The comment about crime in the area does not seem applicable, my wife and I did a lot of walking around at both day and night and met nothing but wonderful people. Took large laps in several of the local Micro lets, and up to the market, again just more friendly people.

We always parked the dingy in the Maritime Police area and that just kept the kids from playing in the dingy rather than any worry about it. Definitely check out the Resistance Museum, very educational for $1 entrance fee and will give you a lot of info about the people around you. Checking in, the harbor master was in a temporary office further down than where Immigration was.

Also, checking OUT you visit Quarantine, we paid $77 for about two weeks in a 40′ boat, not sure how the fee was calculated, but seemed legit and got a receipt that the Harbor Master needed to give me the clearance papers. Visit Occuse, it is as nice as described in the “related reports” section.

If you need help getting you Indonesian Visas you can meet Kim at Dili Central Backpackers and for a fee, she was able to get the sponsor letter and full visas turned around in about 4 days.

Posted on behalf of Rebecca Childress:

Update on our experience using our Indonesia Social Visa (Visit Visa) from Timor Leste

We were surprisingly stamped in for 60 days when we checked in to Kupang, even though our visa said 30 days on entry, and then renewable up to 6 months. Unfortunately, when we went to renew the visa after 45 days, we were told that it was our fault that we were 15 days overdue, and there would be quite a large fine (almost $1000 USD!).

We were able to negotiate out of this fee, but by the time this was complete, we only had 3 days left on the 60 days. Not enough time to renew the visa again in Lombok, so we were forced to check out and leave Indonesia.

So if you see 30 days printed on the visa, renew it 7 days before the 30 days is up to avoid any problems …even if the stamp says 60 days! Does any of this make sense? Of course not, but such is Indonesia paperwork.

Rebecca