http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Indonesia , Timor en-us Sat, 05 Dec 09 14:31:51 +0000 Sat, 05 Dec 09 14:31:51 +0000 I arranged my flight onwards to Ruteng in Flores home of the giant rat....hopefully for Thursday at the unusual hour for Indonesia of 6am. With three days to utilise I chose to go to Bipolo on the first and third days and back to Camplong on the second to attempt to try and find the remaining endemic birds of the island. Bipolo was remarkably easy to get to simply bus to the whistlestop town http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-409030.html Gunung Mutis is FANTASTIC Getting there was a bit of a laugh though. First was a three hour bus trip from Kupang to Soe which wasn't bad because the bus was only halffull the buses aren't really buses either they're like bigger versions of minivans. Then a quick motorbike ride to where the bemos to Kapan leave from. I had been given to understand that I had to take a bemo halfanhour to K http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-408378.html Between the Merpati and Transnusa airline companies planes leave Waingapu Sumba for Kupang West Timor every day of the week. But as I found out they're all fullybooked days in advance which was a bit of a surprise. I went on the waiting list for the next day but there wasn't much hope of getting to Kupang before the end of the week. I had inadvertently found myself staying at the Hotel Elvi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-407453.html The first paragraph is for computer people only. Nonnerds can safely skip to the next paragraph. OK. There seems to be only one public Internet connection in this whole city and thatrsquos at what passes for the tourist hangout place. The only way to get on is to use their one computer or unplug their one Ethernet cable and hardcode your IP address to his 10. address and set your DNS se http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-376623.html As I woke up this morning having eaten very little for over 24 hours with no more drinking water no local currency and a vague idea of where I was my life had become concerned with the lower of Maslowrsquos needs hierarchy. Just like the original cavemen my primary concerns were then finding water finding food nursing my injured leg and finding a place to get on the Internet. Irsquom http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-376137.html Tuesday December 2 2008 KupangI was exhausted last night after our marathon bus trip but still found it difficult to sleep. Hope Irsquom not about to cop another bout of insomnia. Frustrated with my tiredness and apparent failure to rest properly I got up fairly early and sat out in the open walled restaurant at the hotel. It was a miserable morning with strong winds and heavy rains. I got a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-351081.html Today we are leaving Kupang to travel in Indonesia before returning home to the UK on Decemeber 12th. It is with mixed feelings we leave so sad to say farewell to some great people relieved to get away from the heat and noise satisfied even smug about what we have achieved amazed at what people can and will achieve when given the opportunities intrigued by the resourcefullness of people http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-347638.html Its official Colin is married to an old fossilThe thing they removed from my ear was a deposit of calcium if this is the first time for you of reading this blog you need to track down the entries for the ear saga as this is a follow up reportThe theory is that a chronic infection in the outer ear that went on for so long caused the body to lay down cells to surround the infected area but it http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-346217.html The saga of the Kupang ear.November blogFor me this month has been dominated by an ongoing ear infection.For Colin it has been a very productive month working with the suppliers to install the new hospital computer system all is looking good with the project at the moment.You may chose not to bother reading the rest of this self pitying whining blog entry which is all about me and my earThe sa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-344243.html 3 weeks on from the fire and we are back on track. We have a new computer training room and managed to salvage 5 computers from the fire and have 3 others that have been donated by VSO in Bali. So 8 useful computers some with burn holes in the cases but they workImmediately after the fire we met with the hospital management who were really keen that we reestablish the training room. So that http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-343880.html 4 weeks laterhelliphellipBeen here 4 weeks nearly and feeling quite settled funny how things which were so strange to start with I now donrsquot notice. In my first week I was terrified of falling down a hole in the pavement into a storm drain now Irsquom used to jumping holes dodging scooters in the road and have abandoned the foreign concept of a safe pavement. Canrsquot say that http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-343869.html Sunday 21st Septemberhelliphelliphellip.. had been a hot sticky lackluster day and we had hid away in our room most of the day. At 6 pm we went out to find somewhere to eat with not a lot of success as our favorite watering holes were shut as we wandered the noisy broken street of Kupang concentrating in the dark on spotting the broken pavements in order to avoid falling into a storm dr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-343861.html So here I am in Kupang West Timor Indonesia arrived July 28th living in an en suite no bedroom just an en suite. Canrsquot complain lsquocause I donrsquot speak the language. Actually itrsquos not so bad it is one large tiled hospital room usually assigned as doctorrsquos quarters. In the room is the sink and lsquoMandirsquo sluice and toilet and we have curtained off one http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-343843.html Blog 0 July 2008Our travels in 2008 have brought us to a noisy busy seemingly chaotic town Kupang on the dry dusty island of West Timor at the eastern end of Indonesia. The nearest town yoursquove probably heard of will be Darwin Australia approximately 1000 miles SE of us. Colin and I are here in Indonesia with Voluntary Service Overseas VSO to help install a hospital information syste http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-343174.html The time came to leave East Timor and head into Indonesia. As it happens Rita from the backpackers' hostel in Dili has a brother at university in Kupang so she insisted I should stay with him and while I was at it could I deliver some coffee and money to him from her. Rita was lovely all the way through my stay really friendly and chatty.So I set off for the 12 hour trip to Kupang. The ro http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-262865.html ....so mal wieder einen onlineknotenpunkt erreichtein kleines updatewir sind am 24.1. von bali nach kupang geflogenund weils es so schoen war ueber den wolken und sosind wir von kupang nach kalabahi mit ner kleinen propellermaschine... die droehn droehn klapper klapperum dann den luxus eines buschtaxis zu geniessen keine stossdaempfer bei schlechter strassenqualitaetdirekt zum pier vor pulau k http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-240541.html I've rejoined mainstream backpackers for the time being. The mountain bike and the surfboard are waiting for me half way across Sumbawa Island in Empang at Pak Am's house. My left knee couldn't continue. Very very frustrated but with no choice I continued by bus to Bima. I ended up hanging out in that town for 3 days on the misinformation that a boat was going to leave for Kupang Timor. I sta http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-238589.html Sumba was the next stop and with a 36 hour ferry ride ahead of me I felt like I was sailing to the end of the earth. A mix of characters amused me for the duration and with a wooden plank for a bed and an infinite supply of cockroaches and bugs I had to quickly adjust to this change in lifestyle. Luckily I could see it as just lsquobeing one of those thingsrsquo.I was offered gifts and food http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-119265.html One month travelling overland from Timor to Jakarta http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-63866.html Already by the time I arrived in Bangkok I had thought about trying to reach Australia overland meening to get there without flying. Partly because of getting a better feeling for the distance and partly because overland travel is cheaper and more interesting.My first real attempt to find a boat going to Australia was in Port Klang. But all the shipping agencies did not offer any kind of passeng http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Timor/blog-42110.html