Tag: Southeast Asia
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Practical tips for living in Dili
Over the two-ish years I’ve been writing on this blog, I’ve covered topics from anxiety and anorexia to Dili market shopping, catching microlets, and what to do when work forgets to invite you to the workshop. As I’ve mentioned several times, I started this blog partly to record my new life abroad for friends and…
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The Timor-Leste list
Would I be my giant sooky self if I didn’t make an ambitious list of final things to do before I leave Timor-Leste? I made a similar list at the end of the the year-ish I spent living in Melbourne — a long, thorough, and consulted list, peppered with suggestions from friends who loved and…
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2018: What I wrote
In addition to spilling thousands of words of my personal thoughts here on this blog, I also sometimes pitch and write freelance articles. Freelance article writing is something I love doing — I find it challenging, terrifying, and deeply fulfilling — and a dream would be to do it full-time. This time last year, I saw…
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5 (more) things that are better in Timor-Leste
A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post about the things that made living in Timor-Leste–a tiny, newly independent, post-conflict, drought-stricken country–better and easier than living in Australia. Since then, I’ve seen a few more. 1. A small city flattens formal hierarchies Dili’s relatively small population and its smaller still bunch of foreigners…
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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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A Dili survival guide
I’ve had a few friends visit me since I moved to Timor-Leste, I’m hoping for more (hint), and I thought it’d be useful to both my prospective visitors and perhaps you to put together a short survival guide for a first few days in Dili. Can you drink the water? How do you get a…
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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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June, an update
Mid-way through the year! A watershed month. I’m thrilled to announce a dear friend finally, finally got through to me about my stress and busy-ness and made me realise how horribly over-committed I was and how desperately in need I was of boundaries and boredom. I teetered perilously close to a burnout bottom-out and I’m glad…
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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…
Sophie Rai Liur 