Blogs from East Timor, Asia - page 9

Tourists - an unknown species East Timor is the place to go if you like to travel to foreign countries but you don't like tourism (which seems to be a wide spread attitude of independent travellers). Tourism in East Timor is not well organised, if you measure with Indonesian standards, and if you take New Zealand's tourist industry as comparison, tourism in East Timor is non-existent. When we arrived at the outskirts of Dili coming from the Indonesian border, our taxi driver got a bit nervous when the police stopped the car. passports, please. What nationality are you? What business?? tourists?! Ah, well, go ahead. Dili is definitely the place you have to start your East Timor journey. Here you find accommodation, food and transport, the basic needs which are rare in other parts of the ... read more

Waking up this morning... ehm... noon... with a nice colour pattern, my red and white skin mainly resembling that of a painted Danish soccer fan. I had some delusions about maybe doing a daytrip to Baucau, the second city of Timor Leste, but cannot really work myself into the mood. Instead I head downtown and stock up on some more film before returning to checkout my newfound love, the Dili waterfront. There is some activity in the container port but the rest of the city seems to be in siesta mode. All the street vendors I encounter are curled up in the small patches of shadows that can be found under the trees. I soon decide to follow their example and find a nice spot in front of the presidential palace that also offers a great ... read more

Even though there is a lot of commotion in the street outside I refuse to get up before ten. Billy and Manuella are already out visiting relatives, so I can take it slow with the mandi chores and have some noodles for breakfast and look as tired and grumpy as I want to. I then go sit out on the front porch and relax in the nice shadow. As they arrive back at the house we say goodbye and I finally get to deliver that phrase I have been practicing to remember all morning (Obrigadu barak ba Ita-nia ospitalidadi). We depart around elven with two more passengers, a woman from next door and a chicken. Before returning to Dili we will drive into the mountains and the ancestral cemetary where the great grandparents can be found. ... read more

Yet another tiring morning flight, although this time at least I am staying close to the airport. It gets a bit tiring living in a coffer like Yasser Arafat always lugging bags around, so it is good to know that today I will arrive in a place where I can settle down for a few days. I am immensely happy to finally board for Dili, a place I have been wanting to visit for so long. The weather is great and the flight over Nusa Tenggara introduces me to the beauty of the Indonesian archipelago with spectacular views. We pass island after island with rising mountains and shiny white beaches. Volcanic cones crop up from time to time, from very small ones to wide and deformed craters. Quite spectacular. Dili's diminutive Nicolo Lobato airport is currently ... read more

Hello, Timor-Leste, previously known as "East Timor", is on my way since May 2000, when I first came to this now "newest country in the world". Since then I came several times and live here for more then two years. I'm speically passionate for the way Timorese people smile. I'll try to give you some informations about life here and i'll display several photos. Since I'm Portuguese, once and a while I'll write in my native language. See you later... and come to visit Timor-Leste, the country of the best smiles! ... read more