Paul, his sister Lindsay, and I recently returned from a week on a tropical island with pristine beaches, friendly locals, and superb scuba diving. Was this Fiji? Hawaii?? Tahiti??? No. It was East Timor.
Now this is the part where Australians say “why?!”, and Americans say, “where???”
East Timor (or Timor-Leste as it is officially named) is the newest country in Asia. It is located north of Darwin, on an island it shares with Indonesia. The country has been either colonized or invaded for most of the past 500 years, only gaining independence in 2002. Since Aussie troops were deployed as part of a U.N. Peacekeeping force, many Australians still associate the country with war, hence the incredulous probing of our reasons for visiting. 
We traveled to Timor-Leste, because we heard that the diving was excellent and we were curious to visit a country that was still raw and hadn’t yet been touched by tourism.
We arrived in the capital Dili, with about two other tourists. The majority of people who come to East Timor are foreign workers. We stayed in the dive center, Dive Timor Lorosae. The staff there was awesome, and really did all they could to help us organize our trip. Because, East Timor is nearly impossible to plan for.
We knew it was going to be hard to get around in East Timor, therefore we had settled on only a rough itinerary of what we wanted to do. But, it ended up being much harder than we even expected. Turns out that we arrived on election day, which meant that nothing was open. The following day was a Sunday, and being one of only two Catholic countries in Asia (the other is the Philippines), everybody goes to church, and not much happens. Tuesday and Wednesday were both public holidays (All Saints Day and All Souls Day), which caused most people to just not show up for work on Monday.
Top that off with the fact that nobody ever answers their phone, and it’s hard to make plans or book accommodation, since internet is not very prevalent. I think we changed our itinerary three times within the first 6 hours of arriving. Our story seems to be a common one among travelers. It is just plain difficult to organize things in Timor-Leste.
But, as the three of us have learned before, sometimes, it’s the unplanned trips that are the most rewarding. 
So, we did some scuba diving. Due to its location in the coral triangle, Timor-Leste has amazing, vibrant, beautiful coral. Two of our dives were shore dives, which meant we suited up on the beach, then walked into the ocean, and descended down the drop-off. While we didn’t see huge fish or sharks, we were able to observe tiny fish and startlingly colorful coral. And the water was so warm, it was almost uncomfortable at times.
Somehow, we managed to meet up with another Aussie tourist and organize a day tour, which was a heck of a lot more difficult than it sounds.
As we drove through the city and surrounding hills, we learned more about the history. Like so many southeast Asian countries, there is a long history of oppression. The Portuguese conquered the east side of the island of Timor in the 1500s, and the colony became known as Portuguese Timor.
During WWII, Aussie and Dutch forces were stationed here to keep the Japanese from advancing further. Many locals helped the Allies, but unfortunately were left to fend for themselves when troops departed. When the Portuguese regime fell in 1974, Timor-Leste was given autonomy, but that independence was short lived, because Indonesia soon invaded, with tacit U.S. support. In the 1st four years of occupation, 23% of the population was lost. For 15 years, news of the genocide and concentration camps were not published overseas, as Timor became a country closed off from the world.
In 1991, a journalist managed to smuggle out tapes of the Indonesian army massacring over 200 students in the Santa Cruz cemetery. The broadcast of the Dili Massacre stimulated international attention. 
A U.N. peacekeeping force, composed of Australians and SE Asians, was dispatched to East Timor. It is a tricky history, with lots of behind the scenes players, but that doesn’t change the fact that 45% of the population was missing by the time independence was declared on May 20, 2002.
Nowadays, the country is trying to build itself up, and promote tourism and foreign investment. But it has a long way to go. Much of the population lives on less than $1/day.
Coffee and oil are the main economic contributors- and the Timorese and Aussie governments have had scuffles over the latter. Tons of new buildings have been built (many with Chinese funding), but they are unoccupied.
Oh, and the coffee is delicious.
Given that it is a southeast Asian country, it is surprisingly costly. It uses US dollars, which automatically makes it more expensive. Add to that, the fact that so many ex-pats work there, and the price jumps up even more. Some things are cheap. Food for example, isn’t terribly expensive. But, accommodation is quite expensive for what you get. Whereas $40 would get you a really nice hotel room in Cambodia, in Dili, it buys a bed in a dingy guesthouse with a shared bathroom.
During our travels, we visited some gorgeous beaches. Empty, beautiful beaches.
Though crocodiles can be a hazard on the eastern and southern parts of the island, they don’t generally visit the beaches near Dili…..or so we were told. For now, there aren’t really any resorts, but that may be changing. Some companies have recently bought coastal land, displacing the current occupants, in order to build large resorts with golf courses. So far, though, ground hasn’t been broken.
The second highest Christ the Redeemer in the world is located in East Timor. 
It is perched on a cliff outside Dili, straddled by two perfect white sand beaches. As we sat nearby, watching the sun set over the sea, with mountains in the distance, chatting to friendly locals, the tumultuous history was the farthest thing from our minds. 
So the next time someone asks why we visited a country so fraught with connotations of war, we can readily respond that we gave it a chance, and it exceeded our expectations. We were rewarded with a unique look at a beautiful, nascent country containing beaches we didn’t have to share with anyone.
Beer of Choice: Tiger (actually a Singaporean beer). Timor-Leste doesn’t have a brewery……yet. Heineken is building one.