Baffled Backpackers Buggered at Batugade

As most of us are aware this year our President, Jose Ramos Horta has set up quite a few events to help encourage tourism in our wonderful country. We will be having the first underwater photo contest, the second Tour de Timor, the Dili Marathon, the endurance race and quite a few other events including the re-instatement of the Darwin to Dili yacht race. These are all wonderful things and I must say that I personally am looking forward to them all very much.
Not so the Ministry of the Interior. In their supreme wisdom this ministry has decided that at the moment the only way for any tourists to get here is by 'plane. A few weeks ago it was decided that anyone coming to our country overland from West Timor will no longer be able to get a visa at the border. You CAN enter the country this way if you have a previous Timor-Leste tourist visa in your passport but not if you are a first time visitor. Apparently, in theory you can get a visa at the consulate in Kupang or Bali. In practice you can't. See this link for reasons why.

So, all you first time visitors to Timor-Leste, "piss off".

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ET in China

There is an International Tourism trade fare happening in Beijing at the moment at which East Timor is strongly represented by Government and private sector types. For details of this event please check out this address.

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Mad Swiss - Part 2

Below is a picture of the Swiss couple, Emil and Liliana Schmid, who are travelling the world. On Wednesday 31st May they met with Sr. Miguel Lobato (pictured on the right), Government Director of Tourism. Also pictured is their car, which you have probably seen driving very slowly around town recently.
They have just returned from the east of the country and have now headed for the middle and the south.
You can also get more information on their odyssey

here (web site)

and

here (Guinness Book of Records)

Emil and Liliana Schmid with Sr. Miguel Lobato, Director of Tourism (r)

The vehicle, a Toyota LandcruiserFJ60, built in 1982

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Nice People To Meet

There are a couple of people in East Timor at the moment who, if you get the chance, you should try and meet and maybe buy them a couple of beers.
Their names are Emil and Liliana Schmid and they are doing a pretty amazing thing. They have been travelling the world in a Toyota Landcruiser since October 1984 and have so far have visited 156 countries with ET being the 156th. They have been in the past 10 issues of the Guinness Book of World Records. They are a couple ‘of a certain age’ who are financing their quest on their Swiss pensions (you couldn’t do it on a UK pension, but if you were an East Timorese MP you might be OK). Originally their journey was meant to be for 1 year only but obviously things got out of hand.
The other day they gave me a big list of facts and figures about their journey and some of them are quite incredible. For instance; they have had 161 flat tyres, used 132 spark plugs, the lowest average speed in any country was 10.0km/h in The Vatican. They have spent over USD 6000.00 on visas alone. Oh, and their 1 millionth driving minute was in Kupang, West Timor. (Yah boo sucks to Kupang, it should have been us).
The car is very unmissable. It is sky blue, has about 100 jerry cans strapped to the roof and comes equipped with Zurich licence plates.
As soon as I get a picture of the car I’ll post it here.
Talking of visitors to ET, Mr. Lonely Planet (South east Asia) is also in town. His name is Ryan Ver Berkmoes and he is also a very nice bloke. He is currently staying at the Hotel Dili but will be moving around a bit. Again, if you meet him, buy him a beer and tell him all about our beautiful country. He is a big amiable American chap and may even buy you a beer back…….

New Site

A new blog site has been set up, East Timor Tourism News.
Please feel free to visit the site and add any constructive/positive comments, views, advice and tips.

It's Not All Dili

I thought I'd post some pictures of East Timor to show that it's not all rocks, Ramor Ambons, gang fights and urgent SMS messages. And it's not all Dili.
You can find some great pictures of East Timor at Dutchpickle and Tayo Photo Group.












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