4D's Big Ride: Dilli to Kupang Indonesia

Back online....well sort of. It has taken me 2 hours to download 4 photos this morning, but I have enough to give you a quick update.

I left Dili on the 14th to head toward the Indonesian boarder. Amazing coastline, with lots of inshore reefs and what looks like big drop offs in very deep water. Lots of very small boats out fishing the drop offs.

The road was a mixture of one section of new road (maybe 10km) and the rest was really poor road with lots of potholes, dirt, rocks, missing bits, landslides and of course the bus tearing around blind corners straight at you.

Made it to the Balibo turnoff and had to take the journey up into the mountains to pay my respects to the Balibo Five. I October of 1975, five journalist ( 2 Australian, 1 New Zealander and 2 UK) were murdered by the Indonesian Special Forces as the began the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. The house in which the sheltered is now a memorial to the five men.

The view looking back from Balibo

Made it to the boarder and leaving East Timor was a breeze, it only took about 10 minutes and everyone was friendly and happy. Then you cross the bridge to the Indonesian side and it seems that everyone forgot to take their happy pill that day. Unhelpfully and very slow to say the least, but eventually got the job done and I was glad to get out of there. I loved the questions like "I like your sunglasses. Do you want to give them to me?".

Stayed in Atambua which is not far from the boarder in the Hotel Matahari for about $22. I was OK and came with a decent breakfast which was good as I did not get anything to eat the night before as I was just too tired.

As there is no coverage on my Garmin maps for SE Asia I made notes on a piece of paper from the info off Google Maps. Still managed to get a little lost, but eventually found my way onto the Kupang road. Best way to check that you are on the right road is to be comforted by see one of the Kupang buses either coming at you on the wrong side of the road or trying to overtake you on a blind corner. Roads improve greatly in Indonesia and some great twisty mountain roads although I am finding 80kph is fast here.

Going to move my Kupang Hotel today as the one I am in is a shithole. Pantai Timor Hotel and what they consider a bathroom. Check the bath and the ceiling.