Beaurocratic nightmare

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We've made it to Dili no problems, almost. The only real problem is that I didn't get what I came here for, the 60 day visa. I clearly wrote "60 days" on the application but the friendly woman at the office told me it was impossible. That was after waiting around for 3 days. I went back to the window to politely insist and she said I needed to write a letter why I wanted to stay in Indonesia for more than 30 days, but that it was too late now and I could do it next time. It's like highschool busywork. I felt like yelling or throwing something but restrained myself. I've essentially come here for nothing, I could've gotten the 60 day visa in Singapore no questions asked and it would've been cheaper and faster.

I don't know what I'm going to do now. 30 days isn't enough time to do what I had planned. I won't be able to continue by mountian bike and explore the south coast of Sumbawa. I could just hang out in Sumba for the 4 weeks and then come back to Dili and do the application all over again. I could just run back to Kupang and turn right back around again and do the application all over again with the little letter. Or I could just run back to Sumbawa, grab my board and keep going till I reach West Java, surf a wave I know there till the 30 days are up and then make the short ride to Jakarta and a quick cheap flight to Singapore.

East Timor is interesting. People here can be very friendly but they're a little more stand offish than on the other islands further to the west. It's a nice break from the "Hello, Mister"'s. But people's hard looking faces usually soften when you smile at them. It's easy to understand, you just have to watch a couple of documentaries at the Ximana Gonsao reading room

East Timor is Independent but it doesn't feel any more like a different country than any other region of Indonesia. The majority of people Bali are Hindu while just over the water in Lombok they're Muslim, reach Flores and the majority are Catholic. Even on Sumbawa Island, on the western half of the island when they want to say "Just walking around" they say "blangan blangan" but in the eastern half, which was historically a seperate kingdom and ethnic group, they say "lampak lampak". East Timor is mostly Catholic and they speak Bahasa Tetun, the biggest difference is that they have their own flag, use US dollars, and have an enormous and uninteresting stamp which they proudly use to occupy an entire page in your passport once you've forked over $35 for the honor of entering the Republica Democratica de Timor-Leste.

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