L'Este is more

OK, that's a really bad title.  But what else do you call a post about a trip to Timor L'Este?  It's only taken 18 months or so since Edward has been living in Dil to finally get over there and prove to his friends and colleagues that I actually do exist.

Timor L'Este is our nearest neighbour*, but it takes a hell of a long time to get there from Canberra.  Fly to Darwin, stay overnight, get up at 4.30 to hang around the airport until the 5.45 flight to Dili.

Dili is a complicated place.  I didn't love it.  I imagine it would be a very challenging place to live in day to day, especially if you didn't have a purpose for being there.  It's not a place where you can easily go out for a stroll or a walk along the beach, or pop out for a coffee.  It was my first proper look at a developing country.

They say the biggest risk in Dili is that you will get run over by a UN four wheel drive.  They are certainly everywhere, and then you add in the police vehicles from various other nations, plus all the ramshackle taxis, it makes for a rather dusty and noisy place.

However the view from Christo Rei (the big statue of Jesus on the headland) at sunrise was spectacular, (three hundred and something stairs to get there mind you) and I got a great pedicure from an Australian woman who has been there for the past 11 years.

We then headed into the mountains for the weekend, to Maubise, which is apparently the honeymoon captial of Timor L'Este.  Lots of the coffee is grown around here and there are flourishing market gardens.

We stayed over the road from the church and listened in to Sunday morning mass.   The singing was beautiful.  Sunday is market day in Maubise, so the village was full of stalls and traders and people from outlying villages crammed into trucks.

We had an explore around a coffee plantation and a fascinating time with a Timorese family, who told us some of the history of the area and showed us some of the significant historical and spiritual sites.

Edward had a lesson in how to de-pulp coffee.

The views from the top of the mountains were spectacular.  Horses and buffalo grazing.

Then back down the mountain, through the dust, past the road works.  Home in time to have a swim and wash off some of the dust.  Back to Australia on Monday morning.  I'm glad I went, especially now I have a proper picture of where Edward lives and what some of the issues are he faces daily.  Nation building isn't easy.

*Edited to note that I have been corrected - Papua New Guinea is closer by approximately 5kms.  My apologies.