Wanderlust Heaven!

There’s no use being coy here – we all know THE story of the week.  But in case you’ve been hiding in a cave somewhere in eastern Turkey, here it is:

‘The marijuana reform movement won two prized victories, with Massachusetts voters decriminalizing possession of small amounts of the drug and Michigan joining 12 other states in allowing use of pot for medical purposes.  Henceforth, people caught in Massachusetts with an ounce or less of pot will no longer face criminal penalties. Instead, they’ll forfeit the marijuana and pay a $100 civil fine.’

About 20 years too late, but at least the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is starting to look truly liberal and ‘socially democratic,’ a la some of the European countries.  And it now may be time to get back into Krispy Kreme shares – imagine the donuts put away by the police confiscating said pot.  You heard it here first.

In other news, there was a Presidential election too.  I’ll talk about this right here, then backtrack and tell you what I’ve been up to all week.

A few days before I got to Ankara, from where I sit and type this post, I managed to track down some eminences from Democrats Abroad Turkey, who told me that the US Embassy and the Turkish-American Association were co-sponsoring an Election Night bash.  I was hoping there would be some sort of event for Election Night…but feared that our increasingly cash-strapped government wouldn’t bother to fund anything and that I’d be forced to sit in some godforsaken tavern trying to convince the barman to change the channel from the local soccer game to CNN or BBC.

So I had a place to go for the night.  The party itself was very well done – the Sheraton Ankara put on a buffet dinner, the US Ambassador to Turkey, H.E. Ross Wilson, gave a short speech, and there was a panel of speakers who talked about the campaign.  Fairly informative.  And there was lots of beer and wine, so by the time the coverage began, around 11 p.m. local time, we were well-lubricated.

I met some good people during the dinner and panel – Beril, a Turkish woman who works for the International Republication Institute (but who seemed to be very centrist in her views), Dillon, a New Orleanean who works for a consulting outfit in Rotterdam, and a few others.

The locals’ perspective was interesting.  Apparently Obama has pledged to Armenia/Armenians to formally declare the WWI situation there a genocide, whereas McCain has not.  So many Turks disagree with Obama there…but at the same time, Turkey borders Iraq and it seems most Turks think the US has really screwed up vis-à-vis the Arab/Muslim world.  Hours before the party, I had a brief chat in my guesthouse – the owner, a friendly fellow who’s accustomed to hosting us Westerners, vented about the Bush Administration and the long memories of Arabs, whom he said would never forget what the U.S. has been up to in Iraq etc. and would one day get revenge.  Chilling – this guy is a moderate, but he claims to know the Arab mindset and he seemed pretty credible to me.  Needless to say, he was going for Obama…

Started watching the election coverage on CNN.  The TAA is a large place, and they had a few large-screen TVs set up around the second-floor room where the party was being held.  There was also a laptop with a big screen and we used that for auxiliary info.  The initial returns were slow and somewhat disturbing – Kentucky and Indiana led off and McCain got off to an early lead.  Also, the CNN talking heads were annoying and there were lots of commercials – I was on the edge of my seat, along with Beril and Dillon, waiting for some good news.

Slowly but surely, the tide turned.  The Northeastern states all went for Obama, as did most of the Midwestern states.  But the popular vote remained very close, and I wondered about the Bradley effect.  And given the automatic Southern vote for McCain, things were up in the air till the early hours of the morning (our Nov 5^th), when some big battleground states started going Obama’s way.  Pennsylvania was absolutely huge…then Ohio went for Obama, and eventually Florida did as well.  That seemed to be the kicker, and after that it was mostly a question of Electoral College vote margin and popular vote margin, both of which widened nicely towards the end of the voting.  Turned out to be a landslide – I think that Obama got more votes than any candidate in history.  OK, the population has been growing, but the bigger driver in my opinion is that voter registration rose sharply this cycle and that most registered voters actually turned out.  This is one of my pet issues – the Bush Admin’s Justice Dept has been actively suppressing voter reg, playing up the ‘voter fraud’ card.  This election helped vindicate my faith in American democracy – millions of new voters were registered, and most of them voted.  Not sure about the percentages…but I do know that about a third of American adults were not registered before this campaign, and that’s a huge number.  So progress is being made.

Dillon took off in the wee hours to return to his hotel, sleep a bit then watch the results.  I had always intended to remain at the bash all night, as I had nothing to do the next day but sleep.  Beril was funny – she hadn’t planned to stay, but gave in and sat next to me for hours and hours, watching the TV and my constant refreshing of CNN.com, which had the popular vote totals.

As for the election of Barack Obama, our first black President, enough cannot be said.  Many were the doubters…toxic were the accusations and claims hurled his way…and sweet was his victory.  The man was on the right side of history…to have elected an elderly white man would have been the wrong decision.  I’m not saying American is in the clear yet, when it comes to big issues and questions – we did elect Bush twice, after all.  But at this point I’ll take a step on the path forward…

And Obama’s election will have a quick, profound effect on our image out here.  From what I can see, Turks are starting to think about America differently.  But it’s early days and not much data is available just yet.  Needless to say, I (and most of my friends and family) are jazzed about Obama and we can’t wait to throw Bush out and get on with the repair work.  That won’t be easy or pretty, but at least the torpor of the past 8 years will be behind us.  What a disaster.  A poll of historians taken recently already judged Bush to have been the worst President in U.S. history.  People who cast a vote for him (particularly in 2004) need to ask themselves what the hell they were thinking.  I don’t mean to be arrogant, or to imply that these people have something wrong with them…it’s just that our votes are precious and fragile things, and when you’re standing in front of your maker, or when you’re merely recalling the past when you’re getting on in years – do you think you’ll be proud to say you voted for George W. Bush??

As we watched Obama’s acceptance speech, I had tears in my eyes.  And so did Beril – we sort of glanced at one another, then away.  I guess crying is a sensitive act and perhaps it’s against our genetic programming to do much of it in public…

I can safely say this was one of the most memorable nights in my life.  And compared with others that come to mind, one of the least controversial…

My brief election post-mortem:

Given Bush’s unpopularity and the economic mayhem, 2008 didn’t offer many opportunities for the GOP.  Congress was going to become much more Democratic – the only question was the size of the gain.  But the Presidency is a popularity contest between two individuals, and McCain was probably the best person the GOP could have nominated – fairly moderate, someone who had a history of criticizing his own party and President, and a real wild-card in terms of risk-taking and personality.  And I think he had a very good shot at winning this race until the stockmarket cratered in September/October – he reacted foolishly and the wheels came off his campaign.  Until then, it was a toss-up.  It still was far from clear whether many Americans would vote for a black man for President, despite all the progress of the past 4 decades.

I also think that McCain shot himself in the foot by selecting Sarah Palin.  He made a mockery of his ‘experience’ claim with this pick…and he also looked shallow (Hillary Clinton supporters will vote for any another woman, right?) and at odds with his ‘country first’ message (putting America in Palin’s hands wasn’t exactly reassuring).  Locking in the far right was the main aim in selecting Palin, and that worked pretty well.  She also energized the campaign for a few weeks and raised questions about Obama’s decision to pick Biden, not Clinton, as his Veep candidate.  But her lack of experience and her general cluelessness become obvious over time, and in this election I think doubling down on the moderate/independent vote made more sense than energizing the base/far-right.  Far-right voters not excited by the GOP ticket might not vote, they might just stay home – but under almost no circumstances would they vote for Obama…whereas centrist voters who weren’t turned on by Obama were in play and Palin did nothing for them.  I don’t have a good handle on the electoral math, but I suspect that if you track down the numbers and compare them, the election was largely decided by the independent voters and Obama did much better with them.

Obama did some other things quite well – he outflanked McCain on the tax front with his pledge to lower taxes for 95% of Americans, for example.  But at the end of the day, McCain had a good shot at the Presidency despite the awful environment for the GOP, until the stockmarket collapse and his selection of Palin sunk in.  For what it’s worth, I’m willing to lose a good bit of my portfolio to turn out the GOP – I think Obama will be good for the country over time and will help reverse a lot of the negative trends facing us.  But it will take time to clean up the mess and it won’t happen in just one term.  So be patient, friends.

BTW – I thought McCain’s speech on Election Night was well done.  He was thoughtful, classy, and gracious.  If this John McCain were more in evidence during the campaign, he would have done much better.  Maybe the general climate forced his hand, but you have to wonder why his handlers and strategists did what they did – the guy has a pulse, a sense of humor, and some wit.  Unleashing the core McCain would have been a better idea, methinks.  But we’ll never know.

After the all-nighter I stumbled back to my hotel and slept all day.  Am still feeling a bit off but my enthusiasm about the outcome is paramount and I’ll be fine after another nap or three…

What else?  I had a fairly peripatetic week, as usual.  Traveled from Sanliurfa to Mt. Nemrut, a well-known spot in eastern Turkey.  Stayed at Cesme Pension on the side of the mountain, 6 km from the summit.  Woke up early on Nomveber 1^st and walked to the top – took a couple hours but wasn’t too hard.

Had commenced my day, as usual, with a stint on the toilet.  I did not want to get caught out on the mountain and have to squat amongst the goats and bugs…so did my business first thing in the morning.  The problem was that it was earlier than I was used to, I hadn’t eaten that much the night before, and it was like orchestrating ships to pass through the Panama or Suez canal – moving locks and boats.  But I finally passed through to the other side and was lighter on my feet…

Mt. Nemrut’s summit is ringed by a bunch of statues put there by Commagene King Antiochus to commemorate his lineage – he believed the gods were his ancestors, and amongst the statues are those of Apollo and Hercules.  The heads have fallen off the statues and lie nearby – still impressive.  And the king built a tumulus/tomb of crushed rocks, perhaps 20 meters high – inside of which is believed to be his tomb and those of other relatives.  Not yet excavated, but there are plans to do so.  Would love to see what’s inside.

From the top you can (sort of) see some rivers and dammed lakes, part of the GAP/Ataturk Dam Project, which is a massive undertaking designed to bring water to this dry part of Turkey.  I hope we don’t see a repeat of the Aral Sea tragedy…

I had thought about bringing my iPod for the climb, but decided against it.  I wanted to have few distractions and experience the place for what it was…and I wanted to be able to think as well.  That was the proper call.  I was able to get a good sense of the place, and I did some thinking.  I thought about my mother as I climbed, and at the top – I often think about her when I’m on mountains.  I guess these places are the most isolated and peaceful, and perhaps the height brings me closer to her.

Lots of goats on the side of the mountain…and more ladybugs than I’ve ever seen.  Ladybugs are my favorite insects – don’t they bring good luck?  Maybe we can thank them for Obama’s victory…

There was a teahouse/cafeteria near the summit, I stopped in there en route to the summit, and again on my way down the mountain.  I told the guys there that I was Canadian – I hope I can start telling the truth now that Bush is almost gone.

When I stopped at the teahouse on the descent there were some fellows there sporting kaffiyeh – some were Kurdish Turks, others were Syrian.  The teahouse guy translated for us – we talked about the impending election.  They asked me, ‘Obama baba Muslim?’ Was Obama’s father a Muslim?  I said yes – they were very pleased about that.  Don’t underestimate the power of this sort of thing out here – I was asked that very question by several other people.

A few minutes later, I had this gang of Turkish Kurds and Syrians (I think some of them were village heads) chanting ‘O-ba-ma!’  Sitting near the summit of Mt. Nemrut, chanting ‘Obama’ – surreal.  But fitting.

On the walk back to the pension, I started feeling my age – sore legs and feet, slight headache.  To distract myself I chanted a Sanskrit word I’d learned a while back in India – ‘ham-sa,’ which means ‘I am that.’  Two syllables, it matches up well with a two-step.  That helped me get down the mountain without thinking about my aching feet the entire time.

Back at the pension – had a quick lunch.  This pension is OK, but not great – rooms are drab and worn, and you’re also at their mercy for food, the village is quite far off.  I wasn’t too thrilled with the meals and was happy to take off after the requisite couple days.

Watched some ‘Heroes’ as I recovered from the climb.  Season 2, I realized, was affected by the Hollywood writers’ strike and was only 11 episodes long.  Polished that off, and decided to check iTunes to download the first few episodes of Season 3 when I found a wireless connection.

The ‘chef’ at the pension asked me that night about Obama and his chances.  He’s Kurdish and I think sympathetic to the Armenians, so he wasn’t put off by that aspect of Obama and seemed to like Obama a lot.

Quietest Saturday night in memory.  Nothing to do at the pension, and no beer anywhere around.  I think at that point, between Sanluirfa and Mt. Nemrut, I’d only had one beer in five days.  Eastern Turkey isn’t the best place to get down…

After a couple days at Mt. Nemrut, I traveled to the city of Gaziantep, a sizeable place a few hours away.  Yet another city of a million or so residents that you’ve never even heard of.   Had to switch minivans twice to get there – three buses in all.  Got to the bus station, and immediately bought my Ankara ticket for the next evening.  Then took a cab to my hotel, Ulluloglu, a decent place right in the center.

Gaziantep was much more cosmopolitan than Sanliurfa – lots of food places, a few bars, and a good street scene.  Was dying for some real food, and choice, after two days on Mt. Nemrut stuck at the pension.  Had a kebap, and then walked to the well-known Imam Cagdas for some baklava – this place is renowned as the finest baklava place in all Turkey.  Their stuff is incredible – the baklava literally melts in your mouth and makes a ‘fizz’ sound as it melts – so fresh and sweet.   I was liking Gaziantep and its vibe.

Hotel had wireless, caught up on emails and also watched the Saturday Night Live skit with McCain and Palin (Tina Fey) doing their QVC appearance.  Very funny stuff – McCain has a pretty good stage presence and if he were this relaxed and funny all the time, he might have won the election.  I also like the fact that politics in the U.S. allows for these sorts of appearances – if we could get the warring factions in the Congo to appear on a nighttime comedy show, and mock themselves, then the world would be a much better place.  So good for McCain that he put himself out there and was comfortable teasing himself and his campaign.  Showed a level of maturity and levity that is often missing in politics.  I only hope that the Obama Admin doesn’t forbid parody and humor…he and his people are extremely organized and on message, and that sometimes sidelines any sense of fun.

Speaking of fun – Palin was prank-called by a Canadian comic pretending to be French President Sarkozy.  This was funny to listen to, but also a bit of a stunner – how on earth did Palin (and her handlers) allow this to happen?  Some of the things the Canadian guy said defied belief and any savvy pol would have called his bluff.  I imagine the Dems are saving this for 2012…

Did a bit of sight-seeing in Gaziantep.  The city museum has a great collection of mosaics found at a sight nearby:

The second photo is the famous ‘The Gipsy Girl.’  But they’re by no means sure of the subject – some even think it may be of Alexander the Great…

Walked around the city and looked for a place to eat.  There was a street vendor right in front of my hotel selling icli kofte – lamb meat in a shell of fried bulgur.  Absolutely delicious – ate a bunch and the cost was just a few lira.  Then had an ‘atom’ juice at a drinks shop – this is a mixture of banana, milk, nuts and whatever else they throw in there – again, very nice.

It was Sunday night so not much going on.  Walked by a number of bars, but they appeared to be of the sort I checked out weeks earlier in Bergama – heinous girlie bars where they send working girls to your table and try to get you to buy them drinks.  I wasn’t in the mood for that.  Was about to head back to my hotel when I heard music wafting from a second-story building – turned out to be a small music bar, Zilgit, upstairs.  I went up and got a table – the guitarist was playing Kurdish songs and I drank a couple beers and listened to him.  Smoky place, but relaxing.

Next morning, I checked out of my hotel.  My overnight bus to Ankara wasn’t leaving until 11:30 p.m., so had some time to hang out before then.  Walked over to the city castle – seems most Turkish cities are built in the shadows of hills with castles atop them.  Pretty cool.  It was a Monday and the castle was closed – so just went to a little place for lunch, had a shish kebab which was very filling.  Just sitting there under the gaze of the castle felt good…a quintessential Turkisk experience.  If the Turko-pop were a little less loud, I could have lingered there all day.

Listened to some podcasts and music.  I enjoy Washington Week, moderated by Gwen Ifill.  One of the panelists, Karen Tumulty of Time, is very savvy and I always learn a lot from listening to her.  Last episode before the election – everyone agreed it looked good for Obama.  One thing I like about this podcast is that it’s balanced – it’s produced by PBS and thus could be seen as leaning left, but the panelists are pretty centrist and they don’t seem to have any real agenda besides covering the issues.  Check it out.

Sat in the hotel lobby for a while doing some emails.  I’d gotten a couple phone calls regarding potential work opps, and had to send out some emails after those calls.  Also called United Airlines and booked a roundtrip flight between Cairo and Mumbai for early December.  Will tack on a weeklong stint in Goa after that – am finding that I miss Goa these days.

While I was sitting there, dressed like a hippy, making my Skype calls and checking email, the hotel reception guys were watching me.  I must have made quite the sight – dressed like a slob, but sitting there with an expensive sleek little laptop, making businss calls and acting like my old, machinelike work self.

After taking care of biz, walked over to Umit Kebap and had a filling iskender kebap.  That would tide me over till lunch the following day.

Before I knew it, the day was gone and I had to get on my bus.  This was my last overnight bus for a while, most likely.  Busing is the way to get around Turkey, if you have time – but it’s a large country and I’ve probably had 4 overnight trips in 5-6 weeks.  They do weigh on you, but I recover pretty quickly.  Still, am looking forward to shorter trips when I’m in the Middle East.

My bus company was not one of the biggies.  I had decided to try out a company I didn’t know, called ‘Star Batman.’  There’s a city/region called Batman in the east, apparently.  I’m trying to favor the smaller players these days and relying a bit less on my guidebook.  They seemed eager for my business when I was walking around looking for the ticket – many companies have service to Ankara, so I had options.  All charged the same, so the diff was really reputation and time of departure.

Star Batman turned out to be a decent call.  No one sat next to me – I think they tried to keep that seat open so that I’d be more comfortable.  The bus itself was good, a Mercedes, and there were no problems along the way.  I took an Ambien when we left Gaziantep, and it worked pretty well.  I seem to recall looking at my iPod and it was shifting shape – I must have been in the zone between sleep and waking – and then I was out cold.

Got to Ankara around 8 a.m.  Took a free dolmus into the city.  Then walked for a bit before getting a cab to my hotel, which was pretty far away, in the citadel area on a hilltop.  Not a great location, but I hadn’t felt like spending hours finding a room and this place, Angora House Hotel, had a good rep.  I’d probably have to cab it around town to look for fun, but this was my final stop in Turkey and I was in the mood for a decent hotel room.

My cabbie first took me to the wrong hotel – the Angora Hotel, not the Angora House Hotel.  The meter was running…I was annoyed…but when we got to the right hotel he knocked down the price and made me whole.  Some cabbies are not thieves.

The hotel itself was nice – in an old Ottoman house, run by a nice family.  I’d mostly stayed at cheapo pensions in Turkey, and it was probably a good idea for me to experience a higher grade of accoms before taking off for Jordan.

Walked around Ankara for a  couple hours before sleeping off the overnight ride.  The city, Turkey’s capital, is just OK – it’s large and has its requisite museums, restos, hotels, etc. but doesn’t seem to have much of a personality.  Istanbul is another world.

Went to the Ataturk Mausoleum, called Anitkabir, a fairly impressive edifice and museum which includes relics from his life and from the Turkish War of Independence.  Ataturk had an amazing library – explains a lot about his worldliness and thinking.  You can learn a lot about someone from their reading list…

Got an email from friend Bill regarding my bit on Ur last week.  His point was that the ‘real Ur’ is the one in Iraq – the one near Al-Nasariyeh, with the famous ziggurat.  Bill was a serviceman in the first Gulf War (the good one), and had a chance to go see Ur when over there.  He sent me a couple on-site photos which I’d include here, but there’s some formatting issue which prevents it.  Oh well.

Anyway, I think Bill’s right.  I was starting to get at this last week – there seem to be two Ur’s – the one in Sumer/Iraq, and the one in modern-day Turkey where the locals claim Abraham was born.  The confusion arises, in large part, because it’s unclear from biblical writings which city is the famous ‘Ur of the Chaldees.’  Anyway, let the scholars fight it out – all I know is that between Bill and I, we’ve covered the Ur’s.  So there.

That’s it for now.  Am flying from here to Amman on Saturday.  Have spent the past six weeks in Turkey, seeing various parts of the country and enjoying myself here immensely.  Seems like ancient history (not as ancient as Ur) when I was on the ship from Odesa to Istanbul with Hartmutt and my Turkish cabinmates.  My first morning in Istanbul, with the strong coffee and the Galata Bridge walk, is still firmly in my mind, but so much has transpired since then.  Will miss Turkey – but it’s time to move on.

OK – gotta go and buy some multivitamins, my energy level is pretty low after the Election Night round-the-clocker and a few Efes beers last night.  Over and out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 7:05 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.