On the edge of the Indian Ocean, I am cold and cannot sleep well. I wake suddenly, hearing noises of indeterminate animals outside my room. When I sleep, I dream of water, of waves rushing over me, sweeping me away, sweeping everything away.
These dreams really happened, but not to me. I'm in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, on the far north-western tip of Indonesia. It was a few kilometres offshore from here that the earthquake that caused the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck. The waves broke ground in Banda Aceh and swept everything before them. My dreams are the stuff of other people's nightmares: more than 150,000 Acehnese were swept away that day.
I leave my room and the hotel and go walking. Near the hotel, the only light comes from a tarpaulin-covered stall selling DVDs. The man is wrapped in a waterproof sheet and peers at me from underneath. "Assalamalaikum," he waves. I ponder asking him who buys from him at this time of the morning, but he is in his own world. It is 4am, 5am, past the hour when people are awake and everything is dark. In the park opposite I can hear voices but see nothing; in the distance around me are the shapes of the hills that surround this city.
I walk for a while, oblivious of direction, ending up in front of the Grand Raya Baiturrahman mosque, the city's main landmark. On one side, there are numerous small stalls selling vegetables but no customers; the stall-holders sit on plastic chairs together, playing cards.
The mosque is architecturally astonishing, especially at night when it is artfully lit up. The contrast of white walls and dark domes is quite beautiful and its mix of Indonesian, Indian and Arab architectural influences is unique. It is later described to me as "a jewel, our most precious jewel".
And that's the puzzle of the Grand Raya mosque. West of here there is nothing, just the open, dark ocean, hundreds and thousands of kilometres of it, all the way to the African continent. For the rest of Indonesia, Aceh is remote; for the world, especially the world of the 19th century, when the mosque was built, it may as well have been another planet. And yet the people who built and expanded the mosque believed so much in their faith that they created something of this grandeur, in a place almost no one would see.
More people are seeing it now. Aceh is finally shrugging off its long and tragic history. For nearly 30 years, guerrillas in this oil-rich province fought a separatist war against the government, until the 2004 tsunami devastated the region. The guerrillas made peace and the city has been rebuilt with international aid. Now its leaders are determined to put this province on the tourist map. As a sign of this, the tiny airport now issues visas on arrival, making it only the third airport in the country that does this (the others being Jakarta and Bali), catering mainly to Malaysians who come on short-haul budget flights.
This year has been designated "Visit Aceh 2011" by the local government and the city is planning events and festivals over the next few months.
Aceh's hopes rest on three things - the tsunami, Sharia law and the vast, unspoilt natural wonders of the area. From that perspective, the lack of tourist infrastructure is a selling point, a wholesome alternative to some of Indonesia's other resorts.
The Grand Raya mosque escaped the tsunami almost unscathed. The locals say it was divine intervention, pointing to photographs that show the tsunami devastating the buildings all around, on the opposite side of the road, but leaving the mosque untouched.
The rest of the city was not so lucky. It is difficult to conceptualise what a roar of nature on that scale must have been like. There is a museum to help guide visitors through it, but it is not yet finished. A small industry has grown up to help visitors navigate the various sites, with tours organised.
To get a sense of the scale of the tsunami, I go to the "tsunami ship". I keep calling it a boat and people berate me, and when I see it I understand why. It is a power generation ship, a six-storey, 3,000-tonne barge that was several kilometres offshore when the tsunami hit. The force of the waves washed it back to land and carried it across houses to its current resting place, three kilometres inland. It is clearly an attraction, full of Indonesians scrambling up to the viewing platform at the top, taking photographs and family videos.
When the tsunami struck, I was at my desk at The Guardian newspaper offices in London, trying to piece it together. Yet nothing I have seen or read about the tsunami, then or since, has come close to explaining the sheer power of that event as what I saw from the top of the viewing platform. Looking north and west to the sea, it is a fairly unremarkable sight, a collection of small houses to the horizon. It takes a moment to focus on the hazy green outlines of islands, far in the distance. It's only then that the reality of that day hits you, because the tsunami came from beyond those islands, far, far away, dragging the ship all this way. It was a moving wall of water from which there was no escape.
The other "attraction" is Sharia law. Tourist agencies are officially pushing this as an "Islamic" destination: "Come and see how an Islamic community lives and Sharia is applied," says a tourism official. As part of the post-tsunami peace agreement, Aceh became a semi-autonomous state but has made some of its own laws since 2001. The Sharia component is complicated - there are only a handful of Sharia laws in effect (though more are planned), banning gambling and alcohol, mainly to do with morality and standards of modest dress. But they don't apply to foreigners. The tourist authorities seem to be aiming for a balancing act - they are aware that Sharia tourism offers a potential unique selling point for the region, but they are also nervous about putting off western tourists, who might instead head for the more carefree beaches of Bali.
Yet the irony is that, while the few Sharia laws have fallen heavily on some inhabitants of Aceh, particularly rural women who have complained of abuses by the Sharia police, its effect is not immediately obvious to foreigners. Banda Aceh is a relaxed, open city, with men and women interacting in public as in the rest of Indonesia. Acehnese were already fairly devout before the introduction of Sharia a few years ago.
A dozen or so kilometres northwest of Banda Aceh is the island of Pulau Weh, a sort of mini Bali. You get there by ferry, to the main port town of Sabang on a slow boat that takes three hours but feels longer. The lapping waves and the rocking of the boat, combined with the knowledge of how far from everywhere you are, gives an end-of-the-world feel. The attraction of Pulau Weh is that there is almost nothing there. Diving spots are unspoilt and attract only hardcore, in-the-know divers.
The locals keep telling me about Aceh Basar (a province of Aceh, south and west of Banda Aceh) and all the wonderful hiking there. The forests and hills around Banda Aceh are luxuriant, and from the plane they appear remote and unspoilt. Yet I can find nobody who organises hiking; no guides, no maps, no tourist companies. In the end, I meet an Australian couple at the hotel who say they went solo, taking a driver, a packed lunch and their boots.
On an early morning drive out to the foothills that surround the city, its natural beauty is clear. Thick mist swirls around and the few Acehnese walking past are barefoot, oblivious to us. We drive for a few hours, slowly, feeling the rhythm of rural life.
Driving into Banda Aceh after Jakarta, the city feels impossibly small. But a few hours driving around the small villages outside gives me a different perspective. The roads are paved, but dirt paths branch off at regular intervals, opening into labyrinthine streets of small, neat houses. Here, the car seems impossibly clunky and noisy. The Acehnese watch us indifferently from their front porches. When we stop to ask directions, the silence is immense and natural: I realise there are no artifical sounds like motorbikes, or even the hum of wheels on tarmac. Back in Banda Aceh, the city seems ugly with sounds. When I get back to the hotel around midday, I sleep peacefully, with thoughts of trees and grass.
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Globalization and its Discontents Revisited
Joseph E. Stiglitz
W. W. Norton & Company
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 194hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Price: from Dh155,000
On sale: now
The Kites
Romain Gary
Penguin Modern Classics
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
Company%20Profile
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
TCL INFO
Teams:
Punjabi Legends Owners: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Intizar-ul-Haq; Key player: Misbah-ul-Haq
Pakhtoons Owners: Habib Khan and Tajuddin Khan; Key player: Shahid Afridi
Maratha Arabians Owners: Sohail Khan, Ali Tumbi, Parvez Khan; Key player: Virender Sehwag
Bangla Tigers Owners: Shirajuddin Alam, Yasin Choudhary, Neelesh Bhatnager, Anis and Rizwan Sajan; Key player: TBC
Colombo Lions Owners: Sri Lanka Cricket; Key player: TBC
Kerala Kings Owners: Hussain Adam Ali and Shafi Ul Mulk; Key player: Eoin Morgan
Venue Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Format 10 overs per side, matches last for 90 minutes
When December 14-17
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Important questions to consider
1. Where on the plane does my pet travel?
There are different types of travel available for pets:
- Manifest cargo
- Excess luggage in the hold
- Excess luggage in the cabin
Each option is safe. The feasibility of each option is based on the size and breed of your pet, the airline they are traveling on and country they are travelling to.
2. What is the difference between my pet traveling as manifest cargo or as excess luggage?
If traveling as manifest cargo, your pet is traveling in the front hold of the plane and can travel with or without you being on the same plane. The cost of your pets travel is based on volumetric weight, in other words, the size of their travel crate.
If traveling as excess luggage, your pet will be in the rear hold of the plane and must be traveling under the ticket of a human passenger. The cost of your pets travel is based on the actual (combined) weight of your pet in their crate.
3. What happens when my pet arrives in the country they are traveling to?
As soon as the flight arrives, your pet will be taken from the plane straight to the airport terminal.
If your pet is traveling as excess luggage, they will taken to the oversized luggage area in the arrival hall. Once you clear passport control, you will be able to collect them at the same time as your normal luggage. As you exit the airport via the ‘something to declare’ customs channel you will be asked to present your pets travel paperwork to the customs official and / or the vet on duty.
If your pet is traveling as manifest cargo, they will be taken to the Animal Reception Centre. There, their documentation will be reviewed by the staff of the ARC to ensure all is in order. At the same time, relevant customs formalities will be completed by staff based at the arriving airport.
4. How long does the travel paperwork and other travel preparations take?
This depends entirely on the location that your pet is traveling to. Your pet relocation compnay will provide you with an accurate timeline of how long the relevant preparations will take and at what point in the process the various steps must be taken.
In some cases they can get your pet ‘travel ready’ in a few days. In others it can be up to six months or more.
5. What vaccinations does my pet need to travel?
Regardless of where your pet is traveling, they will need certain vaccinations. The exact vaccinations they need are entirely dependent on the location they are traveling to. The one vaccination that is mandatory for every country your pet may travel to is a rabies vaccination.
Other vaccinations may also be necessary. These will be advised to you as relevant. In every situation, it is essential to keep your vaccinations current and to not miss a due date, even by one day. To do so could severely hinder your pets travel plans.
Source: Pawsome Pets UAE
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
The chef's advice
Troy Payne, head chef at Abu Dhabi’s newest healthy eatery Sanderson’s in Al Seef Resort & Spa, says singles need to change their mindset about how they approach the supermarket.
“They feel like they can’t buy one cucumber,” he says. “But I can walk into a shop – I feed two people at home – and I’ll walk into a shop and I buy one cucumber, I’ll buy one onion.”
Mr Payne asks for the sticker to be placed directly on each item, rather than face the temptation of filling one of the two-kilogram capacity plastic bags on offer.
The chef also advises singletons not get too hung up on “organic”, particularly high-priced varieties that have been flown in from far-flung locales. Local produce is often grown sustainably, and far cheaper, he says.
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
