Dili is sprawling, urban and as modern as things get in East Timor, while Baucau is compact, with rambling Portuguese colonial streets and a laid back small town feel.
More so than this, the 125 kilometres that separate the two cities can take hours to traverse, as the two largest cities in East Timor are only roughly connected by broken roads, gravel tracks and unpredictable transport.
I travelled from Dili to Baucau on rough roads and dangerous tracks to find out what East Timor's second city has to offer travellers. When I finally arrived in Baucau, I found swimming pools and crocodiles. Although luckily not quite in the same place...
For Baucau Travel Advice, scroll to the end of this article.
East Timor's lack of infrastructure is a wider problem that affects the entire country, but leaving Dili on a rented motorbike and hitting this 'highway' for the first time forced me into understanding the extent of the problem. East Timor only gained their independence from Indonesia in 2002, but not before the departing Indonesian armies and militias caused as much damage as they could. Since then, the new nation has struggled to repair and rebuild and here on the highway, 15 years since independence, the road was crumbling, broken and in places just simply eroded into the dust.
It was a long, long ride to Baucau from Dili. 125 kilometres took most of the day, but what East Timor lacks in roads, they make up for in spectacular coastal scenery, and although it was a rough ride, it was a beautiful, rugged ride alongside white sand beaches and dramatic cliffs.
Eight hours weary hours, two flat tyres late, and I arrived in Baucau covered in dust, mud and wondering how anyone in East Timor could make this journey regularly. After all, the scenery wouldn't be quite as exciting on the second or third drive...
The old town I arrived in was lined with ramshackle colonial buildings that despite their peeling paint and dented walls still retained their distinct Portuguese style amongst the palms and creeping forest. The grandest affair in Baucau is the Pousada de Baucau, a huge, pillared hotel that used to cater for the Portuguese elite, but now rents its fashionable rooms to the few luxury travellers adventuring here from Dili.
I gazed in awe at the charming building before heading into the cheaper, new build next door to collapse after the intense journey from Dili.
Small fishing villages are strung out along the coastline near to Baucau, and a rough track leads along the sands and through the fields and past sweeping scenes of rural life.
Thee water looked refreshingly inviting, but along the roadside intermittently were signs warning of crocodiles. East Timor's beaches and coast look spectacular, but the island is home to huge populations of salt water crocodiles that can be extremely deadly.
None of the locals were swimming in the waters anywhere so I warily stayed back from the water's edge and could only look out at the tempting ocean before me.
And here there were no crocodiles.
This is an open air swimming pool that people in Dili would literally travel for hours to visit. It's in a memorable setting and dates back years. The name Baucau in East Timor is synonymous with this swimming pool.
The water was refreshingly crisp, fed by mountain springs from the hills above Baucau and early in the morning I had the entire place to myself. Weekends and evenings though, were a different matter, as the Baucau swimming pool is filled with locals and visitors swimming and hanging out in the gardens around the edge of the water.
However, there wasn't a huge amount to keep me in East Timor's second city, and soon I was ready to get on the road again. But, rather than driving the broken, dangerous highway back to Dili straight away, I decided that it was time to drive up into the mountains that surround Baucau, to head away from the coast and to get amongst the high peaks and rocky summits of the interior.
I was going to find one of of East Timor's highest peaks, a place known to the locals as Mundo Perdidio, which in English is The Lost World.
You can read about that adventure HERE.
All Words and Photos by Richard Collett!
