In Timor-Leste
I arrived safely in Dili, Timo-Leste this morning. Known better as East Timor is one of the worlds newest countries celebrating its 11th anniversary as a democratic state having won independence from from Indonesia . A former Portuguese colony, 98% Roman Catholic with a land mass of just 14,600km2, a population of just over a million. The official currency is the US Dollar.I very much feel like I am back in latin America, what with all the crazy traffic and motor bikes flying aound.
Tetum and Portuguese are the official languages, Indonesian and English are widely spoken.
Timor-Leste is the 20th country of the run, and the first country I feel a bit helpless with the language having a decent knowledge of Spanish.
My route here will be around 150km from Betano to Batuguede on the Indonesian border. I badly need a 60 day Indonesian visa. 60 day Indonesian visas are considered for ‘ special reasons ‘ I will submit a letter also explaining the run along with a business card printed in Indonesian, saying what I am doing. The same card I hand out to people all the time, I wrote it in Indonesian on Google translate and had 250 printed! And there are still people that think I don’t prepare!
These 60 day visas are also extendable. If I am granted a 30 day visa it will make things difficult for me as thes may not be extendable and it will be necessary for me to make an expensive exit and return to get another 30 day visa (called a visa run) I may need 3 months there as my route will be around 3,800km or same as Melbourne to Darwin
The problem is I have to go to the embassy on Thursday morning, submit my visa application and wait 3 business days, that is till next Monday or Tuesday. I may just lodge my visa application and run the country and then return to Dili from the border 100km town of Batuguede and then run across visa in hand.
By the way here in Timor-Leste it was a $20 visa on arrival.
May 29th, 2013 at 4:17 pm
Good luck with visa application Tony, hope you manage to get the 60 day one!! Anybody who really knows you, realise how well you prepare for any event, otherwise you would hardly have a achieved so much already. Take care