A Beautiful Chaos
There’s always something about Jakarta that I love to complain about. How insane the traffic is, how everyone seems to be powerless when it comes to managing time, how bureaucratic it can be when it comes to supposedly simple paperworks. Yet, it never loses its charm to fly me back every now and then from Dubai.
Beirut is no different.
As a newcomer in the Middle East a decade back, I’ve always wanted to go to Lebanon after hearing stories from friends and colleague, about how vibrant it is, especially Beirut with its glamorous nightlife. But it was only in 2014 when I had the chance to experience the city that was once called ‘the Paris of the Middle East’.
My first impression before I landed: top view from the plane showed brown coloured cubes of buildings in a city that doesn’t seem to have the luxury of greenery. The ride to the hotel gave me a better perspective of the streets which are filled with what seem like ‘self-driving cars’ without the sensors. In short, no hard-and-fast rules. And I didn’t feel encouraged to try the local taxis (old privately owned cars), which are allowed to take as many passengers they can fit on board (move aside uberPOOL!).
But the size of the metropolitan area in Beirut (67 km2 – to give a perspective, it is 1/10 the size of Jakarta) allows its pedestrians to navigate the entire city on foot, if you can ignore the pollution every now and then. That’s what I happily did to search the cafes and bars from my itinerary. And as I walked around the city with the locals, I started to understand why Beirut has gained its loyal followers from abroad.
In the narrow streets of Gemmayzeh and Achrafiyeh, you can find the beautiful old style Lebanese houses with their colourful doors. In Mar Mikhael, it is so easy to bump into cool hangout spots, each one is trying to outperform the other. The long list of restaurants in Beirut, whether it is Arabic, international, or farm-to-table, are known to have good ingredients, tasteful presentation and lively ambience. And greenery haven does exist in some parts of Beirut, with the park in the American University of Beirut tops the list as the favorite weekend jogging destination amongst students and residents alike.
Still, the hedonistic part of Beirut can’t conceal its not so joyful past. At many corners of the city, you will find buildings that still show the ‘gifts from the past’ – bullet holes from the civil wars which ended quite recently in 1990. Like my fellow Jakartans, people who live in Beirut seems to have the ability to move on with their lives, despite the on-&-off political conflicts and the absence of a president at some point.
The trip (and many more after) changed my view about the city. Less about the buzzing nightlife, more about its charming character of how contrast everything seems but they fit very well together, and more recently, the warm ‘you’re welcome at our house’ Lebanese hospitality. Enough charm to seduced me to start learning Arabic from the first trip itself, amongst other reasons.
So why the repeat visits? Yes, I crave my visits to Beirut because of its hidden gems, my love for organic zaatar and olives, the year-long good weather, and the sweetest smiles from people that I can call family. And perhaps the cliché fact that I can go to the sea, city center and the mountain, all in one day. But the true answer would be, ‘the Paris of the Middle East’ and its beautiful chaos make me feel like I’m coming home to a smaller version of my own hometown.
(Not-so-hidden) Facts about Beirut
| Beirut | Jakarta | |
| Area | 85 km2 | 661.5 km2 |
| Population | Below 1 M | Over 10 M |
| Colonized by | French | Dutch |
| Language | Arabic, French | Indonesian |
| National Airline | Middle East Airline | Garuda Indonesia |
About the writer:
Wulan has been a Dubai expatriate from more than 10 years working for one of the United Arab Emirate’s largest banks. She loves to travel, and avid gourmand, and still calls Jakarta home.
Twitter: twitter.com/woewland
IG: instagram.com/woewland
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