If you like our pictures, please consider a donation to our charity Doctors of the World - to donate click here
Showing posts with label Dili. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dili. Show all posts
Monday, July 4, 2011
2 Bridges Photos Day 47 - 51: Dili - Darwin - Tennant Creek - Townsville
Photos of our Dili - Darwin - Tennant Creek - Townsville leg. Click on the photo to view the full album!
If you like our pictures, please consider a donation to our charity Doctors of the World - to donate click here
If you like our pictures, please consider a donation to our charity Doctors of the World - to donate click here
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Day 47 - 50: East Timor - Darwin - Tennant Creek - Townsville
So the short of it is that we have had to fly. Just 500km, a mere hop in the scheme of this 25,000km trip. We always knew that the chances of finding a boat from East Timor to Australia were slim given our timescales, and the tiny glimmer of hope we had of bribing/sweet talking (would have been interesting to see which would have worked best with a container ship captain) our way on board Perkin's Thor Pacific sailing on the 29th July were dashed by the combination of Indonesian ferry schedules and East Timorese bureaucracy, and to await the next sailing would have seen Will not cycling to Paris (crazy, even in my book) and me asking for another week, month or who knows how much longer leave.
Over the past three weeks we've followed every lead for a boat to Oz, from yacht racing to Australian Defence Force vessels to container ships, from Indonesia, East Timor, the closest land to Australia apart from the arduous one month to reach Torres Straits islands at the southern tip of Papua from where we could conceivably have got onto a people smuggling boat - probably not a plan either of our mums would have been particularly keen on!
The truth is that to make the Indonesia/East Timor to Darwin crossing, you need time. Lots of time. The hostel owner (from Lancashire) we met in Dili waited a year. And that's waiting in Dili which is probably not the most attractive place to spend such a prolonged holiday! Sailing from Singapore would have been possible, but would have bypassed Indonesia and made the trip all a bit too easy and enjoyable!
Surrounded by UN workers and well paid contractors our Airnorth plane hopped the 500km in 60 minutes, and really made us question why we'd not listened to all the advice we'd received along the trip that flying really made a lot more sense than spending 14 hours on a train, or up to 24 on a bus covering the same distance and without the complimentary scone and fake orange juice.
In Darwin, once past the immigration (who also thought we were mildly crazy), we felt completely disorientated. The whole balance of our previous seven weeks suddenly changed and we became the poor backpackers struggling to comprehend the sky high Aussie prices - high anyway, and in comparison to Indonesia a completely different world. Ordering noodles at random from a menu was replaced by carefully checking menu prices and finally deciding that Subway was the most economical way of stuffing ourselves full of the now foreign to me at least Western food ($18 for Fish and Chips - the equivalent of a whole day's subsistence for us along most of our journey!).
The social side seemed equally bizarre, surrounded by similar looking people to us, we no longer stood out as the "tourist to be touted" and became "regular backpackers from the UK probably looking for a job". The special treatment ended, but with it also our constant wariness that we were being set up to be ripped off.
A quiet night (largely because beer is so expensive) was spent back in dorm mode. Not sure how people live for months in these working visa ghetto like places. I think it would drive me insane, however, horses for courses, they all thought we were mad not to have come to Oz straight from London in an aeroplane. Touche.
Day 48 saw the beginning of our three day Greyhound experience, heading south along (reading this you have NO idea how grateful this made us) straight, flat, smooth and empty road through the Northern Territory with our only regret being missing the 1st July Fireworks, the only day of the year fireworks are permitted apparently. Weird, but then again it does seem Australia has a lot of rules about stuff like this.
Reaching the ex-gold mining town of Tennant Creek at 2am on Saturday morning (you need a good map to find this place) we could see why strict rules exist, as we were dropped by the bus into the middle of a mass local aboriginal street fight. Scariest moment of the trip so far without any shadow of doubt as we rapidly reassessed our plan of sticking the rest of the night out in the bus station, and heeded local Aussie advice and beelined for a caravan park, and crashed in the unlocked TV room before making an early exit in the morning. Tramp-esque, but when needs must.
With a whole day in front of us and the best suggestions from locals of what to do being "nothing", "sleep", "go to the bar" (eating would have been up there but extended opening hours here seems to mean five days a week plus three hours on Saturday), we were helped out by local Sue who drove us to see the local highlights of the lookout point, and the local dam. We survived the 4km bush walk back with none of the snakes showcased at some of the highway pubs, the famous Larrimah in particular, seen much to my relief. The rest of the day was spent trying to learn the virtues of Aussie Rules football, drinking a few schooners, and finding out just the way to make the pool balls come out of the table, while retaining our dollar coin.
As we ate our $20 pizza (another Aussie priced "bargain"), we watched the beginning of Saturday night unfold, with more evidence of the massive social divides between white and aboriginal populations in these remote towns, with everyone seeming to get along in a state of uncomfortable mutual tolerance. It's hard to explain this without being here, a dynamic far beyond many of the high horse European liberal opinions but yet still one that seems a long way from a long term solution where your background makes no difference to how you make the most of the undoubted opportunities Australia offers (having seen the atrocious recent histories of Vietnam and Cambodia, and lacking infrastructure of Indonesia makes me a harsher judge of whether peoples' complaints really hold water).
Night bus (no chickens) through to Mount Isa, one of Australia's mining capitals, followed by another 12 hour ride east through to Townsville were uneventful. We hit a roo, but seems this is normal. Just have to hope it doesn't take your headlight out apparently. Food stayed limited to steak sandwiches, and our sickly Coles' cereal bars as we were treated to Gordon the driver's recollections of his true busman's holiday to the UK.
As we hit Townsville, Australia had changed. No more road trains or desert but a chique looking urban centre with a pleasant sea front and beach (from what we could see in the dark!), and a sleek looking Mitsibushi Galant looking ready to take us on the final section of our journey. Road trip to Sydney!
Ps. Check out our updated Google Map of the route and our stop off points (click on the map to zoom in).... IN OZ NOW!
Dili - Darwin: 1 hour flight hour / 500 km
Darwin - Tennant Creek: 14 bus hours / 1,000 km
Tennant Creek - Mount Isa: 10 bus hours / 650 km
Mount Isa - Townsville: 11 bus hours / 900 km
TOTAL TO DATE: 22,065 km
FUND RAISING TOTAL: GBP 3,780 including Gift Aid - please keep these Doctors of the World donations coming - click here!
Over the past three weeks we've followed every lead for a boat to Oz, from yacht racing to Australian Defence Force vessels to container ships, from Indonesia, East Timor, the closest land to Australia apart from the arduous one month to reach Torres Straits islands at the southern tip of Papua from where we could conceivably have got onto a people smuggling boat - probably not a plan either of our mums would have been particularly keen on!
The truth is that to make the Indonesia/East Timor to Darwin crossing, you need time. Lots of time. The hostel owner (from Lancashire) we met in Dili waited a year. And that's waiting in Dili which is probably not the most attractive place to spend such a prolonged holiday! Sailing from Singapore would have been possible, but would have bypassed Indonesia and made the trip all a bit too easy and enjoyable!
Surrounded by UN workers and well paid contractors our Airnorth plane hopped the 500km in 60 minutes, and really made us question why we'd not listened to all the advice we'd received along the trip that flying really made a lot more sense than spending 14 hours on a train, or up to 24 on a bus covering the same distance and without the complimentary scone and fake orange juice.
In Darwin, once past the immigration (who also thought we were mildly crazy), we felt completely disorientated. The whole balance of our previous seven weeks suddenly changed and we became the poor backpackers struggling to comprehend the sky high Aussie prices - high anyway, and in comparison to Indonesia a completely different world. Ordering noodles at random from a menu was replaced by carefully checking menu prices and finally deciding that Subway was the most economical way of stuffing ourselves full of the now foreign to me at least Western food ($18 for Fish and Chips - the equivalent of a whole day's subsistence for us along most of our journey!).
The social side seemed equally bizarre, surrounded by similar looking people to us, we no longer stood out as the "tourist to be touted" and became "regular backpackers from the UK probably looking for a job". The special treatment ended, but with it also our constant wariness that we were being set up to be ripped off.
A quiet night (largely because beer is so expensive) was spent back in dorm mode. Not sure how people live for months in these working visa ghetto like places. I think it would drive me insane, however, horses for courses, they all thought we were mad not to have come to Oz straight from London in an aeroplane. Touche.
Day 48 saw the beginning of our three day Greyhound experience, heading south along (reading this you have NO idea how grateful this made us) straight, flat, smooth and empty road through the Northern Territory with our only regret being missing the 1st July Fireworks, the only day of the year fireworks are permitted apparently. Weird, but then again it does seem Australia has a lot of rules about stuff like this.
Reaching the ex-gold mining town of Tennant Creek at 2am on Saturday morning (you need a good map to find this place) we could see why strict rules exist, as we were dropped by the bus into the middle of a mass local aboriginal street fight. Scariest moment of the trip so far without any shadow of doubt as we rapidly reassessed our plan of sticking the rest of the night out in the bus station, and heeded local Aussie advice and beelined for a caravan park, and crashed in the unlocked TV room before making an early exit in the morning. Tramp-esque, but when needs must.
With a whole day in front of us and the best suggestions from locals of what to do being "nothing", "sleep", "go to the bar" (eating would have been up there but extended opening hours here seems to mean five days a week plus three hours on Saturday), we were helped out by local Sue who drove us to see the local highlights of the lookout point, and the local dam. We survived the 4km bush walk back with none of the snakes showcased at some of the highway pubs, the famous Larrimah in particular, seen much to my relief. The rest of the day was spent trying to learn the virtues of Aussie Rules football, drinking a few schooners, and finding out just the way to make the pool balls come out of the table, while retaining our dollar coin.
As we ate our $20 pizza (another Aussie priced "bargain"), we watched the beginning of Saturday night unfold, with more evidence of the massive social divides between white and aboriginal populations in these remote towns, with everyone seeming to get along in a state of uncomfortable mutual tolerance. It's hard to explain this without being here, a dynamic far beyond many of the high horse European liberal opinions but yet still one that seems a long way from a long term solution where your background makes no difference to how you make the most of the undoubted opportunities Australia offers (having seen the atrocious recent histories of Vietnam and Cambodia, and lacking infrastructure of Indonesia makes me a harsher judge of whether peoples' complaints really hold water).
Night bus (no chickens) through to Mount Isa, one of Australia's mining capitals, followed by another 12 hour ride east through to Townsville were uneventful. We hit a roo, but seems this is normal. Just have to hope it doesn't take your headlight out apparently. Food stayed limited to steak sandwiches, and our sickly Coles' cereal bars as we were treated to Gordon the driver's recollections of his true busman's holiday to the UK.
As we hit Townsville, Australia had changed. No more road trains or desert but a chique looking urban centre with a pleasant sea front and beach (from what we could see in the dark!), and a sleek looking Mitsibushi Galant looking ready to take us on the final section of our journey. Road trip to Sydney!
Ps. Check out our updated Google Map of the route and our stop off points (click on the map to zoom in).... IN OZ NOW!
Dili - Darwin: 1 hour flight hour / 500 km
Darwin - Tennant Creek: 14 bus hours / 1,000 km
Tennant Creek - Mount Isa: 10 bus hours / 650 km
Mount Isa - Townsville: 11 bus hours / 900 km
TOTAL TO DATE: 22,065 km
FUND RAISING TOTAL: GBP 3,780 including Gift Aid - please keep these Doctors of the World donations coming - click here!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Day 44 - 46: Ende - Dili (Timor Leste)
Indonesia is redeemed! Well nearly. Day 44 saw us up at 5am determined that we wouldn't let any ferry that might run that day leave before we could work out which port it would leave from. A rather surreal 20 minute moto ride alongside the black sand beaches of Flores got us to a port with definitely no ferry but a large group of Indonesians apparently as confused as us, yet seemingly perfectly content that at some point a boat would turn up.
And turn up it did! Albeit a rust bucket (see our photos for this leg), rocking in the swell as horses and goats slid off amongst the packet carrying passengers, bracing itself for the military landing craft style rush of the awaiting throng of passengers.
Rather ambivalent to the length of journey given the range of estimates we'd been given, we were happy enough just to be onboard and sailing southeast towards West Timor, and the regional centre of East Nusa Tenggara of Kupang, still just about on time to make our scheduled arrival date in Australia.
The next day was to be one full of surprises - and generally of the good kind. After 19 hours of cramped sleep using some of our trip learnt contortion positions, and hopefully our last pot noodle of the journey, we arrived EARLY in Kupang and 3.30am moto-ed by starlight to one of the least salubrious accommodations we've enjoyed. Waking up next day we found ourselves right on the seafront with views along the beach, and a bustling town most notable for by its country and western / hiphop pumping pimped bemo minibuses.
After the ferry delays in Indonesia, to have had any chance of catching a cargo ship down from Dili to Darwin we needed East Timor to have kept to their word and processed our visa applications in the promised 10 days, however even trawling spam boxes proved fruitless in our search for a reply meaning, in the consensus opinion of Kupang, a three day delay waiting for the letter and stamp that would let us into the world's "newest nation". Sweet talking was required, and dressed as smartly as we would (OK, so not that smart, but at least the flipflops came off) we assaulted the Timor Leste consulate with our full arsenal of pleasantries, smiles, linguistic abilities and subservience and respect for people doing an obviously extremely important job.
It worked, and six hours later (a record we are told) we had the letter, and were headed via a few frames of pool in the sunset where Will made a controversial comeback (a deliberate miss involved) to win the night 7-6 to Kupang's lively, fish packed night market for a juice, a beer at Edwin's L'Avalon bar to thank him for all his help during the day, and bed ready for (another) 4.30am start.
Day 46 was pretty much written off as a bus/border crossing day and we weren't far wrong as the West Timor road suddenly became a dirt track as we passed Atambua, the last West Timor town, and headed for the frontier. Stamped and inspected by a whole host of military, police and immigration authorities along with the standard money changing touts, we passed muster and were allowed into Timor Este, our 19th country of the trip, and miraculously still on schedule to make Australia as planned by 1st July, albeit now with no hope of making it onto the cargo boat that was our only (faint) hope of really making this epic journey without any flying.
As we drove noorth east towards Dili, the landscape became more and more arid, and further and further from the jungle type vegetation and favourable agricultural conditions of Flores and even West Timor, and settlements appeared poorer compared to their western neighbours. Stunning coastlines prevailed as we moved towards the UN compound/town that acts as Timor Leste's capital since their bloody independence from Indonesia and subsequent UN governance over the last two decades.
Smarting from the cost of accommodation, the price of food didn't really help as it became increasingly apparent that the abundance of UN and NGO staff, combined with Timor Leste's need to import almost everything (a pint of milk comes from Australia and is USD $5) makes for a bad budget backpacker location. Still, I didn't mind as the slope of the pool table played to my advantage and the score levelled at 9-9.
Bed was not particularly appealing, but given how much we had paid, we made the most of it, our last real "travelling" night of the trip.
Ps. Check out our updated Google Map of the route and our stop off points (click on the map to zoom in).... IN OZ NOW!
Ende - Kupang: 19 ferry hours / 250 km
Kupang - Dili: 12 bus hours / 250 km
TOTAL TO DATE: 19,015 km
FUND RAISING TOTAL: GBP 3,780 including Gift Aid - please keep these Doctors of the World donations coming - click here!
And turn up it did! Albeit a rust bucket (see our photos for this leg), rocking in the swell as horses and goats slid off amongst the packet carrying passengers, bracing itself for the military landing craft style rush of the awaiting throng of passengers.
Rather ambivalent to the length of journey given the range of estimates we'd been given, we were happy enough just to be onboard and sailing southeast towards West Timor, and the regional centre of East Nusa Tenggara of Kupang, still just about on time to make our scheduled arrival date in Australia.
The next day was to be one full of surprises - and generally of the good kind. After 19 hours of cramped sleep using some of our trip learnt contortion positions, and hopefully our last pot noodle of the journey, we arrived EARLY in Kupang and 3.30am moto-ed by starlight to one of the least salubrious accommodations we've enjoyed. Waking up next day we found ourselves right on the seafront with views along the beach, and a bustling town most notable for by its country and western / hiphop pumping pimped bemo minibuses.
After the ferry delays in Indonesia, to have had any chance of catching a cargo ship down from Dili to Darwin we needed East Timor to have kept to their word and processed our visa applications in the promised 10 days, however even trawling spam boxes proved fruitless in our search for a reply meaning, in the consensus opinion of Kupang, a three day delay waiting for the letter and stamp that would let us into the world's "newest nation". Sweet talking was required, and dressed as smartly as we would (OK, so not that smart, but at least the flipflops came off) we assaulted the Timor Leste consulate with our full arsenal of pleasantries, smiles, linguistic abilities and subservience and respect for people doing an obviously extremely important job.
It worked, and six hours later (a record we are told) we had the letter, and were headed via a few frames of pool in the sunset where Will made a controversial comeback (a deliberate miss involved) to win the night 7-6 to Kupang's lively, fish packed night market for a juice, a beer at Edwin's L'Avalon bar to thank him for all his help during the day, and bed ready for (another) 4.30am start.
Day 46 was pretty much written off as a bus/border crossing day and we weren't far wrong as the West Timor road suddenly became a dirt track as we passed Atambua, the last West Timor town, and headed for the frontier. Stamped and inspected by a whole host of military, police and immigration authorities along with the standard money changing touts, we passed muster and were allowed into Timor Este, our 19th country of the trip, and miraculously still on schedule to make Australia as planned by 1st July, albeit now with no hope of making it onto the cargo boat that was our only (faint) hope of really making this epic journey without any flying.
As we drove noorth east towards Dili, the landscape became more and more arid, and further and further from the jungle type vegetation and favourable agricultural conditions of Flores and even West Timor, and settlements appeared poorer compared to their western neighbours. Stunning coastlines prevailed as we moved towards the UN compound/town that acts as Timor Leste's capital since their bloody independence from Indonesia and subsequent UN governance over the last two decades.
Smarting from the cost of accommodation, the price of food didn't really help as it became increasingly apparent that the abundance of UN and NGO staff, combined with Timor Leste's need to import almost everything (a pint of milk comes from Australia and is USD $5) makes for a bad budget backpacker location. Still, I didn't mind as the slope of the pool table played to my advantage and the score levelled at 9-9.
Bed was not particularly appealing, but given how much we had paid, we made the most of it, our last real "travelling" night of the trip.
Ps. Check out our updated Google Map of the route and our stop off points (click on the map to zoom in).... IN OZ NOW!
Ende - Kupang: 19 ferry hours / 250 km
Kupang - Dili: 12 bus hours / 250 km
TOTAL TO DATE: 19,015 km
FUND RAISING TOTAL: GBP 3,780 including Gift Aid - please keep these Doctors of the World donations coming - click here!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)