Atauro Island -

We had heard about the fantastic snorkelling to be had on Atauro Island, about 30kms from Dili. We booked one place for two nights and another for two nights because I couldn't get all four nights at the one place.

I was a bit concerned about the boat trip out there (I could get sick just thinking about rough seas) but it was fine. In fact the views of the island as we approached it were beautiful!

We pulled up on a beach, right in front of a rustic sign that said "Barry's Place". This was our accommodation!

Barry's an Aussie with a local wife and has lived here for years. His resort is very eco-friendly - think thatched roofs, palm frond walls and natural ventilation. We were taken to our room and I fell in love. Our little hut was right on the sand at the end of the cluster of shacks. We had a large verandah overlooking the beach. It was so romantic and so wonderful!

We sat on our deck and watched local families fishing. We loved the way the village life happened around us.

Mosquito nets around the bed added to the romantic touch.

Our little house.

Toilets were shared and were pit-style but they were the best pit loos we've ever come across. They certainly didn't smell.Showers were traditional mandis where you just ladle water over yourself. There's no need for hot water in this climate.

I felt like a modern-day Robinson Crusoe here. We had 24-hour electricity (partly solar-powered) but few other modern concessions in the room. Unfortunately, when it came to sleeping, it wasn't so comfortable. The bed sagged and the thin sheet didn't hold onto the mattress properly. With the constant humidity, the sheets were slightly damp and they stuck to us every time we rolled over. I had the beginnings of a rotten cold and chest infection and kept coughing myself awake. Never mind. I still loved the feel of this place!

Carvings stood guard outside each hut.

We snorkelled each day we were here. We caught local boats a short distance out to a pristine barrier reef. Barry had organised it so locals get money each time we visit the reef. This makes up for them not being allowed to fish here. I love the traditional outrigger boats.

Manuel took us out a couple of times.

The corals here were incredible! Masses of untouched coral gardens went on for ages. Snorkelling here was like slowly flying over an other-wordly garden.

I really loved the anemones. I've never seen so many varieties before.

These were my favourite anenomes. They grew inside the ridges of a coral and had big blobs on the end. The clownfish had two homes - an anenome and a coral!

A green anemone with a variety of corals, soft and hard.

The only problem was that there were a few jellyfish. A couple of other people got stung but they weren't dangerous.

Back on dry land, we found the village life interesting. There seemed to be many huts that were very basic. They looked more like shelters for animals but people were cooking in them. Maybe they were kitchens but we didn't see other houses nearby.

The people of Timor-Leste are not as adulatory as those of the Indonesian islands we travelled in on this trip, however kids were often pretty pleased to see us.

We went for a walk one morning. We didn't go too far as it was so hot, but it was lovely.

Fishing forms a large part of the lifestyle here.

Saturday was market day. Apparently dried, salted fish is a specialty here. Mmmm, love the smell of it - not!

This lady was a bit of a character. I asked if I could take a photo of her dried octopus and she jumped in the photo!

We met some wonderful people at Barry's Place. John, Julie, Anne and Phil were all Aussies. We also met Julia, but I didn't get a photo of her.

It was time to move up the hill to Beloi Beach Resort. We caught a tuk-tuk a few times to avoid the hill in the hot weather.

Our accommodation was such a contrast from Barry's place. We had a proper hotel room with aircon, flushing toilet and crisp white sheets! There was an infinity pool and there were great views over palm trees to the sea. It lacked the amazing character of Barry's though.

A bonus though was the cocktails.They were so scrummy, especially after not having had any for a long time. Yum!

One of the official languages they speak here is Portuguese. John and I hadn't spoken any Portuguese for years and we were very rusty. We soon learned that the local Portuguese was quite different to the Brazilian version we knew a bit of years ago. We found we were often much better understood if we spoke Indonesian. Luckily, many people spoke English though.

It was time to leave Atauro and Timor-Leste. It had been a very interesting place to visit.

As I write this, I'm at an airport, half-way through our long slog to PNG. We have five flights in 26 hours and we go via Australia. Timor-Leste and PNG aren't that far apart but there are very few direct flights. 

Bye for now.

Heather and John

Timor-Leste 2

Hello again! Sorry for the long break between posts. We've generally had very poor internet or none at all.

We left Ainaro and caught a bus to Maubisse, a town a couple of hours away. We were expecting the bus ride to be hot and squishy but the bus was only half full so it was quite comfortable, OK, so the seats were made for Timorese-sized bums but it was still a good trip compared to what we'd been expecting.

We had planned to climb the highest mountain in East Timor, Mt Ramelau, but it was closed so we settled on just visiting the nearby town of Maubisse instead. While we were eating lunch at Maubisse I saw the tip truck below go by - with a pony as one of the passengers!

It was market day so we saw quite a few ponies. They don't seem to have too hard a life - they just get used every now and then to carry things around. These Timor Ponies look very much like foals, but Aussie legend has it that they're tough as nails.

We had heard of a place to stay called 'The Pousada". We slogged our way up a hill to it and it was amazing. It was an old Portuguese house perched on top of a hill with stunning views.

Our room in the main house was large, clean and comfortable. Heaven!

The grand old house was surrounded by gardens and people come to visit it on day trips.

For a while we were the only ones there, but then a German backpacker, Andreas, turned up. The three of us were the sole occupants and we had a good night chatting.The views were sensational!

In the evening it got cool as we were up in the mountains. Dinner was expensive and uninteresting (they knew that we didn't want to slog back down the hill to the town). There was a bar and I spied Cointreau on the shelf (my favourite drink). We asked the price and the guy said $5. John asked how much we got for $5. The guy obviously had no idea so he pulled out a champagne glass and said it would be one of these. It must have contained about 7 shots! We kept straight faces and said that would be fine. John changed his order and got one too. One glass was enough to satisfy any Cointreau craving for a long time!

The next morning was cool, misty and beautiful. Again, the views were amazing.

We would love to have stayed longer here but there was no internet and we needed to contact people so we headed off. We waited for a bus but there didn't seem to be any coming. There were a number of anggunas though. These are tray utes with seats in the back. One guy was trying to get us to come with him. When John said we wanted shade over us he rigged up a tarp! We decided we needed to experience all the forms of transport so we jumped in. Again, it wasn't crowded.

We travelled along happily, admiring the amazing views, stopping to pick people up occasionally. At one stop, a guy waited - with his pig! To my amazement, the 'bus boy' jumped out and loaded the pig into the back of the ute. I would have thought that loading up pigs wasn't part of the job description but it obviously must be! They tried to fit the pig under the seat but it squealed and carried on so they let it stay on the tray.

A couple of times, the pig escaped its ropes and wandered around the vehicle unitl the guy put a rope around it again. It was really well behaved and the owner kept patting it. I was just relieved it didn't wee all over our packs!

Of course, a guy got on with his rooster too.

We were fairly comfy, we just had problems with those tiny little seats again......

A lot of the country we drove through looked very Australian - gum trees on red dirt. I think the gum trees are native here.

There are heaps of roadworks being done all over Timor-Leste. We had been going ok then suddenly we hit a dirt road. If any of you have travelled in outback Australia, you'll know what bulldust is. The bulldust here billowed up as we drove along the road. It coated everything - our bodies, our bags and even the pig! It got in our eyes, noses and ears. We travelled along this road all the rest of the way to Dili - about an hour or so. I was reminded of those long, uncomfortable trips in Africa years ago. It was one of those times when you just had to hunker down and endure it.

The busboy had a unique dust protection system.......

This is my pack and legs. My bag is normally navy blue. My legs look very ghostly. When we arrived in Dili, the driver stopped just so everyone could jump out and dust themselves down.

We staggered back to our hotel in Dili and, needless to say, both had long showers!

We had a couple of days to spend in Dili so we set about exploring it. Keeping with the transport theme, we always were amazed at the huge sun visor stickers that taxis have. They block out half of the windscreen!

Another day we caught this taxi. He could see nothing out of his rear-view mirror......

........and if he could, he wouldn't be able to see through the back window anyway!

And for a bit of fanciness, he had a flag pinned to the roof and scent sachets hanging from it!

We wanted to vist Arte Moris, the art school where the three visiting artists at Ainaro came from. It was housed in an old, run-down building. The whole place had an air of disrepair. Many sculptures were made from recycled materials. Courtney, you would have loved it!

Gil made this amazing sculpture from thongs washed up on the beaches.

The decrepit ceiling of the art gallery was just as interesting as the art works!

Many artworks were politically-based. The conflict between Australia and East Timor over the location of the maritime boundary between the two countries featured strongly. (The division was strongly in favour of Australia. Not surprisingly, the Timorese weren't happy about Australia claiming all the oil and gas that is located far closer to East Timor than Australia. This boundary line was recenty renegotiated in a much fairer way.)

Gil met us and showed us around.

Some artworks were striking.

We were on a roll now with public transport so we caught a microlet, a local mini bus. These always have loud doof-doof music blaring from them. They're really cheap though. Once again though, we had problems with the small size of them. We couldn't sit up straight!

On a hill on a peninsula near Dili stands Christo Rei, a huge statue of Jesus. The views from the statue were great!

I like the Timorese flag.

Dili must be the smallest capital city I've ever seen. It never seems busy. The traffic can be a bit all over the place but when there aren't that many vehicles on the road, it doesn't seem to matter so much. It's a quiet, spread-out place, full of Aussies who are usually volunteering in some way. It's so Aussie that you can even buy Vegemite from the supermarkets!

It's modern in lots of ways yet third world in so many more. Anyone want to be an OH&S inspector?

So long from Dili!

Heather and John.