf of Aqaba to Mt. Sinai, a vast desert, hills of rocks and suddenly the rock was split open to provide water. Wow! I am fascinated by the history of the place.

The sight to the coastal area was like a “gasp on the air”.

an almost half circle, a place to pray?

Imagine you are lost in a desert and found this well, I think you will be shouting and jumping of joy!

Thank you to Gabriel Fam, Alji fam and Pino fam for this trip. I had a wonderful Eid holiday 🙂

and to the boys who drove us for four days just to see those wonderful places.

Thank you !

Cheers,

Jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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September 8, 2017