Rising in the east

CAN East Timor rival Bali? A new Aussie film set amongst its palm-fringed beaches is putting the country back in the frame.

Balibo

ROOM 11 at the Hotel Turismo, Dili, 2008.

Author of Shooting Balibo, Tony Maniaty, has just checked in for work as a consultant on the film Balibo.

He is shocked to find he has been put in the same room where he stayed in 1975, when, as a young ABC journalist, Maniaty reported the death of the Australian television journalists later immortalised as the Balibo Five.

Just days before, his crew had fled Balibo when it came under heavy fire, passing his colleagues going in as they left.

The Hotel Turismo, long a haunt of journalists, is where the Balibo Five were based.

It's 33 years since his last visit but Maniaty finds that, like the rambling beachfront hotel with its perfectly preserved leafy beergarden and faded old world charm, little has changed in East Timor.

Outside the hotel the streets buzz with the four-wheel-drives of the UN and aid agencies that are helping to rebuild the fledgling nation.

On the beachfront esplanade hawkers sell fresh produce in the shade of big leafy banyan trees. I pull up a stool at a roadside food stall and order the only thing on the menu, chicken and rice, prepared by a smiling woman who introduces me to her family.

YOUR SAY: Have you been to East Timor? Tell us your experiences below

Nicer beaches than Bali

Further up the beach I cross a bridge over a small lagoon, then sit in the shade talking to fishermen Adik and Dom.

We watch a group of young boys playing in the lagoon on wooden canoes, splashing sunlit sprays of water at each other, and then screaming with laughter as they upturn one of the canoes.

I have a beer on the balcony of the One More Bar as the sun slips below the horizon, and chat to some wise-beyond-their-years Australian soldiers whose fondness for the country and its people is apparent.

They tell me about the best places to visit and say that East Timor has nicer beaches than Bali.

The bar has been recommended to me by Australian actor Nathan Phillips, who plays Balibo Five journalist Malcolm Rennie in Balibo.

Phillips also succumbed to the charms of East Timor during filming, when he travelled around by motorbike.

"East Timor has beautiful beaches, great food and the best music and art, but really it's all about the people."

During World War II, the Portuguese colony was occupied by the Japanese and a few hundred Australian soldiers waged a guerrilla campaign that tied down 20,000 enemy troops.

Their success was largely due to the support of Timorese volunteers, and thousands of them paid for it with their lives when the Australians were driven out.

Pristine blue waters

Next door to the Turismo, at the walled beachfront residence of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, his Australian-born wife, speaks of the difficulties of having to rebuild the country virtually from scratch.

East Timor's First Lady sees tourism playing a key role in the country's future.

"It's pretty much agreed on that East Timor is never going to rival Bali", Sword Gusmao says.

"We just don't have the infrastructure in place to be able to attract 5-star type tourists. East Timor is always going to be for adventure travellers who come with a different motivation ... people who have an interest in either the history or the culture of Timor."

Like Sword Gusmao, Maniaty thinks there is huge potential for sensitive tourism in the country, with "pristine blue waters" perfect for diving and snorkelling and the highlands, which he says are ideal for mountain biking.

"This is really the perfect country to visit for young people who are looking for an inexpensive and culturally-enriching journey. It's gap year heaven, not far from Australia, and there's no end of volunteer projects where you can pitch in and make a difference," he says.

Is this place haunted?

I catch a truck into the mountains along a road lined with wild hibiscus, pines, bougainvilleas and banana palms. We pass families dressed for church as the truck zigzags higher with ever more sweeping views over Dili and the shimmering blue sea.

In the village of Alieu, a family shows me their vegetable and coffee crops and serve up a home-brewed coffee. Organic coffee is East Timor's biggest export and most of the villagers here have crops.

The next day I take a bus north alongside an azure sea lapping gently at palm-flanked beaches and steep, bare hills.

We catch fleeting glimpses of thatch huts, pale pink churches Catholicism brought here by the Portuguese is the main religion banana plantations, and hillocks covered in graves.

We pass the overgrown ruins of the village of Manatuto, a resistance stronghold destroyed by the Indonesians as an example to pro-independence East Timorese.

Further north, where rain falls year round, it's lush and green.

When we arrive at Tutuala on the northern end of East Timor, the driver tells me the road is too bad to continue without a four-wheel-drive.

The only accommodation in Tutuala is a big ugly stone inn or pousada, with panoramic views of the sea far below.

Gonzales, the owner, shows me inside.

The rooms are musty, with cobwebs hanging from the high ceilings and dead insects on the bed. Gonzales nods enthusiastically when I ask if it's haunted. "Yes, yes," he says, pointing to a big grave nearby, "they come to the house at night."

That night it's windy, there is a loose shutter banging somewhere, and I'm all alone in what I've nicknamed "The Pousada at the End of the World". In the middle of the night, there is a sudden deafening downpour of rain, then a loud, inexplicable clatter on the veranda.

I catch an early truck out of town.

It's market day in Los Palos and the street is filled with women selling vegetables. On the side of the road, two local butchers are at work on the carcass of a cow. I hitch a ride in a truck bound for the Dili markets.

In Dili I visit the Alola Foundation, which Sword Gusmao set up to educate people on human rights, health issues and to help war widows.

It's 10 years since East Timor's vote for independence, and the lush growth climbing over the ruins of this fascinating nation is a metaphor for the hope, optimism and resilience of a people who have suffered so much on the road to freedom.

Off-route: Find more adventure holidays here

FAST FACTS

Getting There: Airnorth flies to Dili from Darwin daily. Flights from $454.88 return include tax.

A visa is issued on arrival in Dili for $US30 for stays of up to 30 days. There is a $US10 departure tax.

Stay: Budget hotels/backpackers cost $5-$10, while mid-range hotels cost $50-$80 a night.

One of the best hotels is the Hotel Esplanada at about $115 a night.

A good budget alternative is East Timor Backpackers with rooms from $10.

There's also the Timor Village Hotels

More: Visit Timor Leste Tourism

Cost: Due to the UN presence and the use of the US dollar East Timor is not particularly cheap.

You can buy a beer and a burger in one of the tourist bars for about $10 and a cheap meal in a local (not tourist) restaurant costs from $1-$5, while a typical meal in a tourist restaurant costs $10-$20.