Trip to Timor-Leste

Helen and I have just returned from a two week visit to the world’s newest nation – East Timor. In Portuguese, that’s Timor-Leste – leste being Portuguese for “east”. Which is a coincidence, as Timor is Indonesian for “east”, too. So the name really translates to “East-East”. My sister Liz has been living up there for a number of years now, and she finally managed to arrange a wedding with her Timorese partner, Pedro. It wasn’t the first time they had planned it, but the lingering social unrest fomented by the Indonesian military when they brutally destroyed the “province” in 1999 had made it difficult to pull off until now. The UN presence there was quite visible, and the international community seemed to be doing a good job of maintaining order, and giving the Timorese a chance to rebuild their ravaged country. It remains to be seen if the Timorese will be able to seize the opportunity, or if they will sink beneath the weight of internecine political infighting. But I thought it looked, well, rather hopeful.

Sunset in East Timor

Although the country is still heart-wrenchingly poor, it is in many places very beautiful. Liz and Pedro’s wedding went off very well – they had over 1000 people at the reception. Mum and Dad also made the trip up from Australia, and considering it was the first time they had spent more than 30 minutes in each other’s company in over 30 years, they managed to get along with reasonable propriety.

A Timorese water buffalo, looking a bit dopey.

We covered a lot of the country in our travels – from the capital Dili to Baucau (for the wedding), along to Com on the North coast, to Maubisse in the central highlands.

Mike and Helen in Maubisse. What fantastic mountains!

The people were lovely, friendly and very welcoming. Although not all the Timorese appreciate the presence of the Australian stabilisation forces, apparently.

Dad and I pause for thought by the central market in Baucau.

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Image credits: Mike on Flickr