Recent events have pushed a few other events into the background.
Possibly my favourite restaurant in town has been the “Beach Cafe”. The food is Burmese and it is run by Burmese. Or was. In January/February, the lads renovated the establishment and it was really looking good. Everything (except the power pole out the front) hit the sweet spot with me. But now, it has been closed for a month. Some say the cook left; some say there was a fire in the kitchen; same say the owner raised the rent ferociously after the renovations. One day I will find out why.
On the Saturday following the initial riots, the Central Maritime Hotel left Dili. Normally, this would be a momentous event but it passed by with little comment.
The Central Maritime Hotel was a floating hotel (ie a converted ship) seemingly a permanent fixture down at the waterfront. It arrived from Rangoon to provide accommodation when the UN presence was at its peak here. It had 127 rooms and bars etc. but as the UN numbers fell, so did the bottom line and it has remained unused for a couple of years now.
It has gone off to Singapore for a minor re-fit prior to heading off to the Black Sea for oil workers accommodation. But the waterfront sure feels kind of nude now.
Squatter,keep up the informed commentry, as it helps us former Dili residents to keep a handle on whats happening on the ground.
As for the local rumour news system, in 1999 I decided not to believe anything unless it was witnessed by a mate , my mum or the archbishop.
Everything else turned out to be crapp.
Timorese love the rumour mill and work themselves into frenzie over some of the stories.
Make sure you have plenty of bottled water.
Good luck and keep up the blogg.
Murray