Catching a taxi from Dili Airport

When people arrive at Dili Airport, there’s usually some confusion over how to get to their hotels. Taking a taxi is just about the only option available to most people. However, a lot of travelers find themselves being ripped off before they’ve had time to unpack their bags. Don’t catch a taxi from the entrance [...]

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Who needs an alarm clock when you have chickens, pigs, dogs and screaming children?

Displaced Timorese rally to return home

Disgruntled Timorese living in one of Dili’s camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) were told on Tuesday that the verification process that will allow many of them to return home will begin on Wednesday, although thousands more remain in IDP camps around the district.

Our Lady of Fatima statue

On the coast of Dili, just around the corner from the Palacio Do Governo, there’s a statue stood high atop a column in the middle of a small park. Our Lady of Fatima, which commemorates the Virgin Mary’s apparition in 1917 in the Portuguese village of Fatima, arrived in Dili from Portugal as a gift [...]

Motion Bar

Motion Bar is as good a place as any in Dili to eat, drink and be merry. If you’re traveling along Avenida Bispo De Madeiros with Dili Stadium on your right, turn right at the market roundabout and Motion Bar is just down the road.
For what it lacks in size it makes up for with [...]

One More Bar

One More Bar is located on the coastline, just behind the Our Lady of Fatima statue and down the road from the Government Palace Complex. It’s a pretty straightforward Aussie bar, with cold beers, sport on the TVs, a pool table and a couple of dart boards.
Friday and Saturday nights they have live music, but [...]

On moving to Timor-Leste

By Matt Crook
When I started telling people that I was packing in my job at a local newspaper in Phuket, Thailand, to head to Dili, I found myself confronted by the same kind of look as when you tell an Elvis fan that you just don’t dig The King. If eyes could speak, they’d have [...]

Who is Liga Hau?

Has anyone else in Timor-Leste been receiving strange calls and SMS messages? From a phone identified as “CallMe” I received a message saying, “Liga hau / Call Me / Liga-me : +6707333506.” Then within a couple of minutes the same number rang me and hung up after a couple of seconds. Obviously this as a [...]

Palm wine

If you’ve ever wondered what the locals in Dili drink for kicks, then wonder no more. The preferred tipple of our good Timorese friends is palm wine. You may have seen it sold on the side of the street. The unboiled version is a dirty-white liquid that looks and smells like raw eggs.

If you’ve never [...]