Dili to Baucau of Timor Leste

at last, we had been looking for reliable internet to upload our Timor Leste pictures. had been to 6-8 towns and finally the most expensive internet we had in indonesia was us$1.80/hr. usually it would be us$0.50/hr.

sorry that my blog is very lagging. i still have about 2 posts of Timor Leste to share with you all. we are in Lombok now and will go to Bali tomorrow. Hopefully in the touristy Bali we would find more reliable internet service.

beautiful beach by the highway.

On Monday morning, we knew that the bike had arrived in Dili. We made our payment with Perkins and they advise us to go to the customs to get our Carnet (CPD) stamp and go to the Perkins yard to collect our bike. So we took our documents, walked under the sweaty weather to the port, got our stamp and took a taxi to Perkins yard happily. Upon reaching the yard at 930am, the officer in charged said the container would not be here until 2pm as it was still at the port. I decided to go and do other admin matters first because we noticed that Indonesia (our next country after Timor Leste) only issue a non-renewable 30 days visa for us.

We took a taxi to the embassy, join in the queue, noted the number of documents we had to prepare and took a taxi back to our room and began writing a special essay to the embassy of Indonesia in Dili to grant us a 60days visa. We also had to edit our passport photo to a red background and had it printed out within an hour. Now, all the documents were ready and we walked half an hour back to the embassy where they had 2 hours lunch till 2pm. Again, happily, we went in and submit all the documents and the officer at the counter said come back tomorrow morning as visa applications only in the morning. Remember the payment of US$45 each.

Ok, we took a taxi to Perkins yard and waited for 5 minutes. There we got Hope Too easily because the staffs there were really helpful.

We waited for the next morning, handed in our documents to the embassy and left Dili at 11am towards Baucau.

Once leaving the busy city, we saw some gantry post manned by the UN. Noticed from their arm band, they were Pakistani. They were manning at a more rural area. I shouted ‘Pakistan!’ and they were very happy to wave back.

Lovely! We never knew Timor Leste could be so nice just few kilometers out from the city. This country had lots of mountain that was very sharp and cluster, making our route windy and climby. Roads were tight and narrow so we had to be very careful of what would be coming in the other direction.

Green mountains, turquoise sea and blue sky welcomed us to this real country. There wasn’t much traffic on the way. When we passed by villages, the kids would wave at us, the stern looking adults broke their face with a big smile when Hope Too wave at them proudly. Students walking back home on the main road stretched out their hands and wanted to catch a ‘hi-5’ from me. I noticed from the mirror that those that got it jumped around and had made their day happy.

The road from Dili to Baucau was wonderful. In less than 150km we could witness colorful rice paddies, close beaches, mountain passes and beautiful people.

after having salty fish with kutupat for lunch,

buying peanuts from the local.

nice road.

Petrol station in Baucau.

Maybe Baucau is a sister town of Macau?

Mercado Municipal, built by the Portuguese.

We wanted to look for a place to stay when we reach Baucau. Being lost at the intersection, a young adult, selling mobile phone recharge card on the street walked to us trying to sell us one. I asked him about directions and they were very genuine to help us.

Well, well, the ‘Hotel’ that we could stay was above a shop along the main road. There wasn’t any ‘private compound’ to settle Hope Too. Do we have to leave Hope Too along the street? Then I found an abandoned shed without door beside this property.

Our room was with 2 single beds and a 6 inches fan without the protecting cover. We have to use the shared bathroom. There wasn’t any mosquito net on the window that means we have to shut it tight. The next morning when we woke up sweating, we realized that shutting the windows tight means trapping the mosquitoes in the room. We were paying the same price as what we paid in Dili with half of the luxury.

Good night Hope Too, sound your alarm if anyone tries to touch you.