Any travel hints & tips for East Timor in Indonesia?

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Any travel hints & tips for East Timor in Indonesia?

Postby anton » Fri Sep 04, 2020 1:15 pm

Good morning, everyone.

I've volunteered to assist my (United Methodist) church's international support group UMCOR beginning in 2021.
One of the locations on the list is Dili in East Timor, Indonesia.
I would be helping set up satellite broadband service on the island and the surrounding archipelago.
I'm to receive the usual "Rocks & Shoals" info from UMCOR and the US Dept of State about East Timor in general, and Dili in particular.
Where better than the BFC to consult a collection of travelers, find someone who'd actually been there and get the latest update?
My thanks for your kind attention and patience.
Stay well & safe, y'all.

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Re: Any travel hints & tips for East Timor in Indonesia?

Postby Kurt » Fri Sep 04, 2020 2:21 pm

Welcome to the board Anton.

I have removed you from the New Users Group which makes it so each post has to get approval, so post freely.
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Re: Any travel hints & tips for East Timor in Indonesia?

Postby OBie » Sun Sep 13, 2020 10:09 pm

‘Bom Dia” Anton, just a minor point: East Timor is not part of Indonesia, it is an independant, sovereign state, having gained that hard-won status after a UN-sanctioned international intervention in 1999. Good luck with your mission, I’m sure you’ll find the people very welcoming and pleased for your service.
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Re: Any travel hints & tips for East Timor in Indonesia?

Postby Ozymandias » Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:35 am

Hello Anton,

What an amazing opportunity, I'm sure you'll love living and working in Timor-Leste! I visited in 2011 and loved it. Beautiful place. Also have a friend who was working there teaching right up until covid-19 hit. My personal highlights:

- Climbing Mt. Ramealu
- Spearfishing on Jaco Island
- Amazing Portuguese colonial-era architecture all over Dili and Baucau
- The water-buffalo everywhere in the rice paddies

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Re: Any travel hints & tips for East Timor in Indonesia?

Postby babihutan » Tue Sep 15, 2020 12:33 pm

Awesome pics!

I never did make it there, but I was all over Indonesia shortly after East Timor gained status. At the time, most Indonesians equated it with hell on earth. I met a few people who lived through all the atrocities that took place there. I haven’t even heard the name in almost 20 years, forgot the place existed.

But if it’s anything like much of the rest of Indonesia, it will have its own distinct feel, vibe, even language (local dialect), exotic scenery and customs that make Indonesia, for me, at least one of the best countries to travel.
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Re: Any travel hints & tips for East Timor in Indonesia?

Postby buffybot_in_beirut » Sun Nov 01, 2020 3:18 pm

My employer's internet censorship policy bans the BFC and I don't have private internet over there, so I can only read and post when I travel, which in these annoying times is not often.

East Timor is a virtually unknown but absolutely lovely country. Asia's more favoured tourist destinations are that only because they are bigger, and pack in more attractions. East Timorese are friendly and low-key. The traces of Purtuguese culture are charming. There is no tourism. Dili is the most pleasant, relaxed, quiet capital in Asia. (Get a bicycle!) There are no man-made dangers to speak of, other than some unruly youths in certain neighbourhoods that you have no reason to go to. It is not a cheap country, though.

When you leave East Timor and head west to Kupang, you realize what a real shithole Indonesia is, though my assessment is largely based on the endless frustration that I faced when dealing with the inefficient, rude, violent and criminal Indonesian public transport mafia (taxi, bus, boat operators).
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Re: Any travel hints & tips for East Timor in Indonesia?

Postby ROB » Sun Nov 01, 2020 11:18 pm

buffybot_in_beirut wrote:My employer's internet censorship policy bans the BFC


Sanity finally.
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Re: Any travel hints & tips for East Timor in Indonesia?

Postby Devlin » Fri Nov 06, 2020 2:20 am

I can't help on East Timor, but I do want to welcome new blood to the group.
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