Things are starting to calm as the troublemakers went a bit too far in Baucau. They raped an 8 year old girl and attacked the Bishops house. It smacks of the terror of the Indonesian times. So Fretlin could no longer be seen to support this level of violence and their campaign is losing steam. Evidence of this was the mass two day demonstrations last week, only 50 demonstrators turned up!
During the days when the security alerts were pinging every 5 minutes, we found ourselves without divers, which is unheard of on a Sunday afternoon. Taking advantage of this rare occurrence, we went to the Ocean View for a drink by the sea. En-route we stopped and watched a most amazing baptism, the sea was incredibly rough and the clergymen, all suited and booted, were finding it difficult to keep upright in the waves. There were a group of Timorese singing I guess equivalent to hymns, while each child, dressed in white robes, would enter the waves into the hands of the clergymen to be dunked. It was an incredible sight, especially in the midst of all the trouble around town. Life and faith go on.
To get to the best dive sites we need to go through a place called Metinaro, which is where the biggest IDP camp of 6,000 people is situated, right next to the Metinaro Barracks. On Thursday its market day in Metinaro town and trouble flared up between the residents of the IDP camp and the residents of the town, which took the UNPol all day to calm down. Apparently over 20 houses were burnt down over a football match! This means that the travel restrictions for the UN are not lifted, so we are Dili bound again this weekend.
The barracks have a large firing range behind them and last week the local army decided to carry out target practice. They told the UN, but unfortunately the message didn’t filter down to the 6,000 residents of the IDP camp living less than a mile away. Can you imagine the terror of those people hearing the mass gunfire so close when the country is as unstable as it is? Doh!
Talking of Metinaro Barracks, a friend had to go and see the dentist there, the day after the IDP/Town trouble. He sailed through, all was calm again. In the Barrack itself they have 3 resident crocodiles. One very large male about 4 meters long, a large female and a smaller female who has to be kept separate because the other two keep attacking her. Can you imagine a 4 meter long croc? Terrifying! As they approached the cage the male croc made a loud guttural noise and opened his mouth against the bars. One of the guys noticed one tooth was protruding sideways and hanging out, so he levered the tooth out with his car key. The croc then grunted and ambled away. The guy is insane, I’ve seen the tooth which is as big as my little finger, this is an 4 meter crocodile we are talking about!
A few weeks ago, we were going out diving and just past Rubbish Ridge I saw a familiar face. I turned to Wayne and said ‘That looked like Ross Kemp’. It was; he was here to film a documentary on gang wars which I had actually seen advertised when I was back in the UK. So when Caroline (Irish) said to me yesterday, ‘I know this sounds bizarre, but I’m sure I saw Phil Mitchell in Castaways a few weeks ago’, I could confirm that she wasn’t seeing things. From Easterners to East Timor, watch out for the episode. (UK viewers only!)
We have had a few tourists in town over the past couple of weeks. The local hangout for budget travellers is Backpackers, run by a guy called Henry who is another local character. He met Jim (a Brit tourist) after a couple of days and the first thing he said to him was ‘What! Don’t they have newspapers in your country then?’ Amazingly one night, we had 6 Brits around one table and it wasn’t even Pancake Day at the British Embassy.
Although we were restricted to Dili, the weekend was great. The boys set up a marquee on Dili Rock beach and we had a big BBQ with about 20 people, divers, snorkelers and some just hungry lunchers. It was a great social day. On the diving front I also did a couple of Bubble Makers this week which are always good fun, but this time the kids were Timorese. We reckon that we have the youngest ever Timorese on scuba at 9 years old and a girl at that.
Showing posts with label Election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Election. Show all posts
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Here we go again! – East Timor 11th August 2007
East Timor has a new Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao (not a surprise!) There were a few problems leading up to the announcement, which we expected. Monday, I was trying to be a tourist and replace some of the photos that I lost when my hard drive crashed. I’d picked the worst day for it, as it was overcast and threatening rain, not great for photos. My phone started pinging at an alarming rate with security text messages; avoid this area, disturbances in that area, it seemed that all over town there were rock fights, burning tyres and unofficial road blocks. I’d been all over Dili that day and seen absolutely nothing; it’s really a case of being caught at the wrong place at the wrong time because as soon as the UNPol get there, the show is over.
At the time of the mass texts, I was at the Casbar for sundowners, probably one of the furthest places I could be from Bebonuk where I’m house sitting. Prompting Robbie we finished our drinks as I didn’t want to drive around town in the dark. The boys are less discriminating at night; luckily I wasn’t driving a white car that could be mistaken for UN, but still I didn’t want to take unnecessary risks. As we left the Casbar we could see smoke rising over Dili so I dropped Robbie off and picked a route that avoided all the usual hotspots such as the IDP camp in front of Hotel Timor. Driving through Colmera I found the source of the fire, flames licking out of the top of the customs building. The rest of the route home was trouble free although sitting on the porch that night I could hear gunfire in Comoro and at 1am there were 4 UNPol cars outside the house.
The next day in Bebonuk there was evidence of the previous night’s events, the remains of smouldering tyres on the road but for the rest of the day it seemed calm, except they set fire to the Customs building again and really finished it off this time. We are wondering if this wasn’t a strategic move to get rid of any evidence of dodgy deals over the last 7 years! I phoned Tony to find out if the new handle for the car had arrived, he assured me that it had arrived on Monday, but no-one could find it as the paperwork had gone up in flames, in the Customs House!
Wednesday, I left the house to go to work as the UNPol were apprehending a few local lads. The phone pinged again ‘Reported disturbances at Bebonuk Primary School’, already too late, the show was over. By Thursday I was diving at Dili Rock, no problems at the airport which had previously been shut. Although there were a few UNPol around as Rogerio Lobato, who was jailed for 7½ years in 2006, was grounded on a plane awaiting the OK to take off, apparently to receive treatment for heart problems. There were reports of trouble brewing in some of the districts including Metinaro, so diving in the East was out.
By Friday I was diving at K41 as Metinaro was fine, the incidents were now reported further East in Baucau and Viqueque. I had been teaching a wonderful lady who was here visiting her daughter (what a week to come!). Unfortunately, her daughters’ workload had increased due to the problems and the only thing Mum had seen was the house and the Dive Centre, so I showed her what a beautiful country this is once you get outside of Dili. In the afternoon I played tour guide, stopping at the basket village, the Tais Market and a couple of souvenir shops. Boy does this lady know how to shop! It was good fun.
Wayne is playing reporter again, so the dive truck is now a press truck. He’s gone off to Baucau which is the latest trouble hotspot along with Viqueque where combined, reportedly 120 buildings have been burnt and in Baucau an UNPol car that was escorting an NGO was attacked with guns and the vehicles torched. However, no-one has been able to get into Viqueque including the press, so any reports of trouble are unconfirmed.
As for Dili, its business as usual, people on the streets, chicken vendors firing up their BBQ’s, market stalls open. The only thing that’s been affected is the diving as the UN has put a ban on travel to the districts. So I guess its Dili Rock again!
At the time of the mass texts, I was at the Casbar for sundowners, probably one of the furthest places I could be from Bebonuk where I’m house sitting. Prompting Robbie we finished our drinks as I didn’t want to drive around town in the dark. The boys are less discriminating at night; luckily I wasn’t driving a white car that could be mistaken for UN, but still I didn’t want to take unnecessary risks. As we left the Casbar we could see smoke rising over Dili so I dropped Robbie off and picked a route that avoided all the usual hotspots such as the IDP camp in front of Hotel Timor. Driving through Colmera I found the source of the fire, flames licking out of the top of the customs building. The rest of the route home was trouble free although sitting on the porch that night I could hear gunfire in Comoro and at 1am there were 4 UNPol cars outside the house.
The next day in Bebonuk there was evidence of the previous night’s events, the remains of smouldering tyres on the road but for the rest of the day it seemed calm, except they set fire to the Customs building again and really finished it off this time. We are wondering if this wasn’t a strategic move to get rid of any evidence of dodgy deals over the last 7 years! I phoned Tony to find out if the new handle for the car had arrived, he assured me that it had arrived on Monday, but no-one could find it as the paperwork had gone up in flames, in the Customs House!
Wednesday, I left the house to go to work as the UNPol were apprehending a few local lads. The phone pinged again ‘Reported disturbances at Bebonuk Primary School’, already too late, the show was over. By Thursday I was diving at Dili Rock, no problems at the airport which had previously been shut. Although there were a few UNPol around as Rogerio Lobato, who was jailed for 7½ years in 2006, was grounded on a plane awaiting the OK to take off, apparently to receive treatment for heart problems. There were reports of trouble brewing in some of the districts including Metinaro, so diving in the East was out.
By Friday I was diving at K41 as Metinaro was fine, the incidents were now reported further East in Baucau and Viqueque. I had been teaching a wonderful lady who was here visiting her daughter (what a week to come!). Unfortunately, her daughters’ workload had increased due to the problems and the only thing Mum had seen was the house and the Dive Centre, so I showed her what a beautiful country this is once you get outside of Dili. In the afternoon I played tour guide, stopping at the basket village, the Tais Market and a couple of souvenir shops. Boy does this lady know how to shop! It was good fun.
Wayne is playing reporter again, so the dive truck is now a press truck. He’s gone off to Baucau which is the latest trouble hotspot along with Viqueque where combined, reportedly 120 buildings have been burnt and in Baucau an UNPol car that was escorting an NGO was attacked with guns and the vehicles torched. However, no-one has been able to get into Viqueque including the press, so any reports of trouble are unconfirmed.
As for Dili, its business as usual, people on the streets, chicken vendors firing up their BBQ’s, market stalls open. The only thing that’s been affected is the diving as the UN has put a ban on travel to the districts. So I guess its Dili Rock again!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Love Is - East Timor 28th June 2007
Love is bringing two 2ltr bottles of fresh water and heating them in the sun while your boyfriend goes diving. Then standing on the back of the car and pouring the water over his head, so that he washes the salt from his hair. I thought this was so sweet, it reminded me of those ‘Love Is’ cartoons you used to get in the Daily Mail.
Back in February this year there was spate of rice raids around town. Well to prevent a reoccurrence, rice is now transported with a police escort; one car at the front, then three rice trucks, then another police car. The rice trucks themselves are so overloaded, they look extremely precarious. On the way to lunch I commented that the police car at the back was only there to pick up stray bags if they fall off. On the way back from lunch, that’s exactly what happened! The UN Policeman was hauling the stray bags into the back of his truck causing an enormous traffic jam.
At the start of the crisis last year, one vigilant Timorese labourer was digging a trench outside the centre for the new water pipes. He was even doing this when the shots started! However, the trench was then abandoned until September when the new pipes were finally put in. It’s now June and one of the pipes up the road has sprung a leak, causing a swamp and water flooding into the road. But the Timorese being an inventive lot have turned the water source into an impromptu car wash for taxis, as the water is pretty clean. That would just never happen back home.
Everyone has different memories and experiences of the last year. For the new batch of New Zealand cops staying in the Esplanada, the situation is a picnic compared to what their predecessors faced. However, they are still getting to grips with what the conflict is all about. They had to break up a 300 strong stone fight. Was it politically motivated? Was it an East/West thing? Was it a gang fight? No it was the result of a Karaoke competition!
I dived with one of the cops last week on Pertamina jetty, only to surface and be faced with a gun wielding FDTL officer and his cronies. Apparently, diving on the jetty is a security risk as I may be a terrorist like the Bali bombers. I explained that I was diving with a policeman and showed him photos of fish on my camera, but it didn’t cut it. Luckily the Minister for fisheries popped in the dive centre the next day, so hopefully we will soon get our nearest dive site back.
A couple of weeks ago, I finally visited the cemetery at Santa Cruz. This was the place that on the 12th of November 1991, the Indonesian military opened fire on a peaceful demonstration killing over 200 Timorese. The Indonesian government admitted killing 19, then upped it to 51, but every report I’ve read, states around 200 were killed. There is no memorial there, but the place is so packed with graves it’s hard to walk around. Many of the graves are tiny as infant deaths here are high. The graves are all shapes and sizes, many of them tombs, colourfully adorned with pictures, statues and flowers.
You would think that after all this tiny country endured under the Indonesian occupation and how hard that they fought for independence, that the nation could live in harmony, united by their history. Unfortunately this is not the case. I saw some of the footage of the massacre of the 11 unarmed policemen last May. It was horrific. Being here at the time, I remember the day, but didn’t see the footage that went out to the world. The photos I saw wouldn’t have been broadcast either because they were too gory. There is only so much blood that the public can endure on national television. For months after there were stones blocking the road like an unofficial memorial, a no-go zone. Now there is an official memorial with 11 headstones of those that were killed and a large inscription honouring them for dying serving their country.
A few nights ago there was a shooting incident where the FDTL fired warning shots in the air to break up a crowd. Normally warning shots would be one or two, but this was around 30 shots. What the FDTL haven’t grasped is the law of gravity, what goes up must come down and unfortunately they came down a bit too close to the Australian troops who returned fire. Luckily I haven’t heard of any fatalities from this incident.
It’s now a few days until the election and the atmosphere around town is becoming tense, you can feel it. Political rallies are taking place and there are UNPol everywhere. The GNR have screamed past with sirens blaring several times today, and we have seen several lorry loads of Fretilin supporters driving into town as it’s their rally today. One lorry just went past and got stoned by our local boys. Two minutes later, all the Kiwi cops from the Esplanada were out on the street in flak jackets, but not before my two Norwegian neighbours dressed only in bath towels. That made me laugh more than anything.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
He Handsome! - East Timor 23rd May 2007
He Handsome! – East Timor 23rd May 2007
The second Presidential elections were held last week and it was a landslide victory to Ramos Horta as rumour predicted. Although it’s not surprising that he got the majority vote, as when a couple of female voters were asked why they were going to vote for Ramos Horta, they replied ‘He Handsome!’ I guess political campaigning is a new concept in East Timor.
The actual voting day appeared to go without too much trouble, although there were rumours that Fretlin were threatening to destroy the polling stations in some areas. Unfortunately the day of the new Presidents inauguration didn’t quite go so smoothly. One local character described it as a ‘Rock concert starring ‘The Throwing Stones’ and ‘The Smashing Pumpkins’’.
A friend was in Tiger Fuels when a guy turned up on a motorbike and walked into the shop. His mobile phone rang and as he pulled it out of his pocket to answer it, out fell a grenade! The guy grabbed it and sped away on his motorbike. Unfortunately because there are very few motorbikes with number plates, it’s a waste of time reporting it, but a grenade going off in a petrol garage doesn’t bear thinking about.
The UN report highlighting the erratic driving practices of UN personnel and the subsequent report in the Sydney Morning Herald, appears to have brought the speed down around town, which is a good thing. I just wish they would apply the mobile phone use rule as well. Waiting to pull out of Tiger Fuels I watched the driver of a UN Police car texting with his eyes completely off the road. In the UK and Australia, using a mobile phone which is not hands free whilst driving is subject to a heavy fine and points on your licence. So if it is illegal to do something in your own country, what makes it acceptable to do here? Here ends the soapbox speech!
It was Fat Old Sod’s birthday last Monday so he threw a party at the Smokehouse which was great. Mrs Sod and I managed to sneak down there earlier and arrange with the girls to put up a banner and some balloons. Since then I’ve been flat out on the diving front with a mixture of courses including teaching Philippine cops Open Water, Discover Scubas and night dives. We have been so busy that Jurgen and I have been sharing the teaching. I had to call him the other day and request in my polite English Manner, ‘Could you please ask Jurgen if he would mind dropping off the DVD after he drops the kids at school please?’ This was translated by his wife as ‘She wants the DVD first thing in the morning!’ Slightly lost in translation, the difference between the over polite English and the direct, efficient Germans!
The night dive at Dili rock this week was stunning, we saw crabs, cuttlefish, squid, shrimp, a huge moray in a hole and a free swimming moray, angel fish and a really unusual nudibranch called a Pleurbranchus grandis, I’ve never seen one before.
As we surfaced, the sky was glittering with stars, which is one of my favourite parts of a night dive. I looked around to check on my divers and noticed that I had gained one! Instead of 3 other torches I counted four. Where the hell had the extra diver appeared from? It wasn’t until the diver said ‘Bon Noite Mister. Fish?’ that I realised it was a local spear fisherman in a divers mask holding an underwater torch. I’ve met this guy at Dili Rock before, he often sits on his haunches, spear in hand watching us kit up, intrigued with what we are doing.
When we got out of the water, the fisherman showed us his catch which included an enormous squid that one of my divers bought for $10. It weighed 7 kilos and was fresh out of the water, I bet it tasted delicious.
The second Presidential elections were held last week and it was a landslide victory to Ramos Horta as rumour predicted. Although it’s not surprising that he got the majority vote, as when a couple of female voters were asked why they were going to vote for Ramos Horta, they replied ‘He Handsome!’ I guess political campaigning is a new concept in East Timor.
The actual voting day appeared to go without too much trouble, although there were rumours that Fretlin were threatening to destroy the polling stations in some areas. Unfortunately the day of the new Presidents inauguration didn’t quite go so smoothly. One local character described it as a ‘Rock concert starring ‘The Throwing Stones’ and ‘The Smashing Pumpkins’’.
A friend was in Tiger Fuels when a guy turned up on a motorbike and walked into the shop. His mobile phone rang and as he pulled it out of his pocket to answer it, out fell a grenade! The guy grabbed it and sped away on his motorbike. Unfortunately because there are very few motorbikes with number plates, it’s a waste of time reporting it, but a grenade going off in a petrol garage doesn’t bear thinking about.
The UN report highlighting the erratic driving practices of UN personnel and the subsequent report in the Sydney Morning Herald, appears to have brought the speed down around town, which is a good thing. I just wish they would apply the mobile phone use rule as well. Waiting to pull out of Tiger Fuels I watched the driver of a UN Police car texting with his eyes completely off the road. In the UK and Australia, using a mobile phone which is not hands free whilst driving is subject to a heavy fine and points on your licence. So if it is illegal to do something in your own country, what makes it acceptable to do here? Here ends the soapbox speech!
It was Fat Old Sod’s birthday last Monday so he threw a party at the Smokehouse which was great. Mrs Sod and I managed to sneak down there earlier and arrange with the girls to put up a banner and some balloons. Since then I’ve been flat out on the diving front with a mixture of courses including teaching Philippine cops Open Water, Discover Scubas and night dives. We have been so busy that Jurgen and I have been sharing the teaching. I had to call him the other day and request in my polite English Manner, ‘Could you please ask Jurgen if he would mind dropping off the DVD after he drops the kids at school please?’ This was translated by his wife as ‘She wants the DVD first thing in the morning!’ Slightly lost in translation, the difference between the over polite English and the direct, efficient Germans!
The night dive at Dili rock this week was stunning, we saw crabs, cuttlefish, squid, shrimp, a huge moray in a hole and a free swimming moray, angel fish and a really unusual nudibranch called a Pleurbranchus grandis, I’ve never seen one before.
As we surfaced, the sky was glittering with stars, which is one of my favourite parts of a night dive. I looked around to check on my divers and noticed that I had gained one! Instead of 3 other torches I counted four. Where the hell had the extra diver appeared from? It wasn’t until the diver said ‘Bon Noite Mister. Fish?’ that I realised it was a local spear fisherman in a divers mask holding an underwater torch. I’ve met this guy at Dili Rock before, he often sits on his haunches, spear in hand watching us kit up, intrigued with what we are doing.
When we got out of the water, the fisherman showed us his catch which included an enormous squid that one of my divers bought for $10. It weighed 7 kilos and was fresh out of the water, I bet it tasted delicious.
Friday, April 27, 2007
At one with nature – East Timor 27th April 2007
East Timor is not a place for the squeamish or insect phobic, apart from mosquitoes; we have mice, geckos, ants, tics, termites, grubs, wasps, spiders, centipedes and even crabs! (And that’s just in the house!) A few months ago the visa card reader gave up the ghost; the cause of death was gecko shit! Appar
ently if a gecko shits on you it’s supposed to be lucky, (East Timor’s equivalent to seagulls), well that’s what I tried to convinced Rob when he got peed upon one night. Ants are also destructive to electrical appliances; our kitchen light went kaput because ants have chewed through the wiring. Not to mention the bamboo grubs that live and eat their way through our patio furniture, luckily it was a regular customer that was sitting on the chair when it collapsed. Some insects have collective names; all big spiders are Boris’s and all crabs that wander in from the beach are Colin’s.
I’ve been away from East Timor for about 6 weeks in the somewhat more civilized UK. After this amount of time you become somewhat complacent with the technology and choice and forget that back here you have to deal with slow and clunky internet connections, constant dirt under your fingernails and the necessity of slathering yourself with mosquito repellent. Back to the real world! Oh, the luxury of walking into someone’s place, opening your laptop and connecting to their wireless broadband, or walking into a Tesco’s superstore and blowing your mind with the choice and range of goodies for sale. INet and Leader just don’t cut it.
I kept an eye on the news from Dili through two blog sites ‘Xanana Republic Gazette’ and ‘Diligence’, both of which are very amusing reading. I was planning to return after the presidential elections, but in true Timor style, they all went badly wrong. You would think that in a country of 1 million people, 520,000 of eligible voting age, someone would notice that an extra 200,000 had voted, doh! They did! So a revote is now happening in May. What I can’t understand is the voting system was supposed to be fingerprint voting with adjudicators that have been here for months, how the hell did they manage to get an extra 200,000 votes?
So I returned anyway and managed to get away with nearly 40 kilos of luggage which is double the allowance. I hung round the check-in desk in Bali, prostituting myself to every passenger that looked like they were underweight, trying to check in with them. Eventually the check-in guy got either fed up with me or felt sorry for me and checked my bags in without a quibble. Returning to Dili International Airport, I made an arrangement with one of the Timorese Nationals, a lovely guy called Olivio. As he wouldn’t have the delay of getting a visa, he would nab me a trolley for my copious amount of luggage. Speaking from a bad previous experience, I didn’t want to be dragging two very large bags of dive gear through the airport. However being a prestigious international airport with 140 people coming in at a time, they only have 12 trolleys in total. Luckily, Olivio nabbed the last one for me.
Wielding a severely overloaded and very precarious trolley (I still managed to get the one with the dodgy wheel!); I met Wayne & Ann who took me off to the traditional welcoming ceremony, a Tiger beer at the airport bar. After observing how white I was, I gave Ann her traditional present of 200 menthol cigarettes (a rare commodity in East Timor). Last time I returned Wayne had commented (tongue in cheek) that he never got a present, so I brought him back a bumper bag of Cheesy Wotsists from the UK. It’s amazing how these chemically flavoured, orange finger staining, little puffs of corn bring such joy to a grown man’s palette.
Tomorrow, I’ll get my act together and sort out my schedule for the next few weeks and then Sunday I’m diving, I can’t wait to get back in the water again and top up my rapidly fading tan.
I’m now writing this thinking back to the UK where I would listen to the distant hum of traffic on the M4 and Heathrow bound planes circling overhead, now I have the gentle lapping of the sea and the distant whine of Blackhawks overhead. The dogs went into overdrive during the night so when bleary eyed I was asked how I slept; I replied that ‘I heard Boris darking all night!’ And now we have our first power cut of the day so the sea is drowned out by the droning of the generator. Welcome back to East Timor!
ently if a gecko shits on you it’s supposed to be lucky, (East Timor’s equivalent to seagulls), well that’s what I tried to convinced Rob when he got peed upon one night. Ants are also destructive to electrical appliances; our kitchen light went kaput because ants have chewed through the wiring. Not to mention the bamboo grubs that live and eat their way through our patio furniture, luckily it was a regular customer that was sitting on the chair when it collapsed. Some insects have collective names; all big spiders are Boris’s and all crabs that wander in from the beach are Colin’s.I’ve been away from East Timor for about 6 weeks in the somewhat more civilized UK. After this amount of time you become somewhat complacent with the technology and choice and forget that back here you have to deal with slow and clunky internet connections, constant dirt under your fingernails and the necessity of slathering yourself with mosquito repellent. Back to the real world! Oh, the luxury of walking into someone’s place, opening your laptop and connecting to their wireless broadband, or walking into a Tesco’s superstore and blowing your mind with the choice and range of goodies for sale. INet and Leader just don’t cut it.
I kept an eye on the news from Dili through two blog sites ‘Xanana Republic Gazette’ and ‘Diligence’, both of which are very amusing reading. I was planning to return after the presidential elections, but in true Timor style, they all went badly wrong. You would think that in a country of 1 million people, 520,000 of eligible voting age, someone would notice that an extra 200,000 had voted, doh! They did! So a revote is now happening in May. What I can’t understand is the voting system was supposed to be fingerprint voting with adjudicators that have been here for months, how the hell did they manage to get an extra 200,000 votes?
So I returned anyway and managed to get away with nearly 40 kilos of luggage which is double the allowance. I hung round the check-in desk in Bali, prostituting myself to every passenger that looked like they were underweight, trying to check in with them. Eventually the check-in guy got either fed up with me or felt sorry for me and checked my bags in without a quibble. Returning to Dili International Airport, I made an arrangement with one of the Timorese Nationals, a lovely guy called Olivio. As he wouldn’t have the delay of getting a visa, he would nab me a trolley for my copious amount of luggage. Speaking from a bad previous experience, I didn’t want to be dragging two very large bags of dive gear through the airport. However being a prestigious international airport with 140 people coming in at a time, they only have 12 trolleys in total. Luckily, Olivio nabbed the last one for me.
Wielding a severely overloaded and very precarious trolley (I still managed to get the one with the dodgy wheel!); I met Wayne & Ann who took me off to the traditional welcoming ceremony, a Tiger beer at the airport bar. After observing how white I was, I gave Ann her traditional present of 200 menthol cigarettes (a rare commodity in East Timor). Last time I returned Wayne had commented (tongue in cheek) that he never got a present, so I brought him back a bumper bag of Cheesy Wotsists from the UK. It’s amazing how these chemically flavoured, orange finger staining, little puffs of corn bring such joy to a grown man’s palette.
Tomorrow, I’ll get my act together and sort out my schedule for the next few weeks and then Sunday I’m diving, I can’t wait to get back in the water again and top up my rapidly fading tan.
I’m now writing this thinking back to the UK where I would listen to the distant hum of traffic on the M4 and Heathrow bound planes circling overhead, now I have the gentle lapping of the sea and the distant whine of Blackhawks overhead. The dogs went into overdrive during the night so when bleary eyed I was asked how I slept; I replied that ‘I heard Boris darking all night!’ And now we have our first power cut of the day so the sea is drowned out by the droning of the generator. Welcome back to East Timor!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)