by 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).