Byblos parties like it's 2004

Byblos

The techno beat echoes along the beach, thumps past the pools and reaches a crescendo in the bars. Hundreds of guests dressed in skimpy bikinis or swimming trunks dance on waterfalls that emit clouds of smoke and on tables in the bar, opening bottle after bottle of pink and white Moët et Chandon, first shaking them and then spraying the champagne into the crowd.

This is Eddé Sands, Lebanon’s premier beach resort next to the ancient port of Byblos, on a good day. And according to owner Roger Eddé, the good days are here again, for now.

“This is the first weekend that we are full again,” shouts a jovial, grey-bearded Mr Eddé who is in his late sixties over the din of the music in his resort’s VIP pool area. It is mid-July and finally the tensions in Lebanon are easing, with a new president and government in place and the Hibzollah movement basking in the glow of its prisoner exchange with Israel.

Eddé Sands, which opened its doors in 2003, has had a rough ride, mirroring the turmoil that the country has been going through since 2005, the year former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated and Syria withdrew from the country. In 2006, the summer was spoiled by the war with Israel.

“One day we had 5000 people here, the next day it was empty,” Mr Eddé recalls. In 2007 the fighting in the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr el-Bared and the assassination of anti-Syrian politicians kept many people away and this year was off to a slow start with the internal fighting in May. Even now, half an hour’s drive up the coast, people are dying in clashes in Tripoli.

But Eddé Sands is the other Lebanon, the Lebanon of parties, good food and easy living that many want the country to be known for, rather than for the violence that rocks it so frequently.

“The idea is to beat Hizbollah and the other extremists with the good life,” says Mr Eddé. He acknowledges that the hedonistic antics in his resort and others provoke the ire of the more conservative elements in the country. Threats of violence against the resort are a fact of life and about one third of his staff is employed in security.

Luxury yachts are moored off the coast, Russian models show lingerie on a catwalk by the bar and billionaires lounge around the pool. One of them, Salah from Kuwait who asks for his last name to be kept out of the paper, says that he comes almost every weekend from Beirut, where he works.

“The atmosphere here is so much more natural than in Dubai, where it all feels artificial.” he says.

Entrance to Eddé sands is some $12.- but beach beds near the bar area can cost as much as $200/day. It is not the only luxury resort in the country. Beirut’s Time Out summer edition lists several dozen high end places with names such as ô Cap, “with a Jacuzzi, pool bar and waterfall, you are sure to have a relaxing time,” and La Voile Bleu, “four star VIP treatment if you can pay for it.”

But Eddé Sands is one of the most ambitious projects. Its owner envisages it as the core of a convention and tourism centre that will have 1200 rooms eventually, “if the political circumstances allow it.”

For now Mr Eddé is just hoping that the peace will last the season, “at least until November, when Iran is going to be attacked.”