Baucau; heart attack and vine

Crocodiles riding bikes. One of the many things to be concerned about when using roads in Timor...

Baucau street gangs. To be feared...

In the middle of Old Town in Baucau is the large market that is no longer used. It's an impressive building that's almost in ruins with a spring in the gardens for kids to swim in. Graffitti on the walls and plants in the cracks, roving gangs, crocodiles on bikes and no mangoes for sale.

Old. fact.

Spring in the middle of the market feeding the fountain.

Front steps overlooking the gardens...

I heart Baucau

Ai...

Baucau is the second main city in Timor-Leste and is built into the side of a hill with numerous springs popping out everywhere. Hence the Porto's built a pool which is completely spring fed, get's drained twice a week and makes up for the lack of postal service, rail or road infrastructure. The Porto's aren't all bad...

Baucau pool. 25cents well spent.

I went for a quick splash at the beach on the ride back from Baucau. I only went thigh deep and was on high alert the whole time as everyone talks about being eaten by crocodiles. When i got out I noticed an object bobbing up and down. I watched it for a while and thought it may have been a dolphin or a dugon. But i slowly started to think it was a crocodile. By the time i got back on my bike to leave i looked back down to where i was swimming/splashing and there were 3 salt water croco's cutting laps about 30-50m from where i had been. Cheaky croco's...

This is where i nearly wrestled 3 crazy croco's at once. And it looks so peaceful.

Crocodiles are a totem animal in Timor-Leste, with locals believing that the island itself is an old crocodile. Therefore if you get taken by a crocodile it is because you did something bad. Only bad people get eaten. The Indonesians used to shoot them so the numbers were down, but now they are creeping back up and moving around a lot more so beaches that were once free of the toothy critters are now kind of dodgy. Very upsetting. Cheaky croco's...