Parts Enroute

Hi everyone,
Our new freshwater pump arrived in Darwin from Sydney yesterday but the first available flight to get it to Dili isn't until Tuesday morning.  So we have an enforced stay here in Dili.  We can think of worse places!

We spent most of yesterday morning arranging transport of the pump.  Later in the morning Barry and Sue from Nefertiti 1 visited us on Zen Again and then gave us a ride ashore.  We checked-in to the Dili Beach Hotel and spent the rest of the day relaxing.  We had a very nice meal at the Beach Cafe nearby which has Burmese style cuisine at reasonable prices.  Most main courses seem to be under US$10 here in Dili.

Dili Beach Hotel

Today we spent the morning walking around central Dili.  We visited the ANZ bank to change a US$100 bill which the hotel and restaurants we've visited wouldn't take (successful); visited a Timor Telecom office to try to get "internet tethering" or "personal hotspot" on our iPhones working (unsuccessful but see below); the Tais markets to order a custom woven runner with "Zen Again" woven into it (US$20); and visited several cafes along the way for refreshment.

There are a surprising number of traffic light controlled intersections in Dili.  Interestingly some of them have downcounters displaying how long until your turn.

Castaways Restaurant

Tomorrow we have a tour booked with Eco Discovery Tours which will take us out of Dili to Maubisse in the Central Highlands.  On Sunday we'll return to Zen Again where we'll stay until departure, hopefully on Wednesday.  We have advised Sail Indonesia that we will enter Indonesia in Kupang since that's a shorter trip from Dili and we're late!

View from the beach adjacent to the Dili Beach Hotel

With regard to iPhone "internet tethering" / "personal hotspot" with Timor Telecom we eventually stumbled upon the trick.  In General => Network => Cellular Data Network you need to set the Internet Tethering APN to "internet" and then restart the iPhone.  We got one of our phones into a strange mode where it was eating credit at a rate of about 5c/minute.  We got out of that by turning off Cellular Data entirely, restarting the phone and then enabling Cellular Data.  The data charges are very reasonable, but watch out for your phone getting into a strange mode and eating your credit.  We turn off Cellular Data when not using it to be on the safe side.

Also on Timor Telecom more generally, you can buy credit from street sellers.  They sell at face value and you simply scratch the little card to reveal the number.  You then dial "100" plus the card number appended.  i.e. The trick is to prepend the "100".  To check your credit dial "*#102#".  Don't include the quotes in any of the above!

Hope all's well where you are.