Don't cross your fingers for luck

Hi all.

It’s nearly midnight but I thought I’d give you an update and another entry to read.

The first couple of pages got a good number of views in only the first couple of days and from people in countries all around the world! So far people from the UK, Timor-Leste, the US of A, Australia, Ukraine, Switzerland (who was that?!), South Korea, Spain, Vietnam and the UAE have had a little look! Cheers guys, it means a lot.

I would love some feedback, any questions, comments or corrections (I try to fact check everything but that’s not always going to happen), just comment at the bottom of the blog entry so they’ll be easier to keep a track of and reply to.

 This entry won’t be as... informative as the last one (learning Tetun). The entry ‘Learning Tetun’ actually started out being a lot shorter but I realised pretty quickly that it was hard to really grasp why Timor-Leste has so many languages in use without the history lesson. And, trust me, that was the reduced version of Timor-Lestes history!

                                                                                                                                      

So I thought I’d just give you a little story from before I even got to Timor-Leste and the story is titled ‘DON’T cross your fingers for luck’.

So, it’s not really on the typical itinerary to go to Timor-Leste so you often have to get a couple of connecting flights in less common places. The usual flight to Australia, which is really close, would stop in Malasia or Singapore, I think, basically places in the right general direction, but my flights took me to Hong Kong (pretty much due north of Bali but a hell of a way off) for a three hour wait for a connecting flight, then to Bali, where I stayed the night before flying to Dili (in T-L) in the morning. Pretty shattering.

While going through security and customs on the way into Bali, a customs officer started talking to me and the conversation went something like this:

“when do you leave Bali?”

“Tomorrow”

 

“where are you going?”

                “Timor-Leste”

“you will have a nice holiday?”

-To answer this last, I gave a big grin and crossed my fingers at him for good luck (I hope so!).

He gave me a strange look, I figured he just didn’t understand this idiomatic gesture and walked away.

The day after this I arrived in Dili and was settling into my current accommodation by enjoying a cup of English breakfast tea (thank god we can get that here!) and chatting with my landlady (she’s also Timor-Lestes British Consulate), Tracy.

During conversation I again crossed my fingers, to which she said

“oh, god. Don’t do that here, it means ‘sex tourist’”

“whew” said I, “Thanks for telling me, that could have been embarrassing!”

And then I remembered the customs officer.

...

“You will have a nice holiday?”

-Cross my fingers....

...

Oh shit! That customs officer thinks I’m a bloody sex tourist!

                                                                                                                                  

Even after this realisation, it’s a hell of a lot harder to stop doing a gesture like this thank you’d think. It’s ingrained at this point! I have since crossed my fingers in bars, restaurants, in front of classes. Basically the whole of Dili must now think that I’m a sex tourist.

TLDR: DON’T cross your fingers for luck in Timor-Leste.

So yeah, be careful of your gestures when you’re travelling. It might make you look like a tit.

                                                                                                                               

PS.

Looked at a scooter today and decided to buy it. The guy is going to drop it off on Wednesday (because he is leaving T-L on Friday and needs it till soon before he leaves) so really looking forward to that.

And met up with Edu, the Timorese university student that I mentioned in the last blog. He’s a nice guy. Me, Oscar and Edu had dinner, some drinks and a nice chat. 

Edu taught us in Tetun:

Ita bonita los – you are beautiful

(He thought it was hilarious that we’d asked for this phrase and declared all ‘Malae’ crazy.)

So, me and Oscar are now ready to hit the town and give it some swag.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Please comment so I know you all still love me :D

Matt x