Hello my dear Steemians and welcome to this episode of “People of East Timor”!!!

So far,

• we started our trip in East Timor's capital Dili,
• checked out the beautiful Atauro Island,
• took a bus to a little town called Baucau,
• watched a cruel cockfight,
• went on a crazy ride with a pig (!!!) to Lospalos,
• and finally hung out with the kids of Lospalos.

Today, we finally arrive in Tutuala in the back of a truck with a few local kids. They were so happy to talk to us. Jana, of course, was the star of the show since she has the blondest hair I have ever seen. She must have looked like a goddess from another planet for the boys, it was hilarious.

One of them – he was deaf and dumb – tried to ask Thomas and me for something we didn’t get at first. He put his left hand on top of the right one and then moved it up and down. After a few minutes of silent communication while the truck was speeding like crazy, we finally understood him: He wanted to pay us 10 dollars for sex with Jana. It was slightly awkward but he somehow asked for it in such an innocent and honest way, like it was asking for some chocolate, it was kinda cute and even Jana was not angry at all.

Thomas and I consulted with each other and then decided 10 dollars were not quite enough. So no fun for him that day… ;-). (I hope Jana, you don’t read this...)

I took these two shots from the truck. We also heard about the crocodiles in a nearby lake which often kill people’s live stock. The locals won’t do anything against it, though, since crocodiles are considered reincarnations of the humans’ ancestors.

This is the traditional architecture of houses in East Timor, really beautiful if you ask me.

Coming to Tutuala really felt like reaching a goal, not only because we were very close to Jaco Island. I tend to believe that if the world actually was a flat disc, Tutuala would be right at the edge.

Tutuala is a small town at the eastern tip of East Timor. It is basically as east as it gets. When we arrived, obviously, we needed to find a place to stay first. Most of the locals’ accommodations were little shacks only. It didn’t seem like people were used to having guests.

At the end of the town, on a hill, there was a beautiful hotel built by the Portuguese. It was crazy! We were used to rural places and tiny villages by that time. Suddenly, after walking through a dusty and poor little town, there was this proper colonial building. In fact, it was just a house, but to us it seemed so elegant and modern at that time.

Soon, the entire village knew about our arrival and a woman came up the hill to the (before that completely empty) hotel to offer us a room. When I asked her when the last guests had been there, she couldn’t remember. Apparently, it was a long time ago.

She wanted us to pay 90 USD for a room which was ridiculous. After a bit of a discussion, we rented a tiny chamber that probably had served as a room for the hotel staff back in the golden days. We got that one for 30 USD which was still out of this world but at least more affordable.

In the meantime, a lot of kids had arrived and were happy to carry a third mattress for us to our chamber.

I went around the village and took some more shots of the local life:

Sunset was coming soon and we had dinner in the hotel and went to sleep.

We were so excited for the next day, finally we would reach the big goal: Jaco Island, an island just for us for a day!

If you enjoyed reading, please upvote and follow me for the next episode about Jaco Island!

PS: Greetings from Timor, which actually means East in Indonesian.

Till then, keep wandering and wondering,

Love,

mr.wonderlust