Timor Leste - Dili

So I have written a bit about Dili before, but here is what we did in Timor:

Day 1: We arrived in Dili early in the morning, and caught a taxi into the back packers. After dumping our stuff and choosing from the plethora of empty beds we hit the town. We wandered along the waterfront, and a Timorese guy came along for the walk. He asked several times if we wanted to go to his house for food, and after an hour or so of walking with us decided that he wanted a couple dollar for his efforts. That was our first, and one of only four or five instances, of people asking for money. I don't know what else to say really. It was like most of the small cities I have seen in south-east asia: lots of young people with carts selling water, snacks, warm soft drinks and phone credit; warm and humid; a bit smelly, dirty and wet; but bustling with life and smiles.

That afternoon we headed to Hotel Dili for drinks with a bunch of Australian yachtsmen who had just arrived in Dili after competing in the first Darwin - Dili yacht race since the Indonesian invasion. My cousin Ethers partners families big boat was anchored off Dili, and were coming to the party, so we went to met the family, and the sailors. Turns out it was a great arvo. We met a whole bunch of interesting sailors and ex-pats running big businesses in Dili. We met 5 of the family, and had a good chat to Alice and Angus who are from my our sort of hood, having been to Mazenod and St Brigits. Alice was working in Dili in Events Management with a government department, helping to organise an adventure race, and the Tour de Timor (a MTB tour - the roads are not road bike friendly).

Day two in Dili started with fried rice for breakfast at the Dili Beach Hotel, followed by some more wandering around, in between looking for stuff we needed to take on our adventure out of town. We saw a bunch more UN, and met an Australian Naval Officer (several times over the course of the day - such is Dili) who is advising the Timorese navy - it consists of 3 boats at present.

Our Timorese rural adventure was going to start by walking from the back packers to the hills fringing the south of the city, and finding the base of a path that has been trod by many a Timorese foot. Alice had indicated to us that there was an old trail that many refugees used to travel to and from Dili at various times of turmoil in the countries history. We had checked this with other people, and it seemed such a trail did exist, so we were going to give it a shot, and walk to the Australian War Memorial at Dare, a town 5 or 6km up the mountain, overlooking Dili. And that is what we did.