I literally just decided on Atauro the night before. Public transport to Maubisse seemed a bit tricky and I wasn’t sure whether Bacau was really worth the drive. Atauro on the other hand was expensive to get to since on the days I went there was no public ferry (or too late in the day).

I ended up going with Compass Adventure’s water taxi at USD45 per way for the 90mins trip.

Dili at 7am

Dili port in the morning before leaving for Atauro

On weekends and some other day you can get there for USD5 with the public ferry. My water taxi left at 7.30am so we reached the island by 9am.

Dili harbor in the morning

View towards Atauro Island from Dili

Approaching Atauro Island

Beloi on Atauro Island

I stayed at Barry’s Place in Beloi. This eco lodge is the original accommodation on the island and has been around for a while. The vast majority of the few visitors that come stay here. Recently a small German-owned dive resort opened next door.

Barry (Australian) has been in the country and on the island for a few years. He’s done a fantastic job at building this small lodge with simple but beautiful cabins and huts.

My cabin at Barry’s Place

My hut was USD35 per night and included three meals. The food was significantly better than everything else I ate during my time there.

Beach at Barry’s Place

Beach at Barry’s Place

The lodge is located in the village of Beloi. There are very few accommodation options in other villages, such as Vila.

In the afternoon drove with the local tuk-tuk version to the village of Vila, the island’s biggest settlement.

Tuk-tuk on Atauro Island

There are two development projects in Vila worth checking out: a doll factory where only women are employed and a jewelry factory employing women with hearing impairment.

Workers at the doll factory in Vila, Atauro Island

Street in Vila

Drying chilis in Vila, Atauro Island

There is an Italian restaurant in Vila (run by an Italian priest?). I did not get the chance to try it out and you need to preorder your food as everything is prepared fresh.

East Timorese flag on the island of Atauro

Also next to Barry’s Place there is a shop selling the products of a local organization, Empreza Diak.

Empreza Diak shop

Empreza Diak

The next morning I woke up early (you wake up early anyways since you go to bed by 9.30pm) to watch the beautiful sunrise:

Sunrise on Atauro Island

Fishermen leaving for work in Beloi, Atauro Island

And after just one night, I already had to return to Dili. I could have stayed a couple of nights more as it was so relaxing.

On the way back we took a detour around the other side of the island to drop off some supplies for an upcoming diving group.

Dropping off supplies

I really like for far away Atauro Island felt from everything. If you’ve made your way all the way to Dili, don’t hesitate to make the trip to Atauro Island!

By the way, there is an interesting documentary about a community on Atauro Island where men and women share the workload for fishing and household:

A few of the flags representing Portuguese speaking countries

For the average tourists (if there is such a thing in Timor-Leste) there isn’t a great deal to see and a day should be plenty. But it is interesting to visit some of the places with historical significance.

Below are some photos I took during my stay in Dili.

The vast majority of the population is Christian (i.e. >97%) – the Portuguese missionaries seemed to have done a thorough job.

Catedral da Imaculada Conceição, the main church in Dili

Inside the Igreja de Balide

The Muslim minority is tiny, at around 0.3% of the population.

Main mosque in Dili

Dili is easily walkable (except the Cristo Rei statue) but also offers countless hop-on, hop-off busses for adventurers (at just 25 cents a ride!).

Microlet in Dili

Dili has a long (and fairly beautiful) waterfront where embassies and government buildings are lined up.

Building of the European Union

Palacio do Governo (seat of the government)

The island’s biggest ferry, the Berlin Nakroma at Dili harbor. The German government financed the ferry (Nakroma means rising sun in Tetum).

The Cristo Rei seen from Dili port (more on that later)

The building of the Ministry of Finance. I wonder who paid for it and whether such a palace was really necessary.

The very good and impressive museum on the history of Timor-Leste from decolonization until independence.

Two East-Timorese, Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for “for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor”. Just when I was visiting, there were some festivities for the 20 year anniversary.

1996 Nobel Peace Prize winners

There is a market for traditional cloth, Tais.

Tais market, Dili

Tais market, Dili

Food isn’t great in East Timor – pictured here is a local restaurant, similar as you would find it in Indonesia.

The Presidential Palace

In 1991 a delegation of Portuguese parliamentarians were supposed to visited occupied Dili but cancelled their visit over differences with the Indonesians. East Timorese youths protested against the Indonesia occupation, taking advantage of foreign media being in the country. Indonesia forces opened fire on protesters in the Santa Cruz cemetery and at the end of the day over 250 locals were dead. Thanks to the courageous efforts of some foreign journalists, the events were caught on tape and the video footage smuggled out of the country. This eventually helped to raise worldwide awareness of the situation in East Timor.

Memorial for the Santa Cruz massacre

Santa Cruz cemetery

Santa Cruz cemetery

My final stop was the Cristo Rei, a 27m statue of Jesus Christ on top of a hill a few kilometers outside of Dili. It was a present by the Indonesian government in the mid 1990s… not sure what they were trying to achieve with it after years of brutal oppression. It coincided with the 20th anniversary of the integration into Indonesia as the 27th province (happy anniversary).

Cristo Rei

Walking up the 500 steps, the story of Jesus Christ is pictured. Note how nothing is written in Portuguese because of the Indonesians. They could have at least paid for a proper English translator by the way.

Jesus is nailed to the cross

Jesus is laid in the tomb

Small chapel just beneath the statue

Cristo Rei in Dili

Cristo Rei in Dili

Nice, unspoilt beach behind the Cristo Rei

View towards Dili from the Cristo Rei

It was an interesting walk around Dili and I learned a lot about the country’s history. But one day was enough and I was looking forward to my trip to Atauro Island.

One such place that has been on my radar for a long time is East Timor (or as it is officially known, Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste).

Flag of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (source: Wikipedia)

Located on the island of Timor, the western half is part of Indonesia while the eastern section is an independent nation. Thanks to European colonial times, the Dutch occupied the west of Timor while the Portuguese got the East. Several centuries later when finally also Portugal started releasing their colonies into independence, the national identity in the east was too different to support a majority to join Indonesia.

National hero and resistance fighter: Nicolau Lobato

Timor-Leste’s history is quite interesting (I recommend you read the Wikipedia article): after centuries under Portuguese colonial rule, except a brief break during World War II, Portugal had bigger problems to worry about than some small colony far, far away once the military government was toppled in the 1970s. Locals were quick to organize political parties, with a majority of them supporting independence rather than joining neighboring Indonesia. Indonesia saw things differently and once Timor-Leste finally declared independence, Jakarta did not wait long (and with the blessing of the USA), quickly invaded the Eastern half of the island. What followed were harrowing times, with a significant portion of the population killed or starving. The East Timorese continued resisting through guerilla fighting from 1975 onwards. Jakarta finally agreed to a referendum once President Suharto was gone, with the overwhelming majority of the population voting for independence. After a last rampage, Indonesia troops left in 1999 and with the support of the United Nations, Timor-Leste became the youngest nation on the planet (until South Sudan a few years later). Nowadays, Portuguese is again official language (besides the local Tetun) language and is taught in school. Personally I don’t see how this is more useful for today’s children than Bahasa Indonesia or English would be but I am not to judge.

Poster prompting people to exercise their right to vote

Getting to Timor-Leste

The country has one airport in the capital city of Dili. There are daily flights in Darwin in Australia and Denpasar/Bali in Indonesia. Neither is cheap and on a good day, you’re looking at least at S$350 return for either option (and these are relatively short flights with Darwin less than an hour away and Bali about 1hr45mins). Good news for European passport holders: you no longer need to buy a USD30 visa upon arrival but are stamped in for free now. Other nationalities can just buy their visa upon arrival. You can travel overland as well from Kupang in West Timor, but it is apparently a long drive and I am not sure whether you can get in without a visa overland as well.

I traveled through Bali and had the option of Citilink or Sriwijaya Air, going with the later. Despite the 5hrs delay, it was fine.

You’ll most likely spend at least one night in Bali before flying to Dili. I stayed at the “Chillin Kuta Homestay” just a three minutes walk form the airport.

Sriwijaya Air at Denpasar Airport

Enroute to Dili

Arrival at Dili

Thanks to a five hour delay, we landed just before sunset

Once in Timor-Leste

If you are looking for a value-for-money destination, they you may want to stop reading. Timor-Leste is expensive. I guess the influx of UN and NGO staff just drove up prices and there seems to be sort of parallel prices for locals and foreigners. But compared to other destinations in the region, it is significantly more expensive. A taxi ride from the airport to town (5-7km) will cost you between USD8-10. Accomodation is more expensive than neighboring countries at worse quality. The country uses the US Dollar as its official currency by the way.

According to the World Bank, the country saw 60’000 visitors in 2014, with only nine countries worldwide receiving less visitors (for example Liechtenstein which has a fraction of the territory and population). So you guessed right that there isn’t really much of a tourist infrastructure there. Getting around can be difficult due to road conditions (especially during wet season) or lack of public transport.

During my stay, I only visited one destination besides Dili – Atauro Island – which is probably the most visited place in the country.

This may sound pretty negative but if you don’t mind these drawbacks, you’re in for a fascinating place to visit. It’s just very exotic to be in a formal Portuguese colony in such a remote place in Asia-Pacific. The landscape is beautiful as you will see in the following installments and you won’t have to share it with any other tourists.

East Timorese flag on the island of Atauro

The East-Timorese still support the Portuguese soccer team. Just look at this video of the streets of Dili after Portugal wont the Euro Championships in 2016: