Kupang itself is not a very exciting city but we still needed to go to the Consulate of Timor Leste to organize our visa, so we stayed in a hotel close to the consulate to get going early in the morning. Online we found out that you need a Visa Authorization letter if you want to enter Timor Leste over a land border but our online application for it did not bring any results and once we asked at the consulate they told us that we would get a free visa and did not even need the Visa Authorization letter at all. With that last problem solved, we could start our cycle towards the border. We still had a few days left before our visa expired but we realized we would leave the country just on the last of our 30 days.
The island of Timor was less touristy than Flores again which we really enjoyed and the landscape was still beautiful. On our cycle over the island we had plenty of hills to climb but we are quite used to those by now. In the city of Kefamenanu we treated ourselves to one last night at a hotel with WiFi as we heard that Timor Leste has few hotels and even fewer places with WiFi. From there it was only two more days of cycling before reaching the Southern border crossing point into Timor Leste.
For our last night we found a beautiful river in the mountains close to a village and we decided to pitch our tent there. From the moment we arrived there it felt like that all kids from the village were there. With them not even being able to speak any English and our very little Indonesian skills, there was no way of communcation and at some point we had 30-40 kids sitting around our tent, just staring at us. They felt comfortable being such a large group of people but it turned pretty weird for us. We felt like zoo animals, just being stared at even if we did not do anything interesting. Luckily at some point a young woman showed up that was able to speak English and we had a really nice chat with her and she could tell the others something about us as well. A lot of photos were taken as well of course and when it got dark, the people left and gave us some time for ourselves.
On the next day we finally reached the border with Timor Leste and after some paperwork we were good to go, even though they could not really believe that we would be going by bike. Our FIRST border crossing by bike!! Once we crossed the border, quite a few things changed. The road turned into a gravel road, the population was way denser and you could see that people were poorer than their neighbours on the Indonesian side. The first town we reached was Suai and after finding an ATM to withdraw some US Dollars (the official currency of Timor Leste), we wanted to buy some groceries before moving on. In the supermarket we realized another difference, the range of products offered was much smaller and also fruit and vegetable were harder to find. Just out of curiosity we asked at a hotel for the price of a room and were shocked to find out that they asked $33 for a simple room that would have cost a third in Indonesia. At that moment we decided that we would not be staying in any hotel if we can avoid it and rather camp and cook for ourselves.
Our route lead us along the Southern coast of Timor Leste and we did not encounter any tourists and only very little infrastructure at all. The people in the villages we passed were very open and helpful when we were looking for drinking water for example. We spent our nights camping in the bush or at rivers, cooking over a campfire and enjoyed the unspoilt country. Even though Timor Leste is the second poorest country in Asia, the people we met were happy with what they had and they were excited to see us foreigners pass by.
The further we moved East and after passing the town of Viqueque, the roads got worse and worse and we had one last big climb to the town of Los Palos and the locals kept telling us that the road there would be really bad. In the morning of the day that we reached the foot of the hill, we first decided to go straight through a wide river instead of taking the hilly road to the bridge. That was quite an adventure and afterwards we had a quick break, joking about a truck coming past that we could ask to take us and our bikes up to Los Palos. Sometimes wishes come true and the first car passing us that day came in that moment and it was an empty truck that took us all the way up to Los Palos. We were so glad we found that guy as the road would have been made of large river pebbles and very steep climbs that would have made it extremely hard for us to get up there. That way we covered the 50km in "just" three hours.
When we arrived in Los Palos it started raining and we found out that in that part of the country the rainy season lasts until June and that it might be raining for another couple of days if we are unlucky. We then tried to find a cheap hotel but were not successful at that and went out of town again to find a place to camp. We found a nice place and in the morning we realized that we were cycling for the last 11 days without a break. Our flight from Dili back to Bali was still a week away and with only 220km to Dili we decided to take a day off. For that we found a really cool spot at a river on the Northern coast of the country and settled in. As if we would have known it, our day off turned out to be very rainy and grey and we used to wash our clothes, chill in our tent and watch a movie on our computer. The locals there were really cool, offering us some fresh coconuts and having little chats every time we went to the river and it was great to have a day off.
From there we slowly poked further along the coast towards Dili and had some really relaxed and short days of cycling, taking it nice and easy. One night we then had an unpleasant encounter with some local teenagers that hung around our tent when it was dark already. At some point we heard some noise and when we got out of the tent, we just saw a guy running away from our bikes with one of our panniers being open. We realized that he had stolen some of our food and our cooking utensils. Without thinking about it too much, we ran after them as we heard their voices and saw their flashlights. When they saw our lamps, they started throwing rocks in the direction of our lights to scare us off but we asked them give back our stuff that was no use or value to them but important to us. They returned our utensils eventually but kept two knives and some other little things.
First we decided to take all of our stuff into our tent but at some point they came back annoying us in our tent and we got a bit scared at that point. With them still not leaving, the only option we saw was just screaming to get some other peoples attention to help us. Nobody came to help us but they ran off and we had enough time to pack all our bags and the tent and to get the hell out of there. We cycled another 10km until we found a place on top of a hill to pitch our tent there and somehow we managed to fall asleep.
That incident had a strong impact on our interaction with the locals as our trust was just gone. For the last two days on our way to Dili we tried to keep away from people as good as possible and once in Dili we managed to find Dewi as an amazing Couchsurfing host and she hosted us for the last two nights. We had some time to relax in a safe place and prepare for our flight back to Denpasar where we will meet Chris, Jonas' best friend, and his girlfriend Tammie. Those two weeks will be great to recover from that event as we will not be camping or cycling but backpacking around Bali as the four of us.
All the best,
Keep cycling,
Vroni, Droni and Joni
