Blogs from Dili, East Timor, Asia - page 2

As usual, I composed various parts of a blog in my head and when it actually comes to putting it down in words, I can't remember it. I've been missing on here for some time for which I apologise to all the people who took the time to follow, write, inspire and encourage me. I do like writing but it usually feels a chore. I need to sort that bit out. Let's move on. Currently, I'm sitting at a marketplace at 05:18 in Lautem. A solitary light bulb hanging from the wooden beams provides enough light to see the goods for sale on the concrete tables whilst the wares laid out on sheets of plastic over the gravel surface are lit with torches or phone screens. Teens who collect the fares from bus travellers are the ... read more

Most if not all these months of July and August had been planned back in January and February. Only one part was left to the last minute, these little few days in Dili. Dili, is the capital of Timor East, aka Timor Leste, the newest country in Asia independent since only 2002. More on the history of Timor later. To reach Dili, there are....few flights. Sriwijaya is flying once or twice a day from Bali in a short, old 737. AirNorth is flying also once or twice per day on small planes from Darwin, and Silk Air has three flights a week from Singapore. As I was in Bali, Sriwijaya was the ideal choice. Slight problem, you cannot buy tickets outside of Indonesia, and via the internet, the only way is with an Indonesian credit card. ... read more

We decided over dinner that the 3 of us would spend the day exploring Dili. After breakfast we headed out to the Christ statue at the far east of greater Dili. You can see it from the waterfront anywhere in Dili. To get there we hopped in a mikrolet, a micro sized minibus with a bench seat on either side. East Timorese are not big people and you never see a fat one and even they are cramped in, our heads are pretty much on the roof so hunching over is mandatory. The mikrolets usual do a set route at a slow pace picking people up and dropping them off anywhere on route, but it was quiet at that time of morning and for the price we paid we figured that we probably actually chartered the ... read more

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 to sa ... read more

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