March 6 - Dili, East Timor

We left Darwin late in the evening on March 4 and sailed until this morning through the Timor Sea to our next port of Dili, East Timor or Timor-Leste. I don’t know why but I had no idea there are so many seas on the planet.  One source I looked at said there are 50 while another said there are 74.  We seem to be sailing through a different one nearly every day.  They are all parts of the larger oceans but evidently each of these seas has its own characteristics. The Timor Sea is another of these relatively shallow ones.

This morning we anchored off Dili, the capital of East Timor.  The country’s official name is the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and it was the first new sovereign state of the 21st century. East Timor occupies the eastern half of the island with the western half being part of Indonesia. There is evidence of human occupation dating back more than 40,000 years.  In the more modern era Timor was in the sphere of influence of the Portuguese.  It wasn’t until 1769 that the Portuguese established what is now Dili, the capital. Prior to that Portuguese had some trading outposts on the island as they tried to keep it out of the hands of the Dutch who were occupying much of the East Indies.  After the Depression and WWII the Portuguese paid little attention to Timor and in 1975 a revolutionary group unilaterally declared independence.  When that happened Indonesia invaded and declared Timor-Leste a province of its country.

East Timor

The Indonesian occupation was both brutal and violent and lasted for 25 years.  The estimate of how many Timorese died during that period runs as high as 200,000. In 1999 the UN sponsored a referendum for independence (it won overwhelmingly) and sent in a peace-keeping force. In August, 2001 the first election was held under UN auspices and in May, 2002 a Constitution was ratified.  Timor-Leste does have some oil and natural gas fields but those are rapidly being depleted so the revenue from those assets is being drained.  There is really no other industry in the country so most people work either in agriculture, fishing or for the government.  Timor doesn’t even produce enough food to feed the population so a lot has to be imported and prices are therefore high given the income people have.  Here’s a pretty grim statistic: the average Timorese lives on less than $1.25 per day.

Now that I’ve painted a little picture of Timor-Leste I’ll write about my day there.  I went ashore on the tender and we encountered a little young lady named Sarah who told us that she is a university student studying to be a tour guide and that she would be happy to show us around for nothing to practice her English.  She helped us get a taxi and we asked to be driven out to a place on the island where there is a large statue of Christ with outstretched arms atop the cape there.  I thought this must be representative of the Portuguese influence because there are similar statues of Christ in Lisbon and in Rio.  I found out later that it was actually built during the Indonesian occupation and was meant to symbolize the integration of Timor into Indonesia.  I’m not sure about that symbolism, but that’s what I was told.  Anyway, we drove along the coast and all along the way on the beach side there were little markets selling fresh produce and vegetables and on the other side there were mainly dilapidated buildings, many of them incomplete.  There was a lot of rubbish around and the image projected was of abject poverty.

This was the statue as I saw it from my veranda so I had to see it closer.

When we got to the parking lot below the statue we learned that to get to the statue we would have to take a bus and then walk up 570 concrete steps.  No way were we going to do that so instead we walked over to the beach near the cape and took some photos from there.  The beach had an interesting name.  It’s called “Jesus Backside Beach.”  Apparently because of the position of the statue of Christ and the beach relative to each other, Jesus’ rear faces the beach, hence the name.  When we got back in our taxi our young guide asked what else we would like to see and after she told us the things that we might visit we decided to head back to the ship.  The upshot was that there isn’t much in Dili or the island and most of the markets sell food and a few pottery items. When we arrived back at the dock we paid our driver and we gave our young guide some money too. She did a nice job and we told her so.

The statue is nearly 89 feet high

This was a pile of rubbish that had been cleaned up but there was plenty more on the beach.  What a shame!

This is Jesus Backside Beach

That's our cute guide Sarah in the middle

I forgot to mention that our sister ship the Seabourn Sojourn was also anchored nearby and for the first time I’ve ever seen it allowed both passengers and crew were able to visit the other ship.  The tenders were making stops at both.  We didn’t have any reason to go to the Sojourn so we stayed on the tender to get back to Odyssey.  The visiting corporate chef was making special pizzas at the Patio Grill and the bands were playing nice music so we had lunch out there.  It was hot and humid with not a breath of wind.  After pizza and a mango daiquiri I went to my cabin to check e-mails but I wound up dozing off and taking a nap, something I never do.  The heat and humidity got to me but I had better get used to it because I think this is what I should expect for the next several days or maybe even couple of weeks. Cold weather is sounding pretty good right now.

Two sisters at anchor together

Festivities around the pool. I don't know what surfboards and leis had to do with pizza, but the mango daiquiries they were brewing were great.

Late in the afternoon the Sojourn pulled up anchor and sailed past us.  I don't know if our itineraries will coincide again.  If not, this may be the last time the two sisters see each other because this ship has been sold and will leave the fleet this fall.