Dili Detour
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2006
1
38
228
Trip End
Jul 15, 2008
Dili, Timor-Leste
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Things aren't all bad in Dili. There are some good restaurants for instance. One of our favorites is the City Café, not far from our hotel and near the place where we saw the rock throwing gangs in the street. Seafood is of course plentiful here. There's an open air fish market directly across the road from the Hotel Torismo. You can watch the fishermen bringing in their catch. We found a nice Malaysian restaurant and hotel called the Ocean View Resort on the point on the far west end of the harbor. It's a long hike out there but it worth it. Today we plan to spend the afternoon at Areia Branca Beach at the east end of the harbor under the Cristo Rey statue. Then we'll climb the steps up to the statue pass the 14 stations of the cross to the statue. [GPS 08 01.406S 125 06.557E] On the way back into town we'll stop at one of the shore side thatched roof and open sided restaurants for a fresh seafood meal. We have to plan our day so we get to the restaurants after 6PM which we've found is the time they start serving the evening meal here.
At breakfast this morning we met Sylvia, a UN worker from Uruguay. This was another one of those 'it's a small world' encounters, as it turned out she and Irina both attended Bay City Central High School at the same time. It's a big school and they did not know each other then but knew lots of the same people and teachers. Sylvia has a randy side and repeated said, with a sly wink, that she was a very popular exchange student. Like you know what I mean. Sylvia insists that Arvid should apply for one of the open UN jobs here as a Special Legal Advisor for the police.
After breakfast we arranged a day trip for tomorrow to Baucau and then down to Venilale. This area was a strong hold of the Fretilin during the independence struggle, which we are keen to know more about.
