Timor-Leste

Well, its been literally years since I made an entry but I thought it was time to fire up the blog again for my first spot of travel back to S.E Asia in a long while.

For a country that was born within my lifetime and only 1.25 hours flight from my current residence in Darwin, I know embarrassingly little about Timor-Leste. So when a few consecutive off-weeks at work rolled by, a visit beckoned and on I got onto that plane, only one strait away but world’s apart.

The City

Dili

As far as capital cities go, it’s pretty compact and fairly small and definitely not geared towards tourists.

On the first morning we took a microlet down along the waterfont and visited the Cristo Rei “Big Jesus” statue. For the weekend the place was incredibly quiet.

A former Portuguese colony, Timor-Leste is mostly Roman Catholic and there’s a few nice churches in the city, including Dili Cathedral and the Motael Church by the sea.

The next morning we took the microlet out to Tibessi market and saw a bustling wet market in action.

We stopped by Santa Cruz cemetery on the way back into town. On one side of the road are Indonesian graves, on the other, East-Timorese graves. The cemetery was the site of a deadly massacre in 1991 during pro-independence turmoil in the city.

In the afternoon we went out to Timor Plaza, a big shopping centre and evidence of some new and heavy Chinese investment.

From the cafe on the fifth floor there’s a great view of the ocean.

Not far from Timor Plaza is Arte Moris, a 30 person art collective on the site of a former Indonesian-era museum. The place is a shrine to creativity and imagination, with the grounds dotted with colourful sculptures made from recycled hard waste.

While there is only a single de-facto gallery in Dili, there are two major museums, both of which pertain to the country’s fight for independence (as opposed to crafts or culture – hence you can recognize the role colonialism and conflict has had in shaping the nation’s identity). One of the museums is named ‘Chega!’, meaning ‘Enough’ , and is housed in the former Balide prison.

Actually, it seems that a lot of former prisons or detention centers are still currently occupied. Like this former Chinese grocers, which was turned into a torture chamber during the Indonesian occupation and now the shop front for Western Union and an Oppo store.

In Baucau, another city in Timor Leste, it’s even more wacky, with a former prison, which was formerly a beautiful Portuguese pousada, renovated back into the swankiest hotel in town.

The Mountains

Maubisse-Aituto-Hato Builico

The next day took us into the mountain town of Maubisse where we made a stop to see some classic Portuguese architecture at the church and the mountain Pousada.

For lunch I had bata-dang, a congee like dish made of local maize.

Afterwards the guide took us over to Aituto to see the secret Dotamaki waterfall.

Finally after some intense (but very picturesque) 4WD driving we got to the village of Hato-Builico.

Mount Ramelau

At 3:30 in the morning, we headed off to see the sunrise from the summit of Mt Ramelau, the highest mountain in the country, sitting at 2986m (beating Mt Kosciusko, the highest peak on the Australian continent at 2228m).

We were blessed with a full moon, clearing clouds and the sunrise was pretty amazing.

The Sea

Atauro Island

On Thursday I took the barge to Atauro. You can see it from Dili but it takes a surprisingly long time to get there, about 3-4 hours.

No passenger ferry ports in Dili, you hop on right at the shipping port where cargo and military ships dock.

There’s a real fishing village feel and a few art collectives operate in the town of Vila too.

It’s not quite the “TV-beach” you see in other parts of S.E Asia but still a popular place for scuba diving and snokelling. And of course, some ripper seafood and just bare-faced relaxation!

Between The Mountains And The Sea

Liquica – Maubara – Gleno – Dare

On Sunday I took a motorcycle tour out along the western coastline from Dili to Liquica (pronounced Licky-sa) to see the ruins of the former Portuguese customs post and prison, Ai Pelu.

We continued along the same road until Maubara Fort, which was actually built by the Dutch as an East Indies fortification, but fell into East Timor area when the colonizers returned their territories. The ruin was underwhelming and basically a grazing area for goats, but there was a nice local weaving market and a kicker cafe by the sea nearby.

From there we turned inwards and upwards towards Gleno, where most people still rely on subsistence farming and where, apparently, along with Aileu, most of the country’s vegetables originate from.

Some awesome views of the bay on the way down.

And also from Dare (pronounced da-reh), up in the hills behind Dili, our last stop before heading back into town.

There is a memorial up there to the East-Timorese soldiers who fought alongside Australian and Allied soldiers during WWII (and were subsequently abandoned, when the Allies gave up on East Timor as a post and there was some serious retribution from the Japanese army).

One sore bum and many kilometres on the road later, the rungarunga of Timor Leste folds into one beautiful, wild, and messy memory.

And I guess that really sums up not just the day, but the rest of the trip too. Timor-Leste is a great northern frontier worthy of understanding and exploration.