Category: Trips out of Dili
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Travelling to Maubisse, Timor-Leste
The town of Maubisse in cloud-wreathed Ainaro municipality is one of my favourite places to visit in Timor-Leste. It’s an easy couple of hours’ drive from Dili, a welcome break from the often-oppressive beachside heat, and a chance to see a different part of Timor-Leste without forcing yourself into a madcap epic adventure you’re not…
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Travelling to Oecusse, Timor-Leste
I’ve just returned to Dili from a long weekend away in Oecusse, the western enclave of Timor-Leste completely encased within the island of West Timor, Indonesia. To be honest, I had low expectations of the trip — all I’d heard previously of Oecusse was from Oxfam fundraising emails (drought and despair; can you help now, Sophie?)…
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To be a tourist in Dili
A short guide to being a tourist for two days in Dili, Timor-Leste. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been lucky to have both my mother and my sister visit me here in Timor-Leste. Neither could stay for very long, which in one sense was a very good thing: like the way I…
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Away to Same
In a deeply personal post I shared a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Felix and I had taken the opportunity of the long weekend to take a quick weekend holiday to Same, pronounced sah-may, near Timor-Leste’s south coast. It’s a quaint little farming town with lofty palm trees and dense green forests, and we…
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A story of a school
A couple of weeks ago, I went on a field trip with UNICEF to a small school in the hills outside Gleno town in Timor-Leste’s coffee-rich Ermera municipality. I was writing a story about new school buildings UNICEF has funded, which I’ve now done a couple of times in different villages across the country. This…
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April, an update
Read about what I got up to in January, February and March. Where the hell did this month go?! And why the hell am I writing like a dippy aunt who can’t believe her nieces are growing taller every year? Peak mum tourist selfie. Friends visiting is a brilliant reason to see the Dili sights I’m…
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How to get to Atauro Island
I’ve just returned from a beautiful, lazy week away at Atauro Island, which sits 30 nautical miles off Timor-Leste’s north coast. Without slipping too far into hyperbole, it’s an absolute must-visit for every Dili tourist: a beatific island paradise where the diving’s world-class, the beaches white sand and the coconuts just 50c. I’ve lived in…
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Everything we didn’t do in Maubisse
I’ve written before about how much I love the dreamy, mountain town of Maubisse, which sits just 30 kilometres inland of Dili in Ainaro municipality. With Timor’s wind-ey, potholed roads, it can take up to four hours to reach Maubisse by car, and the town thus feels like a real holiday spot: where 30km is…
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Lazy days away in Maubara
Sun-soaked afternoons in a hut by the beach with a book and your bathers and nothing more to do and afternoons never-ending. You need a weekend out of Dili but don’t have the energy for a day-long drive down potholed mountain roads, or the jacked-up car for a trip to a brilliant blue beach. A…
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A field trip packing list
Over the last twelve months, I’ve taken quite a few field trips around Timor-Leste for work, and I’d like to think I’m usually well-prepared. But after packing four skirts, a pair of sandals and a novel for a week in chilly Ainaro late last year, I turned to a friend, an engineer and seasoned field-tripper,…
Sophie Rai Liur 