Our day in Dili, East Timor

We have nothing particularly scheduled for Dili, East Timor, just wait for our time to catch an available tender.

I just took a look at the temp/humidity, similar numbers 81 degrees, 87 percent humidity. The farther north we sail, the harder the ships A/C has to work, especially with guests exiting to the outside decks.

Barbara has some thoughts, so we will see how the day progresses.

The weather looked a bit foreboding as we exited the tender landing, which is somewhere on the distant shore ….

Oh, here it is, although as you can see in the following picture reaching solid land was a bit of a maneuver- the tender was bobbing like a cork, the floating platform was moving up and down and the ramp was undulating to keep up with all the other moving parts!

We thought we might take the HOHO bus, but they were charging almost double from what they offered on their website. So we opted to start walking.

The HOHO buses – $79.50 US – No thank you.

As we exited the port gates, I started to get a bit concerned with all the young men standing around the streets and in the park nearby.

A scene at a traffic light reminded me that we are once again in the land of “Moto-cross-stoplight-starts”.

I have seen motorbikes lined up from curb to curb, as they work their way past the stopped cars to “get out front”. Not a good idea to ‘J’-walk at the change of lights.

Once again, Barbara had done all the research for this port and she knew exactly where she wanted to go – to a market, of course.

So she convinced me that the way to get there was to take one of the ‘yellow’ cabs, which are constantly driving by and honking their horn to get the attention of pedestrians who may be wanting a ride. If a potential customer gives the slightest indication that they are interested, the driver will stop in traffic, back up if he has to, to accommodate a prospective passenger …. it was crazy pandemonium. Bottom line …. Barbara got our ride to “a” market for $5 US.

Thus this scene:

…. as I stood by, trying to look cool and stay cool, in the 87 degree, 88 % humidity – shade. One time I had to play “lets go round the tree” to avoid a young man hawking baseball caps.

The market (before the craft vendors) had booth after booth of fresh fruits and vegetables of practically every kind. A veritable cornucopia of tempting comfort food. These folks eat very well.

After the market there was a very nice promenade between the street and the shore, filled with young people on their noon-time romantic rendezvous – cuddling and talking or listening to music on their smartphones.

All the while our home was just offshore awaiting our return.

What amazed me was the number of young folks walking around with smartphones. There were even three students who greeted us and wanted to practice their English on these strange looking “white”visitors, as by now Barbara’s cheeks were flushed with the heat, and we were both damp with sweat.

Although trash receptacle were placed conveniently throughout the promenade, trash littered the ground and the shore. Most prominent were the discarded water bottles.

As we continued our walk back to the port and our tender ride home, views out to the bay were beautiful,

Before boarding the tender, Barbara couldn’t resist making one last purchase from one of the “baseball hat hawkers for $2 US!

Our ride to the ship was a rolling adventure as swells were racing to shore, making sure those boarding tenders received the full effect of their power. Our driver, ‘drove into one of the swells a little bit too aggressive, and got a dousing of fresh saltwater through the open hatch above his head!

Back safely onboard I headed for my Berger, beer and fries, at the Dive-in, while Barbara headed for the ice cream bar, and a shower back in our stateroom.

Our ship departed our anchorage during dinner, just as an evening sound and light show and pounding rain bade us farewell.

Next: A relaxing day at sea