First Day in Dili

25 October 2008

I don’t particularly like sharing dorms in hostels with 5 smelly, snoring (some drunk) boys. Camping in the wombat is so much better!

We left Australia for now, not for good. Who knows.

Everything went well at the airport except that we had to give up one of our gas tanks. We had 2 gas tanks for our camping stove, but we couldn’t ship them on the freight unless they were empty or we were willing to pay a lot of many to declare them as dangerous goods. Because we brought the car to the port in such a hurry, we didn’t have time to empty our big one. So we asked if it was possible to take it on the plane, and it was meant to be alright as long as it was empty. We took the time to empty it and once at the check in gate, the attendant told us we weren’t allowed. So we gave it to him!

The flight went well. There was no lunch, just peanuts, chips, chocolate bars, coke, other junk food. I couldn’t even take the 2nd chocolate bar offered I was so full! Amazing!

We were wondering if we would really see the UN presence in Timor Leste. It didn’t take long. Once at the airport we saw planes and helicopters! The Australian Army had helicopters there as well.

Customs was a breeze, we just had to buy our 30 day visas for 30 dollars each!

Once we had our bags, we were grabbed by a cab driver who offered to take us to a hostel. We had no idea where we were going to sleep, so we took his offer. Of course, he ripped us off. He charged us 10 USD for the ride. It wasn’t an exceptionally long ride or anything. Anyway, we learned from fellow travellers at the hostel that it should have only cost us 1USD per person. At least we’ll know for next time!

Jonny and I got a dorm room at Dili Backpackers (next to Tiger Fuel) for 10USD each per night. It seemed pricey, but it’s by far the cheapest in the area. The hostel is owned by an Aussie but mostly run by two Timorese women, Rita (she does all the paper work and speak English really well) and Betty (she does all the cleaning, cooking, chores). There were other people staying there...mostly people waiting on their Indonesian visas.

It looks like the popular thing to do is to eat chocolate pancakes from across the street, play cards, and watch South Park. I’m in!

We ate at a Bangladeshi place for dinner. It was so nice to have naan and aloo gobi. It was a couple of dollars a plate but worth it!

I’m looking forward for the wombat to arrive

Marie-Claude