BAUCAU (and How we had to fight for our Backpacks) - People of East Timor (4)

Hello dear Steemians and welcome to the fourth episode of my “People of East Timor” series! Today I will take you with me on the first leg of our journey from Dili to Jaco Island in the east. Come with me and my friends to Baucau!

In case you missed the first episodes of my East Timor series, check them out here:
https://steemit.com/travel/@mrwanderlust/people-of-east-timor-dili-1
https://steemit.com/travel/@mrwanderlust/people-of-east-timor-atauro-island-2
https://steemit.com/travel/@mrwanderlust/people-of-east-timor-cristo-rei-of-dili-3

So finally, the big adventure in East Timor was about to begin. We went to the bus station of Dili and had our first terrifying experience. When our taxi stopped at the station, about 15 local guys came running at us and started pulling our bags from the trunk and fighting over them.

For a second we thought they wanted to steal them but we figured out their actual intentions quickly. They were the drivers and co-drivers of the busses waiting for guests and they thought if they had our bags, we were forced to go with their particular bus. It was a weird situation.

I think it is best to show it to you guys in a short video. Watch how firmly the guy with the mask grabbed Jana's hand and pulled her towards his bus...

So basically, we were forced into the bus on the first picture in this post, but we did not regret it. On the way, we visited a brick “factory” and delivered a few cement bags to them.

The ride was pure fun, hilarious. One of the cement bags was leaking, so whenever the bus jumped because of a road bump, the air inside was full of cement dust. I covered my camera as good as possible but it did get dirty. There was Bryan Adams playing at a volume that made us feel like we were clubbing. When the album was done, guess what, it started again…

This is a photo from the factory.

See how nice our driver looks.

The landscape we passed by was incredible. Since it was dry season, the vegetation was not as beautiful as it could be and sometimes we felt like we were driving through Africa. It did not look like Asia. But there were endless stretches of lonely beaches.

After a few hours in the bus we arrived in Baucau, a little town half the way to Jaco, and found a tiny hostel. There were two rooms, both empty. For 30 Dollars we got one of them with three beds. When I moved a little bit in my bed, the entire construction collapsed and I was lying on the floor. You can imagine how much Thomas and Jana laughed about me…

Baucau is quite a beautiful little town:

In the evening, we walked through the streets and eventually ended up witnessing a cock fight. I will write about that tomorrow, too tired right now ;-)

So stay tuned and follow me for the next episode!

Till then, keep wandering and wondering,

Love,

mr.wonderlust