Please note! This page was last updated in December 2018, and there are very likely newer and more helpful community resources around. If you know something, write something, film something — let me know.

When I was first preparing to move to Timor-Leste, I spent a lot of time nervously googling terms like “expat blog Timor-Leste”, in an attempt to find some spelled-out and relateable lived advice from my fellow foreigners in a new and daunting place. I had some trouble!

Most of the blogs I found were the sparse and outdated Timor-Leste pages on popular expat blog sites like Expat.com, EasyExpat.com and ExpatWomen.com — SEO-optimised to pop up in the first page of your search results, but with little helpful or up-to-date information about actually living in Timor-Leste.

The blogs I did find I leaned on heavily and read right to the end — which is part of the reason why I started Sophie Rai Liur when I arrived in Timor-Leste in March 2017: paying that knowledge forward.

On this page, I’m keeping a list of the current and former Timor-Leste blogs that I have found interesting and helpful. If you’ve got a tip that you don’t see on this list, please let me know.

Timor-Leste expat blogs I love and recommend

Dili Dally — the detailed and now-dormant blog of two New Zealanders who volunteered in Timor-Leste between 2013 and 2015; I read every single post here before I arrived and found it wildly useful and illustrative of the daily life I might have. Pip’s writing is wise and lyrical, and the couple’s perspective on life in Timor-Leste is deeply insightful.

Adventures in Life and Living — another older blog; another wonderfully illuminating look at life in Dili from Lizzie, an Australian who volunteered in Timor-Leste around the same period as Pat and Pip. I again read every post on this blog before I moved and again really appreciated the thoughtful, reflective writing, and Lizzie’s clear love respect for Timor-Leste, even with its challenges.

Snail in Timor-Leste — a more recent blog from American Haley, who only just recently finished two years with the Peace Corps in a suco in Aileu municipality. Again, I find Haley’s perspectives deeply poignant and thought-provoking — I feel like she often captures in 200 incisive words what I waffle on for paragraphs trying to untangle for myself — and while her blog is personal and reflective, she’s also the author for Peace Corps of some extremely practical Timor-Leste public transport information.

Also, I’ve just found Timor in Translatation – another former Peace Corps volunteer blog! Short, fun posts about life in Liquica.

Timor See Saw — another one I’ve read every page of! This is the beautifully written family blog of the Australian couple who arrived in Timor-Leste a couple of years ago to work at the Bairo Pite Clinic and who now run Maluk Timor. I love this for the contemplative, sage and funny writing; the diligently uploaded photos showing not just telling life in Timor-Leste; and for the perspective that encourages reflection on privilege without preaching it.

Mobilis Divers — the fun, chatty blog of divers Noelle and Chris who have recently arrived in Timor-Leste. This one reminds me how important and intriguing it is to listen to people who have arrived in a place after you; no need to wallow in my smug expat comfort when people are sharing quirky, interesting new observations about life here.

Betty Loves Blogging — how did I not find this blog in my early panicked googling? Ashlee spent six months in Timor-Leste in 2012 and produced reams of the chatty, helpful, thoughtful, reflective blog posts I try to write myself (I have to link some specific useful posts here: top 10 places to eat in Dili, how to catch a taxi, strange town) — I’m opening tab after tab on her site right now.

Helpful, one-off blog posts about Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste isn’t the most popular tourist destination, but some of the people who have managed to visit have written excellent, informative posts about their trips. I’ve liked:

• How to get to Jaco Island, from CheekyPassports
• Things to do in Dili on a budget, also from CheekyPassports
• First impressions of Timor-Leste, from Chantae Was Here
• What it’s like to travel East Timor, from Wandering Earl
• Searching for Futu Manu, from Passage Journal
• Permaculture in Timor-Leste, also from Passage Journal
• The country no one wants, from Stuff NZ
• Timor-Leste, from Ted and Kari’s Travel Journal
• Life in Dili, from Brian Oh’s blog

What else?

Do you agree with my choices? Do you write a great blog yourself? I’d like to updatethis list, so please get in touch if you’ve got any recommendations.