The Dili Club finally closes

It’s finally happened. The Dili Club premises on Avenida de Portugal have closed and the site reduced to a blank space within days.

It has been an institution on the esplanade for 5 or so years and while stories from the peak of the UN days suggest the place was a bit rough, a certain gentrification has obviously occurred, although probably little in decor.

Dili Club before

Last drinks were on Friday 17 February, after having called last drinks at least 4 times over the last month or two.

Phil should be re-opening as Phil’s Grille by next Saturday directly cross the road from Timor Toyota on Comorro road (ie also across from Leader supermarket).

The last I heard was that Phil was building some fancier premises back on Avenida de Portugal west of the Esplanada Hotel – elevated sea views etc. More later.

Street Commerce

Now that I am on my bike and romping around town quite unlike the typical expat (who usually drives a Toyota 4WD), I am seeing and experiencing a little bit more of the face-to-face street issues.

Apart from the battles with cars, 4WDs and potholes, one confronts a little bit more of the street-level issues. Absolutely no-one is immune to the phone card boys. The major street commerce item for sale is the pre-pay mobile phone top-up card. Clearly, this is the first port of call for anyone (male only it would seem) seeking income. The lads stake out their spot and visually present their wares (a handful of phone cards) and thrust them in your direction. Five different guys will be doing the same thing. And no matter how much disdain one presents in response, the cards remain thrust in your face.

Saying no once is not good enough – 5 times and you might be getting somewhere.

I know most of these guys are pretty poor, but I only need a phone card when I “need” one. And having a handful of phone cards thrust in my face is just not going to encourage me to make the purchase. After that, there is not much hassle at all. There is the odd guy (yes, it is always a guy) trying to sell his souvenirs, but for some reason, they don’t get up my skin like the phone card boys. I think it’s because selling phone cards involves no work from the seller. At least the souvenir sellers have to source the stuff and actually tell you what it is they are selling.

There is a reasonable number of hand-pushed wagons parked by the side of the road. They sell a pretty standard set of stuff from soft drinks to cigarettes, sweets and to my delight, cold beer. Funny how they adopt a completely passive attitude to their sales compared to the phone card boys. I’d prefer to buy my phone cards from these guys if only they offered them.

There is surprisingly little else on the streets available for sale (ie of the kerb hustler variety). Yes, there is the street fish “markets” but that is 20 metres back from the main esplanade. There is the occasional footpath food seller but it is not that common. The rest is in the markets or your typical shop.

But the phone card boys are everywhere – like flies around a carcass.

Moving hotels

It was the earthquake that did it. We finally found somewhere else that was reasonable, so we moved from Hotel Timor to Hotel Dili.

Hotel Timor (HT) fits into the normal definition of an accommodation-based hotel, with foyer, front desk, restaurant, cafe, business centre, room service, bar fridge stocked with miniature spirits etc. etc. It has room service, a pool, tea and coffee-making facilities in the room – the usual stuff. And it is of the monolithic style.

Once you leave HT, the word “hotel” is used in a completely different fashion. Although there are a couple of others in the monolithic style, most are little more than a collection of pre-fab or demountable rooms, ranging from backpacker style to serviced apartment in style. Many of these were put together for the massive influx of highly-paid aid workers and defence personnel moved in here along with the UN 5 or so years back. I include Hotel Dili, Hotel Dili 2001, Hotel Esplanada and Timor Lodge Hotel in this latter category. I suspect most of these would be in the 1.5 to 2.5 star category.

Of course, I may be a little unfair, but they do in general, provide solid accommodation with the essentials. The essentials being bathrooms, toilets, a restaurant and air-conditioning.

After a couple of days, I have to admit that giving up the Hotel Timor business centre was pretty easy. And parking my bicycle 3 metres outside the front door feels nicer than 200 metres away in the Hotel Timor storeroom out the back.

And the almost invisible Hotel Dili restaurant is actually not too bad at all. Virtually all the long-term residents eat here every night and life is good … except for the mosquitos.

The Truth and Reconcilation Report

The “Truth and Reconcilation Report” (commonly referred to as CAVR – the Portuguese abbreviation) was released on 2 February on the internet (www.ictj.com).

In the words of the report itself, the intention of the report is :
“to establish the truth about the human rights violations which occurred in Timor-Leste throughout the 25-year period between 1974 and 1999”.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you would know that East Timor achieved independence in 2002 after a popular referendum in 2000, gave 74% support for full independence. This came after some fairly turbulent times when Indonesian-backed “militias” ransacked the country when the Indonesians withdrew in 1999.

The 25 years refers to the period when the Indonesian ruled the country after the withdrawal of the Portuguese in 1974.

I’ll leave the 2500 page report (actually 2664 pages in downloadable PDF format) for you to read at your leisure and summarise by the weekend, but lets just say some pretty nasty stuff went on.

From this end, one of the fascinating features of this nasty period of world history, is the reaction of the Timorese people themselves. In general, there is no enduring desire for vengeance. I guess most people have their own battles to fight just to survive, but basically, the people come across as very peaceful and calm. Most foreigners comment on this.

Of course, there are some people who are genuinely seeking some sort of redress.

President Xanana Gusmao, who himself spent 10 years in a Jakarta prison, seems genuinely insistent that seeking revenge is not the way to go and things will be better if the terms of engagement with the quite different current Indonesian government are best served by moving on.

However, looking at it from a world perspective, it is probably best that the truth come out and the bad bits are not just swept under the carpet. But who knows what will happen from here.

Head work

Haircuts share an enormous number of similarities across the Asian region. Something which does not usually come in the package back in my real world, is the scalp massage.

Years ago, I lived in Turkey for a couple of years. I recall affectionately, the reaction when one of my work colleagues returned from his first haircut to inform everyone that not only do you get a head massage, but an ear clean and optional manicure and/or pedicure. And to top it off, a cold beer was provided on-request – all done from the central haircutting cockpit. From then on, we were hooked, although I admit I never did take up the manicure or pedicure options.

Having completed my 2nd cut here, I can report that the head massage is alive and well, with a wash and head massage both before and after the cut. As for the hairstyle, there is a certain coiffed look that seems “in”. The 2nd cut was US$5 and I rate it 50% better than the 1st cut which cost me US$10.

I went in looking like Bruce the jackaroo from Darwin and came out looking like Eugene, the chopper pilot. Fortunately, it was raining when I left, and by the time I got back to my world again, I had reverted back to George, the fashion victim.

Internet Connectivity

Well, you wouldn’t be reading this if I didn’t have an internet connection at all. And no, it is not too hard, but compared to developed countries, it is very expensive.

What encouraged me to comment on it all now is that over the last five days, internet connectivity has slowed to a crawl and been off completely for long periods. Everyone I know who uses the internet is complaining. Everyone is “thanking” their “friends” who thought they would like to see a picture of their new cat. People are complaining about why they have not replied to email from 4 days ago. It has all got very painful.

After 2 hours of solid email downloading from multiple mailboxes and numerous browser tabs with web pages being downloaded, I got a magnificent 3.3 Mbytes. Thats about 28 kbytes per minute.

So what do you pay for this ? Well, there are a couple of “internet cafes”. Perhaps the best I know of is directly across the road from the ANZ Bank. It charges about US$1 per 15 minutes and it is definitely about 3 times as fast in downloading (yeah, I measured it) than the Hotel Timor business centre which charges US$2 per 15 minutes during the day and US$1-50 between 5pm and 11pm. (Hotel Timor about 12 kbps, across the road from ANZ about 40kbps).

There are a few others (like Global Net) which I have not tried yet. I like the ones that allow you to connect your laptop directly into their network so I can read and prepare emails away from the “cafe”. And write stuff like this.

I have been told that Timor Telecom hold the monopoly rights to all telecommunications whether it be nationally or internationally. There is no vigorous competition amongst ISPs, leaving it to internet cafes to pick through the scraps.

Most of the time I use dial-up, although the designated dial-up number appears to be blocked at the Hotel Timor. If you call it advertising, the dial-up plans are shown in the table below :

Occasional User

Normal User

Intensive User

Hours/month

<6

6 to 30

>30

One-off connection fee

35

35

35

Monthly charge

5

15

50

Price /min (normal)

7.9c

4.7c

2.9c

Price/min (economic)

6.9c

3.9c

1.9c

– The Normal period is Monday to Friday from 0800H to 2000H and Saturdays from 0800H to 1300H
– The Economic period is the rest of the time

As for broadband, I have seen no reference to ADSL and a 64k permanent link will set you back a cool US$500 per month plus US$500 to set it up. A swifter 512k permanent line will set you back US$3,450 per month – this is a long way from the US$40 per month for a 2Mbps cable connection that I used to have.

Today, there is no connectivity at all. I can dial-in, but a traceroute reveals no connectivity past the server at the other end of the dial-up link, not even to Timor Telecom’s DNS servers. I checked with an internet cafe (by phone) and no go there either. They don’t know and Timor Telecom won’t tell them either. I think this is called busted !

Coffee Shops – First Try

Coffee is Timor-Leste’s main export so you might think that coffee is sold everywhere and perhaps, there may be a number of worthwhile coffee shops.

It is fair to say that all restaurants and bars will offer some form of coffee, from espresso machine stuff through to standard Indonesian style (1 teaspoon ground coffee then pour on hot water then add lots of sugar).

One day when I have a kitchen to entertain myself in, I will get right into roasting and grinding my own. However, I have been told that all the good stuff is sewn up by the big operators and goes straight into the export trade. The implication was that the stuff sold on the roadside and in markets was the left-overs. This may be true.

However, I am talking coffee shops here and I am making a subtle distinction between coffee served in a restaurant to the (often alfresco) coffee shop experience. I am restricting myself to espresso machine output in a “coffee shop” atmosphere – that “feeling that I am somewhere else for 15 minutes” experience.

Cafe Timor (in the Hotel Timor) – For many foreigners, this is the best. Coffee is good, it is air-conditioned and it has a bright and breezy atmosphere. It also has some quite superb Portuguese pastries.

Tropical Bakery (near the UN barracks) – This has a very relaxed atmosphere but you are restricted to ceiling fans and no AC. Partly outside but with a strangely impeded view of the outside world thanks to some very heavy wood and bamboo decor. Again coffee is good, pastries are available and a full menu are available.

Sanan Rai (near the Central Garden Hotel) – Recently renovated, perhaps the cutest and OK if you can bear being sandwiched between a souvenir counter, dress shop and beauty shop. Good AC, coffee and a full menu available.

Cafe Brasil – The newest cafe with solid wood tables and cane chairs with a marquee out the front. Has AC and ceiling fans but hard to see how the AC can compete when the doors and windows are always open. Definitely feels like being somewhere else, plays cool background music and also has a wide ranging menu.

City Cafe – A long-standing favourite among the UN community. More a cafeteria/restaurant, but if you sit out the front, the Mediterranean style can feel like the real thing. No AC.

Some that don’t quite fit my definition of coffee shop but do have espresso machines are Vasco da Gamas restaurant, the Hotel Timor restaurant, Hotel Turismo, Castaway Bar, Esplanada Hotel restaurant and the Metro Cafe. I guess there will be more. I will keep hunting.

Riding the Waves in Bed

Saturday 28 Jan 2006 2:02am – all quiet.
Saturday 28 Jan 2006 2:03am – woken by someone shaking the bed. Hey wait a minute … the whole building is shaking in the breeze. Whoa … (expletive deleted).

For about 30 seconds, I rode the wave while lying in bed speaking in mono-syllabic expletives. Swaying in the breeze was just right, but we are only on the 1st floor of a 3 level building.

The knowledge that the Hotel Timor would fail any structural integrity tests elsewhere in the world did not sit well in the guts as we rode out the wave. Having lived in known earthquake zones before, I don’t recall feeling quite so unsafe. One can only thank that this building is no taller than 3 levels.

The thought of finding alternative accommodation suddenly rose to the surface again. Even one of the larger banks in town had to move at great expense because of the imminent collapse of its new foreigner built premises. This does not inspire confidence with alternatives either.

The distinct lack of independent certification of building works is already high on our agenda as we seek clarification on the completely new electrical wiring in our soon to be completed residence. When you have the acknowledged best electrician in town, I am told you have to accept his own self-certification. Because the alternatives are not worth it.

Saturday 28 Jan 2:37am. I think I can go try to go back to sleep now. Maybe I just might pop a little sleeping pill.

Postscript : This quake which was reported widely in the media, turned out to be a 7.7 Richter scale one some 440kms away. As far as I can tell, everyone seems to have woken up during this one.

The Humble Dimma

A few weeks back, I had my nirvana-like experience. However, for 99.9999% of the world’s population, going into raptures over “Marathon dimsims” is a rather pathetic thing to do.

Roll back a couple of days … I bumped into a fellow Australian who mentioned he was going to the informal Australia Day function organised by the embassy for all OZ passport holders. Initially, I was aggrieved as I knew nothing about it, but it turns out that there are advantages in registering oneself with the embassy. (Later in the day, I did in fact receive an invitation, indirectly.)

I met this guy about 3 hours drive from Dili and he mentioned he was on his way to Dili for the OZ Day BBQ and he was looking forward to some OZ food. I casually mentioned my Marathon dimsim nirvana experience and (saints be praised) not only was he from the State of Victoria (home of the Marathon article) but he too was a Marathon dimsim-eating gastronome.

As soon as I mentioned that Phil (another Marathon gastronome) at the Dili Club was a potential supplier, his eyes lit up and he was on the case. The Dili Club has arguably the best pizzas in town and Phil has a home delivery service, but due to the government wanting to take over his bit of land, he was asked to move. There was a bit of umming and ahhing as Phil decided whether to carry on at all and a couple of weeks ago, the future of the Dili Club was up in the air.

But my new mate has confirmed already that a new Dili Club site has been signed, sealed and delivered. Its now up to Phil to supply. You see, I am not so unique after all.

A Day Out of Town

I have already been on several Sunday afternoon drives – for about an hour out of town to the west, south and east.

I was fortunate to be able to add to this by tagging along with some others on some visits to a couple of schools and to a silk-worm manufacturing establishment about 3 or so hours drive from Dili.

It was my first real taste of Timorese roads and further confirmation that unless some money is found to put into road maintenance, there will be ever-increasing problems in this area. I would have to say that night driving would not be on my recommended list of desirable activities as there are many instances of wash-outs and ever-increasing potholes. It seems that quite a few drainage pipes under roads have failed and on several occasions, one has to leave the road entirely and drive around the offending collapsed section.

Nevertheless, it made for a refreshing break from Dili. Our first stop was a school in Venilale run by the Catholic Salesian brothers. I have to say that given the rather rustic nature of living in the area, it was a surprise to find an obviously very well run school with some (relatively) impressive facilities.

The school had a pretty well set-up library with both English and Portuguese language sections. It even had 2 computer labs, but at this point, some of the problems of location surfaced. One of the labs had been kitted out with new gear in 2002, but it had never fired up as the building had no electricity. The 2nd lab appeared to have electricity but it was admitted that most of the computers did not work as they were riddled with viruses and no-one had the wherewithal to correct it. The school were dreaming of internet access but again, the issue of maintenance surfaces. And how to connect a total of 20 to 25 computers (including teachers computers now) via one very expensive dial-up line. I don’t know much about schooling, but my guess is that the local government run school does not have a computer lab at all.

Prior to leaving, we were shown the orphanage. On a good day with a bit of prepping, I could probably appear tough and macho, but not a chance in front of 120 orphans eating their rice and mashed vegetables for lunch. Many had lost their parents during the war where many were killed in conflict but in fact, many more by the famine associated with that conflict. Humility 100, macho-ness 0.

We moved onto a technical school at Fatumaca and again, I was surprised at the facilities that do exist. The Salesian Brothers are obviously very disciplined and have put together some surprisingly good stuff. We were shown large classrooms servicing metalwork, electrical and electronic teaching. I remember classrooms like this when I was a kid. Perhaps the only drawback is that they looked exactly like they looked like when I was a kid.

Next stop was a quick visit to a silk factory. It was the wrong time of the year to see much action, but it will be interesting to see how they fare. A small Timorese silk factory has a big job competing with the big boys (like Thailand and China) but I’ll keep my eye out as Timorese silk must be a pretty rare thing to have.