Day 11 - Timor Leste - Dilli

One of the many hand-painted banners,
billboards and murals for the
Tour de Timor

School children at the harbour side in
Dili

We got an early start because we wanted to see the start of the very first Tour de Timor bicycle race. There's more information about the race on the Tour de Timor page.The start was over pretty quickly, so we hung around for a while with Jacqueline who had come with us, taking in the atmosphere.

Frances Jacqueline and Saskia enjoying
the atmosphere of the event

While there, we met Saskia, a Dutch woman who has been involved in the independence struggle for over 25 years. We learnt that she was instrumental in smuggling out some video footage of the Santa Cruz massacre. 

Santa Cruz was a pivotal event which finally captured the world’s attention of some of the atrocities perpetrated on the East Timorese by the invading Indonesians..


Saskia was greatly surprised to find that we were bona fide tourists and not part of some international contingent. She had heard that Timor gets an average of three tourists a day  - and she concluded that the three of us were them.

A Dili to Lospalos bus

We spent the day with Jacqueline trying to do only two things - get into the Museum of the Resistance and buy Timorese coffee. Tasks here take considerably more time, effort and energy than anyone would like. A product of the climate, the poor transport system and lack of information for visitors, such as street signs or information brochures.

We did find the Museum of the Resistance, in a building named Liceu Dr. Francisco Machado - and it was worth the effort to find it. You can see it in the background of the adjacent photo of a local bus that travels from Dili to Lospalos.

The coffee roaster

The finished product -
coffee from Timor Leste

We also found a coffee roaster within and industrial complex, roasting in a small room that was unbelievably hot. He sells both the roasted beans and ground coffee, so we bought a few packets, hoping we'd clear Australian customs.

We had no problem with the coffee, but they impounded the packets of salt from Laga because of the fibre wrapping - we were able to keep the salt though!

Timor Leste is still in the early stages of building support for a tourism industry which makes for some interesting challenges, but also some great experiences.

Frances and Jacqueline at the
Terrace Cafe

International police at the
Terrace Cafe

At least we had a relaxing morning break and lunch at the Terrace Café which seems to be a popular hangout for the international military and NGOs.

That night we had dinner at the Nautilus, an upmarket restaurant but not terribly friendly - especially compared with restaurant Diya on the first night.