Jaco Island
We continued our Timor-Leste round trip by travelling along the north coast to the "beach resort town" with the funny name Com. We made some stops along the road to visit a local market, Portugese churches, Japanese bunkers and rice fields.
Vegetable market in Manatuto.
A Portugese church from 1933 in Laleia.
A shop along the road.
Rice fields outside the town Vemasse.
Water buffaloes cooling down in a river outside the town Laivai.
On top of an old Japanese bunker close to the town Laivai.
More bunkers on the beach.
The "beach resort town" Com.
From Com we continued inland and after some hours on bad roads we reached the area Desa Rasa. It's an area with a lot of traditional houses and traditional graves belonging to the Fataluku people. The number of buffalo skulls on top of the grave shows how important a person was when he or she died.
Graves decorated with buffalo skulls.
Traditional Fataluku houses.
After driving through the Desa Rasa area we reached the coast again on the other side of the island. First we stopped at a view point before we continued down to the sea. We spent one night in a simple chalet on Tutuala Beach and from there we made an afternoon trip to Jaco Island. Jaco is a true paradise island with clear turquoise water and white sand beaches and the best thing no other tourists!
Tutuala beach.
Our home for the night.
Jaco Island.
After exploring Timor-Leste during one week I can highly recommend others to visit the country. It might be a destination for the more experienced travellers since the roads are in a very bad condition, the public transportation is not reliable in many areas and the standard of accomodation and food is simple.You need a lot of time and patience if you want to travel around on the island. The way I see it, is that all things mentioned are just parts of the adventure when you are discovering something outside the main tourist tracks.
Mount Ramelau
The highest mountain in Timor-Leste is the 2963 meter tall Mount Ramelau. The mountain is located south west of the capital Dili. To reach the mountain you have to travel along a road that might be the worst road I have ever travelled on. :-) Our car broke down on the way back and we had to wait a couple of hours for spare parts to arrive from Dili, but that's just part of the adventure when you are exploring places outside of the main tourist tracks.
It takes some time and a lot of patience to reach the base of Mount Ramelau, but the drive is rewarding because of the scenery along the road. It's a mix of mountains, valleys, rice fields and small villages with traditional houses. We were there in early April which is the last month of the rainy season so everything was still green.
We stopped at the old Portugese house Pousada Maubisse for lunch. The house is located on a hill with a view over the town below.
I bought pink bananas.
We stayed one night in a guesthouse before our climb. We woke up in the middle of the night and started the climb to reach the summit before sunrise. Later it showed out that our guide had underestimated us and our walking pace! We reached the summit one hour before sunrise and had to wait for the sun. :-) It was windy and a bit cold up there so we had to walk around in circles to keep warm. Our local guide was more experienced and had brought a blanket so he just laid down under a bush and slept for a while.
At the top together with the Virgin Mary statue.
Dili
Dili is the name of the capital of Timor-Leste. It's a rather small city with around 200 000 inhabitants. First of all Luis took up to the hill where the large statue of Christ is located. We climbed up on the hill and from the viewpoint up there we could see Dili on one side and a beautiful white beach on the other side.
Timor-Leste has a dark history filled of conflicts. To learn more about the history we continued by visiting the Resistance Museum and the Santa Cruz Cemetery. The later was the site of the 1991 Dili massacre where more than 200 people were killed by the Indonesian army during a demonstration for independence.
Sebastião Gomes was one of the young demonstrators.
After visiting the museum and the cemetery Luis took us to another viewpoint on the other side of the city. On top of the the hill was a big statue of the Pope.
A traditional style chapel.
The landing strip at Dili Airport.
View over Dili and in the distance Atauro Island.
Timor-Leste
(Map from MapQuest)
Upon arrival in Timor-Leste the guide Luis Martins from ECO Discovery met us at the airport. Luis was going to be our guide and driver during the week we spent in Timor-Leste.
Our round trip started in the capital Dili. From Dili we travelled up in the mountains to Mount Ramelau, the highest mountain in the country, which we had decided to climb. After climbing Mount Ramelau we travelled back to Dili and then we continued along the north coast to the eastenmost tip of the country.
Perhentian Kecil
Tuesday was a public holiday here in Malaysia and that means a possibility to extend the weekend and travel on a weekend trip. Of course I took the opportunity to do that! I headed to the Perhentian Islands and discovered a true paradise with crystal clear water and white beaches.
A 40 minutes boat ride east of northern Peninsular Malaysia you can find two paradise islands. The smaller island is called Perhentian Kecil and the bigger Perhentian Besar. I had decided to go to Perhentian Kecil this time. The most popular beach on Perhentian Kecil is Long Beach and I can see why. :-) The sand is so white and soft.
First I spent two nights in a simple chalet a bit up in the forest, because every other place I checked was fully booked. The last night I stayed at Bubu Long Beach Resort, which is the best resort on the island and I really liked the place. All rooms have ocean view.
Long Beach on Perhentian Kecil.
Beach life on Long Beach.
Bubu Long Beach Resort.
Bubu Long Beach Resort.
The view from my room at Bubu Resort.
Evening cocktail.
Perhentian is a good destination for scuba diving. There are a number of dive sites around the islands and the visibility is normally very good, but you don't have to go diving to see a lot of fishes, a snorkelling trip is a good alternative. I even saw a black tip reef shark when I was standing on the jetty!
A black tip reef shark was swimming under the jetty.
Perhentian is a paradise and I hope I will have the opportunity to come back soon. Next time I want to sign up for a scuba diving course and discover what it looks like under water. I hope that I will meet my friend Mr. Shark again. :-)
