On the Road
Leaving Dili With Doors Ajar
On my way out of Hotel Timor, I chat to a chap called Bernardo. He's working on the front desk. He tells me he loves English football and, like many Timorese, plans on going to England in seven or eight months to find work and earn a better life for himself. I want to tell him that life ain't a bed of roses over there for young migrants, but, hell, let him dream a while. This country could use a few decent dreams.
Dili Airport is a sight. The man supposedly working the immigration desk is loitering in
...World Bank Blaggers
I wake at one thirty in a darkness that is total and quite frightening. My fear is enhanced by the fact that I have no idea where I am and compounding the weirdness is the menacing sounds of a mosquito buzz somewhere above me. There’s no wall switch to help cast some light on the situation. After realizing that I am in rural East Timor, and there’s no electricity, I fumble my way to the loo. I may or may not have hit the bowl.
Breakfast doesn’t happen. Well, it nearly doesn’t happen. With complete nonchalance, Dominguez announces that the
...Screaming Dinosaurs
My final breakfast on the balcony is a veritable feast of noodles and fried eggs. A fine way to say goodbye to this little dusty corner of Dili. The sun is rising in a clear blue sky, as it has done every day so far. Dominguez, my Mega Tours driver, is there to pick me up just gone 7am. Our car, like most in Dili, has a smashed windscreen. Dominguez, as he will do for most of the coming day, pleads ignorance.
We make the sharp climb out of the city, passing scores of schoolchildren heading down the hill to
...Madmen
An easy day in Dili. The highlight of the morning was meeting a French Canadian bloke in the City Café. He reminded me a bit of Michael Palin in his Monty Python prime. Totally mad. Wore a floppy sun hat and a gaudy bright blue shirt. He talked and talked and talked. The kind of guy who reassures you that, actually, no matter how depressed you feel, you actually doing OK. He talked of spending seven years teaching French in Vanuatu. These days, after an aborted attempt to enter Australia, he was forced into the T-shirt business. He runs his
...Back to Scaresville
I don’t sleep well. The gaping mosquito net is a worry but the worst thing is the stickiness. I wasn’t able to have a shower last night on account on the moon not coming out in time to light the iron wash shack out back. It was dangerous back there. I decide to get up at about 5am. It’s dark outside. I sit on the beach and watch pastel shades spread themselves across the horizon. Pigs from the local homes root around in the sand. The ocean laps the shore and I am alone to watch the sunrise.
The kids
...The End of the Road
And so, finally, I leave Dili on a drive out east with Eco Discovery. The release in tension in palpable within minutes of leaving city limits. Manny, my driver, is a lovely Timorese chap who speaks with an Aussie twang. He spent 30 years living in Melbourne and says he was involved in the resistance against the Indonesians remotely. He returned to East Timor after independence, seeking a ‘challenge,' he tells me, leaving a son in Australia. He was raised a Catholic, and still believes in God, but loves to play bad 80s Heavy Metal to 'get him going'.
Within half
...Trouble Coming
Another morning on the balcony, writing on the laptop as the sun rises, sipping fresh coffee from a thermos flask that is brought up to my room, alongside a couple of fresh bread rolls and a slice of processed cheese.
Diving this morning looks to be off. Steve is sick again and Mark tells me that if he doesn’t get back to test run the company’s new boat this afternoon, the weekend’s trips will be cancelled. I tell him I’m really keen to finish the course today and there’s a bit of tension in the air. We head off in
Earth Spirits
I’m realizing it’s futile to get pissed off about these roosters. When they wake is when I will wake too. Today it’s about six. I get up to find the sun just creeping over the hills behind Dili. I take my laptop and sit out on the balcony, looking over the side at the kids and the dogs as they emerge from their slumber and start kicking about the yard. Breakfast arrives at about seven and I sip on tea and fresh bread. It’s lovely.
Today I walked down to the dive shop. The sea is like a mirror (above).
...Dili in the Dark
I realize the drawbacks to my quaint little farmstead accommodations (view pictured). The dogs howled last night until gone midnight. And the roosters started up at about five thirty or so. Both like to sing in chorus too, so once one started, the whole bleeding neighbourhood joined in, playing call-back games or just building to a nice little crescendo. The noise insulation in the room is zero. I wake up shattered and resolve to leave as quickly as possible.
A enjoy sunrise from the balcony, enjoying a breakfast of fresh bread and coffee while my neighbours intermittently slope off to
...Missing the War - By Metres
Today is a day of study. You see, the plan is to earn my PADI diving certification by Friday (today is Tuesday) and I have never come near a compressed oxygen tank in my life. It’s gonna be intense.
I spend the morning in the rather poky interior of Dive Timor Lorosae, Dili’s biggest and (supposedly) best operator. I watch videos, answer questions in the chunky PADI book that I had fork out 30 USD for and try to digest it all. At lunchtime I head upstairs to Castaway for lunch. There is a table full of very ugly Chinese
...First Day in Dili
I am traveling to East Timor today with an Hong-Kong based US photographer by the name of Daniel Groshong http://tayophotogroup.com, pictured below). He has just published a wonderful book about the country (Timor Leste – Land of Discovery), made during his two years spent living in the world’s ‘newest nation’. I am hoping he’s going to prove an invaluable guide. And sure enough the contact-building begins early.
At the airport, Dan and I run into an American chap called Bryan (pictured below) and an English lady, Tracy, heading back home to Dili. There’s lots of cynical but light-hearted
...Surfing at Sunset
The Ubud Hanging Gardens stretch so deep into the valley that it requires two separate funicular train rides to reach the bottom. The could have just built one, of course, but it would have meant guests waiting an eternity for a ride down to the swimming pool or the restaurant, both of which sit at the half way point and have stunning views over the far hillside. That’s where Ling and I eat breakfast. Despite the stunning surrounds, the ambiance is one of a mid-market Mediterranean hotel. It’s the food, I think. It’s a bit naff. There’s one of those
...Mr Holy Religious
I awake to pitch darkness and complete silence. Drawing back the heavy wooden sliding shutters is painful on the eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a complete blackness in my life. Morning in the jungle is magic. It’s recently stopped raining and everything has that dripping, lushness. The light is hitting the vegetation on the other side of the valley, while we are still in shade. Black birds swoop from the sky and the cicada’s are already purring away out there in the undergrowth.
I spend two hours tapping away on the the computer before check out at
...Oily Flesh
Our organized morning activity, a ‘trek’ into the Ayung River valley, begins at eight. The guide leads us down on a wonderfully picturesque public footpath. Last time I was in Ubud I was left with the impression that the area was quite flat. Today we are passing amphitheatres of rice paddies, way down below us, drenched in dappled morning sunlight. It’s spectacular. We cross the Ayung (Bali’s longest waterway) on a rickety bamboo bridge and head up some steep steps to the lunch spot for the white water rafters who come this way. We pass a local primary school where
...Going Upmarket
Ling and I breakfast on the outdoor terrace next to the pool (most unexpected for a 20 USD a night hotel) before rushing off towards the beach with a good two hours to spare before our anticipated departure to the uber-luxurious Amanusa resort. We planned on having our first and last swim in the great, wide ocean before heading off to the Balinese hinterland. It wasn’t to be. Not one minute along the street and we were stopped by a chap ‘just wanting to show us something’. He hands out two promotional postcards with a generic ‘Bali Love Peace’ title
...Escaping Golden Week
Escaping China in the midst of Golden Week is never a bad thing. Golden week is anything but golden. Picture the seething crush of humanity you've probably seen on documentaries of Shanghai or Beijing and multiply it by three or four. Rapidly increasing car ownership means city centre roads are choked. Prices, even for the most mundane things, immediately increase. China, for a week, becomes an ugly, unpleasant rip-off. And at times like these, I account it high time to get to Bali.
From Guangzhou, Bali is due almost directly south. The direct flight time is a mere four and
...Sleeping It Off In Hailaer
The final day of a very long tour. I had grand plans to do some travelling of my own at the conclusion of this trip. I was going to visit Liaoning and undertake a similar sweep of another fairly large province. But right now, I have as much enthusiasm for travelling in rural China as I have for setting fire to my penis.
This morning the group got up for a final sunrise session. I refused the offer and stayed in bed. Bloody glad I did, because, apparently, in one last heroically incompetent effort, the drivers set off too late
...Good Hard Sex
I wake early and walk around Oronchonqi. I’ve put on a pair of trousers but it’s cold. Kids are pedalling to school, the little three-wheelers are belching filth into the perfect blue sky and donkeys haul cart-loads of junk down the wide, main avenue. The sunlight is soft and gentle. It reminds me of September in England.
We are due to leave at 8am but, for the second day in a row, the cars have problems. We stand around in the morning sun, kicking our heels. I chat to one of the government guys from last night. He’s a wonderfully
...Gao Gets Angry
I stand in a chill morning wind, wearing shorts and t-shirts, waiting for our car to arrive. Apparently, one of the four Buicks is feeling ill this morn, no great surprise considering the battering that they took yesterday. There’s a huge puddle outside the hotel. Men with donkeys clatter past. A Siberian wind blows. Everyone else is wearing at least three layers. My attire is positively skimpy by comparison.
The skies over Inner Mongolia this morning are bewitchingly textured. Fluffy clouds stretch to infinity. The sun occasionally emerges to pour its golden light over pockets of the vast landscape. It’s truly beautiful. And unsurprisingly,
...Fan's Field
Breakfast yields frustratingly few clues as to what Mr Gao may or may not have said to Mr Gong to provoke yesterday’s bar-room brawl. There are murmurings that Gong was not happy about picture arrangements. Too many banquets, not enough time in the field. As if to demonstrate the receptiveness and sensitivity of our overlords, it’s announced that Mr Fan, one of our more senior members, has proposed an addition to the day’s schedule. On our way to the next hotel, we are to stop by a farmer’s field and observe ‘Agricultural Mongolia.’
It wasn’t publicly mentioned that the person
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