Went to the ANZ bank where they were able to cash American Express travelers checks for a one percent fee.

There are the usual crowd of boys out front selling phone cards. This is probably the only economy in the world that is based on phone card revenue. They stand out on the street hawking the cards all over town.

The market near the roundabout no longer exists. (Pics on the Dili Hotel story under East Timor). The 20 or 30 small homes and shops along the river on the way to the cape are burned down. They were mostly from the east and have been run out of town. Kind of wierd, this east-west rivalry thing. It is hard for a westerner to fully grasp what is going on.

Things seem to have calmed down. There was a demonstration in front of the palace yesterday with people demanding the resignation of Alkatiri but it was pretty low key.

Australian armored personal carriers rumble up and down the streets and foot soldiers are on patrol as well. They have done a great job sorting things out.

22/06/06

21 June 06 Got back to Dili today. Flew in from Denpasar on Bali. It is 300 USD return.

It is kind of wierd with the refugee camps at the airport and the Austrailian soldiers camped out there.

Wayne and Ann from the Free Flow Dive shop picked me up from the airport and we took a drive around town. Everything seems calm at the moment.

We stopped for a few beers downtown and a couple of armored personal carriers rumbled on by. They make a racket. You have to wait till they passed to resume conversation.

I rented Henrys old #2 mailbike and it feels good to be back again.

They got rid of all the one way streets so it is a breeze to get through town now.

Serious tourists and guide books rave about padang food. What an adventure!

I don't get it. There are a bunch of dishes of food stacked up in the window all day long with flies jumping all over it and it is supposed to be a great experience to choose what you get to eat. Most of the meat portions are skimpy at best and the chunks of fish are tiny.

The food is cold but they put it on top of warm rice (usually it's warm). The drinks are all stacked up in the sun as well so if you get a coke or anything it is nice and warm. Warm coke, cold food.

At least there is always a pitcher of free water on the table that you might need to help wash down your meal if they loaded it with chili.

Fresh ikan bakar, hot off the coals blows away padang food any time.

Things in Dili, East Timor have been in chaotic the last 3 weeks.

Reading the Jakarta Post in comfort in Bali, this a basic rundown of events.

The prime minister Alkatiri fired 600 of the countries 1,400 troops who were on strike. They were protesting discrimination they felt was directed at them by the government because they are from the western section of East Timor. Some people felt they had some connections to the Indonesian military that went beserk after the independence vote in 1999. Could be, who knows?

Politics aside, it was not a clearly thought out strategic move by Mr. Alkatiri who now had 600 unemployed unhappy soldiers with guns mucking about.

Things got out of hand and there was a lot of protests, riots, and general thuggery by opportunists who tried to use the unrest for a chance to steal and settle old scores. I think it was around the 24th of May that the jobless soldiers ambushed a bunch of policemen comming out of a meeting and killed 7 of them. 4 died at the scene and 3 died later on. A good many Timorese left the city of Dili and headed to the hills from whence they came. Most of them have seen hard times before and wanted no part of it.

That left a lot of unoccupied homes to be ransacked and trashed in general. And they were. The Australian troops and some Malaysian troops came to the rescue to attempt to install a semblence of law and order. They are getting things under control slowly. Today the 17th of June the rebel soldiers turned in a number of weapons to the Australians in Maubisse, East Timor.

They are still demanding that Alkatiri step down. The president Xanana Gusmao is treading lightly and not pointing any fingers at Alkatiri or anyone else and is emphasizing the need to move forward. He was a leader in the resistance movement against Indonesia and is very popular with the people of East Timor.

The land border between East and West Timor has been closed in part to stem the flood of refugees believed to be well over 100,000 and up to 130,000. The government of Indonesia has indicated they will partially open the borders to allow humanitarian aid into the east. Supplies in East Timor are believed to be running low.

There is a big group of refugees settled in at the airport and under bright yellow tarps across from the ferry office.