[Music]
Good afternoon, guys from our next vlog here in Lebanon, and I’m here with my boys. We got Luke back here, we got Fuad.
Hey, what's up? And in today's video guys, we're heading up to Ehden. We just took
about a one-hour car ride from Jounieh up to Ehden up here in the mountains in the
northern side of Lebanon, and we're gonna be exploring this place for the
weekend. It's Friday here, so we hear the nightlife is good. We hear the scenery
during the day is good. They've got great manoushes Fuad's telling me, and so we
have a bunch of things. We're gonna get ourselves into, and I’m actually
going to decide on a lot of the things we’re doing, by- through Instagram because
we really don't know outside of those things that I just told you, what to do
here. So, we're gonna get into a whole bunch of stuff so make sure you stick
around to the end of this video because we're gonna have a bunch of
adventures up here in Ehden. And so number one thing we're gonna stop get some food,
and figure out where we're gonna stay tonight because we just showed up here
without accommodation. So, like every place we've been to throughout Lebanon,
if you've seen in my other videos, Fuad knows someone everywhere. And so, of
course like within five minutes of pulling into Ehden, he's like oh there's my friend.
How’s it going? Mac. Hi, nice to meet you, Noor.
Nice to meet you. Yeah so, Fuad every time we go somewhere, he always recognizes
someone like within seconds of arriving to the city, and he was saying on our way
up here, he was like- he's like oh I know this girl, she's a journalist up here, and
then within five minutes of pulling in he sees you.
So, are you from Ehden? Yes Yeah, nice.
We’ll get a little tour of this place. What’s your dog's name?
Casper, Kifak [How are you?]
You wanna lick it too, bro? Alright so, we're here in right now
like we're- it's a good place downtown to go get a bite to eat.
Oh yeah, we're so- we're right downtown this is the heart of Ehden. Yeah, yeah okay.
So, this is where the magic happens, all the excitement. Yeah
And you think there's gonna be a good sunset tonight, even though it's super
cloudy? Clouds will go down so the sunset will be on the clouds. Oh, alright. Alright so, it's like this every
day then when it's a little cloudy now, and then it gets- Wait for this weather. Oh
wow. That's perfect. We're gonna see a beautiful- beautiful spot tonight,
and like is it like a restaurant that you think we should go to or like or
is it like a spot a sunset spot? Sunset spot, yes. Okay perfect. Perfect. Just
wanna make sure we don't have to make reservations because if you guys have
been watching the other videos, we always need reservations at these
places. And we decide where we're going last minute, so 50 percent of the time we
never get to the place we want to go to.
Alright so, Noor’s leaving us down, and we're
gonna see if we can make our way through here. So, we'll see you at sunset.
Alright, nice to meet you. Alright, where do we go now, bro? What's
on the agenda? Shisha time? Alright yeah. Oh, yeah.
It didn't take long for us to get back to the shisha grind.
I took a 48 hour withdrawal. Yeah, that was 24 hours bro.
No, no it was 48. Oh yeah, actually it was 48 yeah, yeah he's counting. He's been
counting every minute. Alright so, here it looks like there's
so many options to eat here. Oh, we got hookah bars there.
Seems like all of them, everywhere.
Yeah, this place has such a cool vibe to it. I’m digging ahead, and already now I see
now I see the hype why everyone's like you gotta go, you gotta go.
In winter, like would be snowing here. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah and full of restaurants.
There’s a skate resort? Yeah. I mean like the ski slopes--
I mean like it's kind of like 20 minutes to drive away yeah so, it's kind of
convenient, like take a ski resort up in the mountains.
Yeah, yeah and then you come and come to Ehden, and hang out for a nice cup of hot
cocoa.
You should see like the baked potatoes, and the chimney,
the cheese the- Chimney. Is the chimney code word for my
lungs of shisha? No
Oh, oh, bro they've got tawuk. Oh geez, it's game over. It's game over.
We’ve probably had what you think like 15 tawuks in the last like seven weeks.
I- I think 15 tawuks in the first five days.
Yeah, exactly. So we just did a little lap around this place, and it seems like
this is where we're gonna stop for a quick shisha. Yeah shisha looks good by the way.
Yeah, super good here. We’ve got we've got Luke attempting
to order here.
There we go
He’s like fluent now bro. How do you feel? Look at that excitement.
Yeah, yeah there we go. So, we've gotten a whole bunch of recommendations via
Instagram on things to do, and like it's a massive amount here. So,
it seems like there are lots of restaurants we’re being
recommended, a bunch of areas in nature like; the Ehden Reserve, I’m seeing here
pop up a few times. Oh this person-- No, no,
we’re staying here buddy. Oh yeah, there's my there's my Nargile (Shisha in Lebanese).
That’s gonna be good, we got fresh coals right on there. Yep,
Shisha a day keeps the doctor away. The quote of the day.
Words of wisdom from Luke. So, we're putting these tips in here now,
was this like only put in place because of corona or was
this always like that? It's always like this. It’s always like this, okay. Let's give it a shot.
They are called Nipples. No way, this is called-
Shihsha’s stronger, it's good. That’s one thing, I never really had much
shisha before I came to Lebanon but it's just it's so enjoyable to just pop one,
sit down, hang out with friends. Yeah, it's been a routine for us, I’ll tell you that.
Oh yeah, the food has been delivered. We’ve got some fresh hummus, some carrots,
and some fries. We’re definitely
sticking to no burgers after that experience
but this is gonna be good. Nothing like a little fresh hummus. I’ve turned
pretty Lebanese I know what we do with this, this is the oil right here. Right,
Fuad? Alright, so olive oil. Yeah, you put a
little right in the center there, so you got some dipping sauce there.
So, oh yeah, there we go. You see that, it's Lebanese right there. Yeah, oh yeah. That's-
that's enough right there, get her all loaded up.
Now, let's do take two on that hummus test here.
Scoop right down in there that olive oil you know. In Lebanon, it's an art
to make your food exactly how you want it, soak in there.
Oh yeah. Let’s try this one out. I like mine with
just a slight burn on the cheese there that gives it a bit of a crunch.
I could literally eat just cheesy garlic bread for like every meal for the rest
of my life. Anything with cheese that's like somewhat even similar to pizza or manoushe
anything like that is my favorite. Alright so, for the bill here we got
215000 for us to have water three shishas or Nargile [Shisha in Lebanese],
fries, hummus, and garlic bread. So, it comes out to
about actually about twelve dollars now with today's exchange rate of about, what
is it sixteen thousand or did it go down to fifteen? It went to fifteen like
fifteen nine hundred fifteen six hundred, it’s variable right now. Alright, because
the government is formed, so- so actually how it happens
for you viewers to know how the dollars go
for the rate between the Lebanese pounds and the dollars. So, the more good news
about Lebanon, the more dollars go down. Like it was
like yesterday, it was like 19k so today it's like 15k because the government was
formed. Right, right. So that’s- that's good for the economy here. So, it doesn't
necessarily get more expensive for us unless we recently exchanged our dollars
for lira at a higher rate but if we're exchanging our dollars then at the lower
rate and prices reflect that then it's essentially the same amount
to some extent. Everything is proportional, the prices to the
currency rate, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah exactly.
So today, that's about fifteen dollars. So, a nice little snack to hold us off that
changed the appetite a bit but we looked up some Airbnbs in the area, and
either they're all booked right now or there's just not that many options. It
seems like they're just driving in, there's a lot of hotels in this area. So,
we're gonna check with Fuad's good friend, Noor. Noor Yameen.
And see if she can help us find a guesthouse in the area otherwise like
the closest Airbnbs I’ve found for a reasonable price, were over in Bsharri
which is what like a 20 minute drive from here? Maybe 30. Maybe 30 yeah. So a
bit far, I guess yeah. So, this is Noor shop right here.
Oh, Middle Eastern crosswalk right there.
Kefik? [How are you?]
Everything’s good?
It was good. It was nice. So we have a question for you because we can't find
an Airbnb to stay at. So, do you like know any guest houses to rent around here?
Let me ask. Merci, Merci. So, Noor told us
unfortunately, all the guest houses are booked. It's like the- the busy time of
the year still, for like a couple more weeks.
Okay, so you gotta book in advance. You can't do same day like us. So, we're
gonna try out looking for a couple hotels. It sounds like Luke might have
found a spot too here as a second backup option.
She told us about hotel like at the end of the street. It's kind of close to
here. So yeah, basically she was showing us some
places that are like right downtown here. So, we can check out some of the stuff
going on this evening.
We'll let you know once we find something. Alright.
Oh it looks like a- looks like a good place.
Three beds? Three beds, yeah.
Yeah, what's the price?
A million a night. Extra bed a million one hundred.
With breakfast. Oh sweet, that's a bargain. Yeah
Yallah, yallah. Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay.
Alright. Actually can we see the- can we the room? For one night? Oh, we'll go
with it, for one night there. Yeah, yeah and maybe we extend tomorrow. Can we
check the room first? Yes, of course.
324.
Alright, Sweet.
Got a balcony out here too. Oh, sweet.
I think this gets- gets the job done. How does this thing come open?
Automatic, alright.
Oh there we go, some nice views of Ehden. Sweet.
We got a deal. Boom we got another bet in here. So, we got the place for like
I said 1.1 million lira, I didn't tell you how much that is in USD today. It's
roughly like 60 US dollars so, for three people to stay here that's actually
pretty good because like in other places in like Jounieh and Byblos, we were
paying like 80 dollars per night. So, to have this place for three people to stay at is
quite good especially up here in Ehden last minute, just a couple hours before
it hits Friday night. So, we got very- very lucky.
But yeah guys, we're gonna- we're gonna chill here for a bit hang out, and
catch you guys for sunset in just a little bit.
Alright, we had to switch over to something a little bit warmer after a
quick nap up in the hotel room because it's actually quite cold here in Ehden
especially in the mid-September time which is when we're here exploring the
place. It's already jacket and pants weather so I bet at night it gets even
colder. Winter is coming. Winter is coming but now we're
gonna head on over to the sunset spot guys. Luckily, it just cleared up quite a
bit. We were sitting in the hotel room, and it was like super cloudy. The clouds
were like almost in the hotel room, it was crazy. So, we were like oh this is
gonna be a crappy sunset but I think we're in luck now so we shall see.
So guys we have just left the hotel, it's about 6:30 p.m. and if you look outside
it almost looks like a different Ehden than what we showed you guys before. So,
guys we are chasing the sunset right now. We were on some Lebanese time here
kind of like if you saw the Bsharri videos, Fuad and I were chasing down the
sunsets here. These mountains always take a bit longer than expected to climb,
so we had to toss the old FJ into four-wheel drive, and now we're heading
up into the mountains. That's it we're- we're way up in the mountains.
Noor took us straight up off-roading. So, how do we get down there?
Is it through here? Alright so, they've got this place on
lockdown full barbed wire. And what is this like an orchard, an
apple orchard up there? Are those apple trees? Oh, okay.
Yeah, look at this place right up in the clouds. Oh, there's like a restaurant and
Everything. This is incredible.
Alright guys, so we were walking up to the edge here. We made it just in time,
and if you look, we can see all of Ehden just completely covered in the clouds
which is something I have never seen like this.
Wow, I am like speechless, and it was about
I’d say like a 15 minute drive coming up from Ehden all the way up here the
mountains. So, if you are coming up make sure you have a 4x4 like you guys saw,
and right over here you got some options to get some beverages. Looks like
people are sipping on some brews, having a good time.
But, I think if you guys are thinking about coming up here, come up like an
hour and a half before we did that we can see the full sunset.
As well as hopefully, you'll get as lucky as we did
with the clouds just kind of filling in all the gaps of the valley between the
mountains.
[Music]
Alright guys, so you saw it we got the last glimpse of the sun up but it was
amazing to see from the drone. The clouds just sitting over the city, and we got
lucky enough to meet our man here who owns Minus 12. What was your name? Joe. Joe,
Joe the man. my name is Mac. Nice to meet you, bro. Nice to meet you too. You're
welcome. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, he's got an amazing place as you can see
behind me. There's some decks where there's some areas you can hang out
looking at the sunset. As you can see people are chilling here, and get some
drinks. You guys also serve food or just drinks up here? No, it's snacks. It's
all snacks. We have Ka'ak. Okay yeah, I’ve heard of it. Yeah, sweet,
sweet. And are you guys open like year round or just? No, no only in the summer.
Just Spring and Summer. The weather.
We got a couple more weeks here, yeah. Yeah perfect.
Hopefully. Yeah sweet. Well, I think it's- that means
it's time for us to go get a couple drinks.
Yallah bro, let’s do it. Oh the bar man, yea.
You can cook us up some good what you got your gin and basils.
Oh yeah, yeah that sounds perfect. I’ll take one of those please. Yeah cheese. Ah
that's it nice, nice. With chocolate. Yeah you replaced both of
them. Oh perfect, that sounds great, that sounds great, let's do it.
Alright, as you guys can see we got some good seating options over here too.
I like that collection, did you make that one? Yeah, I made it all by myself. How
long did that take you? A month. A month. Yeah and did you drink
all of it too? Most of them, not all.
Yeah. Alright, that's a good answer, yeah. That’s good. That's good. The- the main
idea is here is upcycling. We reuse everything so the bottles instead of
throwing them. Yeah. You can use them again for decorations. That's amazing. And
the recycling and putting back to use. These are shutters right here, yeah. Yeah
you got- Oh yeah, yes.
We made them benches and tables. Is that like out of a pallet those are out of
pallets? Yeah there's our pellets yeah, that's our ashtrays.
There we go I love it, so fully sustainable up here, everything's reused.
Yeah. This is sweet, you guys got to come check this place out.
Yeah sweet. Alright, let's see what the other squad's up to, and get some
drinks going yeah. You guys know what you're sitting on,
right? Everything's recycled, these are pallets, those are old window blinds.
That’s impressive. Ashtrays are used beer cans.
And, Joe’s drank almost all those bottles.
Alright, he hooked us up with the drinks. We got a little gin and basil
going here cheers, Kesak [Cheers]. Kesak, cheers, cheers. I don't think
I’ve ever told you guys but like I’ve never heard of a gin and basil prior to
coming to Lebanon, and like it's what they serve at every single club and bar
that I’ve been to here. They even have like pre-made mixes of it because it's
so popular. And I left for a week when I went to
Greece and Mallorca, and I was like totally on my gin and basil grind, and
none of those places had it. So, more places in the world need to start having
gin and basil because it's so delicious. So, this is the traditional
Ka’ak that's how it's pronounced I was told.
It’s like thyme's cousin,
similar to Za’atar yeah? Yeah, yeah. So,this is the traditional one? Yeah
I like it they're all very good. Merci Habibi That is delicious, the perfect snack to
enjoy while looking into the night sky, we can
see stars, the moon. And Ehden's super lit up here. Actually,
Noor was telling us that up here in Ehden, it's a private fuel provider
that provides electricity. So, you have it 24/7, yeah? Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing so
this is the first city I think I’ve been in Lebanon out of probably 12 cities
where there's 24/7 power. So now, I understand why everyone's been
recommending me to come to Ehden for so long. It's a good place.
Alright, guys and that's where we're gonna go ahead and end it. Tonight, it was
amazing staying here into the evening up here in the mountains. You can see the
stars lit up so bright in the sky, the moon in the distance, an amazing place.
But we're gonna have a couple more vlogs coming out here in Ehden, exploring
all around this area as well as where's the airplane place?
It's in Miziara. Miziara. So, we're gonna check out that place in the next
couple days here. Try the northern accent Mizioro. Mizioro.
So, make sure you guys hit that subscribe button, so you don't miss out on that
video or any other videos coming up all around the world. And hit that like
button if you've enjoyed it, and we'll see you guys in the next video.
[Music]