Let me introduce you

Let me introduce you to Dili.

The best time to meet Dili is in the early morning, when the city is still bathed in shade. At 6am, the sun waits behind the baked hills surrounding the town. People are sweeping the streets, walking to work, loading trucks. The fruit and vegetable market, which stretches along the foreshore, has already been set up - probably hours before. Spherical watermelons lie beside perfect piles of papayas, pineapples and green mangos. Bananas are short and straight, and sold in huge bunches. If you pay $2.50 for a bunch, that’s too much.

You might also see some fishermen returning to shore with the day’s catch – fish almost as long as my arm are hung in the cool shade of trees. As the locals go about their morning routines, expats whiz by on expensive mountain bikes or run past in colour-coordinated sports gear. A group of Australian army personnel straggle past, on the tail end of some hellish morning exercise routine.

Before long, the sun surfaces over the hills. Dili in the day is hot, bright and punctuated by the sounds of cars and motorbikes backfiring. In the morning, for a little while at least, it’s a good time to say hello.

This blog was brought to you by the Dili Beach Hotel, pictured in all its glory above.