Flights Of Fancy?

The Following is taken from ABC Radio Australia

Baggage handlers and check-in staff at East Timor's international airport are considering interrupting commercial flights between Australia and Dili as part of an employment dispute.The staff employed by Total Aviation Services are demanding extra pay for servicing charter flights operated by the Patricks Corporation.A spokesman for the baggage handlers, Alex Pereira, says if something isn't done about their employer within a week they are considering interrupting flights, including flights operated by Air North from Darwin

You have to feel sorry for the poor sods. I mean, two flights a day from Darwin, with at least 30 passengers on each will wear anybody out.

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Power To The People

Well, here it is folks, the piece of machinery we all love to hate. Below is the reason for those tired red eyes, unshaven faces and quick tempers. Apparently we are getting a bunch of new ones from Indonesia, along with about 25 technicians to keep the things going. Personally I’d say send in blokes with names like ‘Rocket’, ‘Cookie’ and ‘Mr. Generator’ and get the job done for just three slabs of VB.

Too easy, no worries, she’ll be right!!

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Shell Shock

So, come on, who’s buying this stuff? I can’t believe any Timorese is going to pay $20.00 for a turtle shell. The only people that are going to buy this are Malae. There is a maximum $50,000 and/or up to 5 years in jail (with time off for medical treatment in Malaysia) for buying or selling corals or turtle shell or turtle shell products. Before we had our bit of trouble last year the PNTL and MAFF were very good at explaining to Timorese the consequences of buying and selling this stuff. Obviously priorities have changed a bit since then, so it’s up to the Malae NOT to buy it. We all watch Discovery channel, Animal Planet and all the rest. We know we shouldn’t buy it. So, if anyone reading this is buying it; BLOODY WELL STOP IT NOW and if you know of anyone buying it, tell them to STOP! By the way, the stall pictured above is the one just before the Hera turnoff on the beach road.

You know it makes sense.

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The Wages Of Sun

Overheard on my verandah one evening this week:

"Do you know, I've got to stop working for people and not charging them the hours"

"Mate, it's a good job you don't do overtime then, otherwise you'd go broke!"

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A Viking Funeral

Well, wasn’t Wednesday a treat. Sitting here bored, not much work, just a bit of routine maintainence and loafing around when who should call, but that well known local character, Rocket. “Mate, get yer arse down to the harbour, there’s a boat alite and she’s goin’ like a good ‘un”.
Well, who could resist. Myself and Ben got a couple of Tigers and drove down to the harbour to watch the spectacle. And it was truly something. We parked up at the lighthouse (Farol) and watched the boat (see pic below, with thanks to ‘Timor Online’, and I’m not gonna pay any royalties, so sue me) drifting backwards and forwards, side to side etc in the prevailing wind. Now, we watched this for about 4 hours in total. Hundreds of people gathered on the shore, a lovely afternoon out. The new government should lay on this type of entertainment more often.
Now, all of this got me to thinking. I do sometimes. While we were watching it was obvious that the PNTL, UNPol’s and the ISF had neither a clue nor any orders on what to do. There was obviously no plan in place for this sort of maritime eventuality. Most of the ‘officials’ there were just basically doing the same as the rest of us. Taking happy snaps.
So, my proposal. Couldn’t some enterprising UN person, I know there are some, coordinate some sort of maritime emergency scheme. Nearly all of the boats in the harbour on Wednesday were privately owned and operated. It was the owner/operators and local ET guys who actually got the commercial boats out of the way of the burning ship. Also, being a port city, we frequently have small(ish) maritime emergencies. Nearly every February and March someone with a boat (a dive company or fishing charter) will get a call saying there is a boat foundering between Atuaro and the mainland and can you go and rescue the people in the dugout?
Is there a person who coordinates disaster/mishap relief.?You know, earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, that type of thing. Maybe this person should get the ‘phone numbers of the boat owner/operators, keep them handy and when we do have a bit of a calamity on they can organize the boats collectively rather than the ‘every man for himself’ situation that we have at the moment.


Anyway, its just a thought.





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By the way, I happened to spot a few Norwegians down there, tears in their eyes, saying things to each other like "when I go, will you make sure I go like that please Thor?"

About Time

Well, I suppose a post is well overdue. The past few weeks have been very very busy (at least comparatively so) in the tourism business here. We have had an influx of backpackers and genuine dive tourists. One lady saw an article in a dive magazine and was so captivated she flew from Prague to Dili to sample the diving. Upon the completion of her holiday she declared that ‘East Timor has the best diving I have ever seen!’ Not a bad plug. It’s now whale season and we have been spying an increasing number of cetaceans recently. A few lucky people have also been diving and snorkeling with a dugong down at K41.
I was going to write about the Timor Telcom fiasco of last week but I don’t really have much to say on it. Once again TT showed just how pathetically incompetent they really are with absolutely no regard whatsoever for the customer.
The streets seem to have returned to ‘normal’ at the moment, with very few incidents of rock throwing, fighting etc. Most incidents that I’ve seen or heard of seem to be more juvenile criminal activity rather than anything more sinister or political (is that tautology?). There was a bit of a kafuffle on Saturday night at Tiger fuels but that was more of a little gang related thing than anything else.
A few old friends have returned to ET and it’s really good to see them, especially the Gozontopede and the big blond German. Oh, and welcome back Squatter. I’m glad to see the budgie smuggler problem has been resolved. Still, I understand it was a fairly small problem in the first place.
That’s about it really. I’ll try to update my posting with a bit more Dili-gence in the future…….

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Great New ET Tourism Directory

Please check out the following site for excellent information about getting around and enjoying East Timor:

http://www.timortourismdirectory.com/index.html





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