no reservations: beirut

i LOVE anthony bourdain. he's like a sophisticated bad boy of food and travel. i recorded his show on monday night and just got around to watching it. he was filming No Reservations: Beirut and the first day of filming the Isreali's were kidnapped and killed. The travel channel thought they'd stop filming the show and needed to get them out of there. but the next day the airport was bombed and anthony bourdain and his crew were stuck there. they turned the show into something else entirely different than their normal format.

it was so interesting to watch this show. the first fifteen minutes or so you got to see how life really was in beirut. there are so many people from different religions and cultures there. one guy took him to a traditional beirut restaurant and the food and spirit of the place looked great. it was definately different than what i pictured. that first night he went to a nightclub, skybar, and all the rich kids out at the club were hanging out even though isreali planes were flying overhead. the next morning things and changed and everyone in beirut realized how bad things were going to be.

anthony and his crew were taken to a different hotel close to the embassy and in a safer place. then they just spent the next week hanging out at the pool with everyone else and watching the war from the balcony. it was so surreal. one by one the countries evacuated people and no work came about america. he said at the time, when all they wanted was direction, the news kept playing the only clip by george bush - him eating a roll while tony blair was trying to get his attention. the one where bush's microphone was accidently left on. and that was it. he explained how disheartened they were as americans.

at one point he went down to the kitchen of the hotel and worked with the staff there to prepare a meal for his camera crew. for him it helped to get his mind off of things. they filmed their evacuation process and how chaotic it was to get on one of the american boats. once they were on the boats the marines were great to everyone there. not only americans were on the boat. many people were evacuees who had just lost everything.

this was  a really great show. you got a glimpse of daily life of beirut before all this happened. and you also got to see the step by step process of how it effected beiruts visitors at the time.