Blogs from Baucau, East Timor, Asia

Pomale vymotanie sa z ubytka a smer bus stanica becora na vychode mesta vzdialena podla majitela ubytka asi 8km. Aby som sa tam dostal mikroletom musim spravit dve zmeny. Mikrolet c.1 ide od stadiona (rotunda Xavier do Amaral). Kukam do mapy, tam sa dostanem aj pesi a hned si cestou odskrknem katedralu da Imaculada Conceição. Tu prave opustali katolici, vnutro nic moc. Mensou zachadzkou sa blizim k bodu odkial chodia mikrolety. Zachadzka bola neplanovana, som zle odbocil. Ale co aspon som spoznal dalsie ulicky hlavneho mesta (neni o co stat). Obzrem sa a mikrolet c.1. Pre istotu si potvrdzujem miesto vykladky. Ok. Dnu len dvaja ludia. Vypadavam na konecnej, prechadzam most cez mini rieku, v ktorej sa umyvaju deti a uz na mna mava nadhanac do busu. Posadili ma dopredu k vodicovy, vedla mna stredoskolak, ktory ... read more

Thursday is the big market day in Baucau so of course we headed straight there. The market was pretty chaotic, with heaps if buses and mikrolets blocking the road with the roofs loaded right up. Mainly it was veg, flour and grains and kitchen stuff, with shops in tin shacks lining the adjoining streets. Emma bumped into the local crazy man (he really was, Victor showed his photo to a local later that day and that is what he told us). The crazy man asked Emma is she was a girl. It took a while to work out what he was saying, the gesture he was making was an upside down ok, and he had Emma checking her fly and looking at her belly button before she realised that he was asking her if she had ... read more

We arrived back at the hotel earlier today after 2 long days driving to and from the eastern end of East Timor. It certainly was interesting. We left Dili at 8:00 a.m. and had lunch at East Timor’s 2nd largest town Baucau which is just 123 km away. I’ve been on worse roads in China but these were still pretty bad – huge potholes, missing bridges, missing tarmac etc. If we weren’t slowing down because of road conditions we were slowing down so that we didn’t hit a cow, goat, pig, dog, chook or human. Still, we travelled in relative comfort in a 4WD. The locals travel either by small motorbike, microlet, bus or truck. A microlet is a tiny minibus which is packed to the gunnels with people, often with people hanging on but travelling ... read more

Sunday morning I said goodbye to the clinic and to the crazy, chaotic, and energetic city of Dili and made my way to Triloka. The night before I left, the housemates I had been staying with had a small party for me. After pryer in the small back room, we gathered around the kitchen table where they wished me well and sent their regards to my husband and family and presented me with a traditional tais cloth. Tais is the traditional weaving done in East Timor. I stood there in this romm full of beautiful Timorese people speaking to me in a language I am just beginning to understand and felt overwhelmed once again. Immediately, they recognized that I might be about to cry (again) and told me not to be sad, that I would come ... read more