There is a nice local restaurant 22 kilometers east of Dili towards Baucau called the Mamar Metanaro.
Sometimes we stop there for a beer or two after diving the eastern sites.
Yesterday I had fried rice, a chicken breast, 2 rolls, and vegetables for $1.35 but then added a cold coke for an extra dollar.
You can get hungry after diving and this is the only place where you can pick up something to eat between Dili and Manatutu.
This restaurant remained open during all the unrest. It is refreshing to see a family work at it and be successful.
Just a few kilometers down the road is the massive Metanaro refugee camp. Refugees that are from the east and have been run out of Dili mover there.
There are scores of white hangar shaped tents where many people stay having fled the violence in Dili and possibly elsewhere.
These people feel a degree of safety being with their own people and being located across from a military installation.
A few enterprising folks have set up shops alongside the road. Taxis and minibuses move out there at night so they don't get trashed in the city.
They seem to be preparing for the long haul. Some have nowhere to go back to.
It is a tough situation with no clear immediate solution.
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