Blog ending Monday 18th Feb 2012
Saturday 16th was extra-special wet. I was at work in
Motael and I heard the rain on the roof, mid-afternoon. Nothing special, so back inside again. Then
it got heavy, so... outside for a look – impressive; back to work again. Then it got REALLY heavy,
torrential I think. This went on for maybe 45 minutes. I left about 3:50pm and
got a clue to the conditions when I went outside the gates. The road was a
river and came up my shins. I managed to cycle through it to Comoro road and
there were twin rivers flowing west-east down either side, past Tiger fuel. The bridge
by the bike shop/President’s Palace was closed and there was a crowd nearby
watching the raging stream. I had to go up the eastern side of the
stream/torrent to get to Banana road. My side had a higher bank than the other,
so the flood was all over the western road (leading to Bairo Pite clinic) and
into the Palace grounds. Getting into my shared courtyard from the road was a little challenge,
as there was a good stream flowing through it. My ground floor apartment is fortunately
up on good foundations, so no water problem. A quick change, then off to the
Dili Hash ‘Red Dress Run’ at Saigon where we raised about $2,760 for the local
Red Cross. During the run we, surprisingly, ran down roads covered with water.
Knowing that rain water had mixed with the drains, I advised the surrounding
runners not to get any in their mouths, Two minutes later, one of the new
runners started splashing his buddy and…some of it went in my mouth. I spat it
out but thought ‘Too late, we’ll see what happens’. That
was about 5:30pm on Saturday. 03:00 this morning my insides were wildly
rumbling and the throne needed to be mounted. The king held court until 06:00,
before leaving and then going to the doctors for an appointment and
antibiotics. No nausea, but this beats my 2001 experience in India.
The aftermath of the flooding is that the bridge is still closed
(throttling Comoro road) as the water gouged out large 8m diameter circles from
the banks on the immediate downside of the bridge.
This morning the traffic has been diverted down side roads
to the beach road, where they try to meld in with the overloaded vehicles and
motorcycles there. Chaos and people caught for hours, I’m sure. On the bright
side, my bicycle never stopped; I just went around and between everything else.
Now I’m home again with the first pills (Nizole and ‘Cipro’) beginning their
work. A Dave Brubeck selection is playing; maybe that will help a bit.
Telkomcel has their office, only one I know of, but you have
to start somewhere, at Timor Plaza, very high profile as it is the only
multi-level shopping mall in the country. The first couple of weeks the staff
told of big things happening soon, they just couldn’t say what. There was
nothing to actually buy, so that might have been an intentional advertising
‘teaser, but probably just a gap in a complex project of introducing a telecoms
provider into a country. To lighten the scene, free wireless was introduced a
week or two ago. You just have to be within about 20m of the office to use it.
Late on the 11th I saw Telkomcel SIMs being sold outside the Timor Telecom
office in Colmera. Retailing for $3, but
the hawkers were not shy about suggesting $5. The ‘pulsa’ or recharge cards are
now freely available. A couple of hiccups: $10 per 100mb for internet and no
calling between the TT and TKcell networks. The latter’s internet is pretty
good. They say that a fibre-optic cable is being laid from Kupang, other end of
the island, the Indonesian end and this will provide megabit speeds. Unless TT
can improve from their satellite dish then the writing is in the wall. Plus a
local business told me that new prices were about 30% cheaper than TT, so most
people he knew would be switching. Spot the trend.
Yesterday (Sunday), three of use (Helen, Eddie and I) cycled up to the top of Railaaku Ridge. It is on the road to Emera, about a 4 hour there-and-back ride from Dili, via Tibar,. Lots of trees and a few areas that might even count as avenues. The local road kill appears to be frogs. I counted 16 unlucky ones in a 10 km climb. On arrival back in town, the mud by the flood-damaged bridge (President’s Palace one) was very gooey and stuck all over the bike. It made me think of mostly melted chocolate. I cleaned the bike by putting it in the shower.
Last Sunday there was 20 rider cycle over to Hera and then
the loop back. The other side of Becora hill is easier to navigate now on two
wheels, but the slips/landslides are so bad and the repair so slow, I think we
won’t see four wheeled beasties up there before Christmas. After that ride I
headed home for a two hour rest before cycling to Liquica to meet four others
who were getting there by motorcycle. I had a tin of paint this time and
painted some better ‘X’ shapes 20m further out from the bump. This is,
apparently, still too close, so I’ve found a better marking paint in a 5litre
pail that should do the trick at 50m out. But on some other weekend. All
that riding had me pretty tired with 22km + 55km = 77km on a hot day.
February 6th is New Zealand’s Waitangi (national
day). Like many other Kiwis, I received a formal invitation, so I broke out the
NZ version of a Hawaiian shirt and gave the place some contrast. I was outdone
by a work colleague who wore a light short, covered by a large, hand-painted
tie with something by Miro on it. He was impressed that I immediately picked
the artist (three years of art history is worthwhile kids) It was such a
bold thing that I’m sure nearly everyone there recalled the tie, but little
about the person wearing, unless they spoke with him. We Kiwis were invited to
attend early so we could meet the Timorese President, but he didn’t show up
until later. The sound system kind of let things down as many of us couldn’t
hear the translation of the President’s speech nor the speech by our
ambassador. The food was delicious!.
Many Australians were there as well.
On the Saturday following, we volunteers were invited to a
BBQ at a house up the Ramos Horta road. Beautiful place and very nice hosts,
Steve and Rose. They put it all on as a ‘thank you’ for the work that the eight
of us are doing here.
Coconuts (to drink) only cost $1 now and I can get a banana
bunch or six passionfruit for the same cost. Coconuts are really good to drink
after a run out to Christo Rei (Jesus Statue). I was listening to a novelty
song last week and noticed that repeated: “You put the lime in the coconut and
drink it all up”, so Pia and I tried it on Thursday. OK and obviously
different. Maybe it needs something else added as well?
My conversations with other riders do not provide good news
on a Tour happening this year. Apparently (I will write a correction if I am
wrong here) about US$200,000 was owed to the people who ran and promoted the
event in 2012. The old Government sports ministry didn’t get around to paying
them and the new one says it isn’t their job. Anyway, that $200k is either still
in a Govt. bank account, waiting to be paid out or it is somewhere else…
A story I heard from the last tour, when it stopped for the night in Gleno. Someone
stole a bike during the night. It was a spare, but still quite a loss, as they’re
expensive. The tour lined up next morning and took off. Then someone noticed
that a local had joined the riders and that person was riding…yup, the missing
bike! The Timorese police accompanying the tour apparently stopped the rider,
had a private chat (no charges laid) and the bike was returned.
The ATMs at Timor Plaza are waiting on parts from China and the ATMs in
Lita and Leader will not be replaced. The one at Tiger fuel will probably be placed in its own room, for security. I got this from a good source, the ANZ
bank manager!
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