Timor Leste - a diamond in the rough

I have so much to say about this little diamond. It made sense to keep it all in one place, so I've made this overview so you can quickly navigate to which of the 6 sections has the juicy nuggets relevant to you.

• Highlights
• Be one of the first travellers to....
• Around the capitol, Dili (sites and eating/ drinking)
• Low Down (practical shit on getting about etc.)
• Lowlights

• Diving off Atauro Island
• Staying over night in a private beach hut and watching the sunrise from my bed in Beloi, Atauro Island
• Staying overnight in Adara (the other side of the island) and watching sunset from a hammock
• Hiking from Beloi to Adara 
• Genuinely untouched beaches

The diving was out of this world. The corals were like a psychedelic shroom shake of dazzling neon in all kinds of crazy shapes and textures. It’s an untouched 80 m wall dive running for a mile or two along the coast. I actually freaked out with vertigo on this dive feeling like I was falling down the wall. I don't think the spectacularly bright and trippy coral display actually helped with this but none the less it was really incredible down there. It's all alive and totally unspoiled. Go go go! In comparison to some other excellent dive spots off Bali and Sulawesi for example, I'm not surprised the Guardian rated it the best in the world.

Dive trips are expensive. You save around $100 USD if you make your own way to the island and back on the cargo ferry. There is a dive centre on the island however although I don’t know how much stock they keep on the island. Little I would imagine, but if you have time, it will all come together so no need to over plan.

To top the diving experience, simply staying on the remote island of Atauro was an adventure. Add to that the fun of finding your own way over the mountain with a hand drawn map was just what I wanted. Most dive trips to Atauro were scheduled as day trips to take you back to Dili on a speed boat the same day. But what's the joy in that?! (This is where you see the tourism in Timor is in it's infancy and Timor is missing a few a tricks. You need to make your own fun).

I was able do this beautiful hike thanks to Peter, Ollie and Fizzy at Compass Dive for being super cool and connecting me with two homestays on the island, Mario’s and Barry’s Place. My itinerary was was scribbled on the back of some used A4 paper at the eleventh our in the back office of the dive shop in Dili. There was an old military ordnance survey map of the island in the office. I took a picture of it on my iPhone. None of the other guys had made the three hour hike over the mountain. I was a case of it could be done but eh yeah, not many people do it :/ I was a bit nervous about it, rightly so, but it just sounded a hell of a lot better than paying $50 USD for a convenient and safe speedboat to take me to the other side. Boring! The office was closing, I tried the rental dive gear for fit. Then left and just hoped both parties, me and the dive crew would rock up on the same part of a desert island at the same time three days later. The only option was to plan for the best. I was taking the cargo ferry, Laju Laju, at 7 am the next morning over to Atauro Stay at Barry’s place. I had an action to uphold my part of the deal - that I'd get a SIM card and call "Mario" to confirm that accommodation and food would be available at the other side day after next. Mario, (at first "who the hell is this Mario guy?") quickly became the life line. I had never met the guy. I've still never met the guy. Mario is the word for the only guy on the island with the only phone. Upon a positive response from Mario, I stood on the shore in Atauro knee deep in the sea stretching my arm in the air as if I was trying to take a selfy but actually trying to try to send a text through to Fizzy to share the update. After that I gave my selfy arm a rest and didn’t see or hear from anyone on the mainland for 3 days. On Friday I made the hike over the mountain to Adara and stayed at Mario’s beach shack. On Saturday it was a case of sit, wait and hope for the dive boat to turn up. It’s nice when an old school plan like this comes off. With smart phones and modern life I’m used to plans changing last minute all the time. I even come to expect it now. This was refreshing. I had even started to think that if the dive boat doesn’t turn up by lunch time would I have time to make it to the other side of the island before dark? It’s only the dive boat that returns to Dili from this side of the island. Beyond that I wasn’t sure of the boat schedule back from Beloi to Dili so the trip could indeed have been extended by quite a bit - which I wouldn’t have minded.

Everything at Mario’s is built out of wood. The water comes from a well and is hand carried to the shower cubicle which contains a barrel of fresh water with a pan and a few nails deliberately sticking out to hang stuff.

To back track a bit I want to say more about my night at Barry's place. Barry is a bit of a legend. Deservedly so. He spent the last 14 years slowly building an eco resort on Atauro and accepts his place as 4th in the local community priority list with the church being top. He built the resort at a snails pace enabling the community at every step in the process. Prior to coming to Timor he worked for an NGO in aboriginal communities. He is married to a local lady and has two young boys who look identical but aren’t twins. They are home educated for the most part and spend 3 months a year boarding in Australia. His resort has 14 huts and beyond that a main communal dining/ lounge area and his own family house in the centre. The shower is a fresh water bucket shower - a colander with a handle and there’s a hook to hang it form in the middle of the room. It had a good drenching effect and it needed filled about every 30 seconds so enough time to let out a long ah that’s gooood before starting to peter out. In the communal area he has an honesty bar of two tall fridges full of beers, coconuts, fizzy pop and H2O. Tea, coffee, fresh bread and jam are available all day at no extra cost. The drop toilet was carefully positioned so that it vented where the wind direction blew away inland away from where people live on the coast line. Each hut has a solar panel so you can charge your phone from the battery and use lights and fans in the evening.

• Ride bike to Jaco Island
• Ride  to Hatu Bullico and hike up Mount Ramelau

It’s true to say that tourism in Dili is in it’s very infant stages and not catering to the average traveler on a budget. Besides dive trips I enquired at a hotel along the beach front about hiking up Mount Ramelau. To get to the base of the mountain and back it is $450 for a 4X4 for two days with driver! Accommodation in Hatu Bullico, at the foot of the mountain is $35 per person accommodation including dinner and breakfast. On top of that $15 per person for a guide. I reckon these are the prices expats are willing to pay since they are paid very well to live in such a remote location. Finding the cost obscene, I asked about motorbikes and was laughed at and severely discouraged from taking a scooter or motorbike into the mountains because the roads were in such a bad state. I regularly felt that people thought I came to Timor expecting England… I mean it was nice to be concerned for me. A can do attitude was definitely lacking. I met only 5 other tourists in one week.

To blow away the myth: You can get to Hatu Bulico safely on a semi automatic scooter. You can also get all the way to Jaco Island on a scooter. The roads have improved, especially the last part of the road to Jaco Island has improved dramatically. There are just enough homestays along the way. The locals are very welcoming. Jaco Island is beautiful and you will be the only people there on the beach which is rare in this day and age so well worth the trip if that appeals.

It takes one day to ride to Hatu Bullico from Dili. Hike to the summit of Mt Ramelao and return to Hatu Bullico the following day. It's most comfortable to stay a second night and return to Dili on day three.

It helps if you can speak a bit of Portuguese or take day to learn some basic Tetum. The Honda mega pro is the bike of choice for the roads. Scooters can bottom out. You need gears for the steep inclines and there are spare parts for this bike in most towns should you need to repair it. Bikes cost $25 USD per day or for a week long hire you can negotiate to $15 USD per day.

To get the information on car prices I went into one of the few hotels as there are no tour offices and nothing is advertised.

• Sites

Cristo Rei is probably the highlight of sites. It’s a giant statue of christ on a hill tip at the edge of the mountain side looking over the bays at either side of the peninsula. The landscape and setting is very similar to that in Rio. It’s beautiful. It’s an 11km walk on the flat and a 1km hike up steps to the top. It’s beautiful at sunset. take a few buntings and your all set. The walk down in the dark feels a bit iffy as taxi’s don’t hang out there so your on your own. There’s a bar call Cas bar about 2km back along the road from where you can order a taxi and a bintang when you wait. (I was quite relieved to reach casbar. To be fair there was no actual sign of trouble. I just realised I was extremely vulnerable. I took a self defence class when I was 14 at youth club and since then slapped two boyfriends over the face (once each). Note to self to google gnarly ninja bitch classes for brave acts in the future. But again I do have to say this was all in my head - says far more about me than Timor, so should probably edit this bit.) I don’t think the bar staff where used to ordering taxi’s either. When I asked for a taxi the woman scanned the fridge up and down and returned to me with a screwed up face repeating “taxi?” Long story short, I repeated my self, she spoke to someone, who spoke to someone, a taxi appeared, he started barganing at the price I had already decided I’d be happy to settle at, which is the same price they always start at, no more. He’d already driven all the way from the centre to pick me up so paying twice the price seemed fair this time.

The resistance museum is small but informative and well appointed. It has a neighbouring art gallery which isn’t open yet but I went in anyway and chatted the local curator. The political history is a sensitive matter. There’s a very strong visual theme of crocodile vs kangaroo and Xanana Gusmao vs Julie Bishop, with oil rigs and beautiful sunsets in the background.

The Chega! Museum is in an old prison. It generally contains the same information (also translated into english) as the resistance museum but not laid out well. I walked into two meetings of men sat around a board room table discussing things. There are no guides or even arrows and I was the only tourist there. I signed the tourist book and typically there are one or two tourists per day. I think the actual newer prison is next door. It was a razor wire neighbourhood and quite a walk from the front where the American and Portuguese embassies are.

Santa Cruz cemetery where lay the scene of the massacre of 1991 when Indonesian Military ambushed locals returning from their Sunday sermon.

The Alola foundation selling women’s craft work, promoting their independence

• Eat and Drink

Skybar in Timor Plaza is “where it’s at” on Fridays (using the phrase in the loosest of terms). I don’t believe there is a place to be on Saturdays probably unless you know some expats hosting a house party. Apparently there is a new bar in town called Blue Box or something Box and the vibe is chilled not party, which is nice. Finding somewhere to chill in Dili is a challenge. Although the food was terrible in Castaways it is one of the few places with a nice chilled vibe where I could feel content and comfortable.

Personally I really enjoyed the sports and social club for a daytime hang outs. It reminded me of a pop up yard in London with outdoor seating, parasols, old oil drums given a second life as a table and similarly old pallets painted and reused as coffee tables surrounded by red bean bags. There is a cafe selling the likes of cheese toasties and hot and cold drinks. It was always busy with a mix of expats and locals hanging out or working. Around 5pm local guys would use the sporting facilities, practise sparring, punch punch bags, kick a ball around in the multi purpose court . For a while the coach was leading the boxing group to skip with a rope but there was only one rope which the coach used. I was sufficiently entertained by these ripped young guys jumping up and down, waving their hands around like they were trying not to drown.

On the subject of food it took me a long time to find good food. And it turns it it was right on my doorstep. Number 1 for food is Agora. Number 2 is Sponge Bobs and Number 3 is the Letefoho Coffee Shop. The coffee shop is number 3 because it only sells coffee and cake which are my two favourite things but most people don’t consider that to be food which is probably fair. Agora is on the third floor of a language school up a side ally between Castaway and the supermarket. When you think you're up the wrong alley, keep going and it's on the right. The school is inspiring. I like the wall of black and white photographs of modern icons including Richard Branson, Stephen Hawking and John Lennon, each accompanied with a verb painted in red: do, discover, imagine. The food was all seasonal and locally sourced hence a small, concise monthly menu. I ate home made yoghurt, fresh fruit with granola and local honey followed by a banana muffin rich with cinnamon and other spices and a square of melted dark chocolate in the middle. The coffee was excellent. I’m still sad I didn’t make it back for lunch. It was pricey but such a pleasure.

Spong bobs is a local warung serving a good feed for a dollar. You point and smile, sit down, food comes, eat, walk back to the counter, smile and I’d be surprised if your loose coins don’t cover it. Its tasty. Even when I went in a group its not a place you tend to hang around in. I think that’s because there’s no music and it doesn’t serve alcohol. The turn over of locals is high too so I guess the intention is to operates a fast food place.

The Letefoho coffee shop again is by Castaway and just beyond the supermarket on the front. I walked far to find other things further afield but everything seemed to be around the same area on the front. This coffeeshop sells local excellent coffee.

Thrown in for good measure, Peace cafe is a coffee shop full of locals smoking cigarettes. There’s no wifi (standard), just coffee and cigarettes and a buzzy atmosphere.

Timor Plaza has Burger King and Gloria Jeans but I really don't rate it as a destination. Don't bother.

Sunday - Monday things tend to be closed

Blue cabs have meters. Yellow cabs don’t and you can haggle for a fixed price with either.

Taxi Fares:

Airport to centre = $5

Cristo Rei = $5 one way

Around centre = $2-4 (on meter)

Timor Backpackers = $10 per night in dorm

Day trip and 2 dives in Atauro = $250 (includes return on speed boat $90, 2 x dives $140 and lunch)

Dragon Boat to Atauro = $13 (from the port opposite the booking office)

Laju Lagu cargo ferry Atauro = $5

The booking office is to the right of Hotel Timor if you’re leaving the hotel. And in a small complex with a burger king and gloria jeans and super make.

Mikrolet - super cheap but only leave when full and full should be read as uncomfortably full.

Sim Cards and data:

Cafes don't have wifi.

If you want to get a sim card go to Timor telecom which is in Hotel Timor. You can access it from the hotel reception or pop round to the alley on the right. $1 for 300MB for 7 days. Set aside 20 to 30 minutes as issuing sim cards is a bit like operating the starship enterprise. It’s a team effort and the customer is on the other side of the TV screen helplessly watching the struggle to navigate each bump in the road. Truthfully there are three people behind the desk serving one customer at a time. Questions between colleagues are answered in precedence offer the customer. Check it works when you’re in the shop so you don’t need to endure anther episode. It did work first time for me. There was a queue when I came in and a queue when I left.

Getting there:

The flight from Bali is beautiful. You fly low enough to see the landscape of all the wall islands in between quite some detail, so when I got off the plane I couldn’t wait to explore. In 2016 I explores the length of Flores by 4x4. It was excited to follow that journey by air, identify the mountain side of the Wae Rebo people and then towards Mina the land of the Beno people. I remembered climbing up Kelimutu volcano for sunrise to see the vibrant red and green crater lakes. At the time I was disappointed not really seeing said colours but from above it was a different story. The plane journey itself is like a tourist activity - you see so much.

The essence of this article is that you have to pan through a lot of rough to find the diamonds. Hopefully I help you find them more quickly.

I came to Timor one day exited and ready for an adventure then was already checking flights to leave the next. What happened in between? I saw the place. I walked far in the baking heat of Dili just for something to do and found nothing. I checked off every sight i had pinned on maps.me. 

There is an abundance of taxis if you want to catch the fast boat to nowhere. Taxis can take you as far as the road can take you, limited by the fact that the road falls apart at the edge of the city and requires a motor bike or a 4X4. Feeling claustrophobic, a dip in the sea appeals. Alas, the coast is riddled with salt water crocs. Yummy! There’s no warning signs because culturally the crocodiles are the ancestors and it would be disrespectful to put up warning signs. Croc deaths are times to reflect on your own sins and accept the punishment as gods will. Alternately, the croc sniffed out a bad egg and did the town a favour. And where there’s no where else to turn, the beer isn’t even that cheap. It’s $3.5 USD for a small Bintang.

People will generally tell you there’s nothing to do and look at you as if you are lost for asking.

Timor Backpackers is also a dive school and so they are very helpful with dive day trip information. However I dived with Compass Dive even though I stayed at Timor Backpackers.  Castaway bar and restaurant is upstairs. It has live music on Sundays. I remember listening to The Cure album eating a Mexican fish burger and drinking Sagres, Portugese beer.