5th April to 26th April, 2026
With great excitement we board our Qantas flight to Dili, Timor Leste. A new country and the start of our overseas adventure.
Landing in President Nicolau Lobato International Airport, we navigated through the simple immigration and customs sections, organized our SIM cards and sought out a taxi to head into town… and then the confusion began. We had the address, but that didn’t seem to help. We showed the Google Map and that also didn’t seem to assist. The driver seemed confident he would find the way (he knew the general area) and I had the maps to navigate the final section. Along the way, the driver seemed really reluctant to refer to the maps, so was a little frustrating. We only found out later, that with a 52% illiteracy rate, it is likely our taxi driver and all of his friends at the airport were not able to read the address or the street names. But we made it.
We checked in to Taibessi Guesthouse, a family run guesthouse, with the guesthouse rooms upstairs and the family living downstairs. Really friendly hosts and great to chat with to get a better understanding of the history and current conditions in Timor Leste. After a day settling and getting supplies from the local fresh food markets, we set about exploring Dili. The car was not to arrive for a couple of weeks, so we were to navigate Timor Leste with public transport, starting in Dili with the city Microlets (and plenty of walking). We started with Christo Rei, a Christ the Redeemer type statue overlooking Dili. Beautiful location with a climb up the mountain through rain forest, passing by the 14 stations symbolizing the journey of Jesus Christ on his walk to Calvery. From the top there were fantastic views of the Dili and the bay. Interestingly, the project was funded and built under Indonesian annexation (which is majority Muslim).
We then headed back into town to visit the Resistance Museum, a museum outlining the independence movement starting under the Portuguese, but with particular focus on the bloody and barbaric period of Indonesian annexation.
If you can allow me a moment of diatribe, the following was written in the evening after attending the Resistance Museum, the Max Stahl Museum and Chega (directly translates to ‘enough’), a museum in the prison that many of the resistance fighters and those suspected of allegiance to Fretilin were killed and tortured. The day was more than heavy and felt similar to that experienced after attending the concentration camps in Germany.
What a tough history this nation has had. Colonised by the Portuguese in the 17th Century, finally gaining independence in 1975 and within hours attacked by Indonesia and put under the control of the Indonesia until 1999. While the Portuguese regime was tough, the Indonesian regime was brutal and barbaric. With a population of only 680,000, almost a third of the population was killed, a large portion in the first two years. The killing was indiscriminate. If it was suspected that Fretilin (the group fighting for independence) was present, whole villages could be wiped out. In one case a village with a population of 5000 was reduced to 1000 with all remaining people above the age of 3 massacred. I chatted with Tom, the owner of the Guesthouse where we are staying on the evening after attending the museums. Tom was born in 1982, so grew up under Indonesian control. Prior to his birth, his mother was imprisoned with her first husband. She was a teacher, but suspected of being a Fretilin supporter (mainly because she worked for the Portuguese government). Her husband was killed. Her second husband (Toms father) was originally in the Portuguese army. When Indonesia took over, he along with the whole military at that time were imprisoned, suspected of siding with Fretilin (most did join the independence movement). He spent 3 years in jail. Tom talked about the fear on the street. No one went out before dark for fear of being questioned and the potential consequences that would follow. He said even years after independence was gained, if he saw an Indonesian military uniform his first instinct was to run. He witnessed the killing first hand and his mother can’t talk about 1975 without breaking down in tears.
The sickening part of this history is that our governments chose not to see what was happening. The relationship with Indonesia had become too important. With shame, Australia was the only country in the world to recognize Indonesia’s annexation of Timor Leste. Whitlam was instrumental in supporting Suharto prior to the invasion and then successive governments from both sides of politics continued their support (in Frasers case, formally endorsing the annexation). It wasn’t until the Howard government and the change of government in Indonesia in 1999 that Australia began to support the movement of independence. Australia wrote a letter to the new President Habibe to the effect of we recommend you move to an autonomous state and then proceed slowly towards independence, suggesting that the annexation was akin to colonialism (very dirty word in the region). With much affront, Habibe jumped the gun and said alrighty then, we will run a referendum. With the stroke of a pen, Timor Leste was on its path to Independence. Under UN observance, but under constant threat from Indonesian supported militia (thousands were killed during the vote), the people voted, 80% for Independence and 20% for autonomy. Timor Leste was announced as an independent country. And then the violence was taken to a new level. As the UN observance team was unarmed, they were evacuated and Timor Leste was left to fend for itself for two weeks. During this period, the Indonesian Army and then its Indonesian supported militia went on a slash and burn mission, destroying 70% of buildings and infrastructure, killing many and causing more than half the population to flee (400,000 people!). Australia had its moment to step up and they did. Within two weeks, Australia, under Peter Cosgrove with the support of the UN had mobilized its armed forces and with what seems all our available combined forces arrived, secured the capital and then fought the militia out of the country. From Tom’s view it was the first time in history they had an army to support Timor Leste (in 400 years!) and the forces were met with elation from the main population.
Sorry for the diatribe, but it has really moved me; how much the people have suffered, the sheer brutality of the Indonesian control, how our government and the major first world nations turned a blind eye (I expect to garner favour from Indonesia) and to now see such a resilient people, a people who have some how found a way to forgive, with a new generation coming through with the fastest and easiest smiles and now with the opportunity to get ahead.
We next went to the Max Stahl Exhibition.
Sorry, another diatribe…. Max was an English cameraman and documentary maker. He was in Timor Leste in 1991 to do a documentary on diving and soon after arriving heard about a protest that was in motion. The protest started at the Motoel Church following a service for protestor that had been killed a couple of weeks earlier at the same church. The crowd then moved to the Santa Cruz Cemetery, with agitation between the military and the crowd along the way. More troops were brought in once they arrived at the cemetery and after being surrounded, the military opened fire. 250 were killed and a similar amount wounded. Max Stahl (actually Wenner – travelling under false name) recorded the massacre and knowing that the footage would be destroyed if caught, buried it at the cemetery. He was then taken in by the military, interrogated and then released 9 hours later. At night, he returned to the cemetery and recovered the film and then had a Dutch journalist take it out with her to Australia.
Given Australia’s stance on Indonesia/Timor Leste, the footage was taken to the UK and released a couple of months later. There was now no denying the brutality of Indonesian annexation and started a support movement throughout the world. Students protested worldwide and it became an outstanding global issue.
From my reading, this was the turning point in the independence movement. It was also the time that Xanana Gusmao seemed to transition from a Guerilla fighter with a gun to a political fighter on the world stage. Within a year he had basically handed himself in and was tried and sentenced to 20 years in jail. He continued to lead the independence movement from jail and was then released in 1999 after the successful independence referendum. He is currently the Prime Minister of Timor Leste (and we got to meet him!)
Back to the travels, we then headed to the Cathedral, when built, the largest capacity cathedral in the Southern Hemisphere. Then up to Chega (directly translated to ‘Enough’), another museum about the Independence movement, located in a Portuguese built prison particularly focused on the atrocities committed with its walls. No further diatribe, but it was brutal – executions, torture and deprived living conditions.
What a day.
The next day continued the heavy emotions with a visit to the Santa Cruz Cemetary (where the Dili Massacre took place) and then the adjacent Seroja Cemetary where killed Indonesian Military soldiers are buried. Seroja was the Indonesian Military operation name to annex Timor Leste. In contrast to the completely haphazard Santa Cruz Cemetary, The Seroja Military Cemetery was all in neat lines of monuments. What I found surprising was the number of Timorese names amongst the graves (they had names of Portuguese descent), showing that there was some cooperation amongst Timorese.
After a heavy time in Dili, we opted for quite a change in atmosphere and caught the ferry over to Atouro Island. After a comedy of misunderstandings, we made our way to a mission established guesthouse in Makili on the southern side of the island. We had picked out the guesthouse based on its back story, established by Padre Luis a Catholic Missionary who spent a good period of his life working to improve the lot of the people in two of the three villages on Atouro. He was particularly focused on women empowerment and set up two guesthouses, established a sewing facility where beautifully embroided lap top bags, teddy bears and clothing are made, a small farming venture and got funding for a water filtration plant.
All wonderful projects, but with Padre Luis returned to Italy for two years it is clear that the projects are missing his motivation, direction and management. An example of issue, is that the guesthouse we stayed in was promoted by the local Tourism Authority. It did not have its own website. On the tourism site, the name was incorrect (totally different name), the phone number was disconnected and the email address no longer active. They had not had a guest for four months and there didn’t seem to be any drive to find out why. So simply fixed, but no one with the interest or ability to rectify. A little bit sad, as the facility will end up closing due to disrepair and lack of income and the site really is quite beautiful. We had a great day walking the 4km rocky coastline to the neighbouring village of Vila.
It took about an hour and incredibly the high school students walk this route to and from school every day. Fit kids! I then got permission to snorkel one of the protected marine sanctuaries nearby. Just spectacular! I think the most variety of fish life I have seen, including snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef.
After five days and plenty of reading and relaxing we headed back to Dili by ferry to keep exploring Timor Leste.
First we headed up to Baucau, a three hour bus ride to the east of Dili (100km).
There we explored the Portuguese era buildings, hotel, ruins and the lovely cathedral.
From Baucau we had a massive travel day, going to Liquica the opposite side of Dili. Only 130km, but five changes in buses / mini buses and 7 hours. Tough day!
In Liquica visited the Dutch era Maubara Fort (now just four walls) and the Portuguese era prison Prisau de Aipelo.
An interesting part of its history, under the Portuguese, the prison was used to incarcerate political prisoners across the colony, resulting in prisoners from Mozambique and Macau staying and eventually being released locally. The local guardian of the site said that he had Chinese heritage associated with one of these prisoners. We finished out time in Liquica sampling the local fish specialty Saboko, mackerel wrapped in palm leaves and then barbecued. Pretty intense flavour, but yummy nonetheless (Susi doesn’t totally agree)
After four days exploring Baucau and Liquica we headed back to Dili on the day of our vessels arrival in Dili. Amongst the travels we had been working with the local shipping agent to provide required documents for customs clearance and we were hopeful that we could get a quick clearance. Maybe a little optimistic. The vessel came in on the Monday night and there was suggestion that maybe we could get access by Wednesday. The days kept rolling and by Friday afternoon we chanced the opportunity to pick up the car. Customs had cleared, but now we needed to wait for the taxes to clear. Saturday was to be the day and by 10.00 we had Betty, but not without another comedy of events (comedy now – not so much then!).
We got the required safety equipment (boots two sizes too small, a safety hat and flouro vest), got in the bus (the Land Rover and the Bikes were about 30m from the gate, but needed to travel by bus), got to the entrance gate and after building up the excitement were told that we needed to wear long pants to enter the port area. Back to the carpark. Susi was wearing long pants, so we swapped PPE and she headed off with Paul and Ilias (two of the other travellers shipping motorbikes) where they would push theirs and the other three bikes to the gates and Susi would drive out (no one else had long pants).
While the clearance process was full of being mucked around, sitting in Betty and then driving out of the port felt just wonderful, and… after being in Suzuki mini buses for the past few weeks, the acceleration was impressive. All things are relative!
After a night back in the guesthouse, we headed off so happy to be independent again. We had explored the coastline, so headed up into the mountains, through the clouds to Maubisse at about 1500m altitude and then to Dokomali Falls where we camped for the first time.
The roads were so twisty and steep, that we ended up driving in low range and 3 gear seemed perfect for the ups and downs. Just fantastic and just what we had hoped for with the current setup. The walk to the waterfall was very pretty, up a steep climb, through a coffee plantation and then some small scale farming.
With the customs process not quite complete, we headed back to the shipping agent in Dili, hopefully for the last time. One of the great things about shipping with the five bikers is the comradery shared between us. We have all ridden the highs and lows of the shipping and customs process, shared meals and beers, shared travel information, shared the down emotions when all wasn’t going to plan and also the elation of clearing the vehicles and riding out of the port. With all legalities finalized, with smiles, laughter and lots of shaking hands and hugs, everyone headed off on their own journeys, some staying in Timor Leste a little longer and others starting the journey towards Indonesia. Having spent 3 weeks in Timor Leste, we were keen to get moving.
On our way out of Timor Leste we headed up to Balibo, famous for the Balibo Fort and Balibo House. Balibo Fort was fascinating. Located in the centre of town with views of the surrounding valleys, built by the Portuguese in the 17th Century, it was occupied by the Portuguese until 1942, whereupon it was taken over by the Japanese Army during WW2, taken back by the Portuguese, then in 1975 taken over by the Indonesian Military as the headquarters for the military control until 1999, then occupied by the Australian led Interfet operation for two years, before being renovated in 2013 and converted into a beautiful hotel and restaurant. Incredible for a site that has hosted so much aggression and killing.
There is also now a museum on site and one of the photo’s had an image of an Australian soldier with his rifle over the top of the fort, confirming its operation as a genuine fort until 1999!
Consistent with the bloody and brutal Timorese history, Balibo is also ‘famous’ for the killing of 5 journalists in 1975 who were attempting to film the Indonesian invasion of Timor Leste. The journalists had met with Jose Ramos Horta (now Timor Leste President) and with the Indonesian army closing in Ramos Horta returned to Dili. With naïve enthusiasm, the journalists stayed to attempt to get footage, thinking that they would be protected by being foreign cameramen. They painted an Australian flag on the wall of the house they were staying in, but all the army saw was a threat to their invasion and leaking of details of their assault.
All of the journalists were executed. A month later, with no information provided to authorities or families, the remains of their bodies were put in one coffin and sent to Jakarta. Another chapter in the senseless loss of life during the pursuit of Independence.
Balibo was a real highlight of the trip and a great way to finish our time in Timor Leste. We leave with turmoiled thoughts. The story of Timor Leste is essentially the 500 year struggle for independence. Its story is about its people, their resilience, their pride, their single mindedness about wanting an independent future, their hope, their pragmatic approach to forgiveness, but it is incredibly blood stained and violent. The nation is new, but there was a sense that the people are ready for real change. The population is young, increasingly educated, but there also is limited opportunity within the country. The government already looks bloated. We often saw groups of government workers walking around, looking important, but not looking to achieve too much. In one instance there about 8 workers who had travelled together to inspect four houses that had been cyclone damaged to prepare a recommendation of repair. Maybe send a couple of trades people and fix it. Entrepreneurship seems really lacking. Any serious business appeared to be Chinese owned. These were not Timorese Chinese, these were ethnic Chinese. Apparently in return for ‘free’ roads, Chinese nationals have preferential tax treatment – as in 0% tax. How this can work long term I am not sure and relegates Timorese people to only the lowest of roles. Most only hold hope of progression by leaving and working overseas. Australia is popular, but it also means you have university educated people working in labouring jobs in Australia. It is financially great short term, allows houses to be built, but then what? The current main hope is the Sunrise Gas Project and its ability to provide for a national treasury that can fund further development and also provide skilled employment both in the extraction of gas, but also the processing and downstream industries it will support. This requires international investment and will be subject to competition from exploration projects around the world. One remains hopeful.
We leave feeling grateful for the incredible hospitality of the people we met, the willingness to share information about the recent horrible, bloody and violent past, the easy smiles, but we also leave with a feeling of concern for the future, a collective guilt of our nations involvement in the recent horrific loss of life (with me being Australian and its support of Indonesian Annexation and Susi being Indonesian and with the Indonesian Military and its supporters committing such atrocities), but we also leave with absolute hope for the Timor Leste people and its wonderfully independent future.
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