Exploring unexplored Timor Leste (Photo Essay)

Exploring the unexplored young nation of East Timor

Posted on December 11, 2017

This article appears in Globerovers December 2017

Somewhere in the world are still a few places where you can travel for days without seeing any fellow travellers! Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, is not far north of Australia, though it feels like a world away. Here you will find a world not yet overrun by mass tourism. A place where the sight of a traveller is rare, in particular outside the capital, Dili, and nearby Atauro Island.

Timor Leste is one of the world’s newest countries, and unquestionably one of the least explored countries in the world.

It is a relatively peaceful country these days, though peace did not come easy. After centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, independence in East Timor was declared on November 28, 1975. However, under false pretenses, Indonesian President Suharto’s military forces swiftly invaded East Timor on December 7, 1975 and declared it “Timor Timur”, a new province of Indonesia. For the next 24 years, the Timorese people were subjected to the brutal treatment under the Indonesian forces. Killings such as the 1991 Santa Cruz Massacre caused outrage. During these years, an estimated 90,000 to 200,000 people died!

After endless international interventions, the Indonesian troops withdrew and Timor Leste achieved independence on May 20, 2002.

For more text and photos see the article in December 2017 issue of GLOBEROVERS MAGAZINE