a modern silk route 7

"Nothing modern that is remarkable

Nothing historical that is apparent"

D, 30 OCT 22 @ Sufra, Amman 

Now, that's a quote worthy of T.E.Lawrence, another famous Oxford alum, whose canyon we visited this morning on a sunrise drive through the northwest corner of Wadi Rum desert. The landscape of Wadi Rum is so out of this world that movies like Prometheus, Dune, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Martian and of course Lawrence of Arabia was filmed here. 

Photo credit: Mary Evans picture library

D was thinking of Wadi Rum, Mount Nebo and Petra in Jordan's past and glorious as that may be, the modern day country is anything but. Its poor yet expensive. Its historical yet dirty. Its Islamic yet kids are unattended and unschooled.

The second line refers to Qatar and maybe there is something to be said about rulers who try to create something out of nothing.

Nothing is exactly what we are doing now at half past midnight awaiting to board our 2:45am flight. The fact that Jordan, a major trading country of the past, is not as connected to the rest of the world as Doha is speaks a lot to its place in the network of global business centres today.

What is perhaps most tragic is our sense of how it is taking care of its future. Much like Malaysia where education standards for the young (both the teaching and learning thereof) have fallen, and then exacerbated by politicians who buy their way into power by providing safety nets rather than trampolines for the citizens. So not only are the population poorly educated, they also lack hunger and drive; all vital ingredients to help uplift a nation to live to its fullest potential.

In fact, the refrain we heard here in Jordan is, alas, we don't have oil and gas like Saudi or Qatar. When in fact, my meetings to Riyadh and Doha are very much because the leaders here want to diversify their economy and instill greater skills and drive in their people. 

D felt that Qatar had developed so fast using/buying the talents of the world that little of their own history is evident. So, between the high end, clean malls in Doha vs the chaotic shops in downtown Amman, the latter still has a charm. But then again, the charm begins to fade when the cleanliness mindset is so sorely missing. Even high up in the desert plains to Showbak Castle or along the beach of Aqaba right across from Israel, and on the streets of Madaba, the city of mosaic artistry, trash is everywhere but in the bins and for that matter there are few bins. 

In fact, it astounded us to see children playing amongst heaps of trash and it shocked us to see kids living amongst the trash and just running on to the streets to beg for money. Quite unlike the free range kids we saw in Kashgar or Samarkand. Those kids are cared for, albeit freely.

There is a lot to be done in Jordan and that its king is listed in the Panama papers as one of the wealthiest man on earth only makes it more tragic when he is so revered and loved. 

Jordan is a beautiful land with friendly people. It deserves better. This important country at the strategic crossroads of the Silk Route can be better. It needs strong leadership and governance. 

We had only a brief 3 days here and packed in a lot. In the last 3 hours here, we ambled up and down Rainbow Street (Amman's high street) and ate the best food we had so far throughout the Middle East at Sufra. Even Jordanian wine, St George, is OK. D even saw a worker sweeping the streets and so happy she was to see that, she asked for a photo with him. So, yes, they can improve if they put their minds to it.

a modern silk route 6

Today's entry is anything but modern because we are driving from Wadi Rum to Aqaba and then on to the Dead Sea and Mount Nebo and Madaba. If any of these names sound familiar, it's because you have probably seen it in the history books or more likely in the bible. 

Mount Nebo was where Moses, the heroic leader who led the Israelites out of slavery and Egypt died, before entering the promised land. He did get to see it though from the top of the mountain. We will shortly be at the same spot he was. 

In advising governments especially emerging countries trying to uplift their people, I have recounted the story of 40 years of wandering in the desert. That's more than a generation worth of humanity and it is what it takes to help purge a defeatist mentality that has become ingrained in a people who have been enslaved for centuries before. 

Some books of the bible can read like a Tom Clancy novel. Consider this plot:

Moses led the Israelites to Mount Sinai, where he was given the Ten Commandments from God, written on stone tablets. However, since Moses remained a long time on the mountain, some of the people feared that he might be dead, so they made a statue of a golden calf and worshipped it, thus disobeying and angering God and Moses. Moses, out of anger, broke the tablets, and later ordered the elimination of those who had worshiped the golden statue, which was melted down and fed to the idolaters.

He also wrote the ten commandments on a new set of tablets. Later at Mount Sinai, Moses and the elders entered into a covenant, by which Israel would become the people of YHWH, obeying his laws, and YHWH would be their god. Moses delivered the laws of God to Israel, instituted the priesthood under the sons of Moses' brother Aaron, and destroyed those Israelites who fell away from his worship. In his final act at Sinai, God gave Moses instructions for the Tabernacle, the mobile shrine by which he would travel with Israel to the Promised Land.

From Sinai, Moses led the Israelites to the Desert of Paran on the border of Canaan. From there he sent twelve spies into the land. The spies returned with samples of the land's fertility, but warned that its inhabitants were giants. The people were afraid and wanted to return to Egypt, and some rebelled against Moses and against God. Moses told the Israelites that they were not worthy to inherit the land, and would wander the wilderness for forty years until the generation who had refused to enter Canaan had died, so that it would be their children who would possess the land. Later on, Korah was punished for leading a revolt against Moses.

When the forty years had passed, Moses led the Israelites east around the Dead Sea to the territories of Edom and Moab. There they escaped the temptation of idolatry, conquered the lands of Og and Sihon in Transjordan, received God's blessing through Balaam the prophet, and massacred the Midianites, who by the end of the Exodus journey had become the enemies of the Israelites due to their notorious role in enticing the Israelites to sin against God. Moses was twice given notice that he would die before entry to the Promised Land: in Numbers 27:13, once he had seen the Promised Land from a viewpoint on Mount Abarim, and again in Numbers 31:1 once battle with the Midianites had been won.

On the banks of the Jordan River, in sight of the land, Moses assembled the tribes. After recalling their wanderings he delivered God's laws by which they must live in the land, sang a song of praise and pronounced a blessing on the people, and passed his authority to Joshua, under whom they would possess the land. Moses then went up Mount Nebo, looked over the Promised Land spread out before him, and died, at the age of one hundred and twenty.

At this juncture, it is worth highlighting that M told me last night, speaking as an experienced blogger herself, that I cannot cut and paste from Wikipedia. In my defense, I am using it to add factual historicity to the opinions I express in these writings. So, in a way, yes I am justifying plagiarising 🙃.

Well, we are also plagiarising Moses' journey too. Like him and his flock, we are travelling from the south to the north through Paran desert (complete with the odd camel on the road through the former territories of Edom and Moab, now aptly renamed Wadi Musa or Moses Canyon) to the Eastern banks of the Dead Sea and will also be atop Mount Nebo. It took him 40 years to get here on foot and we will do it in 4 hours, in a Kia Cerato chauffeured by Waseem ("the best driver in Jordan", according to one of his many "cousins" everywhere). 

The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean Basin for thousands of years. It was one of the world's first health resorts (for Herod the Great), and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilisers and today there is a large potash site just south of it. It is of course a tourism destination but our driver told us he is worried it is disappearing.

The Dead Sea is receding at a swift rate; its surface area today is 605 km2 (234 sq mi), having been 1,050 km2 (410 sq mi) in 1930. The recession of the Dead Sea has begun causing problems and multiple canal and pipeline proposals, such as the scrapped Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, have been made to reduce its recession. We were glad to be here, partake of its mud therapy and float in its waters, one of the saltiness in the world. By we, I meant me coz D found it too much trouble to change our of her jeans just for a salty dip and muddy scrub plus her back acted up. So, I did.

And it's an experience I would recommend to everyone, NOT. First, saltwater got into my eyes three times and had to be washed off by the thankfully ever ready Ramada staff. Then water got into my mouth and it sure was like eating a large spoonful of salt. And then to top it all, I entered the waters with my glasses and handphone thinking that I will get some nice shots in situ. Well, the wave washed over me and I lost my glasses and wet the phone. Oh yes,did I fail to mention that the Dead Sea (though just a lake) actually had waves! It felt like I voluntarily put myself through the plagues. 

All said, the water and mud is supposed to have therapeutic properties. I had some scratch wounds (from itchy dry skin) which stung a bit but now feels so much better. And my skin fresh off the mud bath does feel baby smooth. So, would I do it again... well, I just might but with a lot more care next time. 

From the Dead Sea, we went to Mount Nebo and here we saw what Moses apparently saw: the expanse of the Promised Land ahead of him. I can only imagine how he felt to have come so close and yet not finish it. On the other hand, these men and women of faith, its often about the journey rather than the destination and what a journey of courage, heroism, struggle and faith that Moses had. 

And so it is with our journey this time that I draw many lessons, especially from the failure of public service, responsible child raising and from the fortitude of my pain bearing better half. 

a modern silk route 5

To be fair to you dear reader, all four of my similarly titled blog the last few days have been misleading. Because neither Singapore or Jakarta were really part of the Silk Route of old. Doha maybe but only to a limited extent as a small fishing port and some of its produce may have found its way up the Arab Peninsula to the major trading centres. 

Amman would have been one but Petra certainly was one of the more important capitals back then. Today we visited Petra, the aptly christened Red Rose City with buildings (tombs mostly of all descriptions: from simple burial sites to mausoleums for royals) and temples and shops and of course dwellings; all carved out of the side of the multi-hued mountains in this magnificent canyon. 

The nearly 6 hour walk we had here (from 7 to 1pm) reminded us of at least 3 other places. The most recent is our trip last year to Matera which also featured cave dwellings and innovative water cistern management systems plus being a well used movie location. Then of course we saw similar rock hewn buildings in Mogu, China back in 2019. Then 8 years ago, we were in Peru at another UNESCO world heritage site of Machu Pichu and not just because of the monumental stone- work there but also a shared history of an 18th/19th century re-discovery by European explorers.

Petra had all of these and a bit more and a bit less. 

More because it is perhaps the oldest and best preserved. Mogu's art paintings have been vandalised, for example. More because it is intricately made, whereas Matera are more about inventive negative architecture. More because it is much older perhaps a millenia or so older than Machu Pichu. And more also because walking through it was really like walking back in time because they did nor overdevelop this place and left the local culture to organically coexist so the hike is  complete with Bedouin folks including kids in your face (for just the right amount).

But it is also less. Because all the other places I mentioned above have been better managed especially to benefit the local community. A telling case in point: it took the government a century after the rediscovery of Petra to develop it into a economic tourism activity whereas Machu Pichu was developed shortly after its rediscovery. 

Petra not only has a far longer but also far richer history. So there was so much more that could have been extolled. In the iron age between 1200 and 600BC, t was the home of the Edomites (the Ammonites lived in Amman in the north). The Edomites are supposed to be descendants of Esau and Petra was a natural water catchment area given its configuration of mountains. This made Petra a stopping ground for merchants even back in biblical times. Then one of the nomadic Bedouin tribes that roamed the Arabian desert, the Nabateans emerged and used their knowledge of the terrain to see of their enemies. They were particularly skilful in harvesting rainwater, agriculture and stone carving (and ample evidence of all three are still seen today). They established Petra as the capital of Nabatean empire and it was believed to be one of the richest cities esp with all the spice and fragrance trade that centred there. Its importance started to decline when the Romans colonised it and  as sea routes started to emerge. So much history and I should add that the Petra Museum was indeed well done though nothing like how the Qataris did in the National Museum of Qatar despite their far more limited history. Incidentally, Doha probably benefited from the growing sea trade and its ironical that I am coming from and going to Doha in this trip.

Back to present day, here I am, literally sleeping under the stars in the Wadi Rum desert, just south of Petra. Well, there is a bubble tent next to me with running hot water (though it strangely decided not to work for D... even the water system here follows the male chauvinistic culture here 😀) but I decided to have the camp lay out a bed outside. It's a cool 18°c and my ears are soothed by the Arabic music wafting from the musician entertaining guests in the main tent and the sweet scent of sisha permeates the air. What a life!

Tomorrow, we are going to have a jeep drive in the desert and see sights that first captivated Lawrence of Arabia. Its a sunrise drive and so we have to be up really early. 

a different kind of route

While D & I were on a modern silk route (looking at ruins the Roman empire left behind), her centurion of a grandfather whom we saw just before going on the trip passed away. He is on a journey too. The most important one... a route to heaven.

She wrote a eulogy for him which J read out at his funeral. M and J call him Ah Chor and he is the only great grandparent they ever knew.

 "My earliest memories of ah gong are going on rides with him. 

He had a scooter which was parked below the large mango tree in the house at 32 Alexandra Terrace i used to sit on it now and then and have a burn mark on my left calf as a natural tattoo to mark one of my early adventures with it.

I remember in particular one car ride where we went for a drive and we visited one of his bosses' house - some ang moh chap. I had the chance to see the compounds of a nice big house and play for a short while inside a place very different from my own home. It seeded in me an early desire to appreciate houses and i would go on to take long walks in my teens and aimless drives when i finally had my license, in different neighbourhoods in whichever country i was in, just to marvel at the beautiful ones and dream of living in one some day.

Ah gong was a driver and a story teller.

He wasnt particularly demonstrative but through his stories and commentaries about life in general and world affairs and situations reported on the news channels on TV, he shared his advice and imparted his wisdom in his booming voice in a mix of English and hokkien. Sometimes laughing at his own comments, sometimes admonishing everyone in general. World politicians not exempt!

He was a distant figure when i was growing up, a fierce presence in the family.  I would engage with him at the milestones of my life, with my boyfriend now husband, my babies now adults, and he always had some advice for us. Study hard, work hard, drive carefully, watch the road, slow down at the junctions, pay attention to traffic lights, take care of yourself. Simple words but heartfelt, evergreen and applicable in life. 

Though undemonstrative, his greatest show of love was embracing the Christian faith. I never thought it possible but was awed when he agreed to follow in ah ma's footsteps - demonstrating in death what may not have been apparent in life. That love is never too late and it is wise to listen to the wife! :) My aunties and the faith leaders in their communites have been exemplary in their patient steadfastness. God bless them.

Ah gong it will be difficult to practise my hokkien without you. It is an important part of our heritage that I have not been good with but at least i think my driving "eh sai la"! I am not bad at sense of directio  and parking! In the last couple of years I am very glad to have had the chance of taking you on a couple of car rides and sharing a meal or two with you in our our home. 

Happy journey ahead ah gong! I will think of  you driving now with Jesus and ah ma and uncle tat now - and imagine that there are no traffic lights or speed limits in heaven!

"Ah gong, le gah Jesus jiak hong liao!"

(Ah gong you can go joy ride with Jesus now)" 

a modern silk route 4

Here we are, D and I, on board QR3086 from Doha to Amman. We are travelling in style unlike the silk road travellers of yore. 

Well, those travellers never passed through Qatar (so I guess we don't need to go through the same hardship for this leg). Though the people here in the Arab peninsula share the same life as the nomadic pastoralists of the Central Asian steppes and in northern Sahara, there just weren't enough resources here to make this place of any interest in the middle ages. Besides the gulf that separated it from mainland Asia meant it was not on the way of the travellers.

They went from Xi An in China, past Dun Huang then Tur Fan and Kahs Gar and through Sary Tash, the Fergana Valley and then to Penjakent and of course Samarkand and Bukhara. Like the Gulf or Arabia, the Caspian Sea would have proven a challenge for the camels and like the ancient travellers, we too concluded our first journey on the Silk Road 3 years ago. 

D & I resumed the next leg of the Silk Road earlier this year on the western side of the Caspian Sea (lake actually). The flaming land of Azerbaijan (on account of abundance of near surface gas) is where Asia begins to merge with Europe. It borders Turkey, Iran, Greece and Italy which is the other main terminus of this 10 thousand mile road. 

The Silk Road actually branches into many paths as is approaches the Middle East and Mediterranean Europe. And it is not the main trunk highway to Venice and Rome we are on this time, but to the Middle East. 

So from a little desert peninsula jutting into the gulf on the southeastern tip of the Arabic peninsula, we are now flying west of northwest, past the most ancient civilisations of Sumeria (now modern day Iraq) and Persia (yup, no road to Damsacus for us) to the more verdant lands of Jordan (Gilead in the biblical past). There is almost no place more central in the world (past or present). It is at the strategic crossroads (via land) to the continents of Asia to the east and Europe in the northwest and Africa in the southwest.

I've been to the middle east multiple times the last twenty years but always for business and therefore always to the oil&gas-rich and capital cities of Doha, Abu Dhabi Dubai and Riyadh where we have business. I never took time off the see the rest of the region especially places of old civilisations. After all, this place is the cradle of human civilisation, the crossroad of the world.

So with a weekend in between visits to Doha and Riyadh, I got D to join me and see perhaps one of the most important places here: the Heshamite Kingdom of Jordan with sites like Petra and the Dead Sea and not to mention the river where Jesus was baptised. 

We land first in Amman, the capital of Jordan and are met by Weesam. An "Indiana Jones" adventure awaits us tomorrow but today we will tour the city of Amman (Ammon in the past) and literally traipse through its many millenia of history.

A modern silk route 3

The history of Qatar spans from its first duration of human occupation to its formation as a modern state. Human occupation of Qatar dates back to 50,000 years ago, and Stone Age encampments and tools have been unearthed in the peninsula.

The peninsula fell under the domain of several different empires during its early years of settlement, from 300BC to 600AD, including the Seleucid, the Parthians and the Sasanians, until Muhammad sent an envoy to a Persian ruler in Eastern Arabia named Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi in 628 and requested that he and his people accept Islam. Munzir obliged his request and most Arab tribes in Qatar converted to Islam. Over the proceeding centuries, Qatar was a site of contention between the Wahhabi of Najd and the Al Khalifa. 

Bahrain and mainland Qatar had been seized by the Portuguese in 1521. After the Portuguese claimed control, they constructed a series of fortresses along the Arabian Coast. The Portuguese focused on creating a commercial empire in Eastern Arabia, and exported gold, silver, silks, cloves, amber, horses and pearls. The population submitted voluntarily to the rule of the Ottomans in 1550, preferring them to the Portuguese.

The Ottomans expanded their empire into Eastern Arabia in 1871, withdrawing from the area in 1915 after the beginning of WWI.

In 1916, Qatar became a British protectorate and Abdullah Al-Thani signed a treaty stipulating that he could only cede territory to the British in return for protection from all aggression by sea and support in case of a land attack. A 1934 treaty granted more extensive protection. In 1935, a 75-year oil concession was granted to Qatar Energy and high-quality oil was discovered in 1940 in Dukhan. During the 1950s and 1960s, increasing oil revenues brought prosperity, rapid immigration, substantial social progress and the beginnings of the country's modern history.

Qatar declared its independence on 1 September 1971 and became an independent state on 3 September.

Fast forward 51 years, here I am in Qatar discussing with the Prime Minister and his cabinet their National Development Strategy what the state would be like in 2030 (their 60th year of independence) and none of the elements are trivial. 

Photo credit: Doha News

Today it is one of the wealthiest state in the world, in absolute and relative (GDP/capita) terms, thanks largely to its significant gas reserves. However, in today’s climate-challenged world and more critically, dwindling reserves, they need to diversify their economy amidst increasingly competitive nations in the gulf: all aiming to attract investors and talents to grow their economy.

We had to grapple with trade offs between economic development (growth and diversification targets) vs the social cohesion implications. We had to help define values of the nation: what to preserve vs what must be further developed based on their national identity and history.

While I was deep in debate with the supreme committee, D was on a private city and water tour of the capital. With her insightful mind, she understood the country right away. She noticed that much has been built, very quickly but are largely empty. They are creatively designed but few truly reflected the heritage and natural beauty of the land (except the desert rose inspired national museum of qatar). 

Also, with all these new build, Qatar could have gotten the architects to lead the way with sustainable buildings but instead too many steel (from china) and glass (from US) buildings re erected which is also completely impractical for a place so easily covered in sand. Her summary of "fast and empty" encapsulates the monumental task Qatar has ahead for the coming years to reinvent itself. 

a modern silk route 2

Marsh is not swamp. There is light. Light that help plants grow. Plants that grow on water. Water that flows into the light.

Jakarta is not a swamp. It is home to over 10 million people. There is life there and most certainly, growth. And there is water too! Largely from poor urban planning and lackadaisical infrastructure that causes roads to flood within an hour of a downpour. 

Still, it is not a swamp because of the spirit of the people here. Their streets may be flooded. Their homes may be flooded. Yet, they find ways to make ends meet; even the very cause of their wet homes become a source of income.

I first experienced this 20 years ago. We who live in the tropics know all about the monsoon season and the torrential rains that come along with that. The downpour gets so heavy that even a 10 metre walk without shelter will get you drenched.

Enter the umbrella kids. When the rains come, so do these kids with these portable canopies that shelter the office workers to their cars. Their bedrooms may be filled with water and who knows, maybe their clothes and bags and books too, but here they are keeping grown men and women from getting a little wet. For that, they get 5000 rupiah, or 50 cents. 

And as the roads get flooded, the drivers instinctively know how to navigate their way out of that. No GPS required. Besides, there were no Google maps back then two decades ago. A single muddy lane between squatter homes become a major thoroughfare with traffic going both way with the help of self-appointed wardens, who occasionally get a 1000 rupiah tip and there is apparently a system of who and went to tip. 

Then there are jockeys. The roads in the city centre can get so choked up during rush hour that even without rain, the jam can get really bad. Its simply because there are too many cars for the amount of roads they have. And most of the cars have merely two occupants: a driver and the owner. So, some smart government official had a brainwave. Enforce car pooling. Only cars with three or more people are allowed in the city centre at rush hour. So enter the car jockeys. Some barely older than my 5 year old son then. They get into a car with strangers at one end of the city and get out at the other, all for 10000 rupiah. I wanted to pay more but my driver said I would only get them in trouble if they cannot raise the tips in future.

My kids grew up in Malaysia and Singapore blissfully unaware that kids just a couple of hours of flight away had to scrap for a living this way. 

So you see, dear reader, swamps can be turned into marshes. These memories of Jakarta can never be erased from my mind and i guess along with that the resolve to do something right for the world so yoing kids can grow up well. 

I am here to meet the ambassador and officials of UK and after a successful business trip here discussing programs that will improve this country's (and the region's) infrastructure and cities (esp in the context of adapting to climate change), improves it  health service and education standards and help progress tem economically, it is apt that i begin my modern silk route journey just as D begins here from modern sunny Singapore. We will meet in 8 hours in Doha.

A modern silk route 1

Silkair has now been folded back into the Singapore Airlines group. For a few decades, it grew from a travel agency (a natural adjacent business for the group), operated a few charters under the name Tradewinds and became a full fledged regional Airlines bearing the evocatively romantic name of Silkair.

It's position as neither a premium carrier nor a low cost one made no more sense and so all its planes, its crew and its routes got subsumed under SQ. 

In today's increasingly divided world, business models are similarly polarising to two winning strategies: luxury or mass. Speaking of mass, I am flying on Jetstar, Qantas' low cost carrier. It's an occupational hazard but I can see so many things it could do better (even if it was a low cost). What really floored me was the crew keeping the front toilet for themselves. Reminds me of Vietnam Airlines of 30 years ago and they are miles ahead now. It's like Jetstar are purposely trying to make their bad service worse. 

Be that as it may, I am compelled to take this flight as its the last flight to Jakarta from Singapore tonight. Its a public holiday (Deepavali, the festival of light) and its bad enough that I have to travel on a public holiday in order to meet the British Ambassador to ASEAN first thing tomorrow morning, I was not going to take earlier flights that would have reduced my time with loved ones at home.

As it happens, it was really nice to have D to send me off and see J&N take C for a walk. We can never take time together for granted.

Yesterday, D & I went to the hospital to see her paternal grandpa who is warded there for a fall and then subsequently caught COVID (potentially while at the hospital). We are all very worried of course. He is a grand 100 years old and was initially (mis?)diagnosed as having pneumonia and his body didn't react well to the antibiotics they gave him and in fact developed fast AF with a low blood pressure and low oxygen levels. We pray he gets well soon, though at his age, he is vulnerable.

D was holding his hand and I was with her and by his bedside. We hope we will be OK. He was wearing his ventilator mask and we were both masked up too except for a quick photo.

We also hope we are strong enough with our triple vaccinations to not have gotten infected. We were only there for 30mins and by his side for no more than 15mins as they had to do a chest x-Ray and we stopped to speak to the doctors in attendance.

We are supposed to go on an our own evocative romantic trip... to the heart of the middle east. No, not Dubai or Riyadh - the commercial or religious capitals of the region but to Qatar and then Jordan. Wasn't it in the wilderness of Jordan that Jesus's cousin, John preached and baptised his followers on the banks of the river there. 

But all that we will hopefully see later this weekend. Like the Silk Route of old, we need to traverse long distances and endure risky and uncomfortable conditions to get to our destination.

So, embracing that intrepid spirit (with a wild dose of imagination), here I am starting out my journey on a low cost and low service airline, with quite  few people coughing away, starting my journey on a public holiday to the most populous city in Southeast Asian, Jakarta.

I used to come to Jakarta a fair bit when leading the region and you cannot be successful in Southeast Asia if you are not doing business in Indonesia which is the largest country and growing fast.

It's been awhile since I kept a travelogue. I do feel the urge to write a bit more and what better way than to use this trip to do so, beginning with Jakarta and after making our way all the way to Uzbekistan in 2019 and to Azerbaijan, across the Caspian Sea, earlier this year, we know go further west from Central Asia into the Middle East and visit two of its richest lands (in modern times, Qatar and in antiquity, Jordan). 

Watch this space, dear readers, for D and my upcoming silk journeys together. 

All grown up

M has a blog and she titled it Growing!, yup complete with exclamation mark. 

She writes of her growth and growing pains and once in a blue moon marks her growth with some ink.

M & J, my dear kids, have both grown up. 

And everyone around them has grown older in the mean time. Their 81 year old Grandfather "TaTa" has caught COVID and had collapsed at a dinner with Grand Uncle Michael and his family. At that time we thought he suffered a stroke attack as he was also incoherent (expressive dysphasia) and could not walk. Luckily E was there and was the only one strong enough to carry Ta Ta back up to his room.

D then rushed up to Malacca later in the week and she saw them face to face. By then Grandmother "NeiNei" also caught COVID. Before D left, she cooked and froze a week's worth of food for them so they won't need to worry about food while they self quarantined. Tata was so grateful for Mom's cooking "so nice and soft", in his words. Mom is truly a wonderful daughter in law.

However, all of this events shook me and mom & all my siblings (and even my cousin). We had a family meeting to decide on Ta Ta's hospitalisation and care arrangements.

It has reminded us of the mortality that we all face, and in this case we subsequently found out when scanned that Ta Ta had suffer mild heart attacks and strokes before.

This also got us to thinking of how well we care for each other. Right now, both our children are appropriately growing up (I think the millenial phrase for it is adulting, right?) and charting their own course (and also course correcting where necessary).

The course of the adult life is long and winding and I'd add thoroughly enjoyable. The destination though for all of us is the same. At the end of the day, all we want is to have done some good, hopefully made a difference for the world  but most critically for parents like mom and me to have raised good kids who will then be good people

Mom, having been in Malacca, seeing Ta Ta and Nei Nei first hand and the love and care they received. She is quite naturally reflecting on her own situation as a mother esp how she has brought up children who care about their parents and about each other. Ultimately, in life, these are the most important things.

This is a mellow time for her. She is naturally feeling low and pensive and if each of you (individually and together) can do something for her, I know she'd appreciate it.

I think you both know she has given her all (even more than me who focused on my career to bring home the bacon) in raising two of you and everything you say and so affects her so a gesture or two now would I know have a positive effect on her too

Uzbekistan, again

I am on my way to Uzbekistan again. I was here in 2017 and had an epiphany about the potential of the region. It inspired me to plan a family trip in May 2019, and followed that up with a business trip May this year. The leisure trip was with M and D (J had to go back to serve his internship obligations) and what a glorious trip it is across the Fergana Valley and into historical trading posts of Samarkand and Bukhara. My trip earlier this year was all business and I met with the DPM amd Minister of Finance amongst others and promptly got a project sold!

I am heading there again for the official opening of the office where the Minister will grace. Am flying there after a Global Public Sector meeting from London on Uzbekistan Airways flight HY204 to Tashkent. Not surprisingly it was delayed for nearly an hour because the flight had arrived late by 30 minutes. I know the math doesn’t add up but out of a busy airport like Heathrow, turnaround times is slower and then you lose your air traffic slots. 

London remains one of the capitals of the world but I wonder for how much longer. Infrastructure has not kept paced with the population that driving anywhere within the city (esp. during rush hour takes an hour). No. 10 is now a revolving door with PMs coming and going, mostly because of party infighting. Then there is the low brow distaste that is served on public media and I was appalled with an episode of Naked Attraction I chance upon while surfing the channels in my hotel room. More importantly, the economy is anaemic and the pound has taken a beating as the markets did not appreciate the growth policy the (new) government has proposed. In fact, just before I flew out of London, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was dismissed: a scapegoat for the times. 

On the other hand, the former Soviet Union state of Uzbekistan has leaders who care about the development of their country. No doubt, some level of corruption exists, but unlike in many parts of the world, the leaders I met here are not out to manipulate the population for their own gains. Here, they are keen to learn of the successes and failures of others. 

When I was first here 5 years ago, I took a quick private day trip to Chimgan countryside and encountered people who looked like me and especially an old stall keeper who resembled my grandmother. The Hakka people are said to have originated from the north of China where we had lived as nomadic groups in the Steppes that spanned all across Central Asia. Maybe that is why I felt a certain kinship with this people and are back here again for the fourth time in five years and no doubt there will be more trips to come, perhaps with J in tow as well.

The Uzbekistan Airways flight is really basic. I am in business class, so the seats are bigger but that;s about it. There is no inflight entertainment, the pilots take longer to get to cruising altitude (or to let the passengers know that they are there) and the cabin crew generally just huddle in the galley than walking the aisles to serve the passengers. Reminds me of what it was like 30 years ago in Vietnam. Vietnam has certainly come a long way since then and these central Asia states are indeed the next frontier.

There is, however, some charm to this “old world” operations. I spent the parts of my flight reading. A Paul Theroux travel book no less (and this one is about his travels from Cairo to Capetown which is something I would like to do). And now midway through the flight, writing. Normally, I would have been on to my second movie on the inflight entertainment, a mindless activity that one would promptly forget unlike the more engaging reading and writing I am doing now.

So, there is a silver lining in every circumstance, and in the case of Uzbekistan, it may well be a golden lining! When I was here five years ago, I even encouraged the team to author a report and tell the world the potential of this region. Now, I am back here advising the government to live up to the potential.