Oecussi Survey Road Trip

11-15 August 2014

Another long drive from Dili but this time, I had to make two border crossings in order to get Oecussi.  The Oecussi enclave is part of East Timor but is surrounded by West Timor (Indonesia), the reason for this was that it was colonised by the Portuguese who had set up government at Pante Makassar and who then realised that Dili was a better proposition to govern East Timor considering their neighbours, the Dutch.  The Dutch colonised West Timor which the current borders essentially reflect the chiefdoms prior to colonisation and their alliances.

 Map of East Timor, Oecussi is to the east (left) of Dili

Map of Oecussi enclave, survey route shown in green

Part of the coast road from Dili to the border is still being built, and in any case it was a much faster trip albeit still rough.  We arrived at the border post at the same time as the Dili-Kupang buses so a frenzy of activity at Indonesian immigration ensued.  I was armed with two 30 day Indonesian Visas in my passport and used one for the one hour drive through Indonesia, I certainly got value out of that Visa…  I scored two stamps, one leaving ET and one entering Indonesia.

(Leaving East Timor, entering Indonesia at Mota Ain, even pigs need Visas to enter Indonesia)

The road between Mota Ain and Wini in West Timor is smooth with the scenery being slightly different to the scenes of East Timor, namely, there seems to be a little more money and more government infrastructure in place.  It is amazing how much 69 years vs 15 years of independence makes, but I will not go into the ethical dilemmas associated with progress Indonesian style….

 (Whistle stop somewhere in West Timor, offshore fishing post)

It certainly did not escape my attention with a huge number of flags flapping in the breeze, I soon discovered that the 17 August is Indonesia’s 69^th anniversary of independence from colonial rule, which is soon after the ending of WWII.  I noticed throughout the drive, how much effort is being made to clean up the place before the big day, people were practicing their marching, standing to attention, raising flags and just getting into the nationalist spirit.

(Lots of flags waving in Mota Ain, more flags…, Indonesian passport control at Wini)

One of my travelling companions, told me about how the East Timorese had “two heads” during the Indonesian occupation, the public one showing their “love” for Indonesia and the hidden (or real) one for their real dream of being an independent country.  They were coerced to show their patriotism by flying the Indonesian flag and were questioned, possibly detained, when they were not flying the flag.  I would hate to be accused of not being a “team” player in that environment…

After driving for approximately 50 kms we arrived at the second border crossing, my first 30 day Visa was cancelled and I got two more stamps in my passport, this time, one for leaving Indonesia and one for entering East Timor (Oecussi).

(Looking at Oecussi enclave from Indonesia, re-entering East Timor, beach at Pante Makassar)

The difference could not be more marked when as soon as the car left the border post, we hit some of the worst roads in East Timor.  I am still sore from those roads as I am typing this blog, I had four solid days of driving on really rough roads.  I have probably said it before, I will never complain about the road conditions in Oz again.

We arrived at Pante Makassar at 16:30; it took seven hours from Dili to get here and we shacked up at a guesthouse with no power – the power station is turned on at sundown.  Pante Makassar is a pleasant enough place and still has barking dogs and crowing roosters but I hardly noticed them now.  You can see the influence of the Portuguese in the town’s layout and the government has big plans to make the place the playground for the rich (and possibly famous).  There are plans to upgrade the airport, build several resorts, golf courses, pretty well anything associated with the hoy-polloy.  I cannot necessarily see how this would improve the lives of the less rich and famous but I open to listening how this would…

(Big plans for Oecussi, fountain in Pante Makassar, a derelict building from Indonesian times)

Quipanaf is a small village located about 1.5 hour bone shaking drive from Pante Makassar over some roads and through river beds.  There is not a lot of infrastructure outside of Pante Makassar but you can see that attempts are being made.

The survey went for two days and we managed to capture about 200 points of where the proposed pipeline from a spring located 5 kms away from Quipanaf to the most distant part of the village.  The pipeline route is to avoid a high landslide risk area so it does not get washed away in the next rain and above the village’s rice paddies.  The terrain itself was very rugged and loose, this is one of the challenges the country has, for about 8 months of the year it is dry, which causes all of the soil moisture to dry out, this in turn makes the soil crumble and become hydrophobic (ie does absorb water) so when the rains do come, the soil is simply washed away.  There are certain soil types that are more susceptible to this and it seemed that this was the case for most of the selected pipeline route.

(Off we go surveying, taking one of many points, the sacred site and relocating the tank)

We had a number of men from Quipanaf assisting us with the survey, some were armed with machetes or as I prefer to call them the East Timorese version of the Swiss Army Knife.  Fortunately we require no vegetation removal permits and we hacked our way through back to Quipanaf village proper from the source spring. 

(Taking another point on rather steep ground, vegetation management with machete weilders up front, the view of palm plantation)

We reached the location where a tank was proposed and it was adjacent to a Tamarind tree, needless to say I did chew on a few Tamarind pods throughout the day.  It is pleasant to chew on them and it helps with reducing feeling thirsty throughout the day.  It is still a poor substitute to drinking water…  Much debate was had about the tank site for as it turned out this where the villagers come to sacrifice an animal or several at the end of the dry to guarantee the coming rains.  So the proposed tank will be located at a lower location to ensure the sacred area is not impinged upon by the modern world.

(Stone by tree is where the sacrifices are made, peeled tamarind being dried out, some of the Quipanaf villages)

I really noticed that large number of palms growing in the village when I was looking out from the proposed tank location.  It made the village feel greener and cooler than the surrounding landscape; I have certainly comment before on how hot it is to be standing under sun in East Timor, so the palms made it a little more pleasant towards the end of the day’s surveying.  As I was walking through, I noticed that each palm had its own ladder to the palm’s crown where baskets had been tied to the fruit growing within the crown.  This is when I discovered they climb up the palms to retrieve the baskets containing the palm fruit to make what is known as Palm Wine.  I certainly did not climb up the trees as the ladders were very rickety…

I have seen bottles of palm wine being sold along the roads throughout East Timor and the peddlers in Dili selling for about $2.50-$5.00 a bottle.  It is made by distillation rather than fermenting so the name is a bit of misnomer and it has an acquired taste.

(Palm tree ladders, the baskets that catch the nuts, the nuts where the kernals inside are boiled up for the spirit)

(Distilling the palm kernals, bamboo used to condense the vapour into the bottle)

We returned to Pante Makassar after each day’s survey and sampled the sights and the delights of the town by eating Warung food and it was different each meal, unlike when I eat in Dili where it is chicken rice all of the time.  We even scored fish one night!  

(The BESIK team at the Portuguese landfall monument near Pante Makassar, the date when they arrived 26 August 1515, a grub found in a tree that is used to cure mouth ulcers; medicine is not suppose to taste nice)

So it was early to bed before heading back to Dili on the Thursday.  We even stopped in Atambua in West Timor on the way back – we were able to use the second visa for twice as long as the first visa, that’s value for money for you.  My impression of the town?  It’s not significantly different to Dili, but the traffic seemed to move better and there were parking officers in the street where we stopped, where for US$1.00 they ensured everyone parked their vehicles correctly to keep the traffic flowing.  Maybe they need to do this in some of the streets in Dili!  Many expats in Dili would love this…

(Atambua, parking officer rearranging a bike for a quick getaway, the Mikrolets look the same as the ones in Dili, even down to the decorations)

The remainder of the return trip was uneventful and about eight hours later were back in Dili.  I slept like the dead that night….