It’s safe to say that I’ve officially taken Timor-Leste by storm. After today I’ve been to practically every region in the country. Oecussi is a little-visited enclave of Timor-Leste located in West Timor, and is where the Portuguese first landed centuries ago. Taking the 12-hour ferry I rolled out my sleeping mat and tried to sleep but I ended up getting practically none. There is nothing like a ferry in this part of the world as passengers are excellent at making themselves at home when they’re at sea. People seem to sleep wherever they are, often without a mat, blanket, or pillow. I was the only foreign face onboard the MV Ramelau, and as such I was the subject of a few stares. Few travellers to Oecussi travel by land due to needing a visa for Indonesia and then a new visa for Timor-Leste, so most people either fly or take the ferry. At 4:30 AM it was still black and I felt ready to fall over but I dragged myself up to an old Portuguese fort. In Oecussi you’ll notice there is substantially less rubbish lying round than in Dili and the roads are the best you’ll see in the country. In 23 days in Timor-Leste I only managed to find seven geocaches; it’s another country that has untapped potential for geocaching.
As I was walking back from the Portuguese fort a lady named Amelia spotted me. I met her on the ferry earlier, and she invited me to her home for a coffee, breakfast, and a shower (I sure needed all three). She then gave me a lift to the turnoff to Napan, the border post on the south-eastern end of Oecussi. For $3 I’d get a ride in the back of a truck to Oesilo, very close to the border. Whilst I thought of passing on visiting the mud volcanoes, the truck drove right past them so I got my wish.
These volcanoes as well as visiting Oecussi are the feather in the cap of my time in Timor-Leste. They’re like a “Rotorua in microcosm” as they bubble, and on some days they’re more active than others. As I’m very close to the border, part of the road is in Indonesia. This marks only the second time I’ve ever made an illicit border crossing (the first time was crossing into South Korea from North Korea at the DMZ). Another truck would get me to the border and then I had to deal with one of those real “son of a bitch” moments. The border wasn’t open! I had to backtrack all the way to Socato and then enter Indonesia from there. It also meant having to use up what little money I have left (until I reach Indonesia) on transport to get to the border. The silver lining is that the drive is very scenic. After a lift to Pante Makassar (Oecussi Town), I would get a few final photos of Timor-Leste on this beautiful day.
One more lift would get me to the border, leaving me with only a few Timorese coins as souvenirs.
23 days I spent in Timor-Leste, and I gallivanted the country like it was my own backyard. From the summit of Mt. Ramelau to swimming in the ocean off Jaco Island, I visited practically every region of the country and met some very interesting people to go along with nice food and wonderful hospitality. The only goal I didn’t accomplish on my journey was to meet the president, Jose Ramos-Horta. Timor-Leste is a small, poor country but has a lot of potential and is heading in the right direction. Adding another stamp to my already full passport, Indonesia I stepped into…
