East Timor (Lonely Planet Country Guide) [Paperback]

Ryan Ver Berkmoes (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1741045894 | ISBN-13: 978-1741045895 | Publication Date: July 15, 2008 | Edition: 2

"East Timor Get the lowdown on Southeast Asia's newest nation from the only dedicated guidebook to East Timor, a country in transition but still one worth discovering for its beaches, mountains, lush interior and the captivating, Portuguese-flavoured city of Dili. Hanging out with other travellers should not be on your list of things to do here, but meeting amazing and interesting locals and expats should. This book is the work of two authors, 49 days of in-country research, and hundreds of kilometres of back-country research.

• A guide to the local cuisine - find the best padang dining in Dili, gobble grilled calamari on the beach, or treat yourself with Portuguese custard tarts
• Recommended accommodation and dining options
• Escape the Big Smoke for a refreshing dip amongst dugongs and coral reefs, scuba diving off Atauro Island.
• Find out why everyone wants to get stationed in the sleepy, beautiful enclave of Oecussi
• Detailed maps and transport information
• how to get there and how to get around
• Confirm the going rate for roadkill, and find out where to go for up-to-date information on road conditions."

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 2 edition (July 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741045894
• ISBN-13: 978-1741045895
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,285,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Growing up my mom shuttled us between our home in California and her original home in Indiana. By age 5 I was ordering my family around O'Hare International Airport as we changed planes. Obviously the experience stuck as I've been traveling since. I worked as a journalist for many years, covering everything from wars to bars - obviously I prefer the latter. I've been writing travel guidebooks since the mid-1990s and have worked on over 60. I've covered places from glaciers in the Arctic to the beaches of Bali. From beloved Chicago to London to San Francisco to Melbourne. I've lived around the globe.

In writing my books, I try to be the good local friend every reader wishes they have, telling them both what not to miss and what to definitely miss. I look for places and details that you won't find elsewhere, which will elevate your trip way above the norm. And I try to have fun doing it. I hope everyone using one of my books has a fantastic journey, well beyond changing planes at O'Hare.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for all visiting Timor Leste, December 7, 2008

By 

Peter Caldwell (Northern Territory, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: East Timor (Lonely Planet Country Guide) (Paperback)

An update from the original guide, this is the essential book to take with you if you visit Timor Leste. The book provides essential advice for all, but especially for anyone venturing out of Dili. Take a 4wheel drive vehicle, some money (don't expect ATMs) and the Lonely Planet Guide, and discover a little visited country. The people are lovely, the facilities scant, the roads horrific, signposts very rare, the scenery spectacular, the diving incomparable - do go, but do take the Guide.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty useful and a good primer, August 14, 2010

By 

Paul Lawrence "'EJL'" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: East Timor (Lonely Planet Country Guide) (Paperback)

Given the small size of the country in question it will come as no suprise at all to find that unlike some LP books this guide to Timor Leste isn't of brick-like proportions. Spanning out to not quite 120 pages this book is exciting in that the nation it deals with has mainly only ever been in the news for all the wrong reasons. At the time of writing however there had not been any problems for some years and with luck this means that this tiny nation is now open for business.

If you have ever read or owned a LP book you'll know what you are getting here. The format we all know is followed and there are useful and plain speaking chunks of information all through this book regarding history, transport, how things run (or don't run) and a run down of basic stuff like hotel descriptions and a bunch of maps. These tend to be fairly small and I was a tiny bit disappointed that the usual LP colour map wasn't included. In fact apart from the cover photos there are no pictures in this book at all which is a pity given how pretty the coastline of this country can be - often quite sheer while at the same time there are some pretty beaches. I guess it is just a case of LP pinching pennies on a guidebook they knew would shift relatively few copies, but gee whiz, aren't they making enough cash overall to absorb the cost?

So thumbs down for no photographs to help whet the appetite and another thumbs down for no colour map, but thumbs up to LP for being on the ground and helping any would be tourists to have a crack at Timor Leste as given it's poverty, this place is crying out for some tourist dollars. And in fact, given the near impossibility for a tourist to get out of Dili due to non-existent transport, unreliability of operators and the paucity of tourists meaning that even advertised tours often are not running this guide book is probably your best bet of ever knowing anything about what is outside of Dili. And I know what I'm talking about - I only got back from the country a couple of weeks ago and it takes you about a week to make the personal contacts that allow travel outside Dili a possibility. But the scuba diving ain't bad and the people are less inclined to try to rip you off brutally at every opportunity. They'll just rip you off mildly!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where the Heck is East Timor??, March 26, 2009

By 

Dean Cycon "deans beans" (massachusetts (sometimes)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: East Timor (Lonely Planet Country Guide) (Paperback)

It is incredibly difficult to get solid information about East Timor (Timor-Leste), so the Lonely Planet guide is a real life saver! Of course, it has everything we expect from a Lonely Planet guide, although I wish it had warned me about the swarm of agressive young ladies of the night at the Flower Bar in Dili. I used the guide extensively during my recent visit. It prepared me for a meeting with President Jose Ramos-Horta (history of the struggle for independence) as well as for meeting coffee farmers, navigating the markets and my incredible trip to Atauro island (Tetum phrases). It is required reading for any visit to this wonderful new country.