welcome to dili

After many many many hours of travel (48 to be exact- including crossing the international date line) I have finally made it to Dili.  What a hard trip.  I don't really remember it because it was pretty stressful starting off with an entire leg canceled 15 minutes before leaving Roanoke and I stayed awake for so much of it I may have inadvertently blacked out.  Not to worry- I decided to visit my homeland, and went through Europe via Frankfurt instead of Japan.  I eventually got to Singapore and then finally Dili.  All I can say is- it's HOT here.  Like slap your mamma hot (sorry mom).  I stepped off the plane and immediately started sweating. This is fantastic, especially because I already smelled of plane and fried chicken from the 2 days of travel without a shower and the lovely "snack" we got on the way to Dili.  

The Dili airport reminded me a lot of Baghdad-- we land on a tarmac miles away from the terminal (ok maybe not miles- but far) and there is group of about 12 soldiers with AK-47s slumped over a crumbling wall trying to shield themselves from the sun under the lip of the walkway which, in reality only covered 1 inch of where they were seated.  Drat!  They all greeted us with squinty eyes and bushy mustache stares and a general look of indifference.  Welcome to Timor-Leste they meant to say!

At this point I'm so sleep deprived but my adrenaline is surging and I am so excited to be here.  I am smiley and talking to more people than I probably should.  "What do you do here? Oh you work for the UN?  Yes, that sounds very important.  I look forward to getting to know you, fellow foreigner!"

After getting my 30 day visa I claimed my 2 huge bags (read: 89 and 71 lbs respectively- and no, USAir didn't charge me extra baggage fees!). I was absolutely shocked that 1.) they arrived at all given the massive changes made to my ticket before leaving Virginia, 2.) they arrived together, 3.) they arrived undamaged and 4.) they arrived seemingly unpilfered.  

Out of the baggage claim area I trot, with my 2 ungodly large pieces of luggage, my carry-on (which, at 21 kilos I almost didn't get on the plane at JFK), my computer bag, and my "purse" which was bigger than my rolling carry-on.  How's that for packing light?

I emerge into the hotter, but open-aired part of the airport.  Oh wait- the entire thing is open-air.  Yes, that's right this is Asia.  And we are equatorial.  No roof for us.  Welcome to our tropical island.

We collect the other person I'm traveling with, get to our hotel, check in, and then take a walk.  At this point I remember moving but don't remember exactly where we went or how I actually managed to move, or what was said.  I was basically comatose.  It rained towards the end of the walk and as we parked the car and went into Saigon Vietnamese place for dinner, we enjoyed this view up the beach.

Welcome to Timor-Leste.  

And it was good.