Heading for the hills

I wanted to go to Maubisse to see a bit of the Timor Leste highlands. Sarah, Anton and Paolo had the same idea so we shared a taxi to the angguna (truck with bench seats down the side) station near the Halilarang market.

We were lucky to get an angguna immediately but all the bench seating had been taken. Fortunately, there were some green plastic seats stacked in the front and I took one and sat on it in the “aisle”.

The seat was unstable on the windy road despite the low speed and the legs would splay from time to time. I held on to Paolo’s arm in a Roman handshake at times and Anton would hold on to the seat and use his foot to stop the legs from splaying.

Fortunately some people disembarked and I had a normal seat halfway through the journey which took 4h15 despite being only 70km!

We enjoyed stunning views of Dili to start off with as we climbed up the hills. There were some super-fit mountain bikers making their way up ridiculously steep slopes. Then there were lots of “African” trees (I don’t know what they’re called, but Sarah who grew up in Rwanda confirmed they are very African). The view got more bare higher up before we eventually arrived into Maubisse.

Upon arrival we realised that the plastic chair I had used wasn’t there for passengers. It was this old woman’s new purchase. Lucky, I didn’t break it, as the legs did splay a little! We walked up the hill to the pousada where we enjoyed the panorama.

There wasn’t any meals available and the accommodation didn’t look that great.

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: Me on the angguna to Maubisse. I’m sitting on a plastic seat in the aisle, only to realised the chairs weren’t for passengers but newly purchased by a little old lady.

: Me on the angguna to Maubisse. I’m sitting on a plastic seat in the aisle, only to realised the chairs weren’t for passengers but newly purchased by a little old lady.

: Sarah on the angguna to Maubisse.

: Paul and Anton on the angguna to Maubisse.

: Oh the humanity!

: Oh the humanity!

: On the way to Maubisse.

: On the way to Maubisse.

: On the way to Maubisse.

: Not all passengers have two legs.

After a quick lunch of cup-noodles, I organised (speaking in Indonesian) for Paolo and Anton to go to the next village of Hatobuilico by ojek (motorcycle taxi). This would cost them USD50 (roundtrip returning tomorrow morning) per person. Their aim is to start climbing Mt Ramelau at 0300 and make it back to Dili after.

Sarah and I found a basic guesthouse (Cafe Maubisse), then relaxed and chatted for most of the day before having a simple basko-noodle dinner. Incidentally, the guesthouse was about the same price as a 3-star hotel in Bangkok and more expensive than the pousada (but we didn’t want to hike back up).