The Teleferique cable cars ran until well after 1am on Friday. The reason was that Viviane Boulos Tolan and her husband, Michael, representatives of Platinum Resorts International, were giving a dinner party at the Teleferique Restaurant in Harissa for nearly 200 guests. Most of them were members of the international travel club run by the company.

What better than spare them the rigors of driving up the dark and winding Harissa road, and whisk them off from the coast of Maameltein by cable car instead. The Tolans saw no need to keep Cinderella’s curfew time.

Certainly, it helped that Viviane’s parents Fouad and Laure Boulos own the restaurant, whose terrace has only been recently renovated and reopened. In addition to the mezze, diners were offered the spectacular view of Jounieh Bay which sparkled with night-time lights.

With a new Bahraini Platinum office in the works, the Tolans invited a string of socialites from there as guests of honor. There was Sheika Sabita al-Khalifa, Sheikha Lateefa al-Khalifa and her daughters and Khadeeja Hajjar, the wife of Lebanon’s ambassador to Bahrain.

Also spotted were president of the Faqra Club, Raymond Daoud with his tell-tale tan, Amal Traboulsi of the Epreuve D’Artistes Gallery, and Platinum travel club members lawyer Beshara Abu-Saad, who visited Malta through the club and Ghada and Wajih al-Adem, who buzzed over to Thailand as part of the "Time-Share" plan, which entitles members to stay for free at hotels world-wide for a total of one week per year.

Viviane and Michael’s party also served as fifth year anniversary of their business in Lebanon. The couple had met in Cyprus when Viviane had fled during the war, which Michael described as the "only positive fruits of the war."

Daily Star AUG 29, 2000
Exotic mix of acts at Janna.
Janna Beit Mery was the place to be as guests flocked to enjoy a series of entertaining performances and participate in the weekly round-trip ticket draw, which is sponsored by Platinum Resorts International.
The evening kicked off with an exotic blend of live music and was followed with an energetic performance by African dancers.
As the guests were enjoying their meals on Thursday, the lights suddenly went off, and the dancers appeared. The African dance metamorphosed into a bellydance and then into a Brazilian dance.
Meanwhile the guests continued to fill raffle tickets in the hope of winning the grand prize, a round-trip ticket to Cyprus.
One of the cheering guests, Roger Zeidan said that after working a 10-hour day, going out at night was an indispensable need. "Going out after work makes me feel relaxed," he said. "If I stay at home I'll feel unhappy and spend my time on the phone".
His friend Roula Moussalem was not very optimistic about winning the raffle: "I don't think I'll win. Iim usually not lucky in these things."
Although Zeidan did not win the raffle, his friends surprised him with a belated birthday party and a cake.
After midnight, the raffle was drawn. Bassam Nakad, business development manger at Platinum, handed the prize to the lucky winner, Sandra Jbeily, who happened to be celebrating her birthday as well.