The road less travelled…more like the road not travelled at all! So, we had made the decision to come to Timor Leste in the full knowledge that this was certainly an off the beaten track destination. South East Asia’s newest country and still one of the youngest in the world having only gained official independence in 2002. We came knowing that this was not going to be the easy and efficient travel we had become so accustomed to in eastern Asia and nor was it going to be the almost down-trodden path of the banana pancake trail throughout the rest of South East Asia, however, I don’t think either of us were prepared for quite how unprepared Timor Leste felt for visitors who were not members of the peace corps, or international aid agencies! The first thing worth noting is that the Timorese people are some of the smiliest and friendliest we have encountered anywhere in the world. Walking down the street you are frequently met with waves of stern and serious looking faces that almost instantly break into beaming grins as soon as eye contact is made. This warmth unfortunately lulls you into a bit of a false sense of security however, when you ask for assistance with pretty much any basic requirement of a visitor to an area and the response is almost always blank and helpless shrug! Upon arriving in Dili and having done all of the research it was physically possible to do (given the almost total absence of information regarding Timorese travel) we set about making our plans for our two week stay on the ground as we figured this would be easier and likely more efficient…how wrong we were! What actually transpired was us spending the better part of 5hrs walking 14km all around Dili trying to find information about…well anything really! We wanted to know where we could buy ferry tickets to go to Atauro, how we could get to Cristo Rei, if it was possible to get a bus to Mt Ramelau and if so where the bus station was…or in fact if there was a bus station at all. We had read that there were bars and dive shops all along Avenida de Portugal where one could find other travellers and all the information one needed about exploring the country. Turns out, not so much. What was actually there was one dive shop with an adjoining bar that was empty and the Hotel Esplanada, which housed the Timor Adventures tour office which was unmanned and shut. There were a few other travellers in there but it certainly didn’t feel like the information sharing hub we were hoping for. Upon returning to our guesthouse, tired, sweaty and with more questions than we had initially left with we were delighted and elated to discover that our hostel owner was in fact a pretty good source of information about what to do in Timor and how to do it. In order to save you time and stress we have decided to provide a little list of the things that we learnt in Dili in terms of the kind of information tourists might need when landing in this lovely but very alien land. Arriving at the ‘airport’:
Accommodation: There aren’t a huge amount of options available in Dili and even fewer on the budget side of things. We stayed at Casa Minha which is an incredibly basic but very functional backpacker place conveniently located about 10mins walk away from the port, right between the city and the seafront (just next to the New Zealand embassy). The family who run it are absolutely lovely, the owner speaks very good (nearly perfect English) and like I said can provide you with very comprehensive information about travel around Dili and Timor Leste in general. We paid $20USD for a double room with aircon and shared bathroom and shower. Like I said, this is the epitome of basic but considering the prices of other places in Dili it’s very good value and in a good location. Tickets to Artauro: Things regarding travel to this nearby island appear to be changing at a rate of knots, but this is where things stand now (May 2018). The public ferry goes twice a week from Dili port. One company goes on a Saturday morning (Nakroma) and another goes on a Thursday morning (Laju Laju), both leaving at 8am. The Saturday ferry costs $4pp and the Thursday ferry costs $5pp. There is also a ferry run by a company called Dragon Star that goes everyday except Wednesday, is slightly faster and costs $13pp (see picture for timetable and details). Gone are the days of only being able to travel between Dili and Artauro once a week or having to catch the hotel transfers at a cost of $35-45pp.Buying ferry tickets: From what we gathered it is only possible to buy your tickets for the public ferries the day before (and possibly on the day as well – although I’m not sure I’d risk this). The process of doing this is a bit unorthodox, but it works. You go to the port (we went at around 8.30am on Friday for the Saturday ferry) and wait by the gate with locals and potentially some other travellers – we met three foreign students, all of whom were on internships. At the gate the process is to wait until an official from behind the gate acknowledges you, when they do you are to hand over some form of ID (driver’s licence, proof of age card…I’d avoid giving them your passport, although they did all seem incredibly trustworthy) and the cost of the fare. Our experience showed us that exact money meant the whole process happens a lot faster. The official will then take the ID and money away and will return within about 5-10mins with your ticket with your name on it and any change you are due. Every ticket needs it’s own accompanying ID so you can’t just go and buy 10 tickets for a group of you without these. We had heard that foreigners are allowed to enter the port around the back and buy tickets in a more conventional way, although it was unclear to us how this would have been possible and also didn’t exactly seem fair when this is the process that locals have to go through. Like I said, it is pretty unconventional but it is definitely legitimate and it works. Getting to Cristo Rei: From central Dili this is surprisingly easy. The microlet number 12 goes all the way there and it’s actually the end of the line so there’s no need to figure out where to get off. The 12 can be picked up along the main road that runs along the waterfront and you simply flag it down to stop it. For ease of landmark definition we noticed that the route goes past Burger King on the corner of Rua de Be-mori and Rua 30 de Augusto (see picture), this is next door to Cheers Bar which you will see marked out on almost every Dili map you can pick up around the city. Because the 12 just does a continuous loop from the city to Cristo Rei this would be a good location to pick up and drop off from if you’re heading to Cristo Rei. The journey takes about 20mins and costs 0.25c (as do all microlet journeys anywhere in Dili). Getting around Dili: If you have an interest in visiting some of the towns/cities around Dili like Dare, Liquica and Emera these are all very well connected by micros and buses. Lots of buses (e.g. for Liquica or Emera) leave from the Tasi Tolu bus terminal, which is at the end of the number 10 micro line (about 20-25mins outside of Dili centre). Micros anywhere in Dili cost 0.25c per journey and the mid distance buses cost from 0.50c to $2. It seemed a bit daunting taking transport out of Dili to more remote areas at transport seemed so sporadic and disorganised, but everywhere we ventured there was always an option for getting back…even if it looked like it might just be jumping in the back of a truck. The locals are so friendly they would always find a way to help get you where you needed to be! Food: There are an abundance of supermarkets in Dili and a reasonable amount of nice looking tourist orientated restaurants. Most of these restaurants can be found along the Avenida de Portugal and dotted around the centre. These all looked like they had a good variety of food and the average cost of a dish in these places was $7-10. We were very lucky to find a little local place called Restaurante Tavirense on Rua 30 de Augusto (about 5mins walk from aforementioned Burger King, going towards the centre). This place opens at 9am until the evening and serves food canteen-style where you are given a portion of rice and then choose from a range of meat, fish and vegetable additions. We ate here multiple times and the cost of our plates ranged from $2-3.25pp. Money: There are tonnes of ATM’s all around Dili although a lot of them do not accept foreign cards. If you have a Visa card then you need to look out for any machines with the logo ‘Loos 24’. These ATMs accept foreign cards and do not charge a fee. If you do not have a Visa card then your only other option to get money out of an ATM will be the ANZ machines, which unfortunately charge a crippling $7USD fee!! If you arrive with cash, either AUD, IDR…and potentially other currencies too, there are plenty of legitimate money changers on the street corner of Rua du Palacio du Governo (see picture bellow). LGBT: Timor is a developing nation only 16 year in to developing it's identity as an idependent country. As a conservative Catholic(ish) nation it's LGBT rights are a little lacking but on the ground we found people warm and welcoming with very little judgement. Considering their recent history of being invaded by Indonesia which is considerably more conservative they are doing well. Homosexuality is legal and in 2015 they held their first pride march with and among the participants of the pride march were LGBT citizens, nuns, religious ministers, indigenous leaders, students, and government officials. For a little nation still finding their way they are the leaders of Human Rights protections in Southeast Asia including LGBT rights. Budget Time $$$So here's what it really cost:
$1,089.07 AUD for 13 days Accomodation: $679.42 Food: $141.55 Transport: $86.59 Miscellaneous: $79.93 Entertainment; $39.97 Drinks: $36.30 Souvenirs: $25.31 This means an average daily budget of $41.88 AUD per person, per day.
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We bid farewell to Guam and our new friends with heavy hearts only to discover our plane was delayed...yet again! This meant we really weren’t going to be arriving into Manila till really late. After what transpired to only be an hour long delay and an uneventful flight we ended up in an inexplicably long customs queue on the other side...this wasn’t starting very well. On advice the advice of Jose we had already downloaded the Grab app (Asian ‘Uber’) so as soon as we were through we jumped in a car and could finally head to our hotel for some much needed sleep (P305/$7.80 AUD/5.70 USD). Worth noting if you don’t have the app already or you can’t connect to the airport WiFi there is a Grab stand where a guy with multiple mobile phones will book one for you...just follow the Grab signs close to the taxi stand outside the airport. Manila is a strange mix of extremely modern and very poor. Driving along the highway it’s all flashing lights, fancy hotels and large shopping malls but as soon as you start winding through the back streets the poverty is starkly apparent. We had booked a hotel near the port as we had an early morning ferry to catch but we may as well have stayed at the port for the night with the amount of sleep we managed to get. I have never heard so many different sounds through one wall...including all night construction, prayer groups, cats, dogs, roosters and bad karaoke!! As soon as one noise would stop another would start and by the time we had to be up we’d managed about 20mins sleep between us. Walking to the port took us through what would normally be a no go area of town in other cities. Makeshift slum houses made from corrugated iron wound through street after street but one thing that is striking about the Philippines is how friendly everyone is and not once as we walked through this part of town did we feel threatened or unsafe. Hot and sweaty, we arrived at the port about half an hour later, ready for our long journey to Coron. We were taking the 15hour 2Go ferry (P) but had read on our tickets that we needed to be there 4hours before our departure time. Although I wouldn’t push it too late this was definitely excessive and you could easily arrive 2hours beforehand with no problems as all beds in all classes are assigned beforehand. The only thing being they do change the departure times with very little notice so be warned it is best to check your departure time on the day if you don’t want to arrive so early. The cheapest tickets (P1550/39.30 AUD/29 USD per person) give you a bunk on the deck and a basic meal, tourist class is inside with aircon. When we booked tickets in advance there was very little difference in price. If this is the case go for tourist class as it gets very hot on deck. If not, you’re in for a long but not too unpleasant night. We managed to befriend 2 other couples (both British) along the way who helped while away the hours. The ferry was actually early arriving into Coron and suddenly and quite unexpectedly we found ourselves out on the street and piling into a trike at 4am heading into Coron Town (P50/$1.25 AUD/0.95 USD but it should only be P20/0.50 AUD/0.35 USD). Having spent the last 3 months in Eastern Asia where booking in advance is essential we were excited about being a little more flexible again. Now, having extensively traveled through both Southeast Asia and Central and South America we have our system down and not once has it failed us! Leave one with the bags and the other goes to check out what is available. Dani headed off in to the dark while I hung out with Sophie and Josh who we had met on the boat. About 50 minutes later she appeared again with a face like thunder. 15 guesthouses she had been to and not one had any room. Very dejected and slightly concerned, we decided to take a risk at head with Sophie and Josh to their guesthouse Maritonies which was quite far out in the hopes that even though they had no rooms online they may have some space. We could have kissed the woman when upon enquiringly desperately, she smiled apologetically and said “we only have fan rooms, is that ok?”(P800/$20.55 AUD/15 USD). After discussions with not only Sophie and Josh but other travellers in the guesthouse it transpired that Southeast Asian travel has changed. People no longer show up and search for a room on the ground, they book in advance online. This apparently means all the good, cheap places are booked by the time you get somewhere which spurs more people to book ahead meaning more guesthouses are getting online and so the disappointing cycle continues! I’m not sure what this means for the carefree traveller but I think it’s sad because the whole nature of backpacking is the beauty and freedom of waking up one morning and deciding to go to another town, city or even country on a whim and if you’re booked in for the next 3 nights maybe you won’t follow your new friend to the next place etc. Having at least found somewhere decent to stay it was time to find some food. There’s not a lot going on when it comes to Filipino food but we found some cheap meals in the market on the way to the port (there are two markets in this area and you actually want to head to the souvenir market not the local fruit and vege market). Our next task for the day was to book a tour to see what Coron is really famous for, it’s surrounding islands and marine life. Dani managed to negotiate a trip for (P1200/$30.80 AUD/22.50 USD) which included snorkel gear and lunch but be careful as a lot of companies try to charge extra for the gear but don’t tell you this when you book. We chose this package because it took us to all the major highlights The next day the 4 of us set off for our excursion and it was this trip that really showed us we were back in Southeast Asia. We had gotten used to the organisation of Japan and Korea and it was a bit of a harsh reality check when we were suddenly jumping from boat to boat to get to ours at the end of the line as well as having a tour guide who showed almost no interest in guiding us what so ever. In hindsight it was exactly what it said on the tin...transport to Siete Pecados, Kayangan lake, Beach 91, Skeleton Wreck, Malwawey Coral Garden, CYC Beach, and Twin Lagoon, safety equipment (actually more than a lot of countries) and a good lunch. While the spots you get to visit on this trip are incredibly beautiful, the sheer number of boats and tourists in each location makes it almost impossible to appreciate this. There appears to be no limit on the number of people allowed in each place at one time and all the companies seem to follow exactly the same itinerary so there isn’t even a steady flow of people in and out. This made it hard to really enjoy the trip as we spent most of our time battling with other tourists or boats to get to where we wanted to be or see what we had set out to see. That being said it’s not an unpleasant trip, just uncomfortably busy. Coron Town itself leaves a lot to be desired. It’s dirty and dusty as well as personality-less. The town almost entirely caters to tourists and most of it is overpriced and underwhelming. Due to this we felt it would be better to head to El Nido earlier than we had initially planned. After 3 nights we headed back to the port for the fast ferry to take us to El Nido. Having booked online (P1848/$47.50 AUD/34.60 USD and playing totally into the new culture here) we needed to swap our reservation documents for tickets at the office approximately 50m from the port back towards Coron Town on the right hand side. You only need to be there an hour beforehand but also make sure you check that the boat is leaving at the scheduled time on the day as this changed. Pre booking online does cost a tiny bit more than the set rate you are offered in the travel agencies throughout Coron Town but they can only be purchased a day in advance and if the once daily boat you want to catch gets booked up then you’re stuck there for another day. The journey has a reputation for being pretty rough at times but we were lucky and it was smooth sailing the whole way (good news for me who gets sea sick). From the moment we sailed into the entrance of El Nido harbour it was clear we had made the right decision moving on. Although it has the same ‘cater only to tourist vibe’ it is a much prettier place. It’s a sheltered harbour surrounded by soaring cast cliffs and scattered with coconut palms. Everything is walking distance from the port so we ignored the calls from trike drivers, bid farewell to Sophie and Josh who were staying outside of El Nido and headed off to find the guesthouse (that yes we had booked online). The place we had chosen was the cheapest place ($15.70 AUD/11.60 USD) left and had some fairly hit and miss reviews. We found while it was nowhere near luxurious it was definitely a lot better than most of the reviews made it out to be. Again (like in Japan) we had found that booking online via Klook (we’ve found this a great booking website for Asia) was cheaper for the standard trips in El Nido. We had booked on to tour D ($25.80 AUD/$19 USD) which we knew was not the “must visit” spots but having seen how crowded everything had been in Coron we felt it might be better to go to some lesser visited sights. We had this tour booked for our first full day and waited eagerly downstairs a good 30 minutes prior to our pickup time...and we waited and we waited. Finally after calling numerous times we were whisked down to the port not really knowing what was going on. Once there it was explained to us that our guesthouse had our names wrong and had told the tour company that we weren’t staying there. Due to this we had missed our chance to go on a trip but that they actually weren’t running tour D due to lack of demand at the time and offered us places on want of there other trips for the next day instead. It made sense to choose the most expensive tour so we decided on tour A. After reading reviews it turns out they never seem to run tour D so it’s a great way of saving money on doing the more expensive tour by booking D through Klook and then choosing tour A! This actually turned out to be a really good day despite 10 minutes in, it pouring with such heavy rain that you couldn’t see more than 3 or 4 meters in front of the boat. It was quite scary being on a fairly rickety boat with bamboo stabilisers being lashed with rain but none of the crew seemed in the slightest bits phased by it and within 20 minutes it was blue skies and sunshine again. The crowds actually felt a lot less offensive on this trip and the snorkelling was a lot better than it had been in Coron. It’s not quite the stunning coral reef it’s made out to be (everything is damaged or dying) but the fish are really beautiful. El Nido is quite a nice place to chill out and relax. We didn’t feel any pressure to go on any other trips or explore the surrounding area so we spent our spare days just walking out along the beach and having a few San Miguel’s at sunset along the waterfront. After 4 relaxing nights it was time to head to our last stop in the Philippines, Puerto Princesa. We had booked one of the minivans in town (P500/$12.65 AUD/9.35 USD) and understood that we needed to make our own way to the bus station (which is definitely walkable from town) to start our journey. Our problems began when we arrived to be told our minivan wouldn’t be going, but that it was ok because they would happily buy us a ticket for the bus instead. Now, the fact that the bus is cheaper, slower and arrives 7km out of town meaning we would need transport on the other side, meant we really weren’t happy with accepting this offer of a bus ticket in exchange without a refund of the difference (P120/$3.05 AUD/2.25 USD). After about a 20minute stand off (and almost missing the only bus) the man grabbed our tickets and sped off on a motorcycle muttering something about a refund. Pretty sure we’d lost our money and resigning ourselves to having to pay for the bus as well, the man arrived back at the station with a full refund just as the bus choked into life ready to leave. What we learned from this was that an earlier minivan is a better choice and you would be best getting to the bus station and getting on the next one that is leaving rather than prebooking a specific minivan through a specific company. We saw 4 other sets of tourists in the same boat as us and only us and one other couple got on the bus so hopefully the others found alternative solution. The bus is painfully slow but it gets you from A to B. We were told that the road quality was terrible but from our experience it’s now well constructed the whole way. It’s the constant stopping that makes this bus so slow. When we arrived into Puerto Princesa we found ourselves a trike (P120/$3.05 AUD/2.25 USD) and set off for our guesthouse Fanta Lodge. Now, this place is functional enough and walking distance from the airport but the basic rooms ($8.15/6 USD) are literally concrete cells under tin roofs and are roasting hot. The nicer rooms with private bathroom and aircon were well worth the sneaky upgrade for our second and final night ($12 AUD/8.85 USD). Puerto is a town really only good for transiting through. We were flying back to Manila from there and we hadn’t wanted to spend 3 days in transit (El Nido - Puerto - Manila - Bali - Timor-Leste) so had opted for a rest day in Puerto. We did our best to explore what it has on offer but that isn’t a lot so I wouldn’t recommend spending any more time here than necessary. On our final day in the Philippines we walked to the airport and checked in for our flight. Surprise surprise we were delayed again but luckily we had plenty of time between our 2 flights for the day. We were also flying into the right terminal in Manila so wouldn’t even have to change. Our flight landed an hour after it was scheduled to meaning we now only had 5 hours to kill at Manila airport before boarding our flight to Bali. It turns out that there is a pretty decent food selection for reasonable prices here but we ate back at our newly discovered favourite Chow King. The time passed surprisingly quickly and soon we were on our 2 leg of 3. Because you can only fly to Timor from Bali, Singapore and Darwin we would be spending the night by Bali airport before getting on our final leg. We actually were really stoked by our airport accommodation Chillin Kuta Homestay which had only cost $17AUD (12.55 USD). It had comfortable beds, good WiFi and a decent ensuit bathroom. Best of all it is only a 3 minute walk from the airport (you can see the airport from the balcony). Definitely a great deal if you happen to have an early flight. It was time for our next adventure in Timor-Leste which would be the last country in Southeast Asia for us to visit. Overall, we had enjoyed our time in the Philippines but both left wishing we had explored it when we were on our big Southeast Asia trip in 2013. Back then the Banana Pancake trail hadn’t hit the Philippines and it was still a little undiscovered. That being said the people are wonderfully friendly and very chatty and I bet there are still some wonderful undiscovered gems but Palawan certainly isn’t that. LGBT: The Philippines is a conservative Catholic country but overall we found them to be pretty accepting. There was a lot of misgendering of Dani which got frustrating at times but it was never with malicious intent. The Philippines has also been ranked as one of the most gay friendly nations in Asia. The marriage equality debate is currently being argued in the Supreme Court and they have a female openly trans politician serving in congress who was elected in 2016. Budget Time $$$The Philippines was an interesting location in terms of setting a budget. Prior to going I had looked at a couple of backpacking blogs which stated that if one was to island hop around the area then a much more generous budget than the average South East Asian norm would be needed. Seeing as we were going to be in The Philippines for less than two weeks we decided to punt for a higher daily budget than our standard $35AUDpp/day. Knowing that we didn’t need anything too extravagant once we were on the ground in terms of accommodation and food we agreed on $45AUDpp/day, which gave us flexibility in terms of how we would get around but didn’t push us out of a backpacker’s spending power. As has become a bit of a trend for us, we came in under this. In fact, as you can see below we only very very slightly came outside of our standard South East Asia zone.
Unsurprisingly our greatest expense was transport and accounted for nearly 50% of our total spend – something which has never been the case before. All of the blogs out there are absolutely right; ferries/flights between the islands in The Philippines are not cheap. As we have said in the main blog, booking in advance stands to save you a really decent amount of money! Obviously the name of the game when visiting the islands is to go out and explore and that means organised trips. What we noticed about these trips on both Coron and El Nido is that the prices within the budget range are pretty much standardised and what you get for your money is all much of a muchness. They go to the same places and pretty much include the same things – boat, ‘guide’, lunch (watch out for snorkel and mask hire extras). You don’t need to do much shopping around or haggling if you’re just going to follow suit and do the standard day trips. All of these trips are reasonably priced and can easily be fitted into a basic backpacker budget. Food throughout the country was inexpensive but also generally pretty uninspiring. We paid $3-5AUDpp/meal at local places and this got us satisfactory portions of rice/noodles with meat, fish or eggs and veggies. Budget accommodation throughout the country was fine. It was in Coron that we discovered that pre-booking is almost a necessity in parts of SE Asia now which I find incredibly disappointing, but fortunately this does not appear to have affected the price too much, as long as you get your booking done in time to catch the budget options. We paid an average of about $15AUD/room/night and this got us comfortable and satisfactory rooms every time. They didn’t always have en suite bathrooms, or aircon, but they were always acceptable for the price. The jump to get all the real comforts in the Philippines is pretty significant, so on a budget you really can’t expect it all. Overall the Philippines was not as expensive as we had been lead to believe it would be on the basis that we did island hop and we weren’t there for very long so we crammed a lot into a short time. You definitely don’t get as much bang for your buck as you do in certain other SE Asian countries, but it is absolutely doable on a reasonable backpackers budget! What we actually spent: $781.82 AUD in 11 days Transport: $358.09 AUD Accomodation: $147.14 Entertainment: $123.67 Food: $97.17 Drinks: $42.29 Souvenirs: $7.30 Miscellaneous: $6.17 This works out at $35.53 AUD per person per day. |
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