Finally back to the mainland in Atauro Island – Timor Leste. we were quite exhausted and tired, so Bana went to a hammock which was at the place and I did the same. We were falling asleep quickly.
I sadly wasn’t sleeping much and luckily it wasn’t dark yet, so time for taking my drone out for a little flight. It was amazing to see how the coral reef was looking from above. It wasn’t far off the shore, so it was possible to fly til the end. Also Atauro Island was beautiful with all the nature and the mountains.
Living a different lifestyle for a bit
At Barry’s we were quite comfortable, we didn’t want to leave, but sleeping there was also no option, way too expensive. They had a buffet for a fair amount of money, so we decided to get that. It was of course more than any restaurant nearby, but it was late, we were lazy and the food looked quite good.
It was great to not need to worry about the spice level, because this place was made for tourists. Also eating as much as you want is my style of restaurant. The food was great, but we both couldn’t eat that much. We made the mistake of not eating before, so you are going to get filled up earlier. It was annoying, but still we enjoyed it there. We were asking if we could put the tent up inside their fences, due to it being night already. Sadly the owner didn’t want that, obviously he would want us to pay for the accommodation so it does make sense of course.
Back to basic
We left the place and went through the pitch black street. Some people were also around with their flashlights on their phones. It felt dangerous even though it probably wasn’t, at least during the day I was not receiving any dangerous vibes.
During the day Bana and I were spotting a flat meadow in the mountains. We aimed to go there, but in the pitch black night it wasn’t easy to find it. We went in the direction, had to climb up some mountains and were also tired. At the end we decided to sleep in the grass with a sea view. We built up the tent and I wanted to not be seen, so as not to use much flashlight, which didn’t work. Bana wasn’t fully motivated to build it up, so it took longer.
When the tent was up, we were laying inside, but sadly he didn’t have it that comfortable and adding to it. It was quite warm in the tent even though air was possible to go through it. The tent was basically open.
The sleeping was hard for both of us I guess. Also because we had to get up super early to catch the shitty boat from the beginning back as well.
The stressful morning
We woke up before the sunrise due to wanting to catch the boat back. The boat would leave at 6am at the same place we arrived at. This place was a walking distance over 5km away from where we were at. We had less than 30 min to reach, which was possible, if we would have catch a ride. Sadly didn’t work. Bana and I put the tent down and took some pictures of the surrounding and the upcoming sunrise which could have looked better.
We were back on the main dirt road and sadly besides some motorcycle drivers there was nobody on the road. It was not possible for us to reach there on time. We kept walking, but it didn’t really make much sense. When we reached no boat was there and nobody was waiting as well, so we basically fucked it up.
Now we were on this island and we didn’t know how to get off from it. There were options, but they were quite pricey, for example flying back to Dili. We don’t pay $5 for a bad boat trip and then spend way too much for an unnecessary flight.
Talking to many people, which didn’t work a lot, the people didn’t speak English. Spanish worked a bit better, but even that didn’t help a lot. We were walking along the road and talked to basically everyone and then out of nowhere an English Teacher appeared. He was telling us that there will be a ferry leaving that day and we could still reach it on time, we had like 5 hours until then.
The day in Beloi
We went back to Beloi, but by hitchhiking, some truck took us, which was great. While standing on top of the truck we passed all the school kids who were waving at us, which was a nice feeling actually. The sun was kicking in already even though the day basically just started. When we reached Beloi we went back to this one restaurant from the first day and there we even received a better deal, including a waiting time of over one hour, which was annoying. They told us that they were open, but it seemed like that wasn’t the case.
The food was also better that day, which wasn’t expected.
The ferry was in the harbor and prepared for takeoff like for over five hours. I went on the ferry with Bana and asked for the price, it was like $10 per person, but a really shitty one, we just wanted to go to mainland, so the price at the end was fine. We were sitting down underneath a roof, which was used for all the locals as a waiting spot for the ferry.
Another ferry arrived and I went in it to ask for the price, this ferry was actually the same price and looked way better, they had comfortable seats. I was talking to the captain of the boat, who was also showing me his area which was actually really cool to see. I felt like the captain for a moment.
Killing time
I was just relaxing in the shade, which was actually not as hot as I was thinking, a nice breeze was coming all the time, this is what perfect climate was for me. Bana wanted to do something more exciting, so he went out to swim again. Swimming next to the ferries to see some more things before leaving the island. I took care of the bags and luckily he came back on time. In the meantime I was doing some meditation and trying to rest.
The time passed quite quickly and then it was time for the ferry. The whole time to our surprise a movie was going in English and I was actually watching it while falling half asleep as well.
The ride took similar long as with the small boat and was double as expensive, but way more comfortable and for sure worth taking. Sometimes you also need to spend some more money on special things.
Back in good old Dili
We arrived back in the city and we wanted to go back to Josh, but didn’t know if he was there, because we didn’t have the internet. We had good feelings about it, because there was always someone home.
It was hot and we had quite a bit of distance to his place, so we hitchhiked again. It worked again well after we tried it properly. A woman was stopping, who worked for the military and took us for a bit of distance. She didn’t speak good English, so didn’t understand that we wanted to go to our friend and not to a hotel. Usually people are staying in Hotels when they come here, so sleeping at local places was new.
She was nice and it was also a cool experience getting picked up from a woman in this region. I don’t know if it is common that women are doing it, or if that was an exception. For that reason, we didn’t do hitchhiking long enough.
Back at Josh’s place he was sleeping, but somebody was there to let us in. I sadly woke him up when I went to the toilet, because I had to go through his room, he was clearly surprised. Not sure if he was happy to have us back, but he seemed for sure comfortable like always. Actually I never knew if he liked having us there or not, I am not the best by seeing this in people and with Josh it was even harder.
Going on a local market
After basically just chilling the whole day at the apartment from Josh, we went out with him at night and explored the local market. We were driving there and it was completely dark, the people had little lights on their shops and were selling everything they made them self to eat. From spices over to Tofu and many vegetables and fruits. We were picking some food, which was later on prepared by a family member. It was a good experience at the local market. It looked like being dangerous, because in darkness in other countries, to visit a market like this could be indeed risky, but in Timor Leste and especially with Josh it was no problem he was lulik.
The food tasted amazing like always, that was a big quality from the family members of Josh the food! Wow.
What is coming next?
In the next blog post, you are going to read about our trip to the mountains and what we were doing there was just amazing so stay tuned!
