{"id":383,"date":"2008-10-14T11:04:26","date_gmt":"2008-10-14T04:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/wordpress\/?p=383"},"modified":"2011-03-18T19:47:28","modified_gmt":"2011-03-18T19:47:28","slug":"timor-leste-east-timor-timor-lorosae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/archives\/383","title":{"rendered":"Timor Leste, East Timor, Timor&nbsp;Lorosae"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-385\" title=\"Business class\" src=\"http:\/\/vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/dscn1400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/dscn1400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/dscn1400-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The flight was long. To be exact, it was 20 hours of flying, twice changing planes, and an overnight stay in Singapore. There were benefits\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 like enjoying a nice meal in front of a flat screen TV in business class. Approximately two days after taking off from Vancouver, I arrived in Dili, the capital of Timor Leste.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-384\" title=\"Seaside Dili\" src=\"http:\/\/vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/dscn1422.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/dscn1422.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/dscn1422-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Being one of the newest countries in the world (Timor achieved independence from 30 years of Indonesian rule and 400 years of Portuguese colonialization in 2004), you can say a lot is changing in the country, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still plenty of work to be done and it shows in Dili where it seems like one out of every 4 cars has a UN sign. The UN is in force in the city working on programs to rebuild the country and the social system. 4 hours southeast of Singapore or 1.5 hours north of Darwin, Australia, Timor Leste (aka East  Timor, Timor Lorosae) is worlds away from its neighbors\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 whether that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a positive or negative, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t answer that until I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent more time here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-386\" title=\"View from Hotel Audian\" src=\"http:\/\/vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/dscn1414.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/dscn1414.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/dscn1414-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The photo above taken from the balcony of my USD$50 a night hotel shows signs of the wear and tear of growing urbanization in Dili and the destruction left behind under the previous government. But all the normal amenities you find in most cities can be found in the Dili \u00e2\u20ac\u201c internet cafes, satellite television, good food, mobile phones, etc. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let the physical environment fool you\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of potential for the city and the country. They just need a bit of sustained effort by locals and the government to make \u00e2\u20ac\u0153things happen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and get \u00e2\u20ac\u0153things going\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The flight was long. To be exact, it was 20 hours of flying, twice changing planes, and an overnight stay in Singapore. There were benefits\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 like enjoying a nice meal in front of a flat screen TV in business class. Approximately two days after taking off from Vancouver, I arrived in Dili, the capital of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/archives\/383\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Timor Leste, East Timor, Timor&nbsp;Lorosae<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[3,27,28,126,58,63,8,65,128],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1991,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions\/1991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}