Blogs from Dili, East Timor, Asia
May 22nd 2012
It would seem that there are many of you, family and friends, who are under the impression we are on some sort of glorified extended holiday. We are NOT on a holiday! Riding a bike from London to Sydney is more like unpaid work, really. Expensive unpaid work at that. For example, we are very busy every day with planning routes, finding food and accommodation in strange countries, crossing borders, arranging visas, arranging bike shipping, writing blogs even! Well, ok, perhaps not so busy writing blogs as this one is somewhat overdue. Hmmm, so where were we when I last wrote something? Lombok for my birthday… two months ago.Yes, definitely not so busy writing blogs. Turning… older (the nice thing about being old is you can forget how old you are) I would like t... read more
September 17th 2011
It’s early Saturday morning and I’ve been in Dili (East Timor) since late on Monday. Once again I’m travelling with a group from work to train some local people in the use of some software that has been developed at work and to also run a workshop on climate and climate change for a larger group of people. We had to travel from Melbourne last Monday because we could not arrange flights from Darwin to Dili for the weekend. We initially thought that this was because a lot of Army personnel use those flights but I think that it was because of a bike race. For the last few years East Timor has been running the Tour de Timor. This is a bit like the Tour de France but for mountain bikes. I also imagine that ... read more
February 22nd 2011
I never managed to venture out of Dili the whole time I’ve been in East Timor which is not my usual way of travel and I’m excited to be moving on tomorrow. I had to be back in Dili this afternoon so it wasn’t really long enough to go east or south to Mt Ramelau and see more of the country but a little too long to stay entertained in Dili. I was going to go out to Atauro Island but by the time I came up with that plan it was Sunday and there were definitely no boats going out. As soon as I got to Dili I started to organize my Indonesian visa. I was told I wouldn’t have a chance getting it submitted until Monday since people get there at 5am to line ... read more
January 15th 2011
Had a slower day looking at potential clinic sites in Dili. We targeted some of the poorer areas that likely do not have access to health care. What an awakening! Several area with no access to water and no sewer systems. Open sewage systems were common. One empty building at a school we surveyed isn’t usable because it being used as a toilet. We meet with the Japanese contingency today who will be partnering in providing medical services. ... read more
January 11th 2011
Another warm and humid day in Dili. Spent most of day meeting with local agencies and NGO's. ... read more
January 9th 2011
Made to Dili, dog tired and worn out. Slept about 4 hours in 1 hour intervals in the last 36 hours. Had our first meeting at the US Embasy. There's several multi-national forces working here including the United Nations and Non-Government Organizations. ... read more
July 12th 2010
12/07/2010 Time to spice up my travels a little, my Indonesian visa was due to expire so in order to get an extension I would have to venture out of the country. Situated in Kupang, West Timor belonging to Indonesia I would have to head to Dili the capital of East Timor also known as Timor Leste, where in 1999 it became its own country. After years of conflict due to an unwanted Indonesian occupation where an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 East Timorese lost their lives the UN stepped forward and sanctions were imposed thus ousting out the Indonesians and making East Timor independent. Tensions these days apparently less obvious with the last public outbreak of conflict being in 2007 during the presidential elections. The poorest country in south east Asia, crime apparently not rife, but ... read more
May 20th 2009
In a land where ripping off the tourist often seems to be a national pastime for many touts, transport personnel, restaurant and accommodations catering to westerners, it sure was nice to find a refreshing change of pace. I stumbled upon Edwin and his L'Avalon bar/cafe/accomodations one day while simply meandering the streets of Kupang, West Timor, having already been in town three nights. His hip bar/cafe was an open air shack on the water, just off the road; he even piped in good solid tunes from his ipod, blaring out of two speakers facing the main road, and well-heard inside the cosy place. Edwin turned out to be a wealth of good information and also kept current info posted on his walls of the goings on and happenings in Kupang and West Timor, flight and ... read more
February 17th 2009
Most of this was written yesterday, 16 Feb 2009, or the day before All backpackers express a desire to get “off the beaten track”, which isn’t always as great an idea as it sounds, because the reason a track is beaten in the first place is because it leads to a nice or interesting place. But still, it’s an alluring dream. In my opinion, there’s two ways to get off the beaten track. One is to use your travel skills, and negotiate with locals, probably do some research on a place, maybe learn the language, etc. The other way is to go to somewhere that doesn’t have a beaten track, then you have no option. “If there’s one thing East Timor doesn’t have, it’s a beaten track” says the Lonely Planet guidebook. Of course we all ... read more
February 15th 2009
Just a quick note that I arrived in Dili yesterday. As far as I can work out, Internet is a bit unreliable, and I can't find a wireless access point. I mainly spent yesterday walking around Dili, which is quite spread out, fairly poor, and full of UN vehicles everywhere. I got bitten by lots of mosquitos already, despite taking all the precautions, but don't worry Mum I'm taking my doxy tablets :-) East Timor's very expensive compared to other SE Asian countries. They use the US Dollar as their official currency which doesn't help, and like everywhere else that uses the US Dollar, the constant struggle is to find denominations low enough to pay people with, because no-one has change! The bit I saw yesterday showed signs that it used to be much prettier than ... read more
