We soon reached the border crossing. We got to passport control, handed over our passports and immediately got told to wait - the supervisor would be with us shortly! What on earth had we done? It turned out we had overstayed our visas by a day. By our calculations we had stayed exactly 30 days, but the supervisor counted the days we arrived and left as two full days! We thought that he was just after a bribe but he assured us that they were alerted when they scanned our passports. We reluctantly forked out about $30 each (in a mix of USD and rupiah) and were given our passports back but not our change. We thought it was best not to argue over a few dollars.
The drive into Dili was beautiful. We hugged the coast most of the way. We could immediately see that the population density was far lower than that of West Timor and the animals were better fed. There are a lot of Chinese-funded roadworks being done here so we would whoosh along on new roads for 15 minutes then we would hit ruined roads again for a while. The Chinese roads are disintegrating before they're even finished though.
As we approached Dili we started dropping people off. It took ages just to get into Dili and darkness fell before we could see the place. It's supposed to be dangerous to walk around Dili after dark so we were a bit concerned. We had assumed we would be taken to a bus station but they took us to the door of our hotel. Fantastic! We have the maps.me app on our phone and it was a huge help.
We checked into our very friendly and quite nice hotel. The restaurant here was great and we enjoyed some western food for a change. The next day we wandered around Dili and it was so quiet! I felt that we were in the town, looking for the town. Smart supermarkets were tucked away in dusty alleys and nothing much seemed to be going on. It was more like a big country town than a capital city. In two days I didn't take a single photo! We didn't check out any sites. We just caught up on internet stuff and got the next stages of our trip organised. One thing we soon realised though is that this city feels very safe. I think a lot of the warnings might be out of date. There are heaps of Aussies here, mostly working for NGOs (charity workers, etc). Nobody we spoke to had any problems here.
Part of our plan for East Timor was to visit Ballarat's sister town, Ainaro. Our kids' old school has a connection here plus some of the teachers help out here. It's not easy to get to Ainaro so we took the easier option and paid for a car and driver to take us there. It took 4.5 hours along another mish-mash of new and deteriorated roads but the scenery was spectacular. We wound our way through green valleys and past amazing mountains.
Connor, we thought this truck should win the "I really can't see anything through my windscreen" award!
At Ainaro, we met up with Karin (a teacher from our kids' old school) and her husband, Andrew. They run an art school here. Kids in Ainaro don't generally learn art, sport or drama in school so this art school provides a unique service.
Andrew and Karin set up the school but don't live here. Paul runs it while they are away. John and Paul felt decided they were the pope with their two names!
Andrew and Karin arranged for three feature artsts to come from Dili to teach. From left to right: Gil, Marky and Ekky.
Gil had the longest dreadlocks I've ever seen! He's been growing them for 15 years.
We helped out a bit in the art room. The kids were so keen! They kept coming back again and again to draw more pictures.
Awww, this girl wrote "I heart Heter" on her drawing! That was a pretty good guess at the spelling of my name!
Andrew and Karin had booked us in at the homestay they were staying in. It was very basic but it was good to stay in a place that was similar to the standard of most of the homes the kids lived in. In fact it was probably better than most. Also staying here were the three artists, Gil, Marky and Ecky, plus two ladies from Darwin, Meena and Anne-Marie who were also helping out at the art school.
On our first night, music started playing loudly at the house directly opposite ours. There was obviously a party going on. It turned out that a baby had been born three days earlier and this was a "washing of the baby's eyes" party. I think it's a bit like a head-wetting. Naturally, we were all invited! After dinner, we all headed over there in our Sunday best - not! We had all washed and were in our comfy evening gear - trackie pants etc.
We were all welcomed warmly. We were immediately told we had to eat, even though we'd just had dinner! We were then invited to write our names down for a dance. We had no idea what was going on but we all volunteered. The father of the baby made a speech then invited the first dancers up. Luckily there were a dozen or so names down so we weren't alone. The dancing was quite typical of western dancing so we were fairly safe.
Andrew and Karin were in fine form.
Meena and Gil got their groove on.
Some of the young couples were quite good dancers. Apparently they learn at school, which is a bit odd seeing they don't learn any other creative subjects.
We were told the party would keep going til about 6am. Sure enough, the music blared all night and stopped at exactly 6am! Most people at our place got very little sleep. John and I found it wasn't too bad - at least the music drowned out the worst of the roosters!
The next day was Andrew's and Karin's final day at the art centre and we spent the day setting up for an exhibition of work. Many local dignitaries were invited to the exhibition. The local policeman, the army sergeant and school principles turned up as well as a government official. There were speeches then a school from the next town performed some dances and singing.
First there was drumming. Marky joined in.
Then the traditional dancing started. It was simple but really interesting.
The girls played the drums in the background while the boys danced. I couldn't photograph them while they were playing from where I was sitting unfortunately.
This guy looked photogenic playing guitar among the art works.
Next to the art room was the English teaching room. Merridy, Kim amd Jenny were all Aussies who taught there for a few weeks or months at a time. They were great value. They contributed significantly to the sales on the day.
Andrew and Marky were interviewed by the local radio station!
All in all, it seemed to be a successful day!
The next morning, Kim led Meena, Anne-Marie, Ekky, John and I on a walk. We climbed up to the top of a nearby hill where there was a lookout point. It was beautiful!
Most buildings are generally in a dilapidated state in East Timor. I had assumed this church was abandoned but it was still in full use!
Along the trail.....
We crossed three streams and rivers. They were all gorgeous.
The problems associated with lack of internet connectivity were brought home to me when I found out that my dad had been taken to hospital. Internet was available here but we just didn't have the right setup. Dad has been in and out of hospital since then. They still aren't exactly sure what the problem is. Sometimes home seems a long way away.
Ainaro was set spectacularly in a valley between mountains. It sits at 830 metres so the nights were pleasantly cool. We had our mandis (showers using water scooped from a bucket) each evening as that was when the hot water was ready.
The three Aussie teachers were staying in a different place to us. It was lovely and they had a gorgeous view.
They were a fun bunch! From left to right: Kim, Merridy and Jenny.
Around town, we got to know a few places. These motorbikes parked in the same place each day and sold fresh homemade tofu and tempe from tubs on the back of their motorbikes.
Ainaro has a population of about 16,000 and is a fairly neat town. The many derelict buildings were a vivid reminder of the country's troubled past though. The Indonesian invasion in the 1970's was just as bad here as anywhere else. One of the artists, Paul, remembers hiding in the hills when the Indonesian troops came.
Most of East Timor is strongly Catholic and they manage to mix Catholicism with local beliefs and ideas. This traditional structure was surrounded by crosses.
A highlight of our stay was just wandering the streets trying to have conversations with the locals. Some could speak English and wanted to practice. Others could speak no English but were happy to joke around with us.
We never found out what these ladies were carrying.
These girls were all dressed up for church. They looked beautiful. When I asked if I could take a photo they went into fits of laughter. Check out the girls in the background. They're laughing so much they can barely stand!
Shaking hands with the boys.
One thing we've noticed a lot is that nobody advertises anything. Why put a sign up when everyone already knows where you are and what you sell? This is the local shop.
When it was time to leave, our gorgeous host, Rosalia, presented the four ladies with tais, scarves made from the local weaving. It was such a lovely thing to do.
Staying in Ainaro was an amazing experience for us. It was very different to just doing the usual tourist thing. Andrew and Karin looked after us wonderfully. Thank you so much!
Cheers,
Heather and John
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