Thanks for the comments guys. Keep them coming.
It's interesting what puckluck said about it being safe to pick up hitch-hikers in Lebanon. While in Jordan we were stopped by the police and asked by the police to take a hitch-hiker to the next town. I kind of got uncomfortable with it, but since my cousin was driving, we didn't have much of a choice. After we dropped the guy off, my cousin told me that this is a normal occurance in Jordan, and nobody gets shot or stabbed or anything by hitch-hikers there like they do in Canada or the US. What's interesting is most people in the Arab world have this idea that if you leave your house at night in North America, you will get mugged, beat up, murdered or raped. While it is ignorant to think that, it does happen here more than there. I think it is just as ignorant to think that the Middle East is a chaotic place where people will murder tourists simply for being "infidels". It is just a mis-perception because of what our media here covers (just as the media coverage over there over-emphasizes crime in North America). I am not trying to pretend that these places are friendly and peaceful utopias without problems, because that is far from the truth. However, people in downtown Beirut, Amman and other places all leave their cars unlocked when they walk into the store or go into a cafe. That says a lot about the safety of the place.
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