You’ve been to Asia, right? You understand the helter-skelter of motorbikes by the thousand weaving in and out of cars as they race towards some crazy goal. The cacophony of everyone using their horn.
Not sure I can capture it, but this is normal. Bikes passing either side, 3-4 lanes of traffic squeezing into what space is available, cars pushing in from left and right…
Food sold on the sides of the road. People tapping on your window selling stuff. That general sense of the place not being totally clean – rubbish collects in places.
The fish vendor was outside my hotel.
You can pick up takeaway chicken almost anywhere.
Well, Timor Leste is in Asia. It’s no different to the rest of Asia. Well, I guess except maybe it’s a little less chaotic.
I’ve said before that your average Timor Leste individual is a warm and empathetic person. So I think Dili is a little more, ummm, softer.
I loved it there. I stayed in a nice place by the beach. I drove a lot around the island. Timor Leste is mountainous, so I spent a day in the hills above Dili.
I re-introduced myself to my PADI qualification so I could dive there, and elsewhere on my drive. I met some really interesting people (in Dili, overlanders are common – I met three couples in 2 days). I went to the movies on the beach and to Jazz in the Park.
I did have a pretty bad experience under water on one dive – maybe more on that in another note. But getting into trouble 60 feet (18m) under water is very scary.
It’s not all roses. Timor Leste is desperately poor as a country. The people there do it tough.
And… I need to always include a sunset. Well, this photo is a sunrise, taken directly across the road from my hotel.
I headed to a place I was looking forward to seeing, Balibo. On the way I stopped for lunch in Maubara. This was in a 400-year-old Portuguese fort.
I stopped to pay my respects at the church in Liquica. Then I climbed up to Balibo.
More next time.