Thursday, January 28, 2010

The other Dili

It's good to go to new places with nothing but a vague sense of foreboding. Then you can be surprised by every good thing you find.

Such was the case when I went to Dili. To me, Dili has always been about oppression and struggle, from when my high school debate team spent an entire your researching and arguing the East Timor occupation in 1984 straight on through the unrest of 2006. What I never realized in all that time was that Dili is also a lovely little town ...



where the mountains come right down to the ocean ...




where the air is breathable (well, unless you're stuck in a traffic jam) and there are no buildings taller than four stories.



And the beaches! Men in uniforms come out in the morning and clean them! You can stroll along them to a cafe and then sit and watch the sunset while sipping a drink. I've heard there's some lovely snorkeling too, but we didn't really have time. For a long weekend, just strolling around, looking at the ocean, and hanging out with friends was plenty.

3 comments:

michele said...

glad you had such a great weekend getaway! that photo of the mountain trail overlooking the sea is gorgeous.

Bob said...

Hey Trish--took me some time to realize you'd started blogging again. Glad you're back!

Trish said...

Ya, it was a lovely place, M. You know how I feel about mountains.

Hi Bob! It's nice to be back! Looks like your friends are doing well with the Umami blog too! I'm going to cook some of those recipes when I get back to the States.