Lautem
The furthest east you can go in Timor is Jaco Island. It is a place where a lot of aid workers go to get away from Dili for the weekend.
The island itself is uninhabited but the local guys will ferry you across the channel and back for 5 dollars.
There are some traditional houses that you pass on the road from Lautem.
Strings of shells hanging on the roofs of these houses with big nautalis shells in the middle that look like giant necklaces.
The guy at the beach was trying to sell a beautiful one for 3 dollars.
I did buy a fish from him for 2 dollars but that nautalis shell would never have made it out in one piece on that bike.
The road between Tutuala and Jaco is in rough shape and steep. It was a bit of work getting out of there on the old mail bike but it made it in the end.
There was a lot of rain so I waited it out, standing under the eve of a building in Tutuala.
After an hour or two it stopped and I headed down to the beach. It is only 9 kilometers but it took a couple of hours.
Not having done any research on the place I was surprised to find that there were no guesthouses or anything down there.
Some under cuts in the rock walls were used by the local guys to sleep out of the rain. They were kind of like shallow caves and you could stay dry on some bamboo benches they made.
They didn’t mind me hanging around for the night so I took off down the beach with the old bike to find firewood.
There was some scrap line in the debris that lands up on the beach with the tide. I used it to tie a bunch of branches to the back of the bike and drag to the campsite. It was really nice to dry out by the fire.
A guy and his wife working with a Taiwan or Singapore NGO was down there too. They landed up snorkeling on off Jaco the next day but I headed out.
I wasn’t 100 percent sure that bike was going to make it out of there.
It was best to get an early start in case something went wrong I would have all day to figure something out.
But no worries. That little bike chugged it’s way out of there.
Com – East Timor
Climbing Mount Apo
General Santos
Growing Orchids
Judy's Resto Bar
Logging with Motorcycles
Mount Mayon
Balabac Island
Biri Island
Calbiga Cave
Capul Island
Mangrove Swamp Palawan
Mikes's Resort
I am from tutuala village. Tutuala is a important village in Lospalos district but cummunity of the village is verry poor about sanitation and water pam, so you can help them about the necesity because sanitation is verry imporant to the life.
Taks for your helped.
I’m egidio guimares from tutuala can give information about prospect of tourism in tutuala
Hello egidio,
Nice to hear from you! Feel free to put up any info that you want here. Is there now internet connection in Tutuala?
For me, getting an internet connection was very difficult when I was in East Timor. It cost 6USD per hour for very low speed and the power was going out almost every day. When I left, the cost dropped to 2USD per hour.
I appreciate your posts because I realize hard it must have been for you.
Have you ever been to the cave paintings?
I really love your country!
dp
Have you been to Tutuala and Jaco beach ? So I can explain that up to now no any connected about internet and hand phone connection maybe you can give some solution how to developed this problems, I can say that I now living in yogyakarta (Indonesia)to attended study in UGM if you reply this letter you can sent to my E-mail. I am Sorry,because my language is very complicated to understand.
Thank’s
Hello Egidio,
Internet was 6 dollars per hour in 2006 because Timor Telecom had a no compete clause in their contract with the government.
As crappy as my site is – it took 1,000 USD to put up 100 pages of information about East Timor. The connection was so slow and the power would always cut out just before I had a chance to “save”.
Jaco is so out of the way that I hope there never will be internet there. There is no electricity or any buildings there but it is very very beautiful!
Maybe someone with a satellite set up will have some fun there but it is not commercially feasible – that is, it would just cost too much.
Maybe some day there will be a slow connection in Tutuala.
I think that Ramos Sorta had something to do with bringing the costs down in 2007. Last I heard it was around 2 dollars an hour and the speed was improving.
Take care! Good luck with your studies! I hope that you make it back some day.
dp
Sory, can I know what is your name and where are you live! Are you have plan to visit Tutuala ? My mother and father living in tutuala.
Hello egidio,
I am just a psycho tourist that lives on Samar Island in the Philippines.
At this time I am just too busy to visit East Timor. I do love the place but it is also very expensive for me.
I am curious…
do you speak Fataluku?
dp
Yes, I think the place is very expensive and also very limited facilitation and other things. All most be happen because no regulation and standardization price from government so the prices dependent from them.
I can speak Fataluku. Do you understand some fataluku ? I think some word same like Tagalog (Philippine language).
Thanks
Hello Egidio,
Cool, but no, I don’t speak Fataluku and very little Tagalog.
I have a beginners level of Bahasa Indonesia and am working on Waray Waray.
I would really like to spend more time in the area some day. The animals and plants are very unique and some are only found locally.
It would also be interesting to do some research on the cave paintings that are found in the caves there.
take care, thanks for your interest!
dp
I am very happy if you have plan to doing some research in Tutuala specially on the cave paintings so before you doing you can consult to my uncle his name is Rafael Guimaraes hi stay in tutuala village because hi is very important person to give all information about background of the Tutuala histories and also culture. The Rafael Guimaraes, hi is are owner of the cave paintings or ILI KERE-KERE.
Thanks for your interest
Thanks for the info Egidio! If I make it back there I will look him up.
dp
SInce 2007 Tutuala working with the NGO HABURAS has developed a small tourist lodge on the beach, just north of the fishermen’s area. It is a communal venture and about 50 Tutuala families are involved. You can stay, and eat, there supported by Tutuala men and women who do shifts of a few days. The money is shared between the coop members. I was there when solar panels were installed in 2008. It still lacks fresh water which has to be trucked in.
The road to the beach was also built and maintained by the villagers.
There won’t be internet and that sort of thing – the phone signal drops off near Mehara and Tutuala is isolated in that respect.
A new issue is the creation of a National Park in the area. Great for stopping illegal logging and so-on, but local rights of access need to be respected.
I visited Tutuala beach in 2002 and internet and phone connections was far from our minds when we were there. We were welcome by the fishermen who sold and cooked some fish for us. We spent the night at the beach e had the time of our lives. It is fair for the people of Tutuala to get something from that beauty. Let’s hope they will not develop it the according to the normal standards – it would ruin its magic.
Hi Isabel,
Thanks so much for your post – it is very rare to get comments about East Timor on the dutchpickle website!
I agree completely with what you say about Tutuala. Have you ever seen the cave paintings?
Probably it will be a long time before Tutuala gets overdeveloped!
cheers
dp
hau gosta los kona ba perguntas nebe ita bo’ot sira haruka e hau fiar katak Maromak sei tulun ita hotu para bele realiza duni tamba povo Tutuala precisa duni ita bo’ot sira nia contribuicao no colacao iha desenvolvimento ba rai Tutuala iha futuro.hau nudar Tutuala nia oan rasik hakarak hato’o agradecimento ba ita bo’ot sira hotu………..!!!!!!!!!
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