G'day Rob, Thank you for sharing your great adventure. You're not bad behind that camera, nice photos and amazing video work and editing from a one man crew.
There was another aussie adventurer Alby Mangels that made a few bucks with his trips. I hope someone gets behind you and helps you along.
You've made me realise as I sit here on my arse behind this computer I really should get out more and enjoy life lol.

Stay safe and travel well. Hooroo, Kevin.

__________________
When we talk to God, we're praying.
When God talks to us, we're schizophrenic.

do it mate! get out there, computer land just goes round in circles for the most part but the world will never be the same as is it today

Ive only ever been outside of Australia once in my life before this trip on an organised tour to Vietnam with a girlfriend that made the whole experience a nightmare. Dili, the capital of timor leste seemed like as good a place as any to start experiencing the world alone and with minimal tourist infrastructure I got somewhat of a cultureshock. It was a mild introduction to asia but still about as far removed from life back home as you can get, from the moment you step off the plane an line up on the runway to get the visa on arrival to the traffic that looks completely chaotic to the open air markets in muddy laneways and families that live on the street, sleeping under ice cream cart umbrellas and living off the money they make selling overpriced cold drinks and cigarettes.

Then theres the crumbling infrastructure and disorganised nature of everything. Every property is surrounded by high walls topped with broken glass, steel spikes or razorwire while marks left by bullets in the concrete walls and telegraph poles bear witness to the 25 years of violence brought in by the Indonesian military. All this only serves to emphasise the friendliness of the locals towards foreigners who are more than happy to invite you back to their humble houses, even if only for the opportunity to practice their English for a while.

Getting an Indonesian visa is a nightmare that starts at 4am and still isn’t a guaranteed process. Get it wrong or omit any of the required documents that no one tells you that you need until after you’ve been standing in line for 5hrs and youll be repeating the same nightmare at 4am the next day. One dutch guy who was standing in the line for the 4th day straight finally spat it at the consulate staff when they told him he needed another piece of paper and would have to come back a 5th time the following day. While I commended him for telling them how backwards the whole process is, he did make an arse of himself by throwing his application at the staff which included his passport which he then had to ask for politely to be returned to him from behind the bars of the counter.

Toll perkins shipping, despite being an Australian company, was very much operating like a timor leste country. The managed to loose the shipping container 3 times before it arrived in their holding yard and even then they had managed to strap the tenere that was sharing the container with my bike over the plastic fairings, braking them in more than one place. The german owner of the bike looked about ready to murder someone by that stage.

Christmas in dili was a bit of unique experience too, with a big feast of local food being put on for everyone by the only hostel in Dili while in the cities main square there was a big festival on. Watching all the Christmas plays and traditional performances put on by the locals was the president of Timor leste, sitting comfortably amongst the crowd which was a bit of a surprise considering it’s the closest ive ever been to the leader of a country and rather refreshing when compared to the pedestal that western leaders put themselves on.


the documents required to apply for an indonesian visa from timor leste


in the markets






the markets have everything, even gambling


the roads in the capital have their fair share of surprises


christmas in Dili


while well intentioned, only one of these lanterns actually managed to get airborne


dinner on the beach in the rain


the Dili art gallery is located in a crumbling, abandoned government building. they are allowed to use the space free of charge, as long as the government doesnt want it back


football is massive in this part of the world and the locals do whatever they can to get their fix. this the field for the Timor Leste championship semi finals


by day these guys would annoy the shit out of foreigners to buy water and cigarettes off them for twice the going rate. by night they sleep on the street. after taking this photo i didnt argue with them over prices anymore


fresh food from the market every day


the little guy was rather protective of his mum and older sister


pig anyone?


more here: http://oztoice.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/dreams-of-dili/

Timor Leste is heaven for camping. Being less populated than other parts of SE Asia, there’s plenty of land to pitch a tent on, be it on the beach or up high in the mountains. Be careful on the beaches though as salt water crocs inhabit these waters too, something I got warned about after the locals saw me bathing in the ocean one afternoon.

One of the strangest things was the peoples reaction to me camping there. Naturally they want to check out all the weird gear that I’ve got but generally not before asking if they can come and look. Even when camped in the fields they keep their buffalo in, they would stand some way off just watching and waiting for me to signal them over before approaching. It was almost like they respected my own space. Or maybe they are just wary after 250 years of having their land and resources taken from them by foreigners and are a little wary about why I’m here too.




camped by the beach as the sun sets behind me


flowers at 2000m


one of the more memorable campsites


wild horses running through the mountain tops at first light


visitors were always super curious. would have been great to have a better conversation that "Hi. Robert. Australia" then laughing


cooking in the tent is a no-no but cooking from inside the tent is still ok


a HDR shot of the sunset from 2000m


More here: https://oztoice.wordpress.com/2012/0...n-timor-leste/