Well it was a whirlwind tour of
East Timor, I arrived into
Dili after a lovely 4 hour flight from Singapore, to the views of tropical i
slands on the horizon, Palm trees gently swaying in the breeze, a balmy 34 degrees, and a whole lot of wonderful photo
opportunities. I arrived at
Nicolau Lobato Airport in
Dili at 2pm, and it is a small airport that is used by the UN,
Interfet troops from Australia and a few other people. one of the first thoughts of the airport is that it is very run down, and in dire need of an upgrade, but considering that 95% of the buildings in
Dili were burnt to the ground when the Indonesian troops / militia/ thugs left town it is little wonder that there is a few rundown buildings. the airport is bordered on two side by
IDP ( internally displaced persons camps) with anther one that was outside the airport arrivals terminal, this was moved due to =tensions between the groups as the different camps do not see eye to eye, there was still a couple f people living in the tents.
The drive from the airport into town was a adventure with Trucks, cars, taxis goats, bikes motorcycles and chickens all trying to share the road with the UN vehicles who you soon realise are one of the biggest dangers on the roads, never mind the gangs and political factions fighting there where more close shaves with the UN vehicles than any other thing on the road. we had one vehicle that pulled out to overtake a vehicle that we where already in the process of overtaking. three vehicles driving in a space designed for 2 at a maximum is not good.
spent a day just wandering around getting used to the city, for one of the poorest nations in South East Asia the streets are very clean although a little dusty, with a large amount of people in a small area and a limited sanitation there is an amazing amount of cleanliness. I soon learnt the word Malai as I was walking the streets as it was shouted by small children who then proceeded to wave madly and smile. I learnt that Malai means foreigner.
an introduction to the night life of Dili is short and sweet. after 8 pm it almost does not exist, well it is there but unless you have a vehicle to drive around in then you may as well go home as the taxis stop running after that time and then the streets are almost deserted.
With such a large international contingency in Timor the variety of food available was enormous, with anything from satay from beach side shacks and fresh fish caught locally through to pizza, pasta, stir fry, steaks and almost anything you could imagine, unfortunately including dog. mmmmm appetising I know. I was able to explore the area little bit with a trip to a 4-500 year old Portuguese prison, that is slowly being reclaimed by the elements, this was a magical spot about 50 metres off the beach, looking out over white sand beaches and palm trees. A very photogenic little spot. There was also a salt mine that was explored by us, this is a traditional method of collecting sea water and evaporating it down to the salt over an open fire in a palm thatched hut. This is a very labour intensive process where the water and mud is collected in hollow bamboo tubes and then filtered through a timber and mud filtration unit. This is then taken into the mud hut and heated over an open fire for probably hours on end, the tray of salt we watched would f been about 1.2m long by 1m wide and 0.1m deep. the heat in the hut is atrocious it was about 50 degrees.
More time was spent checking out local sights such as the imposing Christo Rey, Christ statue on the side of the hill overlooking the whole coastline of Dili. The Pope John Paul Statue at the opposite side of the valley was also an impressive sight with views stretching back to the east overlooking the whole coast.
As coffee is the biggest export from Timor I checked out the process of how it is produced from a little red berry in a fleshy pod through to the dry shrivelled bean that is then roasted and ground and consumed by millions of people every day. The sight of a pile of coffee bean bags 15 metres high was impressive.
The chinese temple in central Dili was also an interesting little side visit. A day spent driving to Maubisse was also beautiful as the change in temperature from the hot humid capital of Dili to the cooler temperate climate of Maubisse was great, the views of rolling hills and deep lush green verdant valleys is wonderful. I hope the photos do it justice.
After spending a few days in Dili I had a turn of driving on Dili roads, which is not as hard as one might expect, once you get the hang of driving all over the road it is not too hard and realise that motorbikes, children, goats, chickens pigs and UN vehicles have absolutely no road sense at all it is almost fun.
thats all for now.
