Riding Timor Leste

Still back problems.. Did/could not carry my bag from the room to the van in the morning - but could sit on the bike - hurrah! Enjoyed the last little hilly part of West Timor and after 20 k we came to the border and crossed it without any problems - again somebody helped me taking the bags thru security check - happy about that!
 Timor Leste is like the rest of the island - just poorer - and more expensive (currency: us dollar). And something that I might not have mentioned: the islands tend to get less and less densely populated the further to the east we get. Now we have longer stretches without any people - something non-existing in Sumatra and Java..
The road we rode on is getting built - with most parts still under construction, somme parts just with fine gravel or sand/earth and a few parts already done with new tarmac. Wonder if it is ever gonna get finished? Anyway at times we went thru a dust hell - going up and down along the most beautiful hilly northern coastline, waugh! Arrived at the lunch stop just by the beach - happy about a good day riding with just 70 k. Did stand in the surf for quite a while - the ocean was refreshing - and I ended up lying in the sand - listening to the waves coming in - very relaxing.. Everybody seemed quite stressed just upon arrival at the hotel: having the bikes high pressure washed and packed into the cartoon boxes that had been brought all the way from Medan. The full ride yesterday was an approx. 130 k's hard one - so reason to be a bit tired for the people that accomplished it.. Anyway we were a whole group going to a quite nice restaurant built out over the surf coming in to the beach - had great sashimi.. Fish is fresh as ever here. We have 3 riders leaving us - also a little farewell party for them. Sterling is the only one that has done the full trip. He will go back to Cairnes, Australia. Ruth is going back to Victoria, Vancouver and Darrel to Sydney. They only did Ubud to Timor Leste.
 So today is Australia day - bike and bags packed - just checking out of the room - more than ready to get back to civilization..