Any cool facts to share about Timor Leste? My usual go to - wikipedia - does paint a rather mundane picture of it.

I wish I could share photos. Food is insanely cheap. I had street fried chicken, rice, and I think two sides for literally one US dollar.

Their primary currency usd.

They have all the child labor problems that other countries in the region have.

Everybody seems to know each other.

Unlike French colonialized countries, Vietnam, Timor Leste is proudly and vibrantly Portuguese. Similar to Macau but not as wealthy.

The public transit system is basically a tiny van that just drives around in loops around the city. You wave the driver down, jump in, and then tap your money against the metal framing when you’re ready to get off (there are no bus stops). I don’t know if you’ve been to Kenya, but it was like very similar to the vans in Kenya, except even smaller.

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FabHK 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Crypto scammers have long operated in Cambodia, Philippines, Myanmar after being kicked out of China, and were looking to go to Sri Lanka and Timor Leste next - but Timor Leste's politicians and population got together and fought back successfully, it seems:

https://theconversation.com/asias-scamming-gangs-target-timo...

(More on those scam factories: https://theconversation.com/it-seemed-like-a-good-job-at-fir...

And from The Economist - lamentably paywalled: https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/scam-inc)

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itake 5 hours ago | parent [-]

I actually visited abandoned scam centers a couple weeks ago in Bavet, Cambodia. It’s really eery now.

All the units had air conditioning units, which I thought was sweet, considering many Cambodians don’t have that. But the prison bars on the windows and barbed wire surrounding the complex was a bit uncomfortable to see.

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fittingopposite 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Wtf. How come you ended up in such a compound?

	▲	itake an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I live in Vietnam. Bavet is a popular border for visa runs for expats. Normally, you don’t actually leave the Cambodia border building or you just take a bus all the way to Phnom Penh to wait for a visa was approved. I was curious about the town, because it’s famous for casinos, scam centers, and Chinese manufacturers.

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sampullman 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What's your criteria for mundane? Basically every decent sized island in that part of the world is going to have beautiful beaches, coral reefs, mountains, and jungles.