A colourful trip back in time to Australia’s northerly neighbour

It is not every country where your cruise ship is greeted by the president driving his own Mini Moke. But Timor-Leste, Australia’s near northerly neighbour is not your ordinary tourist destination, and its Mini-Moke driving president, Jose Ramos Horta, is not your garden-variety president either.

From the moment Ponant’s Le Laperouse puts down anchor in Baucau municipality, on the country’s north-eastern coast, it is clear we are taking a trip back in time in this South-East Asian country.

The traditional welcome at Baubau in East Timor.Credit: Nick Rains

In the distance, rugged high mountains are framed by clouds and our destination could be Bali Ha’i, James Michener’s mystical island that was the inspiration for the musical South Pacific: visible on the horizon but not reachable.

Fisherfolk casting fishnets are busy at work in the early morning on the ocean, and the beach is book-ended by sugar palms and old Portuguese colonial buildings. It is not at all the political East Timor, invaded by the Indonesians in 1975, that we have read about in the pages of this and other newspapers. It is now officially Timor-Leste, an independent country of 1.3 million Tetum and Portuguese speakers.

We had learnt much about the country’s past in one of Ponant’s onboard presentations the previous night, which explored the socio-political history of the island.

Another night we learnt the history of the Wallace line, the imaginary line that marks the clear division in both land mammals and species found in Australia and Papua New Guinea compared to South-East Asia, first noted by 19th century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace.

Such presentations are the advantages of travelling with a cruise company like Ponant; it’s more than all-you-can-eat buffets and as far from a floating RSL as you can imagine.

Educational tours offered each night in both French and English give added context to the travel destination the next day.

Dili’s pristine coastline, home to tropical marine life.Credit: iStock

The night before we arrive, we learn that Baucau was the former capital of Portuguese Timor (Vila Salazar), from when the Portuguese arrived here in 1515.

Dominican friars established a Catholic presence on the island in 1556, and the territory was declared a Portuguese colony in 1702.

As our ship had never landed here before, our captain Ludovic Provost had to send a Zodiac on ahead, with a depth sensor to determine where to stop to avoid the reef that fringes this part of the island.

We are ferried into the white sand beach by Zodiac and the welcome is as warm as the weather. Women and children wearing tradition hand-woven Tais cloth, and ceremonial headdresses made from feathers greet us with song and dance.

Each of Timor’s 14 provinces has a different pattern and colour that are worn only for special occasions. They had rehearsed for weeks and gave us an enthusiastic welcome.

This was followed by a hilltop hike to their traditional thatched hut village, with 360-degree views to the mountains and the sea.

Cristo Rei of Dili, atop Cape Fatucama, much like Rio de Janiero’s.Credit: iStock

Chickens, goats and goat meat drying in the sun (a delicacy) greet us before a steep hike down through a temperate rainforest teeming with trickling streams. These are the village’s fresh water supplies, which follow down to the beach, to be met by more fishing boats and children frolicking in the water.

We dive in the water with them with masks and snorkels to discover East Timor has the most colourful underwater display of coral and tropical fish. Some people come only to East Timor to dive amidst this underwater magic; but there is plenty above water too. We are serenaded farewell by a group of guitars and singers taking requests for Beatles songs. It’s hard to say goodbye, but Dili, the capital, awaits.

The East Timor capital’s Catholic Portuguese past is present as soon as we enter the harbour with the 27-metre-high Cristo Rei of Dili, situated atop a globe at Cape Fatucama, much like Rio de Janiero’s.

The former Indonesian government buildings are abandoned, but the colourful Timor buses are lined up to greet us at the port and ferry us to various places of pride for the Timorese people, from the inspiring Timorese Resistance Archive and Museum, to the sobering Chega museum that provides an insight to the atrocities the East Timorese people went through during Indonesian occupation.

That night the charismatic leader Ramos Horta, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate joins us on board for a reception, and regales us with stories of his country’s hard fought independence.

He leaves as he arrived, waving at us from the driver’s seat of his Mini Moke, as the presidential entourage slips off into the delightful Dili evening.

THE DETAILS

Cruise

Paul Gauguin Cruises, a subsidiary of Ponant, has a 20-night cruise aboard its ship, m/s Paul Gauguin, from Fiji to Bali and visiting Dili, departing Lautoka in Fiji on January 19 2025. See au.ponant.com/paul-gauguin

Fly
Qantas flies direct to Dili from Darwin daily, with several Sydney and Melbourne flights daily to Darwin. See qantas.com

The writer was a guest of Ponant.