Kevin07 is a reality - The Australian Federal Election
This was only the second election that I have been eligible to vote in, and sadly the first election I have been overseas during the course of. As there was no ballot box in Bahrain and sending a postal vote appeared to be too complicated, my vote was not cast. However, waking up today and viewing the headlines on
The Age was exhilirating.
"Rudd Romps to Victory: Howard humiliated as Liberals are mauled""Historic win for Labor""Howard likely to lose in Bennelong""A Rumble, then a Ruddslide""Payback time as battlers take their revenge""Team Julia delivers a win for history"Yes indeed, even though voting is not yet complete, it does appear that the Australian Labor Party is going to form government, with a 25 seat majority, with Mr. Kevin Rudd at its helm as Prime Minister.
I have to say bravo to the ALP campaign team for running a very tight and clever campaign, that managed to sidestep all of the Liberals' usual fear-mongering and dirty tricks, and bravo to the voters of Australia for making the right decision. Although I am not proud to say that I live in an electoral area that, due to the economic prosperity of its residents, is remaining a safe Liberal seat, I am still proud to be part of a country where I no longer have to be embarassed of our leader. Now I am just waiting to see what Mr. Rudd is going to do with the confidence I, and many fellow Australians, have in him, let's hope we are not disappointed.
Mr. Rudd campaigned largely on an agenda of reform in key areas of health, education, environment and industrial relations. He intends to rollback the very unpopular Work Choices policies of the previous Government (which contributed to its downfall), push for an immediate ratification of the Kyoto agreement (finally!) and negotiate a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq (finally an end to our part in the occupation). Good signs indeed.
The undoings of Mr. Howard were very clear and simple. The massive majority that was formed in the wake of the 2004 election gave the Government unprecendent power, power that eventually went to its head. The papers called it a "victory of humility over hubris" and I couldn't agree more. One thing that Aussies hate is arrogance and hubris. Work Choices was never popular with the people, no matter how much the Government sold it, and the people were not fooled. Similarly, Howard's close ties to Mr. George W. Bush were not appreciated by the electorate, nor was his ridiculous promise to keep interest rates low, something entirely out of his control. Six interest rate rises later, he can kiss office goodbye.
Not only that, but Mr. Howard is actually going to lose his seat in Bennelong, a seat which he has won in every single election since being elected to it as a Member of Parliament in 1974. He is losing to a political rookie and former news anchor, Maxine McKew. Such is the dissatisfaction around the country with him, his policies and his personality. This only the second time in history that the PM has lost his seat during an election, the last time being in 1929, also over an unpopular right-wing industrial relations agenda.
So now that Mr. Howard has been duly humiliated for having the arrogance to push for such a ridiculous agenda, for having the arrogance not to step down and hand over to Costello when it was clear to everyone, even his own party, that he was getting too old and too arrogant, for having the arrogance to try to hoodwink the Australian people so many times, with his promises on interest rates, with his lies about the Tampa incident, with his lies about WMDs in Iraq and with his generally abrasive, evasive and grating demeanor, he is getting his just desserts. Instead of going out a winner, he is well and truly going out a loser.
And as much as I dislike Costello and believe his economic rationalist policies may even be worse for Australia, I can't help but feel sorry for the man who must have believed at one time that he would easily become Prime Minister. Now Costello has to fight for the leadership of an unpopular party, and battle a worthy opponent in Malcom Turnbull, who was the only Liberal to buck the swinging trend and hold his seat strongly. Good Luck, Pete!
Myself personally, I am just happy that I no longer have to look at Howard on television any more and cringe at how dull, ugly, uninspiring, arrogant and evasive he is. God Bless Australia.
Labels: politics, world happenings
Muharraq
Sitting in my car waiting for shawarma and labneh. Muharraq, another bastion of conseratism in 'liberal' Bahrain. See the cars go past. How many men driving with naqabi (totally covered except for the eyes) wives in the back? Their oblivion to everything but their family, their household. An upright Arab in a suit and a droptop BMW roadster. Indians in old cars. Uniformed expatriates, police? Protecting what? Car horns go off. A dumpster with arabic graffiti, and a love heart.
Yes, there is love here, somewhere. A kid in an AC Milan soccer jersey, Kaka's name emblazoned on the back, coke bottle glasses, ferries garbage to the dumpster. Oasis sings "Dont look back in anger, I heard you say". Veiled women in expensive cars, traffic does a carefully choreographed dance through the narrow street. An Indian man rides past on his bike, balancing juice cups on his handle bars. I wonder how many hours he works a day to support his family that is so far away? I wonder when is the last time he saw them?
Too late for wondering. The food is here.
Labels: bahrain, people, voyeur
Jordan Post 4 - Aqaba العقبة and Wadi Rum وادي رم
During my last weekend in Jordan, Saba, Momo, Oks and I went on a road trip to the south. Unfortunately, I didn't take many photos during this time but it was a really cool trip so I thought I'd put up my thoughts on the places we visited and the time we had.
First stop was Aqaba, we drove there at night and arrived at something like 3am. Aqaba is a port and resort city in the southern most part of Jordan, on the Saudi border. It allows Jordan strategic access to the Gulf of Aqaba and the many trade and tourism opportunities that come with it. The place is pretty much full of Egyptians (thanks to its proximity to the Sinai) and also has quite a lot of holiday makers from Saudi, other parts of Jordan and other parts of the Middle East.
After we arrived we headed straight for Burger King to use their bathroom facilities, despite the fact that they were actually closed, they were friendly enough to let us in and use their facilities. Unlike the neighbouring "Chicken and Buscuits" restaurant which obviously employed a group of assholes who refused to let us in, what the hell kind of a combination is "Chicken and Biscuits" anyway. Well we got them back by sitting around looking menacing in their outdoor seating area afterwards.
After that we went to downtown Aqaba and enjoyed some much needed nourishment in the form of fuul and ta'miyah. We headed for the beach straight after, even though it was still dark and around 4-5am, and the plan was to either chill all night and not sleep or sleep on the beach (either on matrasses or in the car). This plan was foiled by the fact that we were all very tried, grumpy and the sun brought out the heat and the flies. After an unsuccessful attempt at sleepin gon my part (it was more successful for Saba who managed not only to sleep but also to sleeptalk amusing inanities), we resolved to actually check in to a hotel room to get a few hours of proper sleep. The above picture is actually a view from said hotel room. Momo negotiated the price and the hotel guy seemed a little peeved that it actually ended up being for a group of foreigners who he had to charge local rates, ha.
After the badly needed sleep intermission, followed by a frustrating disagreement with the hotel shower (a key reason for our decision to check in there in the first palce) which was only trickling water, we went to Momo's family's house for "lunch". Lunch was as fantastic, as I have now come to expect from Arabic home cooking, and major props go to Momo's mum and dad who were really very cool.
Following this we headed back to the beach, had a bit of a splash around, I made an unsuccessful attempt at snorkeling which I had never done before, and couldnt really do because water kept seeping into my face gear (damn).
After all this we headed for Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a valley cut into the desert, sandstone and granite rock in the southwest of Jordan. It is a popular tourist destination and many camps have sprung up on the outskirts of the valley, along with Bedouins who ferry tourists directly into the middle of it to allow for cool experiences camping out in the desert. This latter experience is what we were in fact going for.
Unfortunately, this plan was foiled by our late departure from Aqaba and an absolutely horrific bus accident that waylayed us along the highway for a good half hour or more. This accident, I have never seen something like it. There were people covered in blood, screaming and crying, there were dead bodies lying on the road. We arrived probably around 5 minute after the accident actually occurred so the ambulances had not gotten there yet. Momo and I spent some time going around passing people water and trying to be useful, although there wasn't much that we could really do. After the ambulances arrived, we helped some people inside and the dead bodies were covered in body bags and taken away. After it was obvious that the emergency services more or less had control of the situation, given that we were pretty much more in the way than helping, and the fact that the remnants of the bus could explode at any time, we decided to try to go around the accident via a dirt road and head for Wadi Rum.
I think one thing I learned from the experience is the ever-present realisation that human life is so unbelievably fragile. To think that people can be on a bus heading to see loved ones, for business, for a holiday, one minute and then be dead the next, lying on the road amidst twisted metal and body parts. It really makes you think about how much a human life is worth in this world, and why people don't take more precautons that could really save so many lives.
We did this successfully but we were too late to catch the Bedouins going out into the desert, and ended up having to settle for one of the aforementioned camps. After viewing a few camps and arguing a little bit about which camp to settle for, we decided to settle on one.
The Egyptian-run camp was quite nice actually, despite the heavy presence of European tourists, and the Egyptian guys there were nice enough to fix us a meal (the obligatory fuul, ta'miyah and labneh) and some shisha despite the fact that we were certainly late for both.
It was completely dark by then, as they had switched off all the lights and most of the inhabitants went to sleep, so it was nice to just be alone with the food, shisha and starry starry sky. The next morning, we hung out at the camp for a bit, had breakfast and headed back to Amman in time to drop the rental car off at the appropriate time.
Big thanks go out to my travelling companions who had to bear with me during a time when my mood was not the best. All in all, it was certainly an eventful and fun trip.
The most interesting parts were:
- The many stops for bleary-eyed roadside coffee and amusing desert urination
- The singalongs in the car to our favourite Arabic tunes and bickering over which song to play, and not to play
- The opportunities to drive through the desert, the scenic King's Highway and the Jordanian villages we came across
- The splash around at the extremely rocky Aqaba beach, the sand (dirt?) of which I was silly enough to walk on bare foot, no thanks to Momo, an dodge many cigarrette butts, rocks and bits of glass.
- The camping at Wadi Rum with the good food, good shisha and solitude.
- The unscheduled stop at Petra to enquire about conference facilities
- The harrowing accident, I realise its bad taste to describe it as 'interesting' but it really was a shell-shocking experience. Up until this point, I don't think I'd ever seen a dead body, and certainly not one lying like a rag doll on the road covered in blood with bits of skull showing. My heart and thoughts go out to the families of those that died and to those that survived the crash. It was in the paper the next day, 7 dead, such a shame.
I will probably do a brief wrap up post about Jordan after this, I'm so slow. It's been 3 weeks since I finished my trip and I'm still going on it!
Labels: jordan, philosophy, travel
Jordan Part 3 - Madaba مادبا, Mt. Nebo جبل نيبو, and the Dead Sea ألبَحْر ألمَيّت
These three places were all pretty cool short day trips from Amman.
Madaba is pretty much a tourist town and is best known for its collection of Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics. Checking these out, and old churches, are pretty much the only things to do in Madaba so don't go here if you're not historically inclined.
In addition to the mosaics themselves, some of the churches are pretty old and pretty cool to walk around in, they have pretty cheap entry fees, the city is easy to navigate in a cab (stock 1JD fare to anywhere around but you could easily walk it if it isn't too hot) and it all doesn't take very long.
There is a really awesome restaurant very close to one of the Orthodox churches that we checked out, it was a little on the expensive side but was absolutely worth every fil because it was in this really nice tree-filled courtyard with wooden tables and atmopshere abounding. And there was good hummous and grilled chicken.
After a late lunch we went to one last church before moving onto Mt. Nebo. I can't remember whether this was the church we saw last or one we saw earlier but the thing I liked about it was that it took me back to my Russian Orthodox roots. The Byzantine empire was an Orthodox one and so the imagery and layout of this particular church were very very familiar to me.
After the last church, we caught a cab to Mt. Nebo. This mountain is supposedly the place where God revealed the Promised Land to Moses and where Moses is supposedly buried (although apparently the accuracy of these suppositions are still being debated by historians).
At the top of the mountain (which is apparentl 817m above sea level though it didnt feel that high) you get the view of the Promised Land with a handy basic little map to point out all the biblical places we've come to know and love from The Bible. I believe the first reaction is usually "that patch of brown is the Promised Land? Hmm". Underhwelming, perhaps.
Another cool thing on Mt. Nebo is this stylised cross sculpture that was put up by an Italian sculptor some time ago. It cuts a fairly striking figure on top of the mountain.
The Mt. Nebo site also has a nice old church which is another memorial to Moses.
So after we finished at the mountain and went down (past the old Greek Orthodox pensioners who were making their last pilgrimage and the nuns out and about for some inspiration) planning to make tracks to the Dead Sea which was apparently around 12km away along a road leading directly from Mt. Nebo. The plan was to find a cheap cab or service, or hitch a ride with someone. After asking for advice from the Tourist Police who advised us to sit and wait, and noting that most of the cars were going the other way, back towards Madaba.
After sitting and waiting idly for around 10 minutes we somehow find ourselves sharing cigarrettes and Pepsi with the very friendly tourist police. They spoke almost no English, we spoke almost no Arabic, somehow we got by and had one of the funniest, most random converrsations I am likely to remember for a long time. The police were funny bastards, making fun of all the tourists, ogling all the girls walking past, making fun of the poor woman who was taking a driving lesson and managed to stall her car outside Mt. Nebo, making fun of the couple driving towards the Dead Sea (advising us not to try to hitch with them because they want to make out [this bit communicated by furious kissing noises] and wouldnt want us to watch).
After this broken arabic/english conversation which Saba and I somehow managed to understand between our fairly crappy Arabic (hers apparently, better than mine, according to the head tourist policeman), we decided to finally make tracks back to Madaba, and Amman, and leave Dead Sea for another day.
And we did go back to the Dead Sea a few days later and it was awesome!
We managed to catch the sunset (not really difficult given we are prone to waking up in the afternoon and being horribly late everywhere) and it was super beautiful. The Dead Sea is 420m below sea level and its shores are the lowest points on land earth. The Sea itself is something like 30% salt and has a whole bunch of other minerals and things, so it's supposed to be very good for the skin but horribly horribly painful for the eyes or any other abrasions you may have. It's also impossible to sink (despite Saba panicking the minute her feet left the bottom of the seafloor and attempting to drown herself).
The Dead Sea region is blanketed in hotels and resorts which you can stay at if you're rich, or pay a day fee to visit the private beaches of. There is also a public beach called Amman Beach which costs 5JD to enter. This is the one we went to as it was perfectly fine for our purposes.
Anyways after floating around in this for over an hour, we decided to find a way back to Amman (which is only 45 mins away by bus), managed to get a ride with a friendly cab driver (once again, named Ahmed) and hightailed it back. Below is a picture of me in one of my floating moments. Til the next post, gentlemen and women.
Labels: architecture, jordan, travel
Jordan Part 2 - Petra البتراء
Petra, after millions of random votes from all over the world and some extraordinarily heavy lobbying from the Jordanian royal family, is apparently one of the new seven wonders of the world. So a visit to Jordan means you have to visit Petra, even if it means you have to shell out 26JD (approx. US$35) for a 2 day visit.
Well I have to say that it was well worth it, despite our laziness and inability to wake up early enough to get to Petra before midday as we intended... or go to Petra early in the morning on Day 2 as we planned... it was an amazing experience.
Petra is best done with an overnight stay at least, do not attempt to do Petra in one day because it will be too stressful and not chilled enough to properly be able to take in the beauty and majesty of the place. This overnight stay will most likely be imposed on you in the town of Wadi Musa, a fairly boring (think sleepy village) and unfriendly (think sleepy village overrun by tourists that are hated by the locals) place that has a few decent restaurants and your fair share of budget hotels.
All this is well worth it however when you enter Petra and walk through the amazing Siq (meaning
shaft in Arabic), the narrow (1.2km approx) walkway between two massive cliffs that leads you to the Treasury and the entrance to the ancient town.
Another suggestion. Do not take a horse/carriage through the siq, it is ridiculously expensive and will not allow you to properly take in the amazingness of it. The siq is best down by slow meandering walk, stopping at a bench to admire it once in a while.
The siq eventually leads you to the Treasury, the most photographed and famous part of Petra.
Yes it is a huge building hewn out of a cliff-face. It's as cool as it sounds, except for the hoardes and hoardes of lingering tourists taking happy snaps and constant touting of various animal transportation (horse, donkey, camel). There is a tea shop right outside also which is highly recommended for tea and chilling.
There are a few must-sees in Petra, the Siq and the Treasure being two major ones, but no visit to Petra should be complete without a small detour off the beaten track. It doesnt have to be a 3 hour hike up a random cliff to be enjoyable, but at least do something small or go somewhere near that isn't overrun by tourists. We, for example, climbed a random small hill and chilled there for a while looking at the scenery below, it was my personal favourite part of the trip.
That night we found this cool bar inside Petra called "Cave Bar". The guidebook was right, it's not often you get to sit in a bar inside a 2000 year old cave. And not only that, we really did sit inside a cave. Mmmm... martini and campari in a cave :)
The owners of the bar very friendly, one of them insisted that he'd seen us there before (despite neither of us having ever even been to Petra) and then followed this up by suggesting that I looked Jordanian and Saba looked Egyptian. Interesting. Apparently we is good beoble.
And then after that, a boring night in Wadi Musa and back to Petra on Day 2.
It is hard to believe sometimes that Petra is considered to have been built some time around 300-400 BC (by an ancient race of Arabic predecessors called the Nabateans). The sheer magnificence of some of the buildings is difficult to replicate even today using our advanced methods of construction. On Day 2, with the aide of a donkey (we were strapped for time after realising the last bus for Amman leaves at noon and not wanting to spend another boring night in Wadi Musa), we climbed on top of another, bigger mountain to see the Monastery.
The Monastery, in my opinion, is arguably cooler and more impressive than the Treasury. This could be due to the fact that its on top of a fairly huge mountain and there were only around 10 other people there when we got there (clearly the hordes of tourists are lazy and not interested in donkeys). There is another tea stand up there (again highly recommended for chilling purposes) and a whole lot of different peddlers all selling more or less the same 'traditional souvenir' type wares all the way up the mountain. The good thing about them is that they're Bedouins and it's good to know that these people can somehow make a living off the ridiculously overrun Petra.
After seeing the Monastery we climbed down the mountain on foot and headed straight back past the Monastery and the Siq towards Wadi Musa and the buses to Amman.
So that concludes my post about the first World Wonder I have seen so far and hopefully will be more to come. Many thanks go to the friendly Jordanian people including:
- Ahmed, the cab driver, who gave us competitive rates and ferried us around Wadi Musa
- the hotel (Orient Gate Hotel, stay there, nice balconies, clean rooms, only 15JD for a twin share with private bathroom and breakfast) owner who met us at the bus station and casually suggested we check out his place rather than touting us like a madman
- the Egyptians at the Cleopatra restaurant for feeding us decent foul and hommous (despite extraordinarily overpriced chips)
- the friendly Cave Bar owners already mentioned
- the chef at the hotel who actually drove down to Petra to find me after I left my ticket in the hotel restaurant accidentally
- our Bedouin donkey instructor who said he gave us a good rate because we looked Arab and made sure Saba's young donkey didnt go over the cliff edge,
- and anyone else I've forgotten.
And of course, many thanks go to my wonderful travelling companion, Miss Saba Imtiaz, who deserves all the glory and homage for being so incredibly chilled (sometimes too much so, see part about sleeping in), entertaining (especially when freaking out on her donkey and stepping onto a mattrass covering a dug out hole on top of a mountain and falling through it), adept at conversation (be it random or structured) and super cool. Love ya Saba.
Still more thoughts to get down about Jordan so insha'allah, soon. :)
Labels: jordan, travel
