Walking Man

Tweet Jean Beliveau has worn out 43 pairs of shoes over the past nine years -- walking the planet. He arrived in Timor-Leste today and I had a chance to chat with him. Jean is from Montreal and left on his journey on August 18, 2000 -- walking to South America -- flew across the Atlantic -- to the southern tip of Africa and northward. Click on his website, www.wwwalk.org, to see his route.

He says he's walking to promote peace and non-violence. During our chat, he said his plan was to walk from west to east across Timor before heading down to Australia and then New Zealand and then across the south pacific and then walk across southern Canada to Montreal.

Jean expects his trip will take a total of eleven years.

Ferry Ride to Oecussi

Tweet The overnight ferry to Oecussi from Dili takes about 11 hours. It leaves Dili about 5pm, so as soon as one climbs board, there's a scramble to find a place on deck to stretch out and bed down for the night.

Some sleep, some talk and others play cards all night.
Among the passengers were several pigs, cows, goats and this feathery barn yard bird -- his head poking out of a sack.As with most ferries in this part of the world, it was packed with people -- there is hardly room to walk. For instance, getting to the toilet in the middle of the night is like running an obstacle course -- tip-toeing over body parts of men, women and lots of children.There were a lot fewer passengers on board for the return trip from Oecussi to Dili.As we pulled out of the Oecussi dock, these fishermen in their little boat passed behind us -- heading for the port.Sunset off Oecussi on September 4