Last month we visited East Timore and Indonesia - first stop - ET!
We stayed at Atauro Dive Resort – which I can’t recommend
enough - the owner met us on the beach on arrival and drove us to the resort.
The resort has 3 little cabins, is eco-friendly and a little piece of heaven on
earth. The Island has about 8000 locals, one main road, 2 restaurants and is so
far from any other place that I have experienced - If you wanna get away somewhere very remote and
just chill – this is your place!
ET - East Timor or Timor-Leste is officially knows as the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is located just northwest of Australia. Having only gained its independence in 2002, its slowly becoming a popular destination for divers and snorkel fanatics (like me!) as its coral reefs are virtually untouched.
We flew Sriwijaya Air Airlines to ET -
their national carrier. The flight was 1hr 45 min and probably the worst
airline food I have yet to experience - whilst not being as ‘picky’ as my
younger years with food and now pretty much eat anything...this was just too
much! When we were served ‘it’ we could then identify what the awful smell was
when we first boarded the plane. ‘It’ arrived in a little plastic container....
some kind of hairy chicken, spicy potatoes (just about edible) some squished rice roll thing
and a few other unidentifiable bits. For dessert a green shaky thing - I though
it may be jelly and would give it a try but after watching the lady to the
right of me tuck into it and promptly spat it out....I decided to give it a
miss and build up an appetite for Dili.
We arrived in sunny Dili and queued for our visas - visas are $30 (ET uses USD as their currency) and are issued on arrival. Once through immigration we were swamped - literally - by every taxi driver in Dili wanting our fare! It was a bit overwhelming...luckily we had organized a hotel transfer. After a quick change and sunscreen update we headed out to explore Dili, being a Sunday there was not much happening but still great to walk around. First stop was the Cathedral – which was pumping as the majority of the population is Catholic. Next we wondered to the local market – all 3 stalls were open and charge top dollar for local handicrafts, the clock tower – the clock didn’t work, Resistance Museum – closed, although was supposed to be open according to signage, National Stadium – Kev loves a football stadium – it was closed as its being renovated but we ‘snuck’ in for a quick pic! That’s pretty much the top attractions in Dili! After that we headed to the Castaway Bar looking out to Atauro Island and demolished a beer and burger! It’s not recommended you stay out in Dili after dark - although Dilli is now possibly one of the safest cities in Asia after their recent troubles, so we headed back to the hotel and got ready for an early start. That and the few Bintang beer’s knocked me right out!
We arrived in sunny Dili and queued for our visas - visas are $30 (ET uses USD as their currency) and are issued on arrival. Once through immigration we were swamped - literally - by every taxi driver in Dili wanting our fare! It was a bit overwhelming...luckily we had organized a hotel transfer. After a quick change and sunscreen update we headed out to explore Dili, being a Sunday there was not much happening but still great to walk around. First stop was the Cathedral – which was pumping as the majority of the population is Catholic. Next we wondered to the local market – all 3 stalls were open and charge top dollar for local handicrafts, the clock tower – the clock didn’t work, Resistance Museum – closed, although was supposed to be open according to signage, National Stadium – Kev loves a football stadium – it was closed as its being renovated but we ‘snuck’ in for a quick pic! That’s pretty much the top attractions in Dili! After that we headed to the Castaway Bar looking out to Atauro Island and demolished a beer and burger! It’s not recommended you stay out in Dili after dark - although Dilli is now possibly one of the safest cities in Asia after their recent troubles, so we headed back to the hotel and got ready for an early start. That and the few Bintang beer’s knocked me right out!
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| Dili! |
The next day we got up bright and early to catch the speed boat to Atauro Island. After a delicious breakfast of french fries, egg, salad and bread, then trying desperately to get a taxi to the boat, we arrived just in time to hop on the speedy boat. I regretted every mouthful of breakfast I ate with every bump of the boat - for 1.5 hrs I thought happy thoughts and focused on my feet touching dry land - then we arrived in Atauro Island....aka - paradise!!!
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| Atauro Island - East Timor! |
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| Atauro Dive Resort |
After taking in the breathtakingly views and pinching myself
for being so lucky to be one of the few people who get to this relatively
remote place we went on a snorkel. Although i'm not one who likes to get my hair wet - I do enjoy a snorkel! We hired the snorkel gear a local boat for $10
an hour and were utterly astounded at what saw! Untouched coral reefs a-plenty!
We snorkelled around for a few hours enjoying the views of the deep blue then headed back to our cabin for a nap, a few Bintang's, then had dinner on the beach, under the stars!
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| Snorkel Central! |
Day two of island paradise we awoke to a beautiful sunrise and introduced ourselves to the 'Eddie' the resorts goat! Atauro means ‘goat’ in the local language – and was named due to the number of goats on the island. Eddie is quite a character and a feisty little guy! Eddie girlfriend recent ran away but we were lucky enough to see them reunite later that afternoon when they found the poor gal wondering the mountains. We went for another snorkel after breakfast - then a little tour of Atauro. We hit the local restaurant for lunch and then took a $2 taxi bike to the village to get a feel of the place. There wasn't really not much going on, but interesting to wonder around.
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| Atauro Village |
Day three we woke up to yet another amazing sunrise and went for a long walk on the beach feeling like the two luckiest people in the world.
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| Atauro Sunrise! |
After a tearful farewell to my new leading man - Eddie- we then headed back to Dili to catch our flight to Bali!
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Eddie & I!
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