Dili District, Timor Leste (Part 4 of 4, 2012)

We had lunch at New 88 Restaurant before we took our flight back to Singapore. The food was nice. You can either go for the buffet lunch or opt for individual main dishes.

Landmark Plaza

New 88 Restaurant

Hor Fun

Claypot Hor Fun

Cutlet Fried Rice

Buffet Lunch

Buffet Lunch

Drink

Dili District, Timor Leste (Part 3 of 4, 2012)

Content : Shopping | Food

If you stay at Sakura Tower Apartment, you can shop at Salmi Mart. It is just next to Sakura Tower Apartment. It is a mini mart. If you crave for some snacks or tibits, just grab them from next door. 

Salmi Mart

Just some walking distance, you will locate W. Four. It is another mini mart place. They sell almost the same things in all the mini mart, just a slight difference in pricing.

W. Four

W. Four

I was surprised to find fast food in Timor Leste. My first time at Eastern Burger and seemed to be opened by Chinese. I didn't get to eat the food here, as we were too full after a delicious dinner at Saigon. However we had ice-cream here, since the usual ice-cream place we visited had closed down. We ordered banana split where there wasn't any banana inside.

Eastern Burger

ice-cream

ice-cream

Dili District, Timor Leste (Part 2 of 4, 2012)

Content: Hotel

Back to Timor Leste for the fourth time. This time I got to stay in another place, at Sakura Tower Apartment. At the first sight of its entrance, I was disappointed. Once you are inside this apartment you will be full of surprises. You will be surprised at the room size with the same price you pay at Tropical and Audian Hotels. I recommend to stay here if size of the room matters to you. The rooms are huge.

front view of Sakura Tower Apartment

reception area

corridor of level 1

Sometimes I find that room photos from hotels websites do not give reader a real feel of the place travellers will be staying. I had taken the pain to take some photos of the rooms, in hope that it will come in handy for travellers. You can end up with a room that comes with living room, dining area, cooking area, toilet and a master bedroom. What luxury we had!

view of level 1 room (room 1)

view of level 1 room (room 1)

view of level 1 room (room 1)

view of level 1 room (room 2)

view of level 1 room (room 3)

corridor of level 2

view of level 2 single room

view of level 2 twin sharing room

view of level 2 twin sharing room toilet

view of level 2 room (room 1)

view of level 2 room (room 1)

view of apartment backyard

view of apartment backyard

view of apartment backyard

Now is the breakfast part. One can't have the best of both sides. The breakfast is not fantastic. If you want better breakfast, then stay in Tropical Hotel (read and view the photos in earlier post).

breakfast

breakfast

breakfast

breakfast

Dili District, Timor Leste (Part 1 of 4, 2012)

My last visit to Timor Leste was in year 2010. I got to visit Timor Leste again in May 2012. What are the new changes? Hotel room rates have increased, this is bad news for traveller. New eatery outlets and new shopping mall can be seen. At the same time, some of the usual places we used to visit have either close down/ shift location or no longer value for money service/food. You can read my earlier posts on Timor Leste, where updates of the changes or developments are included at the bottom of the posts.

View of Timor from the plane

The airport is still the same, except that it has finally invested in a scanning machine. All baggages have to go through the scanner now. In the past, you walk through the exit without having your bag being check. This is bad news for us, as we bring in many items to the villages which face the danger of being confiscated. The officer do confiscate stuff without much reason. For example, one of our team-mate had her umbrella taken and the other had her torch taken. We concluded that these items may have looked nice, interesting, high-tech and unique in their eyes, so they like to keep it. Luckily, they only eyed on some items and not things like iphone, ipad etc.

Bio Reishi 3-in-1 Coffee Beverage

What luck I had! Was at a friend's place, where we got to try this interesting coffee mix. Seems so high-end kind of coffee. Yet when I took my first sip, it simply diluted and nothing special about it.

It makes me wonder is all this branding, marketing, packaging, just to entice people to buy and spend. Do they really produce value for money product. Reishi is a herbal mushroom known to have miraculous health benefits. Having ganoderma extract in the coffee, will it be as beneficial as it stated for our health. Do we really benefit out of drinking coffee that add ganoderma extract?

TUGA BUAYA Mocca (Kopi + Susu + Coklat)

This was another brand of coffee mix that I bought in Timor Leste and brought back to Singapore. It had the same taste as my previous post on ABC Mocca. The only different is that one of them tastes sweeter than the other one. If you have a chance to lend your hand on one of this pack, give it a try. Yet I would still conclude that if you buy the freshly roasted coffee from the coffee factory is much better than taking their 3-in-1 coffee mix.

ABC Mocca (Kopi + Susu + Coklat)

Doubt anyone seen this in Singapore before. I had bought and brought in back to Singapore all the way from Timor Leste. You may have heard of Timor coffee, but Timor coffee in 3-in-1?

Tasted quite nice with the mocca powder included in the coffee. The only think I disliked was that the coffee powder/mocca powder did not seem to be fully dissolved. So the residues at the end of the cup could disturb/irritate the enjoyment of this drink.

Sin Sing Coffee Mix 3-in-1

Have not been taking coffee at night for a while, then one day I discovered this new packaging in the kitchen cupboard. It caught my attention because of its small packaging. The usual small packaging comes in square size, but this is in a small rectangle size.

The first sip tasted diluted, yet as I took a few more sips, I could sense the taste of the coffee getting stronger and it lingered in the mouth. At times, I thought I was drinking "Yuan Yang" (famous Hongkong coffee and tea mixture). The next moment, felt like drinking coffee (coffee with milk and sugar) from the local coffee shop. 

Updates @ 16/07/2012

Halo Readers

It has been awhile since I last posted in April 2012. Hope that some of the posts about what I did during my pastime will be useful to you in some ways or simply an enjoyment to browse and read. Stay tune! Updates on Timor Leste will be coming up, as I sort through my photos taken in May 2012.

Travel information on Macau will be the next coming up posts, as I will be travelling to Macau in August 2012. I can't wait to jot down all the information when I am there, to post them in my blog to share with readers that may find the information useful.