This independent country sharing an island with Indonesia has a long history of colonization by Portuguese, occupation by Indonesia, and finally achieved independence in 2002. If I hailed Bangladesh as one of the friendliest countries in the world, then East Timor will come in at #2!!! This country reminds me of certain countries like Guinea, Togo, or Benin in West Africa with the way the roads were as well as the friendliness of the people.  Many of the villages were set up almost the same way of those in Africa!!!!  It brought back many memories to my travels through Africa!!!

Despite being a very poor country, the people were very friendly, always greeting you with “Bom Dia, Boa Tarde, or Boa Noite.” They are always waving and smiling as people drive past and are always bound to give you a big smile!! This is just to show that with very little; these people are still happy and friendly in all parts of the country.  This is my biggest takeaway from traveling here. 

Relatively new to tourism with only 4 tour companies in the capital, they are really coming around to teaching people about their great history.  The Company that I decided to travel with is Eco Discovery. This company has a well designed schedule that can be suited to just about anyone.  Our guide Louis who has been working for the company for sometime was very familiar with just about everything history related to the country as well as village life.  His driving was superb as he knew how to navigate the bumpy roads as well as when and where to stop!!!

 The population is only 1.2 million people, with about 230,000 living in the capital Dili, which is spread out along the north coast next to the ocean.  Most of the population is below 30 years of age as it is not uncommon to see many families have more than 7 kids in the villages. Largely a rural society, most people make their lives off farming and raising animals.   Not knowing what to expect going here, it would be a week filled with many surprises and a great learning curve.

They are predominantly Catholic (obviously being settled by the Portuguese), with pockets of the country practicing animism and Protestantism. Their cemeteries are very Portuguese in nature and one of the largest and most popular in Dili is the Santa Cruz Cemetery. This cemetery has grave sites in every square inch and is where the Indonesian military fired on a peaceful funeral procession of Sebastiao Gomes who was an Independence supporter. Around 250 civilians lost their lives here and it was filmed and smuggled out of Dili by a British Journalist which empowered their independence struggle.

The center of any good developing countries society is their market.  Dili was no different and their local market had everything from fresh vegetables and fruits, to palm wine, to pigs and goats and chickens.  As cock fighting is still legal here, I got to see two of the Cocks who were probably going to be in a fight, square off in the market place.  As you can see just like in other countries that have markets, the presentation and stacking of fruits and vegetables is always important:

A great landmark in Dili is the Cristo Rei statue.  This is a statue of Jesus that is about 27 meters tall resting on a globe, facing out to the ocean.  In order to get to this, you have to climb 500 plus steps, but it is well worth it as the view from this is amazing along with the everlasting sunset…

Day 2 in East Timor proved to be a very beautiful drive up the back hills of Dili through numerous villages in a heavily forested area.  Emerging on the other side of the mountain, we see a spectacular valley below.  As we continue to the small town of Mubisse, which is set in the central mountain ranges, we drive through some of the most scenic areas, stopping along the way to buy fruits and vegetables.  This area of the country has an abundance of vegetables that supplies the capital and the surrounding areas with fresh produce. 

As we get into the town of Maubisse, we notice that many of the traditional houses are made of thatched roofs and are cone shaped.  Here you can see a very old Portuguese style Pousada which is built upon the hill overlooking the valley. 

We were then introduced to a traditional village that still practices animism and one of the leaders explained to us their practices and what happens at the ceremonies.  They usually have ceremonies three times a year, beginning, during and end of growing season and usually sacrifice animals. 

The drive through the mountains was the best part as we saw many people and their ways of life in this region, and how happy they were selling their produce on the side of the road…

Day 3 saw us driving from Dili to Com Beach which normally would only take us a few hours.  However the roads here are not in the best of shape and there is construction going on just about everywhere by the Chinese.  Despite all of this, the scenery was magnificent as we drove through the second biggest city of Baucau and through small villages along the way.  We followed the coastline pretty much most of the way and saw a change in villages.  Along the way we saw all the farm animals that the people value so much such as pigs, goats, cows, and buffalo.  Truly amazing drive day despite the bad roads and dust (which I don’t mind)…..

Getting into Com Beach, we stayed at a small guesthouse situated right on the water.  Not more than 5 meters from your room is one of the prettiest and untouched beaches I have ever seen, surrounded by a small town of fishermen (and a lot of children)….

Next day was a short four hour 80 kilometer trip to Jaco Island.  On the way there were some magnificent scenery including small villages with villagers smiling and waving, and stopping at a local place were some ladies were selling fruits and vegetables!!!  The roads again were very rough with a lot of potholes and roads that were not finished. 

On the way we got a chance to go to a combined Christian and Animist cemetery.  The animist cemetery usually has goat or buffalo heads which is an offering of how many they kill after the person passes away.  They were beautifully built yet very eerie

A little while down the road we get to Valu Beach which is a very isolated community that is miles from any type of town or civilization.  We then were able to buy a Barracuda for 35 dollars!!!!  We then went to a deserted island beach named Jaco Island which is forbidden for people to camp there, so we spent the day there and started eating our Barracuda.  We spent the time relaxing, talking, eating, walking, and snorkeling on this lovely white sand deserted island!!!!  We tried to finish the Barracuda at night, however being about 5 kilos, us three were only able to finish off about a third of it!!!

The last full day was the long drive back to Dili along the bumpy yet fun roads.  Along the way we went upon some of the same villages as before watching the people run around out in the streets in their houses and going about everyday life!!!  We went along some alternate roads until we reached Baucau and took the same roads back that led us on this adventure to the isolated beaches….

Overall , this was a great trip and well planned out.  The roads of course reminded me that of the beat up roads of West Africa.  I think seeing all the people in the villages happy and going about their everyday lives made this trip much more worthwhile.  These people are the true workers of the world, living with barely anything, having to go and fetch water from sometimes kilometers away, and live off what they produce in the gardens.  Besides being given as dowries to the family of the wife, they are also used as a source of income as well as a source of food for these villagers.  East Timor, you have been great!!!!