East Timor Visa Run

, originally uploaded by m_hagen.

Arrived in Dili 4 days ago after a typically hellish long Indonesian bus journey. It was rare to drive more than 200 yds in a straight line. After 12 hours of curve and swerve you really need at least a couple of days for your guts to get back to normal. The only good thing I can say about the bus ride was that only one woman spewed. Unfortunately she was sitting directly behind me.

The scars of war are still quite fresh in the border town of Atambora. Shells of burnt out buildings pockmarked with bullet holes. 3 UN aid workers were shot and killed here just a couple of years ago.

Crossing the border into E Timor was relatively easy. I changed to another bus for the final 4 hour ride into Dili.

The people here are incredibly poor. Dirty villages with thatch homes built next to recently burnt cement buildings with only foundations left behind. When Indonesia finally pulled out of East Timor they burnt buildings, blew up bridges and murdered the E Timorese. The infrastructure is slowly being rebuilt.

We pulled into Dili just after sunset and into the darkest capital city I have ever visited. The driver couldn't locate the backpackers hotel and so he dropped me off near the oceanfront at one of the better foreign aid worker hotels. I was disorientated and willing to pay anything for a bed for the night. Unfortunately the hotel was full. The bus had left and not a taxi was in sight. No streetlights, no map and no idea about the neighborhood. It looked pretty borderline, even though it was only a few blocks from Parliament. After wandering for a few minutes I found an Aid worker flop house and for $20 had one of the best nights sleep in ages.

The next morning I headed straight for the Indonesian embassy and filed my application for another 60 day visa. The immigration department was pretty organized an lacked much of the chaos I had expected.
Come back in 3 days for your passport the woman said. Great news, we had been expecting it to take at least a week.
I left the embassy and started wandering the streets. Just two blocks away I came upon the first of many refugee camps. Tent cities, homes to thousands of people either driven from their communities by violence or destruction of homes and property.
I have the return journey to Kupang to look forward to!

Small Airplane - Big Boardbag

, originally uploaded by m_hagen.

Traveling with surfboards is always such a joy. The strange looks from local people, the other travelers who can't understand how you can get anywhere with such an outrageous bag, and the laughs from taxi drivers as you heave the boards onto the roof and start strapping them down.
From people in the Philippines asking if I was transporting weapons, (I suppose I did have a min-gun in the bag) to an airline receptionist who wanted to charge me more than $400 for a single board bag flying from Rome to Delhi, I've had plenty of good times with that 40lb. friend I never leave home without.
Recently I was in Flores flying to Kupang on Timor, and the guy at the airline just about choked on his nasi goreng when Hedda and I walked in rolling my boardbag behind us. First, he called Hedda in to his office where she thought she was going to have to drop a $20 bill into an envelope for the guy to check the bag through. Then he had me in there all flustered saying it would be up to the crew, not him as to whether the boards would make it or not. I don't think they'd seen such luggage before, and he was concerned that it wouldn't fit onto the plane.
I held my ground and said we'd cancel the flight and take the ferry if the boards didn't go with us. He was stressing. Trying to be nice to us about it, but stressing.
I had visions of a 12 seater or a single prop plane landing to take us to Timor. I assured him I had done this many times before and even offered to help load the baggage myself. (I did this in Costa Rica a couple years back flying to Mal Pais on a very small plane. Actually took the 3 boards out of the boardbag and found a way to slide each individual board into a little nook somewhere in the storage area.)
Well, our plane landed and it was huge. I could not believe for a second how he thought there wouldn't be room. They loaded the boards vertically into the storage compartment there was so much room. I guess the good news is that the next time he sees a surfer come through, he'll feel a lot more confident about checking their bags through.

Lakey Photos

Shopping trip to Dompu

Went into Dompu to refresh the underwear I've been traveling with this past year. I'd already bought 2 pairs of size L, that fit like a Brazilian bikini.

I asked around the vendors along the main street and was directed upstairs to Sumbawa's version of WalMart. The store was empty of customers yet teeming with young Muslim shop girls dressed in headscarves and traditional clothing.

I was attempting to casually browse the merchandise selections, and locate the underwear with out causing too much of a disturbance. But it wasn't going to happen. Two girls approached to offer assistance. After hearing what I was looking for they burst into giggles.

Hoping to grab the underwear, pay and gracefully exit the store. I was surrounded by 6-7 shop girls who wanted to chat.
"What size shoe do you wear?" one asked. The rest giggled.

Why do they need to know my shoe size, when I want to buy underpants? To sell me some socks?

The excitement in the store was growing. I thanked them for their kind assistance and bolted to the relative safety of Dompu's dirty streets.

Sumbawa Roadkill

, originally uploaded by m_hagen.

The roadkill in Sumbawa is pretty interesting... None of the normal furry stuff you see around southern California. While riding the motorbike to Dompu today I saw 2 monitor lizards - Flat! One of em was really big. About 4 feet long. I'm sure the bus or truck loaded with rice bounced a little when it nailed it.
Riding with Rich last week, we saw a flat boa constricter that was about 6 feet long and then almost ran over a really long, bright lime green snake that was slithering across the road in front of us.
At least it gives us a chance to get up close and personal with animals we'd normally would run from. Surf has been great here at Lakey. Overhead to 3X overhead everyday for the past two weeks. The twinnie has been dry most of the time...