Dili, the young cap­ital of Timor Leste, is a bust­ling and vibrant city. At least dur­ing the day, that is. When night falls then gangs roam around, prey­ing on the unlucky people still out­side. Or so we have been told. To me it seemed pretty safe at night. But then, maybe we were lucky?

The whole eco­nomy not only of Dili, but of all of East Timor, is fueled by money provided by the UN and all the vari­ous NGOs. Everything here, from basics like food to activ­it­ies like diving, is quite expens­ive, again because of the UN and NGO per­son­nel, who just write it off as expenses. Which makes me won­der what hap­pens when all of them pull out?

Dur­ing the day every second car you see is a Toyota Land­cruiser with the UN logo on the side. Aus­tralian sol­diers in full battle gear come by your guest house for a quick beer and every­where you pay with US dol­lars, which is, for now at least, the offi­cial currency.

I like Dili a lot actu­ally, the people here are really friendly and seem to be hope­ful to put all the troubles behind them. The whole place has an atmo­sphere of depar­ture into a brighter future about it. At the same time, though, there are still many tent camps scattered around town, filled with refugees and, obvi­ously, the UN is still here and needed. For a little taste of Dili, here’s a slideshow: