So when a Thai guy walked in and asked us to do a commercial salvage job, it was more than welcome. He described the job as locating and raising a propeller of a large Thai fishing boat, ½ a kilometre off shore in 30 meters of water. The prop was supposed to weigh 20 kilos which sounded a bit suspicious as Thai fishing boats are normally big so the prop would normally weigh 200kg not 20. The location of the boat was on the south coast which is unexplored territory as far as diving. We would be the first people in history to scuba dive the south coast of East Timor (we think!).
We set out on our adventure on Wednesday morning, loaded up with tanks, lines, torches and snack food, we literally raided Tiger Fuels (Dili’s equivalent of a 24hr BP Garage). The road out of Dili is steep and we were soon shrouded in thick fog, we were in the clouds! It was weird to be cold for the first time in East Timor, in Dili it’s a humid 33 degrees at the moment and doesn’t vary much from that. Because of the moisture, it’s really lush up there and you immediately see different vegetation and flowers. The road took us to Aileu where the heavens opened and unfortunately because the truck was filled with bodies, we had to put our overnight packs in the back so our clothes got soaked. What the hell, we were on an adventure.
The scenery on the way to Maubisse reminded me of Bali with tiered rice paddies and water buffalo. In Maubisse itself there is a hotel which is situated on top of a hill overlooking the valleys below. This is where Alfredo was camped out with his rebel troops in May/June this year.
Throughout the journey to Same the scenery changed, I was reminded of the lush hills and dark earth of Guatemala, the flat roads of Dartmoor, the wood smoke of Nepal and at one point the mountains of Switzerland with the clouds cutting the mountains and cabins dotted everywhere. We even started referring to Switzerland, on the way back we agreed to stop at Switzerland for a pee stop. In fact we stopped at Dartmoor because Switzerland was on an uphill gradient. A dog decided to bark at us there and the sound echoed through the mountains.
All through the journey, with some awful roads, we passed small villages where the kids waved and screamed ‘Malai,
Malai’. You see more and more horses up here and often see old guys riding them, one guy wore a cowboy hat with ‘Marlboro’ emblazoned on in, a different type of ‘Marlboro Man’ than the American cigarette adverts, this one was smoking a clove cigarette.The boat was situated about 5km from the costal village of Betano, a 7hr drive from Dili. The boat was about 1½ km from shore, not ½ a km and although the sea was calm but there was a huge swells which could make the job more hairy. The fishing boat sent a tinny out (a tinny is an Ozzy description of a small boat with an outboard motor, but in this case it was a traditional Thai motor with a propeller on a stick), which the Thai guys promptly capsized much to the amusement of the local village. Of course the Thai guys didn’t speak English or Tetum, so with improvisation and fingers we arranged to meet them at 6am the next morning.
One of the guys wanted to sleep on the beach but after being ravaged by sand flies in two minutes flat we revised the plan and talked to chief of the village. We were not exactly sure that he was the chief but certainly the caretaker of the school, which, we were heartened to see, was the most modern, well kept building in the village. The boys were going to camp out but because I wasn’t married to any of them, ‘Missus’ had to sleep separately, so the villagers offered me a bed in their house. I’d had similar treatment in Lombok years ago when I stayed on a tobacco farm. If a Malai is a guest then they are given the best room in the house no matter how many people it normally sleeps. I was presented with a small airless room with a double bed, mosquito net and a garish pink bedspread and matching frilly pillow, the best room in the house. There was no running water and the toilets were a hole in the ground, but we were given special treatment because the caretaker unlocked the school toilets for us which were clean with running water (literally!). I actually slept like a log because we had had a power cut for the whole night the night before. The power surge had actually blown up our connection this time, so I hadn’t had more than 3 fitful hours the night before.
After sleeping arrangement negotiations, Wayne opened the cooler and offered the elder men of the village a beer which they accepted with flourish, he had to stop the kids helping themselves though. The boys then erected the tent which fascinated everyone; I bet that they have never seen a house made like that before. Unfortunately the boys didn’t get such a good night’s sleep, drenched in their own sweat and dew and listening to the villagers talk half the night, topped off with a baby crying. I didn’t hear any of that; I was dead to the world.
The next morning we set off for the boat, we decided to swim in, kitted up rather than torture the Thais into beaching the tinny again. Wayne had the idea of being towed in, but unfortunately I had my long wetsuit on and my legs were incredibly buoyant, so I was hanging on with my arms outstretched unable to get my fins down, after a while my arms wouldn’t take it any more so we gave up on that idea and got on board. Once we boarded the Thai fishing boat we were greeted by coffee, biscuits and 5 pigs! Poor things, their fate is pretty much sealed. The captain of the boat was Indonesia with a mixed crew of Thai and Timorese. They explained that we were not looking for the prop but a cap/nut that holds the prop on, hence the weight of 20kg. Wayne and I dropped down the line that marked the search site and the visibility was OK for the first 20 meters, but after that it was like diving in soup, a maximum of 2 foot visibility. After letting our eyes adjust we realised the bottom was pure silt, and anything heavy would have probably sunk, any movement and you had no visibility whatsoever. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack and at 31 meters the maximum time we had down there was 17 minutes.
During the surface interval we boarded the fishing boat again and were presented with a lunch of rice with fish, or fish, or fish, funny that! At least it wasn’t fresh pork. The crew had managed to secure a line down to mark the site and we found out how. At the back of the boat there was a small compressor, commonly used for inflating tyres. Attached to this was 40 or so meters of clear thin rubber tubing which was directly attached to an old fashioned divers mask, with a valve to exhale out of the nose. It’s a wonder they didn’t kill themselves.
Our second attempt gave us a couple more foot visibility and we changed the search pattern but to no avail. When on the 3rd attempt one full circle couldn’t be achieved due to diabolical visibility, we gave up for the day and hot legged it to Same in search of a dry bed and wet beer. We found a small hotel that gave us just that as well as a slap up feed, after which we all crashed for the night, knackered! The only thing to add to this was the presence of Boris. At 4am I needed the loo, grabbing a candle as the generator was off, headed for the loo only to come face to face with an extremely large spider. Luckily I’m not faint hearted when it comes to spiders, but I did wave my candle near it to evict it from the loo seat as I didn’t fancy sharing.
We decided to give it one last shot in the morning, although we had enough tanks for a 2nd dive we were keen to get home. Firstly because we had found out from Ann that some little scrote had shot our dog Doris with an Ambon arrow during the night (she’s ok) and secondly because our damp clothes were now rank and we couldn’t stand the smell of each other. The 4th dive was no more fruitful than the previous 3, the visibility was bad again and the swell was up to two meters which made getting in and out pretty dangerous. We managed to get out with our kit on but the Thais managed to capsize the tinny again, worryingly with one of them trapped underneath, but luckily he emerged 30 seconds later, but we lost a weight-belt in the mean time.
The constant presence of 50 plus kids was also getting a little claustrophobic. Initially they had been shy and giggling, but now they were getting bolder, so every time we were on shore we had a throng of kids standing and staring not two feet away from us, which was great when I was trying to get changed. The previous day, I walked up to use the school loo and as I walked back I could hear the shuffle of small feet behind me getting louder and louder. I turned suddenly and shouted ‘Waaaaaaah’ at them, they scampered away only to dissolve in fits of giggles seconds later. You can’t really blame the kids for being curious, we are probably the first Malai they have seen in a long time, I am probably the only female they have seen with white blond hair in a wetsuit and scuba gear, in fact, we are probably the first scuba divers they have seen. Most of the locals where we dive regularly just think we are really bad fishermen, we go in with all this technical gear on, and come up an hour later with no fish!
It was a shame that we didn’t manage to find the treasure, it felt quite dissatisfying, but we hadn’t really got a chance in hell, if we had found it, it would have been sheer luck. But the trip itself was worth it, for the journey, not the diving and we were getting paid for it. Can’t be bad!
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