Exploring Dili
As I hadn’t really explored Dili yet, I started in the morning with a walk to the nearby sights. First up was the Cathedral officially opened by Pope John Paul. In Indonesian, “Pope” appears to be “Sri Paus” which in Malay kinda suggests a beautiful whale?
Next up was the Presidential Palace, donated by China. The gate was flanked by flags of former Portuguese colonies but strangely excluding Macau. This to me is another indication of the ruling class not being able to let go of the past and acknowledge the country’s future in Asia.
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- Dili Cathedral.
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- On the gate post of Dili Cathedral.
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- This plaque addresses the Pope as “Sri Paus” in Indonesian. Strange as “Paus” means whale … beautiful whale in Malay.
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- The Presidential Palace is a gift from China.
It was getting hot and I returned back to the hostel to rest and shift rooms. Afterwards, I headed to the Halilarang markets with Amy and Sarah. It was set on the outskirts of town amongst some very old trees with muddy paths.
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- At the Halilarang market.
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- Seaweed at the Halilarang market.
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- At the Halilarang market.
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- Leaves for chewing.
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- Betel nuts to accompany the chewing leaves.
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- At the Halilarang market.
On the way back, Sarah and I stopped at Mama’s Cafe where Sarah bravely ordered some dog stewed in green chilli. I tried a half of a small piece. It was a bit tough but the green chilli flavour was tasty. I swallowed with some hesitation. That night in bed, I heard a dog barking and got a fright as if there was going to be some revenge!
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- RW means Rukun Warga and is a euphemism for dog meat.
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- The dark meat on the right is the RW.
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- Sarah about to try her RW.
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- There’s plenty of other food apart from RW.
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- Back at the hostel; East Timorese meal of beans, nuts and corn stew.
Some respect for Indonesia
In the afternoon, we hitched a ride from an expat to the Timor Plaza mall and was later dropped off to the Resistance Museum which had a very good display of the events leading to the Indonesian occupation, until independence. Strangely the video presentation started with Angklung music which is very characteristic of West Java.
The displays really surprised me that the post-Suharto Indonesian government:
- Allowed a referendum.
- Promised to grant independence if the people voted against an autonomous region.
- Stood by the results of the referendum.
- Allowed an international peace-keeping force to enter when they lost control of the military (and militias), when they took to destroying the infrastructure and more massacres.
- Apologised for the massacres.
I can’t imagine some major global powers doing the same with territories which were annexed through dubious means.
Later in the day, I saw someone with a satchel from a recent career development seminar at Jakarta university for FALANTIL (the resistance) members! The post-Suharto Indonesian regime deserves some respect!
Even back during the days of the occupation, it appears that Indonesia treated non-rebelling citizens like their own, taking them into their universities (eg. our guesthouse owner’s wife-to-be). Sadly, rebels, protesters and civilian bystanders suffered badly in many a bloody massacre. Despite that, East Timorese don’t appear to harbour any resentment against Indonesians. Indonesian songs, food, products still sell!
Continuing my exploration of Dili
I walked to Santa Cruz cemetery where one of the most tragic massacres of the Indonesian occupation took place. I then got caught in the rain before taxiing back.
Santa Cruz cemetery where one of the worst massacres occurred.
An “RP Accent”
One of the delights of staying at the backpackers is the opportunity of swapping stories. Sarah had told us about the time when she was sleeping on the train in India when someone woke her up saying “Excuse me ma’am, may I touch you?”
Then the English owner of the backpacker described my accent as an “RP accent”. I didn’t know what this was so I googled it … it means “received pronunciation”, whatever that means. It was the preferred accent of the BBC years ago but is now sometimes frowned upon. I’m just a little to late, huh?