Here are my first impressions of Dili, East Timor's capital city!

Dili is the capital and largest city on East Timor, South East Asia's newest independent nation.

The island of Timor has long been divided in two, with the Portuguese and Dutch creating colonies and diving the island between them hundreds of years ago.

When the Dutch left, West Timor became part of Indonesia, and when the Portuguese left East Timor, the Indonesians decided they wanted to claim sovereignty of East Timor. The nation was invaded and occupied from the 1970's until 2002, when they finally gained independence again, this time from the Indonesians.

It was a long struggle though, and the country suffered during its occupation and again when the Indonesians left, leaving a trail of destruction behind them.

Much of Dili's infrastructure was destroyed, and even today my first impression of the city was of a poor, struggling city still coming to terms with is unfortunate past. Buildings are old, new infrastructure is lacking, and many areas still look like they were razed to the ground.

But beyond this initial outward impression, the people were friendly, speaking a mix of English, Portuguese, Tetum- a local language- and Bahasa Indonesia. The food was an eclectic, spicy mix of Portuguese, Timorese and Indonesian, and rather than simply erasing either of these colonial pasts, the city seemed to have accepted it as part of its identity, and was able to move forward in this way.

The most visible impression I had though was of the huge International presence in Dili, originally brought in to help rebuild the country after it gained independence and was ravaged by the Indonesian army and militias. While they don;t seem to have rebuilt everything, and progress seems very slow, there are plenty of expensive four by fours and apartment buildings for these expats, while the city is one of the most expensive in South East Asia, due to the false economy created by the ultra high wages of the humanitarian worker in comparison the real, poor economy of the locals.

It's an intriguing place, and in pictures below, I hope to show you a more visual representation of my impressions of Dili, the capital of East Timor.

Dili In Pictures

I entered Dili from West Timor overland, a journey along a spectacular but rural coastline that followed a single road that led to the western suburbs of the capital. East Timor is a Catholic nation- a legacy of Portuguese rule, and I was greeted on the way in by a towering statue of Pope John Paul II who visited in 1989.

The streets of Dili were busy with food vendors, hawkers and small businesses but this was all run on a basic level, families pitching in and people selling what they could, giving me an impression of the struggling, yet slowly advancing economy in the city. People were friendly and inquisitive towards a foreigner who was not there with the UN, but simply to travel.

Dili faces out towards Atauro Island, a small offshore island surrounded by coral and covered in jungle that you can see from the water's edge. It's a long, sprawling city, that looks like it was carved straight from the jungle that still surrounds it, wedged into the hills and facing out to sea.

The towering statue of the Christo del Rei stands on a hilltop above the city of Dili, a gift from the Indonesians to the people of Timor- an effort to make them enjoy he company of their Indonesia occupiers. It didn't work, but the East Timorese kept the statue up and have made it their own, a symbol of their city and independence.

The green hills that surround Dili and carry on along the coast are a spectacular, verdant place to look over the city and the landscapes of East Timor. It's a surprisingly beautiful place, with peace and calm on one side and the bustle of the city away on the other.

All photos and words by Richard Collett