People of East Timor - Dili (1)

Hello dear Steemians and welcome to the first episode of my “People of Timor-Leste“ series! I am very excited to take you on an adventure to this beautiful country east of Indonesia. My 1,5 weeks traveling through East Timor with my friends Jana and Thomas have been one of the most imprinting experiences in my life and I honestly want to share that with you as openly as possible.

But first let me tell you something about the country since many people have never heard of it: The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste has been independent since 2002 only and is therefore one of the youngest sovereign states on earth. After the Portuguese colonized the area in the 16th century, it became independent in November 1975 the first time. However, that period only lasted 6 days before Indonesia invaded Timor-Leste and made it the 27th Indonesian province.

The following decades were characterized by violence between FRETILIN (Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor) and the Indonesian army. Finally, in Mai 2002, Timor-Leste (or East Timor) became sovereign again and was protected by UN peacekeepers until about 5 years ago.

When me and my friends read about East Timor first, it was soon clear that we wanted to go to Jaco, a small island at the eastern tip of East Timor that is holy to the locals and can therefore not be populated. In other words, we wanted to go to that paradise island that we would have all to ourselves for a day and get to know the country and people on the way there.

The plan was to travel from Dili – the capital city in the west – all the way to the eastern tip and back in about 1,5 weeks. Let me show you the map, so you know what I am talking about:

It was a Friday morning when we arrived in Dili after a 3-hour flight from Bali. It was hard not to laugh about the airport’s size. Basically, it was just one room as big as a generous living room and half of it was occupied by the baggage belt. It was hilarious.

East Timor has about 1,2 million inhabitants and 200.000 of them live in Dili. When passing through the streets in a Taxi, it felt even smaller, like a village. The taxi had a spoiler, a TV with a crazily loud sound system and a bottle of wine attached to the chassis right next to the driver’s face. The music was so loud, the base made us jump on the back seats. I couldn’t stop laughing about the whole situation…

In the evening, we explored the city by foot. The history of violence and danger was still very present and houses tended to be secured by barbed wire fence. Life seemed to take place on the street, people just hanging out, doing sports, buying stuff from the windows of little shops…

When we came back to our hostel late at night after we had entertained the locals by an incredibly bad performance in a karaoke bar, we couldn’t get inside because the door was locked after 10 and the hostel was – of course – surrounded by barbed wire fence. In the end, we made the taxi driver call the hostel and we fell asleep in our luxurious suites ;-).

There are so many stories I have to tell and people I want to introduce to you, so I will post my East Timor story piece by piece.

Stay tuned for the next episode about Aturo Island and how we got f***d by the ferry’s timetable…

Till then,

Love,

mr.wonderlust