[Must See TV] Bourdain in Beirut on the Travel Channel

Anthony Bourdain is this chef I used to watch on Food Network who would travel around and sample the local food of different cities and countries. He not only ate the popular stuff, he'd go and eat the authentic stuff that only locals would eat. Anyways, I know he has a show on the Travel channel which I don't usually watch but I heard about this and it's on now and will be on later again at 12:00.

He was in Beirut before the bombing started filming and episode of his show right before the war started. It's totally surreal watching him hanging out at Beruit's Sky Bar, drinking and partying with young people in Beirut the night before the airport was bombed. The people there, at least the younger ones, all speak at least 3 languages with English being one and they either have american or british accents. Anyways, they had the attitude that they were going to party through the bombs because they don't know if they'll see another day and they weren't going to let war planes buzzing the bar keep them from having a good time.

The first half seemed to be Beirut before and during the build up to the war and the 2nd half is what it was like to be stuck in a hotel waiting to be evacuated. One of the saddest parts was about the local driver they had, a guy from the southern part of Beirut. He had told them he would stick with them through the whole thing, but then he started getting calls on his cellphone and he ended up leaving and you find out his house was bombed.

Anyways, for an interesting look at a country that most of us only see in the background while reporters stand on hotel balconies, I seriously reccommend checking this out on the travel channel tonight at 12 before you go to bed.